Lists
by Rhianna Walton, November 24, 2021 8:51 AM
This list is dedicated to serious readers who enjoy a pun in the oven and murder with two lumps.
Written to be read in one fireside sitting, with a stack of Scottie shortbread and bottomless tea, cozy mysteries must be the most soothing form of popular fiction around, despite their high body count. With their idyllic settings and sweet recipes, cozies are tailor-made for holiday reading; but since yuletide murder isn’t for everyone, and there aren’t a latke new Hanukkah mysteries, I’ve included a handful of fantastic new cozies without an ornament in sight, but which feel like a holiday nonetheless.
Eggnog Trifle Trouble (Murder in the Mix #28)
by Addison Moore
Lottie Lemon sees dead… pets. She’s also the baker of Honey Hollow, and prepping for the Jingle Hop Ball, managing a love triangle, and being six months pregnant are enough to worry about without stumbling upon a corpse in the snow (again)...
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Best Books
by Rhianna Walton, October 25, 2021 4:43 PM
What a year for escaping into a book! Monsters, space wars, fairy tales, illicit kisses... the plot doesn't have to be light or the characters likable for a novel to pull you into its embrace and away from reality, for a time. We all have our bookish kryptonite, but if science fiction, fantasy, romance, horror, or graphic novels are your weakness, I encourage you to explore the 14 phenomenal books below.
Artemisia
by Nathalie Ferlut and Tamia Baudouin (Trans. Maelle Doliveux)
An example of when judging a book by its exquisitely gorgeous cover pays off, Artemisia, a French graphic novel about the life of 17th-century painter Artemisia Gentileschi, draws the reader into the sumptuous visual environment of Baroque Italy while recounting the abuse and difficulties Gentileschi encountered on her way to becoming one of the era’s foremost artists. Art lovers will be enchanted by Tamia Baudouin’s vibrant illustrations, often in homage to Gentileschi’s style and famous works, but Gentileschi’s incredible life story will engage anyone...
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Lists
by Rhianna Walton, August 20, 2021 8:41 AM
Scientists, sports therapists, restauranteurs, single moms, highwaymen, coffee shop owners, Greek gods, bookstore employees, djinn, and handsome rabbis — the Romance Revolution is upon us, and we are loving every steamy, surprising, sighing, ugly-crying minute of it.
If you thought romance was just for cat ladies of a certain age, or ever scuttled red-faced into the romance stacks hoping not to be caught, this is the moment to abandon both preconception and shame. Today’s romance novels address different cultures, race relations, gender equity, and sexual politics, and explore almost every subject under the sun. It’s easy to find a romance novel to match your interests — and you should, because reading romance is FUN.
For Bookstore Romance Day 2021, we’re taking a romantic stroll through each room at the flagship City of Books...
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Powell's Picks Spotlight
by Rhianna Walton, August 9, 2021 9:04 AM
This week we're taking a closer look at Powell's Pick of the Month Agatha of Little Neon by Claire Luchette.
I used to walk past a blue convent on my way to the Nature’s on Division, hoping to glimpse an urban sister on the lawn. Nuns are so rare in the modern American every-day that sighting them is thrilling and improbable, like finding a bald eagle. A black flap of the habit isn’t unlike the rush of wings; its possessor is unknowable, a container for the feelings of the viewer.
Claire Luchette’s winning novel, Agatha of Little Neon, brings the reader beyond voyeurism into the mind of 29-year-old Agatha, who, with her three sisters, finds herself working in Little Neon, a Mountain Dew-colored halfway house in Woonsocket, Rhode Island...
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Lists
by Rhianna Walton, July 27, 2021 2:09 PM
Whether it’s daycare at the YMCA or a fancy sleepaway camp tucked in the Adirondacks, few kids escape childhood summers without at least a brush with bug spray, ill-fitting camp T-shirts, and singalongs. I attended and taught at camps, and while I can’t say I miss the soggy cabin days when it rained or the terrible lunches, there is something magical about summer-only friendships, arts and crafts afternoons, and the inevitable tangle of urban legends shared around the campfire.
This kids’ and teen list is for all the summer camp lovers, haters, and sentimental readers out there. Enjoy it with a cup of bug juice.
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Interviews
by Rhianna Walton, July 19, 2021 3:28 PM
Portland-based writer Omar El Akkad’s latest work, What Strange Paradise, is a beautiful, angry novel about the migrant crisis in Europe. Expertly teasing out the strings of exile, pride, greed, trauma, longing, and hope that entangle his diverse characters, El Akkad makes clear indictments without sacrificing the complex emotions of the “bad” actors — the smugglers, the Greek islanders struggling with an influx of migrants, the apathetic tourists, a nationalistic and traumatized military. Simultaneously a narrative of hope and a devastating portrait of what is happening in our world, right now, What Strange Paradise is an example of how fiction at its best does more to explicate and illuminate the challenges we face than any newspaper headline or documentary could accomplish. It was a pleasure to speak with El Akkad about What Strange Paradise and his take on the interplay between politics and fiction...
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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 Rhianna Walton, May 10, 2021 11:22 AM
A lot of people dislike short stories, but it’s Short Story Month and worth reevaluating how you feel about the form. For one thing, short stories are the perfect length for waiting in line, reading before bed, or taking a bath; if you struggle with attention span, short stories are generous in their brevity. But if craft is your passion, consider the economy short stories require. There’s no room for extraneous plot or characters or philosophical musings. They don’t have the luxury of getting interesting 50-100 pages in. When experimental, short stories must be 100% committed to their form. My favorite short stories, by authors like Kelly Link, Nathan Englander, and Lauren Groff, are darkly humorous and unsettling enough to flicker through my brain years later, but the form is also ideal for zeroing in on everyday dramas or interior spaces that often go overlooked...
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Interviews
by Rhianna Walton, April 8, 2021 11:02 AM
Sanjena Sathian’s novel Gold Diggers marks the arrival of a gifted and imaginative writer. Set primarily in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, in the early aughts, Gold Diggers is narrated by Neil Narayan, a well-intentioned teenager struggling to balance the expectations of his Indian immigrant family and community with his own desires for success, belonging, and love. A deft coming-of-age novel suffused with magical realism, alchemy, history, romance, and a knowing humor that pokes at the realities of second-generation immigrant experiences in 21st-century America, Gold Diggers is a whip-smart and surprising debut.
Rhianna Walton: When did you first become interested in alchemy, and what inspired you to incorporate it — and magic more generally — into the novel?
Sanjena Sathian: Well, I should say the whole thing started pre-magic. Gold is such a big part of the Indian culture, Indian American culture. Then it, obviously, has all these parallels in American culture too.
I started out by being interested in this spate of gold thefts that had happened in Atlanta when I was growing up here...
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Lists
by Rhianna Walton, March 31, 2021 8:29 AM
International Transgender Day of Visibility is an international observance celebrating the accomplishments of transgender and gender nonconforming people. It is also a time to raise the public’s awareness of the discrimination and harm many transgender and gender nonconforming people experience.
Here at Powell’s, it’s also an excellent excuse to share some of our favorite recent books and authors who explore themes of gender, identity, pride, and safety in creative, mind-expanding, and scintillating ways.
Fairest
by Meredith Talusan
Talusan’s memoir examines her journey from an albino child star in the Philippines to a Harvard student exploring gender and sexuality to a trans woman. Talusan is an accomplished journalist, and her unusual life story is aided by a keen eye for detail and an even keener ability to impart the complex interrelationships between perceived whiteness and power, perceived gender and safety, and the challenge of corralling all the aspects of oneself into a cohesive identity...
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