Lists
by Keith Mosman, May 24, 2022 8:42 AM
May is Short Story Month, so I’ll keep this brief: here is a list of the some of the collections that I’ve read in recent months (even though most of them weren’t officially dedicated to the form).
Between these books, there are scores of different plots, themes, and voices. Some collections are laser-focused on a few characters or locations, others are grand cacophonies, but they all share the premise that in fiction, as in so much else, the whole is greater than the sum of its disparate parts. Just how the stories in each collection “converse” with each other is up to the individual, and that lends a unique pleasure to the reading experience...
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Q&As
by Renee Macalino Rutledge, May 19, 2022 8:45 AM
Could you describe your latest book, One Hundred Percent Me?
A little girl is used to hearing questions about her looks all the time. "Where are you from?" "What are you?" These questions are a constant reminder from others that she is different. As she embraces her identity and culture, she teaches others that she belongs, that the differences they notice are part of what make her unique, special, and herself.
What inspired you to write this book? Did you draw from real-life experiences?
All my life, I’ve heard the questions the protagonist in the story hears. As a brown person, I’ve come to expect being exoticized, “othered” in habitual conversation. When I became a mother, I witnessed...
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Lists
by Kelsey Ford, May 17, 2022 9:42 AM
I love short story collections because of how much they manage to do with so little. They can dilate, expand, shatter, constellate. Within any given collection, you can move from the moon to a diner after midnight to that liminal minute right when you wake up but are still knee-deep in a dream. Why live in one world when you can live in eleven?
Maybe you’re a short story aficionado or maybe you’re new to short stories and looking to dip your toes in beyond the well-knowns. Regardless: we’ve got you covered. Do you like the unnerving, jangling work of Carmen Maria Machado, the quirky darkness of George Saunders, or the precise canniness of Deborah Eisenberg? Then...
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Powell's Picks Spotlight
by Keith Mosman, May 12, 2022 8:52 AM
This week we’re taking a closer look at Powell’s Pick of the Month The World Belonged to Us by Jacqueline Woodson and Leo Espinosa.
I’m a nostalgia skeptic. I say that as someone in the final days of his thirties, an age when all the normal human inclinations — pushed along by Big Culture — are driving many of us elder millennials to remember just how good things — especially products — used to be. (Exhibit A: The Garbage Pail Kids Tarot Deck, coming in August!)
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Original Essays
by Ayun Halliday, May 10, 2022 8:51 AM
There was a used bookstore in my hometown my father liked to frequent, but its odor of furniture polish and musty cloth covers was a turn off. As a child, I was desperate to align myself with the Honeycomb Kids generation. The glossy best sellers and Playgirls at B. Dalton’s in the Glendale Mall seemed more sophisticated, and thus more my style.
It wasn’t ‘til I was a teenager, passing through Madison, Wisconsin on a family trip, that I realized the error of my ways. I was, by then, interested in theater and art and any taste of the counterculture I could truffle up amid the Preppy Handbook craze. Paul’s Bookstore on State Street seemed like the sort of place where that itch could be scratched...
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Lists
by Kelsey Ford, May 5, 2022 8:43 AM
Short stories are enticing and prickly — so satisfying when done well, but so difficult to get right. In honor of May being Short Story Month, I thought I'd pull together a selection of craft books that speak to writing short stories in particular, as well as writing practices in general. Whether you’ve been looking to scratch that writerly itch, or just looking for some inspiration for your current works in progress, these books will help you find the words you’re looking for.
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Q&As
by Shelby Van Pelt, May 3, 2022 8:06 AM
Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel, Remarkably Bright Creatures, is so fun and sweet and just the right amount of surreal. There’s a smart, wily octopus named Marcellus; a woman looking for connection after the recent loss of her husband; a grocery store owner with a crush; and an adult “lost boy” just looking for somewhere to belong. And they’re all connected by a mystery that only the octopus has been able to solve. An added bonus? It’s set in our beloved Puget Sound. Van Pelt was kind enough to answer our questions about her delightful book.
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Lists
by Powell's Books, May 2, 2022 9:09 AM
May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and this year we’re fortunate to be partnering again with our friends at APANO (Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon) to share a curated reading list. APANO is a statewide, grassroots organization, uniting Asians and Pacific Islanders to achieve social justice and find solutions to the disproportionate gaps in education, health, and economic prosperity that Asian and Pacific Islander communities often face.
APANO is led and staffed by a dynamic group of community experts, seasoned advocates, and volunteers and the books they share below are as impassioned, riveting, and diverse as the individuals that comprise APANO and the families and communities the organization is dedicated to serving.
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Lists
by Powell's Staff, April 29, 2022 8:59 AM
There are so many great books coming out and so little time to keep track of them. Luckily, we’re here to do that for you! Below, our booksellers have highlighted the titles they’re most excited to see hit the shelves. Good luck not adding every single one of these to your cart...
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Powell's Picks Spotlight
by Kelsey Ford, April 28, 2022 9:00 AM
This week we’re taking a closer look at Powell’s Pick of the Month The Candy House by Jennifer Egan.
I spend a lot of time thinking about books as houses — containers for stories within stories living alongside other stories, physical spaces where the story can change depending on the angle you look at it from. A love story looks different when it’s moved from a softly lit, cluttered kitchen into a study, surrounded by mahogany bookshelves, light slanting in through wide, dormer windows...
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