What I'm Giving: PENANCE by Eliza Clark
"For my 2014 tumblr bestie who used to be obsessed with true crime but is starting to feel weird about it"
((No poetry, middle grade books, or graphic novels were displaced to make room for this display))
Uprooted by Naomi Novik "familiar as a Grimm fairy tale yet fresh, original, and totally irresistible"
Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall "Witches and gods, scandals and curses all combine in this spellbinding historical Sapphic romance"
The days are getting darker. Are your books?
Maddelena and the Dark by Julia Fine "This book absolutely shines with the beauty of venice, the terror of first loves, and the singular intense passion of musicians and artists. Se deeply romantic! So alluring!" O Caledonia by Elspeth Barker "One of those rare writers whose charisma can be felt through the page"
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson "A pioneer for women in horror literature, Shirley Jackson remains as relevant as ever." Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi Try it if you like Castlevania, Hellsing, Western Gothics, and the art of Yoshitaka Amano
Anatomy: A Love Story by Dana Schwartz "A YA Debut that truly has everything, and yes, even some casual grave digging." Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier "A beautiful gothic mystery dripping with atmosphere and teeming with dread"
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James "Is our narrator actually being haunted, or is she slowly losing her mind?" The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter "A collection of the best adaptations of classic fairy tales, with a feminist flare, modern twists, and carnal delights....If you like Neil Gaiman, you will like Angela Carter"
Bookseller Picks for Best Books of 2023: Science Fiction & Fantasy! Absolutely an excuse to run up to booksellers — street-interview style — and demand to know their favorite world-building, magic systems, and political messes (in SPACE!). On this year's list, look out for dragons and more dragons, love letters to books in cozy fantasy settings, unionized dolphins, cyberpunk thrillers about orbital elevators, series conclusions that stick the landing, pirates, supervillains, not-quite-robots, fairytales, and more. Read our list at the link in bio.
📚🔗: To the list
"I was late to the party with Leichter’s debut, Temporary, but now I’m devastatingly early to the party with Terrace Story, a book I am obsessed with and want to discuss with everyone, ASAP. It’s the story of a couple living in a small apartment with their baby and their sort-of friend who somehow opens a portal to a terrace outside their apartment whenever she visits — and only when she visits. The magic in this story is incidental to the heartache and the ways that the small choices people make glance off of each other in devastating, unexpected ways. I had no idea where this book was taking me, and I am so glad for that. Consistently surprising, filled with wonderful and aching emotional depth, and with an ending that is truly an all-timer: I know this book is going to be one of my favorites from 2023." — Bookseller, Kelsey F.
Divination and Divine from the Rare Book Room 🔮🔮🔮 I Tarocchi di Dante e dei Fedeli d’Amore, Wolfango Peretti Poggi Milan: Editorali d’Ami, 1983 $300 Wolfango Peretti Poggi (1926–2017) was an Italian artist and illustrator from Bologna. He illustrated this beautiful and very hard to find tarot set with scenes from Dante’s works. 📝Notes: Boxed tarot deck. Seventy-eight color cards, 6¼ x 3½ inches, gold ink border on recto, abstract design on verso. Accompanied by explanatory pamphlet in Italian and card reading “Amor che ne la mente mi ragiona”. In box, 6½ x 3¾ x 1½ inches, red paper over cardboard, tarot card with title overprint pasted to lid, “Made in Italy” sticker to side of lid. Box in very good condition with light wear; contents in near fine condition.
For our final Book Preview of 2024, we thought we’d look at our list by the numbers (since math is such a bookseller forte). On this list, you’ll find 53 books, including 3 memoirs, 4 debut novels, 2 anthologies, 7 follow-ups to debuts that we’ve been rabidly anticipating, 5 new entries into beloved series, and 4 cookbooks. In their blurbs, Powell’s booksellers use words like love (22), funny (6), can’t wait (8), feral (2), spellbinding (1), legendary (2), change (4), hope (3), joy (3), horror/horrifying (7)... to just name a few.
Witch Book Enthusiasts!
Allow us to introduce the most witch-y book currently for sale in the Rare Book Room at Powell's: 'Saducismus Triumphatus: or, Full and Plain Evidence Concerning Witches and Apparitions' (1681, by Joseph Glanvil)
Perfectly pocket-sized; filled with punchy, often devastating language; containing entire worlds you can devour in a single sitting.
This is a list that started with a lot of conversation about what a novella is (length sure, but what if it's just... vibes?).
Booksellers submitted more than 100 titles for consideration and in the end we came together to put forth this list of 25. We bet that if you started now, you could read all of our essential novellas by the end of the year. Go on: we dare you.
"Much has been written about her, but one question remains... who is she?"
PSA: summer reading logs from kids are the best.
Cats on the internet? How Novel.
Happy international cat day from booksellers' cats - who know that books are just the next best thing to the box they come in.
