Powell’s Essential List: Novellas

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.

🌊 SALTY SUMMER READS 🌊

We're positively BUZZING! 📚🐝 (Because it's time for our Spring Sale.)

Take 20% of select titles at Powell's in person and online.

Customer Picks at Powell's!

Putting your ✨excellent taste✨ on display.

We've got "customer," "teen," and "kid" pick shelftalkers free for the taking at all three of our stores. Fill them out right there or bring home a couple to decorate and drop off on your next visit. 🎨📚

Do you have a favorite fictionanigan?

BEST FICTION OF 2015: http://powells.us/1QyO2JQ

Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls

“Spunky, independent, and resourceful, Lily leads an astonishing life, and lives it on her own terms. This is storytelling at its best.” — Kelly

Hot New Literature

A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk

Let Me Be Frank with You  by Richard Ford

Penelope Fitzgerald by Hermione Lee

We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler

10:04 by Ben Lerner

Dinner by César Aira

Thirteen Ways of Looking by Colum McCann

Vanessa & Her Sister by Priya Parmar

The Laughing Monsters by Denis Johnson

City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg

Family Life by Akhil Sharma

“Sharma has written a simple, shattering book about tragedy that takes you so completely on a journey that by the final line, Ajay (the narrator) is your avatar and the three minute disaster that shaped his life is your disaster. Family Life is one of those beautiful novels that tilts your perception of the world and changes you a bit. Read it!”

Explore the books for sale here: http://www.powells.com/subjects/fiction-and-poetry/literature/featured-titles/summer-reading-b2g1-free/

Are you a perfictionist?

Question: Three stags walk into Powell's, and each comes out with a book of his choosing: Alan, ever the dreamer, gets Summer House with Swimming Pool; J.T., who lives above the Dancers and Prancers nightclub, opts for To Rise Again at a Decent Hour; and Terrance, the stubborn one, chooses Can't and Won't. If there are six antlers, twelve hooves, and three tails between them, how many books, deerest reader, did they pay for?

Answer: Two! The third they got for free thanks to Powell's More Books for Your Bucks Sale! No heads or tails about it.

Browse titles here.

Did your favorite make the list?

Spotted! The YA Queer Genre Fiction section!

Go on a European vacation without the expensive plane ticket. 

Who is your favorite mom of fiction?