en Copyright 2009, Powells.com Sat, 7 Nov 2009 03:00:18 PST Sat, 7 Nov 2009 03:00:18 PST webmaster@powells.com http://powells.com/favicon.png Powells.com, yo! Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:01 PST not conducted while body-surfing in the ocean, but you can pretend it was. Signed first editions of The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie probably shouldn't go in the water, but we're certain original essays from Bethany Moreton (To Serve God and Wal-Mart) and Fran Slayton (When the Whistle Blows) will float nicely. We built sand castles with Q&A contributors Colum McCann (Let the Great World Spin), Adam Schell (Tomato Rhapsody), and Janna Cawrse Esarey (The Motion of the Ocean), and buried guest bloggers Cheryl Wagner (Plenty Enough Suck to Go Around) and Shawn Klomparens (Two Years, No Rain) up to their shoulders in sand. We only wish all books were waterproof.]]> Wed, 1 Jul 2009 00:00:01 PST Border Songs; scattered around our original essays by Warren Fahy (Fragment), Emily St. John Mandel (Last Night in Montreal), Katherine Howe (The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane), Robert Wright (The Evolution of God), and Peter Manseau (Songs for the Butcher's Daughter); you might find a few in our Powell's Q&A with Marie Brenner (Apples and Oranges); and I'll bet our guest bloggers, Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby and, next week, Richard Sandomir, might even throw a few around. Try the semicolon on your own; it's fun for the whole family!]]> Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:00:01 PST      (adjective)       interview with China Miéville, along with signed first editions of his new novel, The City and the City, and Chuck Palahniuk's Pygmy. Our original essays inspire unique reactions: John Crowley (Four Freedoms) makes us want to       (verb)      ; Deanne Stillman (Mustang) reminds us of      (adjective)            (plural noun)       in the springtime; Tess Callahn (April and Oliver) inspires us to      (verb)      our favorite      (noun)      ; and we      (verb)      for Deyan Sudjic (The Language of Things). Don't forget our      (adjective)      Powell's Q&A with Lisa See (Shanghai Girls), not to mention a bevy of       (adjective)      guest bloggers: the contributors to Conjunctions 52 and Portland Noir. ]]> Thu, 4 Jun 2009 00:00:01 PST Elmore Leonard, plus signed first editions of his new novel, Road Dogs, and Glen David Gold's Sunnyside. We set up a tent in our backyard and we've got sleeping bags for essayists Jon Jeter (Flat Broke in the Free Market), Daniel James Brown (The Indifferent Stars Above), Marc Bekoff and Jessica Pierce (Wild Justice), and Deborah Madison (What We Eat When We Eat Alone). Huston Smith (Tales of Wonder) answered our Powell's Q&A while hiking the scenic shelves in our Northwest warehouse. And, while Megan and her crew are fighting off giant, blood-sucking mosquitoes, we're sipping tall, cool glasses of lemonade on the porch with guest bloggers Daniel Asa Rose (Larry's Kidney) and William Zissner (Writing Places). Those wet spots you see on our faces are tears of joy, damn it. ]]> Wed, 20 May 2009 00:00:01 PST The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet author Reif Larsen is fascinating — and when you're finished, you can trade it for milk and eggs with the nearest book-loving farmer! Original essays by Lisa M. Hamilton (Deeply Rooted), Tamim Ansary (Destiny Disrupted), Christopher McDougall (Born to Run), and Adina Hoffman (My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness) are perfect for propagating. Drill holes in the bottom of our Powell's Q&A with Lise Funderburg (Pig Candy), fill it with top soil, and plant our guest bloggers Paul VanDevelder (Savages and Scoundrels) and Heather Lauer (Bacon: A Love Story) to grow your very own guest blogs! ]]> Thu, 7 May 2009 00:00:01 PST 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.]]> Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:01 PST 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.)]]> Wed, 8 Apr 2009 00:00:01 PST Indiespensable box out to the lucky subscribers, and we're already missing the little tykes. In honor of Volume 10, which is announced below, we tried to "Indiespensable-ize" our newsletter. Robert Goolrick's novel A Reliable Wife gets the exclusive printing treatment, but our attempts to design a slipcase for Goolrick's interview were... let's just say, not successful. We tried to tuck a sumptuous chocolate truffle into each of our Powell's Q&As with Chris Cleave (Little Bee), Philip Kerr (A Quiet Flame), Donald Ray Pollock (Knockemstiff), and Michael Schaffer (One Nation under Dog), and our original essay by coauthors Gordon Hempton and John Grossmann (One Square Inch of Silence), but the programmers haven't quite figured out how to make that happen. We couldn't fit guest blog posts by Susan Jane Gilman and Mary Elizabeth Williams into a box, but we're working on a special limited-edition CD.]]> Wed, 25 Mar 2009 00:00:01 PST The Life You Can Save) and signed editions by Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone) and Keith Donohue (Angels of Destruction). We love Lucky Charms, but we'll trade those fun marshmallow shapes for original essays by Tim Davys (Amberville), Christopher Benfey (A Summer of Hummingbirds), Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (The Face on Your Plate), and Matthue Roth (Candy in Action), plus a Powell's Q&A by Lev Yilmaz (Sunny Side Down), blue clovers, and green diamonds. And we leave you with guest bloggers Zoë Heller and Robert Sullivan river-dancing the little green-suited scamps right into our nets...]]> Wed, 11 Mar 2009 00:00:01 PST The Lost City of Z, rolls past, atop a parade of 24 signed first editions that we recognize even with those masks on. Confetti and cheers erupt as our newest Indiespensable edition from Glen David Gold follows close behind. The original essays by William Lobdell (Losing My Religion) and Tiffany Baker (The Little Giant of Aberdeen County) toss beads and stuffed animals to the Q&As by Abraham Verghese (Cutting for Stone), Amy Dickinson (The Mighty Queens of Freeville), and Sara Houghteling (Pictures at an Exhibition). We haven't seen much of guest bloggers G. Xavier Robillard (Captain Freedom) and Kyria Abrahams (I'm Perfect, You're Doomed), but whatever room they disappear into is soon filled with raucous laughter.]]> Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:01 PST The Mercy Papers. Maybe we'll split the difference. Anyway, we're also deeply smitten with signed first editions of The Widows of Eastwick by the late, great John Updike. Maybe we just like-like our whole slew of original essays — from Douglas Brenner and Stephen Scanniello (A Rose by Any Name), Debra Gwartney (Live through This), Myron Uhlberg (Hands of My Father), Tim Farrington (A Hell of Mercy), and Jamie Ford (Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet) — but we feel a crush coming on for all of them. Not to mention guest bloggers Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser, whose six-word memoirs have a permanent place in our hearts, and second-timer Christopher Moore (Fool), from whom we just can't bear to be apart.]]> Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:00:01 PST Lost to watch on TV — and J. Wood's fantastically insightful blog posts to guide us! Or perhaps we'll savor our signed first editions of Calvin Trillin's Deciding the Next Decider and Walter Mosley's The Right Mistake. If it gets too cold again, we can wrap ourselves in original essays by Lauren Groff (Delicate Edible Birds), Dacher Keltner (Born to Be Good), and Jonathan Barnes (The Domino Men) — after we've read them, of course — and warm our feet over toasty Q&As from Erica Bauermeister (The School of Essential Ingredients) and Neil deGrasse Tyson (The Pluto Files). If things get too dark and gloomy, we have guest bloggers Jonah Lehrer (How We Decide) and Matt Love (Citadel of the Spirit) to light our way. Then again, if we get an early groundhog reprieve, we'll do exactly the same things — only in shorts and T-shirts, sitting out in the sun, with huge smiles on our faces.]]> Wed, 28 Jan 2009 00:00:01 PST 2008 Puddly Award selection. You're making lists, scanning your shelves, poring back over your GoodReads entries. Give your mind a rest — and maybe a recharge — with our interview with Temple Grandin, plus signed editions of her new book, Animals Makes Us Human. We'd like to inaugurate original essays by Jay Mathews (Work Hard. Be Nice.), Norman Bussel (My Private War), Philipp Blom (The Vertigo Years), and Bernard Cornwell (Agincourt). This time around we have but one, lone INK Q&A, by Hannah Holmes (The Well-Dressed Ape), so please — give it some love! And don't miss guest bloggers Peter Wild (Noise: Fiction Inspired by Sonic Youth) and John Niven (Kill Your Friends). Now, get out there and show your Puddly!]]> Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:01 PST Indiespensable title, Tinkers. Luckily, we managed to thaw out some original essays by Daniel Everett (Don't Sleep, There Are Snakes), Dave Pollard (Finding the Sweet Spot), and Raphael Cushnir (The One Thing Holding You Back). We caught our INK Q&As by Steven Johnson (The Invention of Air), Simon Montefiore (Sashenka), and Nami Mun (Miles from Nowhere) trying to skate with ducks on the frozen lake in Laurelhurst Park, while guest bloggers Woody Tasch and Jenna Woginrich braved their homemade toboggan run down the hill alongside Montgomery Park, blazing right past our Northwest Industrial warehouse. ]]> Wed, 7 Jan 2009 00:00:01 PST