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PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

Author Archive: "Sarah Reif"

Best Books

Best Books of 2023: Science Fiction & Fantasy

by Sarah Reif, November 6, 2023 9:15 AM
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Welcome readers, to the second of our Best Books of 2023 lists: Science Fiction & Fantasy! Absolutely an excuse for me to run up to booksellers — street-interview style — and demand to know their favorite world-building, magic-systems, and political messes (in SPACE!).

And readers, they delivered.

We’ve got Romantasy (petitioning Merriam-Webster to make this the word of the year); we’ve got veteran romantasy authors returning to beloved series to say “we’ve been doing this!“; we’ve got dragons and more dragons; love letters to books in cozy fantasy settings; unionized dolphins; cyberpunk thrillers about orbital elevators; series conclusions that stick the landing...

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Five Book Friday

Five Book Friday: Hats off for Hat Books!

by Sarah Reif, January 13, 2023 9:07 AM
Five Book Friday: Hats off for Hat Books!

Hats are pretty amazing. They can keep you warm, make a fashion statement, or even help transform you into someone else entirely! It follows that picture books are just FULL of these terrific toppers. So, when I realized that some of my all-time favorites were hat-centric, I knew I had to share this list with you. Without further ado, here are 5 picture books featuring particularly good hats...

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Lists

Love the One You're With: This Year's Best Book-Alikes

by Sarah Reif, November 30, 2021 9:30 AM
Love the One Your With: The Best Book Substitutes


Fellow procrastinators, this one is for us! Supply chain woes and a season of wonderful books that everyone is excited about mean that there’s a small chance your favorite bookstore will run out of the specific title on your gift list; but fear not! Wonderful books come out every week (and they’ve been coming out for centuries, if you can believe it). To take the stress out of gifting this year, I went through some of the hottest titles of the season to suggest great alternates.

Maybe your first choice is out of stock, maybe you’re worried your bookish friend already has the hot title of the year, or maybe you just want to look really cool by picking an unexpected title. Whatever your reason, remember that you can always ask a bookseller...
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Powell's Picks Spotlight

Powell's Picks Spotlight: Sally Rooney's 'Beautiful World, Where Are You'

by Sarah Reif, September 7, 2021 8:23 AM
Picks of the Month Spotlight: Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney

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

Storytime Rhyme: 13 Perfect Collections for Poets of All Ages

by Sarah Reif, April 19, 2021 8:34 AM
13 Perfect Poetry Collections for Children of All Ages by Sarah Reif

A few months ago, I received a text from my dad out of the blue.

A request: “Hey, I need a good line from that dragon poetry book.”

A question: “Also, what was the name of that dragon poetry book?”

This was, as they say, my moment. Jack Prelutsky’s The Dragons Are Singing Tonight has lived in my head rent-free ever since it entered the storytime rotation for my brother and me sometime in the mid-90s. I’m honestly surprised my dad didn’t remember the title himself — it was certainly one of my young self’s top requests. I spent hours poring over Peter Sís’s detailed illustrations and can still recite many of those poems from memory 20-odd years later...

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