Ask Aunt Paige
by Aunt Paige, June 24, 2021 10:29 AM
Summer vacation started about a week ago, and if your life is anything like that of the parents I know, it's become a montage to the tune of "I'm bored. I want a snack. I'm booorrred. Can I have a popsicle? I'm boooorrreeed." Beautiful and soothing though this tune is, you need a respite (if not a margarita) and Aunt Paige is here for you.
Summertime is the ideal time to invest in a hammock and a stack of books. But kids' books and getting kids reading aren't challenge-free subjects. Here are some of the most common questions I get asked about what children should read and when...
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Interviews
by Rhianna Walton, June 23, 2021 10:04 AM
It’s hard to introduce award-winning novelist Rivka Galchen’s latest work, Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch, without eclipsing some aspect of its value and achievement. It’s hilarious, in a way I didn’t think possible when the subject is the real-life persecution of astronomer Johannes Kepler’s elderly mother. It’s relatable, in a way I didn’t think possible when the setting is 17th-century Germany on the cusp of the Thirty Years’ War. And it’s poignant and philosophical, an examination of motherhood, neighborhood, science, magic, and culpability that I knew possible only because I’ve read Galchen before and was prepared for her singular ability to breathe life, logic, and beauty into the absurd. To quote Karen Russell, "I need no witchcraft to predict it will astonish, beguile, and transform you." It's very exciting to present Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch as Volume 92 of Indiespensable...
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Lists
by Jeremy Garber, June 22, 2021 11:46 AM
Seaside or poolside, hiking or biking, on the road or off from work, June brings not only the start of summer (for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere), but, ideally, more leisure time to indulge the season’s easy livin’ — which, of course, is always better with a book. Among this month’s bounty of literature in translation, we have a brilliant, diaristic Mexican novel, a Bosnian generational epic, Flemish historical fiction, early 20th-century Hindi short stories, Patti Smith-approved Argentine lit, Tolstoy-inspired tales from Brazil, a Norwegian existential novel, Cuban detective fiction, an utterly sublime work from post-Arab Spring Egypt, and more...
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Lists
by Powell's Staff, June 15, 2021 8:59 AM
As a collective, our reading runs the gamut from YA romance to music theory to fiction in translation, so it's no surprise that the 21 books in our annual midyear roundup are eclectic and unexpected. Discover a fantasy reimagining of The Great Gatsby, a ribald picaresque, an exploration of Ojibwe culture, and even some karma in the list below.
Firekeeper's Daughter (March 2021)
by Angeline Boulley
Wow, this debut novel is so well crafted, I cannot recommend it enough! After Daunis loses her uncle, she is approached by an undercover agent to investigate a drug ring in her community. On top of the mystery, there is romance, exploration of family, community, and the Ojibwe culture...
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Lists
by Kim Tano and Madeline Shier, June 11, 2021 8:57 AM
2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the Stonewell uprising, demonstrations against the 1969 police raid on the Stonewall Inn gay bar. That uprising was a watershed moment in LGBTQ+ history, and led to annual Pride celebrations in the month of June. As cities around the U.S. and the world tentatively reopen for Pride celebrations this year, we wanted to take a moment to celebrate the visible growth in LGBTQ+ titles available for kids and teens.
Where in the past we've had to make due with a few old faithful standards ( Heather Has Two Mommies continues to be a nostalgic classic), we're thrilled that in recent years, and this year in particular, we had a difficult time narrowing our list of recommended LGBTQ+ kids’ and teen titles. We're especially thrilled to see more and more unique identities, intersectional identities, and Own Voices narratives represented on these shelves...
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Original Essays
by Aiden Thomas, June 7, 2021 9:01 AM
My debut novel, Cemetery Boys, is the first fiction book about a trans character written by a trans author to ever hit the New York Times bestseller list. It’s taken far too long for that to happen, and it’s certainly not going to be the last.
A common question I got asked when I entered publishing was, “When was the first time you saw yourself in a book?” There was always a moment of panic where I’d race to think of a book that had one aspect of my identity that I could use as an answer.
The sad truth is that according to media, people like me (Latinx, transgender, and queer) didn’t exist. When I was growing up, I thought there wasn’t a place for me in publishing. I never saw Latinx characters in books, let alone ones that were queer, and certainly not trans. While there’s still a huge need for more diverse stories in the world, finally having books that reflected parts of my identity ( Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova being a huge one) is what made me think I could finally write a book like Cemetery Boys, and people would want to read it...
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Lists
by Keith Mosman, June 1, 2021 8:47 AM
Happy Pride!
When offered the chance to write a post highlighting some LGBTQ+ titles, I knew I wanted to show how broadly our stories are disbursed throughout the bookstore, often in categories you might not expect. Because, to borrow a title from Leighton Brown’s and Matthew Riemer’s beautiful history of queer liberation: We Are Everywhere.
I’ve focused on recently published nonfiction, because, well, there’s been a lot going on and these books didn’t get the attention they deserved. I feel a real kinship with these titles because, like me, they came out at a difficult time...
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Lists
by Michelle Carroll, May 26, 2021 9:32 AM
Way back in April of 2020, I attended a virtual panel called The Asian American Experience. Cathy Park Hong, Kevin Nguyen, and Mira Jacob were phenomenal, and I’d highly recommend watching the recording of the event. Because it was the early days of all-virtual-everything, there were some technical difficulties as the event was kicking off, and a magical thing happened: the attendees started enthusiastically recommending books to each other.
This list is inspired by that excited energy, but a little more homegrown. These are the titles that keep popping up in my group chats, and that make my phone overheat because everyone wants to talk about them...
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Ask Aunt Paige
by Aunt Paige, May 25, 2021 8:23 AM
Sweethearts, we are at a crux. COVID restrictions are lifting, but that doesn't mean everyone feels ready to resume life as we knew it. I've heard from readers already mourning the loss of quiet spaces and time to read, and from others who can't wait to attend in-person events. Some folks want to break out of a year-long habit of "easy" reading, but I've also heard from a lot of people who haven't cracked a book in 14 months. It's clear to me that everyone is trying to establish where their comfort zone starts and ends while dealing with the fracas of an entire, often discordant society doing the same. How do we be patient and kind, with ourselves and with others, while still moving in a positive direction? Here are some of my favorite recent letters on the subject.
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Dear Aunt Paige,
An unexpected silver lining of social distancing has been getting more quiet time to read. Now that life is beginning to pick up speed, I’ve been wanting to create a private space I can sneak away to when I just need to get lost in a story — and away from my housemates. Do you have any recommendations on how to go about building one...
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Lists
by Jeremy Garber, May 21, 2021 9:33 AM
From the Syrian Civil War to linked novellas by a 19th-century Austrian writer to the short stories of an early to mid-20th-century Hungarian nobleman, from a “feminist inversion of a domestic drama crossed with Oulipian nursery rhyme” to the conclusions of two wildly different trilogies (one French, one German), from Chile to Korea, Japan to Spain, the month of May offers a trove of newly translated fiction from abroad.
The Touch System
by Alejandra Costamagna (Trans. Lisa Dillman)
A finalist for the prestigious Herralde Prize in 2018, The Touch System is Chilean author Alejandra Costamagna’s English debut. Weaving disparate formats into a novelistic whole, The Touch System is a stylistic story of family, memory, and identity. Costamagna’s writing has enjoyed praise from the likes of Roberto Bolaño, Alejandro Zambra, Mariana Enríquez, and Daniel Alarcón — and heralds another powerful voice from the Southern Cone...
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