Non-fiction for the cold, hard facts, fiction for flights of fancy. One grounds you while the other sets you spinning. Most of the time, maybe, but my experience this week perfectly inverts that paradigm. I’ve been reading a brand-new book from Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris, who is best known as the filmmaker behind such projects …
The Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association, the regional trade association for independent bookstores, just concluded its annual fall trade show this week. This means that the PNBA Board of Directors gathered, and when that happens, there’s a tradition of going around the room to introduce ourselves and something we’ve read lately. Below are the books that …
At the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Fall Trade Show, the PNBA Awards Committee presented an overview of some nominated titles by northwest authors and illustrators that have captured their hearts this year. Committee chair Kim Hooyboer of Third Place Books (Seward Park, Seattle, WA) explained that this year a record-breaking 421 titles were nominated. She …
While bedridden by an illness, a friend brought Bailey a gift of wild violets and a tiny forest snail. Bailey gave her new companion a bedside terrarium, then observed its daily behaviors and educated herself on the life of gastropods. Her memoir is a gift to the scientifically curious, to nature lovers, to anyone who …
University of Oregon professor Michael Copperman recalls his experiences serving with Teach For America in the Mississippi Delta. Copperman’s descriptive prose walks the reader through two years teaching the fourth grade in one of the poorest and most educationally disadvantaged regions in the United States. His language allows the harsh realities of educational inequality, institutional …
This book is such an empowering tale of what is possible when you don’t give up. Jahren beautifully weaves the story of her success with the story of who she is as a person, resulting in an all-at-once heartbreaking and inspiring tale. Not only did she break through the barrier of being a female in …
In 2008, when I went back to work at Powell’s Books after maternity leave, I took whatever sections needed a keeper. I had been the head of Young Adult and Fairy Tales and other sections in Children’s books for a few years. I considered myself an expert, a harbor of knowledge about out-of-print editions and …
Carrie Fisher isn’t just Princess Leia. In The Princess Diarist, though, she takes us back to her Star Wars days with a look at her diaries during filming. They’re replete with her signature humor, but they also provide a fascinating look at life behind one of our most iconic films. — Ashleigh B., Powell’s Books, Portland, …
I like to know a thing or two about the world around me, so I read widely and watch a lot of film. However, when I write, I write for myself and I don’t do fiction. That’s not because I don’t like it, but because I can’t manage it. I’ve made a sad attempt or …
When Michael Copperman left Stanford University for the Mississippi Delta in 2002, he imagined he would lift underprivileged children from the narrow horizons of rural poverty. Well-meaning but naïve, the Asian American from the West Coast soon lost his bearings in a world divided between black and white. He had no idea how to manage a classroom or help …
