Staff Picks Books, Mar S - Powell's Books

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Kelsey Ford: Powell's Picks Spotlight: Kelly Link's 'White Cat, Black Dog' (0 comment)

I vividly remember the night I was first introduced to Kelly Link’s work. I was 18 — young and dumb and wildly shy, living across the country from where I grew up. In Link’s new book, there’s a line that goes “Like the werewolf, we are uneasy in human spaces and human company...

Powell's Staff: New Literature in Translation: March 2023 (0 comment)
Powell's Staff: Powell's 2023 Book Preview: The Second Quarter (0 comment)

The Last Cold Place: A Field Season Studying Penguins in Antarctica

Naira de Gracia

The Last Cold Place is a delightful mix of memoir and nature writing. De Gracia utilizes the stark Antarctic landscape to explore a dual narrative of humanity's relationship with nature and her own personal quest to find herself. It's an inspiring story of a young person figuring out their life path, a call to action to protect our animal neighbors in the face of climate change, and ultimately, a great book about penguins.
Recommended by Mar S.

Outline

Rachel Cusk

In Outline, Cusk displays a keen eye for the complexities that underlie even the most simple of human interactions. The result is a book that feels grand, even metaphysical, despite being entirely grounded in reality. This is a perfect read for anyone who remains silent during group conversations because they simply enjoy observing how people speak to each other.
Recommended by Mar S.

Our Share of Night

Mariana Enriquez and Megan McDowell

Our Share of Night is a brutal epic of a horror story. It's simultaneously a family drama and an occult nightmare; a coming-of-age story and a journey into darkness. Yet, Enriquez never loses sight of her characters' intimate realities as traumatized and grieving people. I'm in awe of how much I cared about these characters, and how they've stuck with me long after reading the final page. I can't recommend this one enough!
Recommended by Mar S.

This Is Not Miami

Fernanda Melchor

Melchor's work is always uniquely woven with strong insights on violence and the systems that perpetuate it. In This is Not Miami, Melchor applies her sharp, analytical eye to true stories of her hometown of Veracruz, Mexico. As a lover of both Melchor's previously translated works and narrative nonfiction as a genre, I am ecstatic to get my hands on this release.
Recommended by Mar S.

Heart Sutra

Yan Lianke and Carlos Rojas

After being mesmerized by Lianke's The Day the Sun Died, I'm excited to experience more of his unique satirical voice. The premise, described by the publisher as "the unlikely love story of a Buddhist nun and a Daoist priest" against the backdrop of "organized tug-of-war competitions between the religions," appears delectably absurd, tackling questions of religion, faith, and corruption. If that weren't enticing enough, this book will... (read more)
Recommended by Mar S.

Novelist as a Vocation

Haruki Murakami and Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen

Murakami has countless dedicated fans around the world, many of whom have probably long been hungry to learn more about his creative process. So far, in the US, we’ve gotten translations of his musings on running, music, and t-shirts, but this will be the first time (outside of the occasional interview) that we get to read Murakami’s thoughts on his own writing and the nature of the novel as a whole. I’ve always been inspired by his work, making... (read more)
Recommended by Mar S.

Jawbone

Monica Ojeda

This book is challenging in all of the right ways. Ojeda's experimental use of language is well-preserved in Booker's English translation. Jawbone straddles the line between horror and pure psychological fiction, playing with symbolism, psychoanalysis, and pop culture references to weave a fascinating meta take on the horror genre. It's often gross and unsettling, and it's not like anything else I've ever read before (which is one of the... (read more)
Recommended by Mar S.

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