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Guests | December 7, 2009
By Theodore Gray
Reading old books of science experiments for children, it's easy to become nostalgic for the days when you could buy jugs of sulfur and mercury at...
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 Pardon our watery eyes, drizzling noses, and frequent sneezing fits — it's hay fever time in Portland again. Fortunately, our newsletter has plenty of features to cure what ails you. If you're having trouble staying awake, try our interview with Laili Lalami ( Secret Son) or signed first editions of Anthony Lewis's Freedom for the Thought That We Hate. We can't prove this yet, but we've been told that original essays by Michelle Goldberg ( The Means of Reproduction), Miranda Weiss ( Tide, Feather, Snow), Jessica Valenti ( The Purity Myth), and Arda Collins ( It Is Daylight) prevent colds, sinus headaches, and homesickness, depending on which way you combine them. Chase away your upset stomach with a flavorful Q&A from Stacy Perman ( In-N-Out Burger)! For headaches, take two guest bloggers — Michael Perry ( Coop) and Tony Horwitz ( A Voyage Long and Strange) — and email us in the morning. As for hay fever symptoms, you could always print out a copy of this newsletter on soft paper that's perfect for catching sneezes and dabbing runny noses.
SIGNED EDITIONS
 In a starred review, Library Journal calls Secret Son "a brilliant story of alienation and desperation that easily transports readers to hot, dusty Casablanca." American Book Award winner Joe Sacco agrees, declaring, "Laila Lalami's tale of a young Moroccan man who must navigate between a bleak background and a bright possibility is magnificently told and wrenched my heart." Preorder your signed first edition today.
 From Anthony Lewis, one of the country's most esteemed experts on the First Amendment and the author of the classic Gideon's Trumpet, comes Freedom for the Thought That We Hate, an eloquent essay on the importance of freedom of expression. Order your signed first editions now!
 more signed editions
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FEATURED INTERVIEW
 When Laila Lalami published Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits in 2005, the debut earned praise far and wide, from acclaimed literary authors such as Junot Díaz as well as popular weeklies including People magazine. Four years later, the former Portland resident and native of Morocco, is back with Secret Son, a remarkable novel of contemporary Casablanca that's sure to expand her avid readership even further. Lalami has written an utterly timeless story — of identity, kin, and class — that's very much of our time.
more author interviews
Don't miss Lalami's reading at Powell's City of Books on Tuesday, April 28.
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HARDCOVER
 Who Is Mark Twain? (With Free eBook) by Mark Twain
Who Is Mark Twain? contains 24 wickedly funny, culturally relevant, and thought-provoking essays by one of the greatest American writers, all being published for the first time! Order a copy now and you'll have immediate access to the PDF-format eBook, which you can download and begin reading within moments. And they said it couldn't be done!
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Sale $13.99 | Hardcover
List Price: $19.99 (You Save: $6.00) |
 Turn Coat: Dresden Files #11 by Jim Butcher
In Turn Coat, the latest volume in Jim Butcher's New York Times-bestselling series, the Warden Morgan has been accused of treason against the Wizards of the White Council. He's on the run and needs someone with a knack for backing the underdog — someone like Harry Dresden.
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Sale $18.16 | Hardcover
List Price: $25.95 (You Save: $7.79) |
 The Reader
Set in post-World War II Germany, the acclaimed film adaptation of Bernard Schlink's bestseller The Reader follows teenager Michael Berg as he engages in a passionate but secretive affair with an older woman named Hanna (Oscar winner Kate Winslet). Eight years after Hanna's disappearance, Michael is stunned to discover her again as she stands on trial for Nazi war crimes. Co-starring Ralph Fiennes and directed by Stephen Daldry (The Hours), The Reader is an "immaculately crafted, splendidly acted drama with a message at its core of forgiveness and humanity" (the Oregonian). As always, all DVDs and Blu-ray discs ship free from Powells.com!
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Sale $26.27 | DVD
List Price: $29.95 (You Save: $3.68) |
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PAPERBACK
 Natural Healing Wisdom and Know-How: Useful Practices, Recipes, and Formulas for a Lifetime of Health by Amy Rost
Amy Rost's Natural Healing Wisdom and Know-How gathers useful and fascinating information on every practice of natural health and healing in one handy volume, offering information about and treatment for hundreds of ailments and covering nearly every aspect of natural and alternative healing.
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Sale $13.96 | Trade Paper
List Price: $19.95 (You Save: $5.99) |
 Our Story Begins: New and Selected Stories by Tobias Wolff
Tobias Wolff, "one of our most exquisite storytellers" (Esquire), gives us Our Story Begins, his first collection in over a decade: 10 potent new stories that, along with 21 classics, display his mastery over a quarter century.
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Sale $11.16 | Trade Paper
List Price: $15.95 (You Save: $4.79) |
 Beyond Heaving Bosoms: The Smart Bitches' Guide to Romance Novels by
Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell
From Candy Tan and Sarah Wendell, the creators of the wildly popular blog Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, comes a hilariously sarcastic but always affectionate guide to the most popular — and maligned — fiction genre. Beyond Heaving Bosoms is study of romance novels perfect for hardcore fans and dabblers alike... and even more perfect as an eBook!
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Sale $13.31 | Adobe Digital Editions
List Price: $15.00 (You Save: $1.69) |
Check out posts from Candy Tan on our blog.
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| From the Authors |
SAVE 30% |
MIRANDA WEISS: ORIGINAL ESSAY
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In the tradition of John McPhee's Coming into the Country, Miranda Weiss's Tide, Feather, Snow is an elegant and affecting memoir of her personal journey of adventure, physical challenge, and culture clash. "Alaska is a captivating land, and this book does justice to it," raves Library Journal. "Highly recommended." Read Weiss's original essay for Powells.com and save 30% on Tide, Feather, Snow. |
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Tide, Feather, Snow: A Life in Alaska
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Sale $17.49
Hardcover
List Price: $24.99
You Save: $7.50
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ARDA COLLINS: ORIGINAL ESSAY
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The 2008 winner of the annual Yale Series of Younger Poets competition, Arda Collins's poems are mesmerizing and electric. In her foreword to It Is Daylight, contest judge Louise Gluck observes, "I know no poet whose sense of fraud, the inflated emptiness that substitutes for feeling, is more acute." Read Arda Collins's original essay for Powells.com and save 30% on It Is Daylight. |
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It Is Daylight
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Sale $11.20
Trade Paper
List Price: $16.00
You Save: $4.80
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MICHAEL PERRY: GUEST BLOGGER
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In over his head with two pigs, a dozen chickens, and a baby due any minute, Michael Perry, acclaimed author of Truck: A Love Story, gives us Coop, a humorous, heartfelt memoir of a new life in the country. This week we're thrilled to have Perry take time out of his farmwork to be our guest blogger! Check out his daily blog posts and save 30% on Coop.
And don't miss Michael Perry's reading at Powell's City of Books on Thursday, May 14. |
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Coop: A Year of Poultry, Pigs, and Parenting
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Sale $18.19
Hardcover
List Price: $25.99
You Save: $7.80
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in our stores
IN OUR NEXT EDITION:
The squirrel's acrobatics, his showmanship, his... his panache! One hundred percent as advertised. If Bear and Zooey hadn't been at the airport to see Morrison for themselves, they never would have believed.
"Can you imagine," Bear marveled, "a whole circus of Morrisons? Synchronized squirrels. It must have been awesome."
Shelf by shelf, Morrison scaled the fiction bestsellers. A pilot in attendance compared his footwork favorably to mountain goats he'd seen in Southcentral Alaska. Upon reaching the top of the case, Morrison dismounted with a back-flip, added a twist and a half on the way down, and then nailed the landing square on a stack of travel guides.
The airport crowd went wild.
Each ovation attracted more passengers from the concourse. Soon the bookstore overflowed. Bear thought for certain that he'd be trampled until Kyle cleared a spot for him beside the register. Surely security would break this up any minute.
Send questions, comments, suggestions, and home hay fever remedies to newsletter@powells.com.
PowellsBooks.news
by Bolton and Dave
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Last week on our blog, Kevin Cannon, the writer/artist of Far Arden, contributed a post about his experience writing and drawing a graphic novel in just 288 hours. Fittingly enough, it's in graphic form!
