PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

For many people, the winter months feel like an especially magical time of year for a number of reasons — from family gatherings to icy, snowy weather to just the simple warmth and smell of cinnamon and pine that seems so emanate from every room. For witches, that magical feeling is often doubled. This is partially because the witch's new year is actually October 31, so there is a sense of renewal and starting fresh that can make the chilly winter months feel a little brighter, and also because...

There is so much to be said about the beauty and importance of queer literature, no matter the genre or when it was written. I was never going to be able to explain that importance and that history with just five books, but I did spend many weeks trying to find five that were good examples of the complexities and struggles and also the joy and beauty of queer authors, queer characters, and, overall, how it feels to be queer in the world we live in...

My favorite underrated classification of author is the “sad girls” — or the female authors often dismissed because their work is too emotional, too dark, or too raw. While these authors do write about topics like death and grief and the darker parts of life, more often than not, they also write about nature and the light that can be found in the mundanities of life. This is not to say the darker parts of their work are unimportant. However, there is truth to both sides; these authors have more to offer...

“If my body could speak” is a phrase that has a lot to say, and I know that because it’s been rolling around in my head for years — all the inevitable questions, and answers that can be tacked onto the end, growing and gathering as they find more meaning. Some of the thoughts this phrase brings up are much easier to answer but some are ever-changing and seemingly unanswerable. After all, our bodies are what carry us through our day-to-day; it isn’t always easy or enjoyable to think about the effects that the past has had on us or the scrapes and scars, both literal and metaphorical, our bodies carry...