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Growing up, I wasn’t allowed to watch much TV, because my dad believed it would rot my brain. Still, he made an exception for the stuff he liked — noir, detective stories, Hitchcock. Even before I could understand the dialogue, I could feel these films in my body. The creeping scores and the dark shadows. A close-up of a face in terror and a sudden scream. They were visceral...

For years, my late dog Rubin, a.k.a White Wolf, (a big fluffy Alaskan Malamute/German Shepherd), was terrified of stairs, bridges, and jumping on or off of just about anything elevated. I first found this out when he was just a few months old and we were on a road trip to Northern California.

At the base of some outdoor, pool-side motel stairs, Rubin started shaking and wouldn't budge. I scooped him up and carried him to the top. Again, no budging at the bottom of a different set of stairs later on the trip. I picked him up and carried him. Again, when I took him to the vet weeks later and he needed to hop up on the scale so they could weigh him...

Everyone has a lifelong goal they're constantly striving to attain: maybe it's to drink water more regularly (me), maybe it's to actually move your body even though you're sitting most of the day (also me), or maybe, it's to have the kinds of friendships found in our most beloved books, TV, and movies. For me, I want a bosom friendship like Anne Shirley and Diana Barry from Anne of Green Gables more than just about anything in this world (give or take the water and movement thing, but I like to think...

In 2016, Barack Obama signed a Presidential Proclamation establishing National Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Month (SAAM). In doing so, he wrote, “Too many women and men of all ages suffer the outrage that is sexual assault, and too often, this crime is not condemned as loudly as it should be. Together, we must stand up and speak out to change the culture that questions the actions of victims, rather than those of their attackers.”

In the 35 years that I've been healing from sexual trauma, I've seen a huge change in our country's attitude toward survivors...

Our blog feature, "From the Stacks," features our booksellers’ favorite older books: those fortuitous used finds, underrated masterpieces, and lesser known treasures. Basically: the books that we’re the most passionate about handselling. This week, we’re featuring Kelsey F.’s pick, Submergence by J. M. Ledgard.

Like most good things in my life, Submergence by J. M. Ledgard came into my orbit because of Moby-Dick. A friend knew how much I loved Melville’s epic — its discursiveness, beautiful language, surprising sensuality...

While pulling together our first Book Preview of 2023, I started to notice a number of commonalities — themes that seemed to echo throughout the list. I love these synchronicities and the idea of a collective stew that we're all pulling out of — a stew filled with our shared anxieties and obsessions, intersecting vibes and interests. It’s endlessly fascinating to see the seed of something similar sprout into multiple complementary but wildly divergent projects. So I thought I'd pull a few together, for your perusing pleasure...

I’ve always been obsessed with happily ever afters.

It started when I was five, with Belle and the Beast singing to each other in the snow. Then it was the Nora Ephron VHSs I watched on constant rotation with my dad every other weekend. Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries dominated my eighth-grade daydreams, and soon, I was devouring every young-adult novel with a romance subplot I could get my hands on. (Yes, Twilight included.) I adored the meet-cutes and the misunderstandings and the magic...

In response to the horrific attack on Salman Rushdie, and in honor of the 34th anniversary of the publication of The Satanic Verses in the UK, we pulled together some thoughts, reflections, and memories from Powell’s booksellers, as well as our very own Michael Powell.

Powell’s has a strong and proud history of standing beside Salman Rushdie. Back in 1989, when The Satanic Verse was published in the US, Powell’s was set to host a book launch with him. We received multiple threats ahead of the event. Add that to our firm commitment to free speech, and it felt more than important that we continue to use our voice to honor Rushdie and his contributions to the literary community...