Banned Books Week
by Buzzy Nielsen, September 24, 2021 9:46 AM
Editor's note: We’ve been reviewing the Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse’s excellent, annual reports of challenged books for years without pausing to think about the governmental agency and individuals responsible for putting them together. This year we’re correcting that oversight with the help of state librarian Buzzy Nielsen, who kindly took the time to answer our questions about what the OIFC is, what is does, and why its work is vital to maintaining everyone’s right to intellectual freedom.
What is the main role of the Oregon Intellectual Freedom Clearinghouse (OIFC)?
The OIFC collects information about intellectual freedom issues in Oregon’s public, school, and academic libraries. The goal of the Clearinghouse is to document attempts to limit someone’s free exploration or expression of ideas...
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Original Essays
by Ari Honarvar, September 22, 2021 10:07 AM
The happiest moment of my life occurred on the day I held in my hands the golden ticket, the winning lottery, the thing I desired most in the world — a visa to America. Since then, life has gifted me many remarkable moments, but none have been as electrifying.
I was a 14-year-old Iranian girl, standing with my parents in a crowded and humid auditorium in India, staring at the red shimmery stamp on my passport. My entire body hummed with the anticipation of escaping the place I called home. There was the war, of course, and crackdowns on dissidents, but more than anything, I longed to dance without the fear of getting arrested...
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Powell's Picks Spotlight
by Keith Mosman, September 20, 2021 8:59 AM
This week we're taking a closer look at Powell's Pick of the Month Fault Lines by Emily Itami.
I am sometimes haunted by foreclosed possibilities.
I try not to dwell on literary theories that break down all stories into a small number of basic archetypes. I fear it would make my fiction reading seem claustrophobic, and I try to let myself subconsciously attach to whatever facet of a novel most strikes me as uniquely successful, whether that be the quality of the writing, psychological insight, or (ideally) something I can’t identify until after I’ve finished...
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Lists
by Jeremy Garber, September 17, 2021 10:11 AM
While another summer inevitably lapses, your literary passport has no such expiration. This month’s selection of translated literature from around the world includes a Faroese-Danish debut, a stunning Colombian allegory, a novel about the Mauritian race riots, Turkish feminist fiction, Urdu short fiction by the writer Salman Rushdie called “the undisputed master of the modern Indian short story,” a new translation of a Mexican pandemic novel, a German dystopian debut, an exceptional Spanish novel inspired by the life of Roberto Bolaño, a Danish comic tale about Pliny the Elder, the long-awaited new work from a Portuguese master, the Chilean Booker short-lister included on President Obama’s summer reading list, a Cameroonian coming-of-age story, and so much more...
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Lists
by Powell's Staff, September 15, 2021 9:11 AM
Powell's Book Buying team are our go-to experts for general advice on publishing trends, authors to watch, and industry news, but like all of us, they're also deeply passionate about niche topics from dried flower embroidery to Afrofuturism to RPGs. Here are 26 of the books they're most excited about reading this fall. (Pro tip: See something you want to read too? Save yourself the supply chain woes and preorder it now to ensure a timely arrival.)
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Jennifer H.'s Picks
Jennifer buys books for the mystery and sports sections. Her three favorite things are books, cats and basketball.
Grave Reservations (October 2021)
by Cherie Priest
Hugo and Nebula Awards nominee Priest has written her first mystery novel, and I hope it is the first of many. Leda is a travel agent and inconsistent psychic. Based on a very strong feeling, she rebooks a customer’s flight and accidentally saves them from an airplane that catches fire. When that customer, detective Grady Merritt, returns to Seattle, he tracks down Leda and recruits her to help with a case he can’t crack...
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Original Essays
by Wendy Gordon, September 9, 2021 8:11 AM
“It’s Always 9/11” struck me as a good title for a book. Perhaps it was some odd manifestation of my subconscious attention, but every time I glanced at the clock it read 9:11. While contemplating this, I envisioned a woman emerging from a backpacking trip on the pure and wild Northern California coast, readjusting to the degraded civilized world. Sitting in a motel breakfast room, surrounded by industrial food she does not want to eat, she sees a report of a terrorist attack (again!) in New York City.
I like to establish a slow burn with my writing, so that by the time the narrative explodes, the reader is deeply immersed in the fictional dream (or nightmare). I am not a planner, in real life or in fiction. I set parameters and see how they develop.
When I began writing in 2017, Trump was already president. But I did not want the president in my fictional universe to be Trump-like...
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Powell's Picks Spotlight
by Sarah Reif, September 7, 2021 8:23 AM
This week we're taking a closer look at Powell's Pick of the Month Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney.
I read Beautiful World, Where Are You in two sittings on my 29th birthday, chasing the shade around my backyard and contemplating the inevitability of climate crisis and societal collapse amidst record-breaking high temperatures here in the Pacific Northwest.
A lot. I know.
Alice and Eileen, the novel’s 29-year-old protagonists, are grappling with similar anxieties...
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Lists
by Powell's Books, September 3, 2021 4:36 PM
During Powell's Summer Reading Challenge 2021 — our first-ever online challenge — we received over 2600 submissions from 44 states and the District of Columbia. We heard from kids, teens, and adults of all ages, and were blown away by the diversity of everyone's favorite picks (out of the roughly 13,000 books read by participants this summer, over 9,000 of them were unique titles) and the eloquence of everyone's book reviews. Here is a list of just a few of our favorites from kids and adults, lovingly compiled by reader recommendation fan and bookseller, Sarah R.
MOST IMPORTANT LIFE LESSON
Stuck Together (Pea, Bee, and Jay #1)
by Brian “Smitty” Smith
"I liked Pea Bee and Jay because it tells you that even though you hear people are mean, they might not actually be. Jay was nice in real life even though Pea and Bee thought birds were mean." — Lilah M....
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Lists
by Jeremy Garber, August 30, 2021 10:09 AM
August is Women in Translation Month! Started in 2014 by book blogger Meytal Radzinski, #WITMonth aims not only to celebrate and promote women writers translated into English, but also to highlight the disparities in who gets published (and who gets read). In addition to all of the translated women writers you should read this month (and every month!), our August lineup of new fiction from around the world also offers a banned Chinese allegory, a metafictional masterwork from the “Kafka of Uruguay,” a Guadelupian “love letter to the Caribbean,” Belarusian historical fiction, Peruvian, Danish, and Spanish short stories, a forgotten Italian classic, four entirely dissimilar novels out of France, and more...
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Ask Aunt Paige
by Aunt Paige, August 26, 2021 8:23 AM
Welcome back, my sweet summer honeys! The Dog Days of Summer technically ended on August 11, but since we’re still contending with heat, drought, and wildfires — and the nice parts of the sultry season too — there’s plenty of time to answer the hot weather questions directed my way. Whether you’re missing your sweaters or digging out your “I Hate Pumpkin Spice” tee, I’m here to help you make the most of the season us Pacific Northwesterners like to call “What is that yellow orb in the sky?”
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Dear Aunt Paige,
I know that most people look forward to summer, but between the heat waves and the wildfires and the droughts and the hurricanes (not to mention the Delta surge) I'm just constantly on edge...
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