 Don't Miss
More at Powell's
Find Books
Read the City
Win Free Books!
PowellsBooks.news
Powell's Q&A, Q&A | December 13, 2009
By Norberto Fuentes
Describe your latest project. Norton has just published The Autobiography of Fidel Castro, a novel that took seven years of my life to complete as I...
Continue »
-
 |
Runny noses... check. Uncontrollable sneezing fits... check. Itchy, watery eyes... check. Hurray, it's spring! And we're inviting you to celebrate with us by frolicking through fields of books. We'll start with interviewee Michael Perry, whose Coop makes a fragrant addition to any seasonal bouquet (signed or otherwise). Next, we'll make daisy chains with original essayists Andrea Wulf ( The Brother Gardeners), Joanna Smith Rakoff ( A Fortunate Age), Bernd Heinrich ( Summer World), Marjorie Kernan ( The Ballad of West Tenth Street), and Darren Littlejohn ( The 12-Step Buddhist), while tucking Q&A author Arthur Phillips's The Song Is You behind our ears. Then we'll join hands with guest bloggers Michael Muhammad Knight and Rupert Isaacson to get a running start before we all leap onto a soft pile of Spring Fever Sale paperbacks! (BYO hay fever medication.)
SIGNED EDITIONS
 In its starred review, Publishers Weekly raves about Michael Perry's Coop: "Perry writes vividly about rural life; peck at any sentence — 'One of the [chickens] stretches, one leg and one wing back in the manner of a ballet dancer warming up before the barre' — and you'll find a poetic evocation of barnyard grace." Get your signed editions while they're fresh!
 It Sucked and Then I Cried is an irreverent and captivating memoir about the unexpected joys and glaring indignities of pregnancy, childbirth, and parenthood, from Heather Armstrong, the beloved creator of the most popular personal blog on the web, Dooce.com. Get your signed editions this instant.
 more signed editions
|
FEATURED INTERVIEW
 In Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting, Michael Perry finds himself transplanted onto 37 overgrown acres of farmland with his wife and daughter and a new baby en route. Perry takes on fowl, firewood, and pigs (regular and guinea) while reflecting on his unorthodox childhood — being raised in an obscure fundamentalist faith by dairy-farmer parents who took in dozens of foster children — for clues as how to proceed as a farmer, a husband, and a father. Kirkus raves, "Dryly humorous, mildly neurotic and just plain soulful — a book that might even make you want to buy a few chickens."
more author interviews
And don't miss Michael Perry at Powell's City of Books on Thursday, May 14.
|
HARDCOVER
 Little Bee by Chris Cleave
"Cleave is a nerves-of-steel storyteller of stealthy power, and this is a novel as resplendent and menacing as life itself," raves Booklist (starred review). And that's all we can tell you without spoiling it.
 |
Sale $16.80 | Hardcover
List Price: $24.00 (You Save: $7.20) |
 Martha Stewart's Encyclopedia of Crafts: An A-To-Z Guide with Detailed Instructions and Endless Inspiration by Martha Stewart Living
Organized by topic, this comprehensive resource contains projects, templates, and detailed instructions for more than 30 craft techniques such as beading, jewelry making, paper cutting, and silk-screening. Instructions for each technique are followed with how-to projects.
|
Sale $24.50 | Hardcover
List Price: $35.00 (You Save: $10.50) |
 American Gangster
Don't miss our DVDeeeelicious Sale, with over 50% off thousands of titles, including such hits as Knocked Up, American Gangster, the Harry Potter films, and many more! As always, all DVDs and Blu-ray discs ship free from Powells.com.
|
Sale $7.69 | DVD
List Price: $26.98 (You Save: $19.29) |
|
PAPERBACK
 City of Thieves by David Benioff
"Set during the Germans' brutal siege of Leningrad in World War II, City of Thieves is a harrowing, surreal, and surprisingly funny odyssey through a land ravaged by war, where two young soldiers on an impossible mission encounter the best and worst of humanity." —Recommended by Bolton, Powells.com
|
Sale $10.50 | Trade Paper
List Price: $15.00 (You Save: $4.50) |
 Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
In the latest collection from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri, eight dazzling stories take readers from Cambridge and Seattle to India and Thailand as each explores the secrets at the heart of family life.
|
Sale $10.50 | Trade Paper
List Price: $15.00 (You Save: $4.50) |
 Confessions of a Little Black Gown by Elizabeth Boyle
With her latest book, New York Times-bestselling author Boyle begins a two-book, back-to-back romance set in Regency England. "All of Boyle's signature elements — high wit, delightfully original characters, and a wildly creative plot spiced with deception and desire — blend together brilliantly," raves Booklist.
|
$6.20 | Microsoft Reader eBooks |
|
 Last week's guest blogger, Gimme Shelter author Mary Elizabeth Williams, wrote about a subject near and dear (not to mention full of fear) to our hearts: the future of books.
April 2, 2009:
Fiddling While Rome Burns; or, The Sky Is Falling!; or, Are Books Dead?
Look, we've had a good run. Remember all the times you've made me miss my subway stop, or kept me up late in bed? Remember how I liked you so much I devoted my life to you, culminating in a little something called Gimme Shelter?
Yeah, well, books, I think it's over. We can still Kindle. Maybe.
[...] As a Tweeter/blogger/MySpacer myself, I give all that stuff its due.
I just want more. I think most of us do. I see us out there every day, sitting on trains with our noses in Outliers or Revolutionary Road; I see us at the library with our kids devouring Harry Potter and Lemony Snicket.
The written word isn't dead. Shakespeare and Gogol and, god help us, Chelsea Handler will continue to find their way into the hands and eyes of people who want to read them. I do, however, wonder about the impact of the recession — and our collective rapidly diminishing attention span — on literature and the cultivation of new talent. Would Harper Lee be able to get a publisher today? Or would she be passed over for "Facebook Status! The Hardcover"?...
Click here to read the rest of Mary Elizabeth's post on the Powells.com blog. And while you're at it, check out our daily Book News features, plus Read It Before They Screen It, Kirsten Berg's Rare Book posts, Matt Love's On Oregon, and more!
| From the Authors |
SAVE 30% |
JOANNA SMITH RAKOFF: ORIGINAL ESSAY
 |
From a major new literary talent comes A Fortunate Age, an instantly compelling breakout first novel that tells the universal story of the starting-out years of a group of college friends living in Brooklyn. "[M]esmerizing," hails Booklist (starred review). "Rakoff captures a certain time and place with heartbreaking clarity." Read Rakoff's original essay for Powells.com and save 30% on A Fortunate Age. |
|
A Fortunate Age
 |
Sale $18.20
Hardcover
List Price: $26.00
You Save: $7.80
|
|
ARTHUR PHILLIPS: POWELL'S Q&A
 |
In The Song Is You, bestselling author Arthur Phillips delivers a love story and a uniquely heartbreaking dark comedy about obsession and loss. It is a closely observed tale of love in the digital age that blurs the line between the longing for intimacy and the longing for oblivion. Jill from Powells.com enthuses, "The Song Is You is Phillips's best book yet, as smart and intricate as Prague, but more generous and poignant." Read the Powell's Q&A with Phillips and save 30% on The Song Is You. |
|
The Song Is You
 |
Sale $17.50
Hardcover
List Price: $25.00
You Save: $7.50
|
|
MICHAEL MUHAMMAD KNIGHT: GUEST BLOGGER
 |
In Impossible Man, Michael Muhammad Knight — called the "Hunter S. Thompson of Islamic literature" by the Guardian — shares his own personal story, a chronicle of his bizarre and traumatic boyhood and his conversion to Islam during a turbulent adolescence. "Knight's anecdotal style keeps things lively," praises Publishers Weekly. This week we're honored to have Knight as the guest blogger for Powells.com. Read his daily posts and save 30% on Impossible Man. |
|
Impossible Man
 |
Sale $11.16
Trade Paper
List Price: $15.95
You Save: $4.79
|
|
in our stores
 |
Oscar is a sweet but disastrously overweight ghetto nerd who, from the New Jersey home he shares with his old-world mother and rebellious sister, dreams of becoming the Dominican J. R. R. Tolkien and, most of all, finding love. But Oscar may never get what he wants. Blame the fuk — a curse that has haunted Oscar's family for generations... (read more) |
7. A Mercy by Toni Morrison (Literature)
|
APRIL 14: Jonathan Goldstein
 In Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!, This American Life regular contributor Jonathan Goldstein re-imagines and recasts the Bible's greatest stories and heroes with the depth, wit, and snappy dialogue they've always needed. "Goldstein's biblical characters evoke the kind of touching truths only found at the bottom of deep barrel laughs," hails Publishers Weekly. |
APRIL 15: Candy Tan: Beyond Heaving Bosoms
 From the creators of the beloved blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books comes a guide to the most popular — and maligned — fiction genre. Beyond Heaving Bosoms is Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell's hilariously sarcastic but always affectionate study of romance novels, perfect for hardcore fans and dabblers alike. |
view all events
preorder signed editions by authors coming to Powell's |
IN OUR NEXT EDITION:
On his flight back from Italy, apparently Morrison had won the hearts of Delta's crew. Turns out no one loves a flying squirrel quite like aviation professionals.
Next thing we knew, Powell's got a call from the airport asking, Would Morrison perform at PDX?
This was big. Too-big-to-miss big. Somehow Zooey and Bear convinced Kyle to take them to the show after his Info Desk shift downtown.
Morrison likes to make grand appearances, Kyle had heard.
"Grand how?" wondered Bear, navigating the terminal's revolving door without tangling his lead or tripping up Kyle. Impressive.
Kyle said, "At Hawthorne the other day I guess he took a running start along the length of a bookcase-top and leapt 12 rows of people in folding chairs."
"Our furry Knievel," Zooey remarked, in stride, wagging at every traveler they passed near the check-in counters — to no avail. Bear got all the attention. People never tire of a cat on a leash.
Send questions, comments, and suggestions to newsletter@powells.com. We also accept Pony Express.
PowellsBooks.news
by Bolton and Dave
|
