50
Used, New, and Out of Print Books - We Buy and Sell - Powell's Books
Cart |
|  my account  |  wish list  |  help   |  800-878-7323
Hello, | Login
MENU
  • Browse
    • New Arrivals
    • Bestsellers
    • Featured Preorders
    • Award Winners
    • Audio Books
    • See All Subjects
  • Used
  • Staff Picks
    • Staff Picks
    • Picks of the Month
    • Bookseller Displays
    • 50 Books for 50 Years
    • 25 Best 21st Century Sci-Fi & Fantasy
    • 25 PNW Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books From the 21st Century
    • 25 Memoirs to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Global Books to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Women to Read Before You Die
    • 25 Books to Read Before You Die
  • Gifts
    • Gift Cards & eGift Cards
    • Powell's Souvenirs
    • Journals and Notebooks
    • socks
    • Games
  • Sell Books
  • Blog
  • Events
  • Find A Store

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

Ask a Book Buyer

Ask a Book Buyer: Tales of the Home Front, the Sea, and Overseas

by Powell's Staff, July 3, 2014 10:00 AM
Ask a Book BuyerAt Powell's, our book buyers select all the new books in our vast inventory. If we need a book recommendation, we turn to our team of resident experts. Need a gift idea for a fan of vampire novels? Looking for a guide that will best demonstrate how to knit argyle socks? Need a book for a vegetarian who loves Radiohead and Flight of the Conchords? Email your question to [email protected]. We'll be posting personalized recommendations regularly.

÷ ÷ ÷

Q: I'm traveling to Dublin and Barcelona this summer and would love some recommendations for books that take place in these locations. I'm open to different genres but something funny would be good. –Megan

A: Dublin settings? Anything by Roddy Doyle, but the funnier ones would by Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, The Snapper, and The Commitments. They are gritty but very funny. Tana French writes excellent mysteries, all set in Dublin featuring different members of the Dublin Murder Squad. They are excellent and very evocative of the city and the social system there. In the Woods is the first in the series and a good place to start, but they all also function as stand-alones. –Kathi

You absolutely must get The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. It's a literary mystery that takes place in Barcelona from the 1920s to the 1950s, and it's one of the most beautifully written things I've ever read. Read it before your trip and you won't be able to wait to get to Barcelona. –Tom

Q: I am looking for a book that takes place on the U.S. home front during World War II. Growing up, I loved reading the "Molly" American Girl books. Is there anything with a similar setting for adults? –Molly

A: John Dunning usually writes about mysteries in the world of used books, but he wrote a good book called Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime about a small wartime radio station that is part mystery, part love story. The setting is a small East Coast radio station, and the book is wonderfully detailed about life in that place and time.

There is also a title out in paperback now called The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II. It's nonfiction but a fascinating look at war work on the home front. –Kathi

Q: I am a high school English teacher, and I recently learned that I will be teaching a course on literature of the sea next year. Would you happen to have any suggestions (ideally texts around 200-300 pages)? –Marco

A: What an awesome class! Depending on how classic or challenging you'd like your selections to be, there are some marvelous maritime novels out there. The first that comes to mind is Herman Melville's novella Benito Cereno, about a slave rebellion on the open seas. This was one of Melville's bestsellers, and it's a wonderful introduction to an American master and a nuanced exploration of the evils of slavery.

Another great novel — more recent — is Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Pi is a teenage boy cast adrift with a tiger after a terrible shipwreck kills his family. Life of Pi is an exciting survival tale but also very dreamy, forcing the reader to decide how trustworthy Pi is as a narrator. This has long been a Powell's staff favorite.

If your students are up for a challenge, Brian Doyle's new novel, The Plover, is a hilarious tale of a crotchety sea captain hoping for a solitary adventure but who instead finds himself sailing with a boatload of strange companions (not all human). Doyle's prose is modernist and dazzling: he plays with sentence structure, goes on tangents, and casually incorporates magic into the narrative. It's a very rich novel for teaching, but its difficulty is on par with To the Lighthouse (though, honestly, the subject matter and characters are much more entertaining). –Rhianna




Books mentioned in this post

The Shadow of the Wind

Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Lucia Graves

Life of Pi

Yann Martel

Two O'Clock, Eastern Wartime

John Dunning

Girls Of Atomic City The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II

Denise Kiernan

Snapper

Roddy Doyle

To the Lighthouse

Virginia Woolf

The Plover

Doyle, Brian

Commitments

Roddy Doyle

Bartleby & Benito Cereno

Herman Melville

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha

Roddy Doyle

In the Woods

Tana French
{1}
##LOC[OK]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##
{1}
##LOC[OK]## ##LOC[Cancel]##

Most Read

  1. Best Books of 2022: Fiction by Powell's Staff
  2. The Big List of Backlist: Books That Got Us Through 2022 by Powell's Staff
  3. 25 Books to Read Before You Die: 21st Century by Powell's Staff
  4. Powell's 2023 Book Preview: The First Quarter by Powell's Staff
  5. 7 Essential Authors Recommend Their 7 Essential Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books by Powell's Staff

Blog Categories

  • Interviews
  • Original Essays
  • Lists
  • Q&As
  • Playlists
  • Portrait of a Bookseller
  • City of Readers
  • Required Reading
  • Powell's Picks Spotlight

One Response to "Ask a Book Buyer: Tales of the Home Front, the Sea, and Overseas"

Jan July 19, 2014 at 11:37 AM
Regarding the question from Megan about books to read for her travels, one of my favorite Irish travel books is McCarthy's Bar: A Journey of Discovery in Ireland, by Pete McCarthy. I've read this book a couple times and laugh each time. Another is the Lilac Bus by Maeve Binchy.

Result(s) 1

Post a comment:

*Required Fields
Name*
Email*
  1. Please note:
  2. All comments require moderation by Powells.com staff.
  3. Comments submitted on weekends might take until Monday to appear.
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Instagram

  • Help
  • Guarantee
  • My Account
  • Careers
  • About Us
  • Security
  • Wish List
  • Partners
  • Contact Us
  • Shipping
  • Transparency ACT MRF
  • Sitemap
  • © 2023 POWELLS.COM Terms