Book Sense Picks

Publisher Comments
Jeannette Walls grew up with parents whose ideals and stubborn nonconformity were both their curse and their salvation. Rex and Rose Mary Walls had four children. In the beginning, they lived like nomads, moving among Southwest desert towns, camping in... (read more)

Powells.com Staff Pick
Discover one of my favorite writers with this artful detective story. Fans of Atkinson's earlier novels will marvel again at her skill in interweaving several narratives to find one central thread of truth. A real knock-out. Danielle, Powells... (read more)

Powells.com Staff Pick
Readers used to Dillard's nonfiction nature writing might initially be surprised at this novel about the subtle undercurrents that make up love. The surprise won't last; Dillard does in The Maytrees what she always does — asks big brave questions of... (read more)

Powells.com Staff Pick
I absolutely loved Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a most precious and delightful novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. Oskar Schell made me laugh, smile, and just feel good. He is a charmer who's won my heart through the tears and the joy... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Sue Monk Kidd's ravishing debut novel has stolen the hearts of reviewers and readers alike with its strong, assured voice. Set in South Carolina in 1964, The Secret Life of Bees tells the story of Lily Owens, whose life has been shaped around the blurred... (read more)

Powells.com Staff Pick
The End of America should be required reading for every American. Rather than giving us a partisan 600-page tome on the crimes of the Bush administration, Naomi Wolf lays out clearly and concisely how we as a people have allowed our government to move... (read more)

Powells.com Staff Pick
Somewhere along the way to guru-dom, Malcolm Gladwell got tagged as a business writer. Fair enough — The Tipping Point speaks more powerfully to the principles of succesful marketing than any pedestrian semester in the classroom. But while raves... (read more)

Publisher Comments
Victor Mancini, a medical-school dropout, is an antihero for our deranged times. Needing to pay elder care for his mother, Victor has devised an ingenious scam: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows... (read more)

Powells.com Staff Pick
The Host, Stephenie Meyer's first book for an adult audience, is a fascinating story of love and betrayal set against the backdrop of an alien invasion. In this thought-provoking and captivating novel, in which alien parasites take over human bodies, the... (read more)

Publisher Comments
A new holiday classic from the author of the bestselling Naked and Barrel Fever! Holidays On Ice collects six of David Sedaris's most profound Christmas stories into one slender volume perfect for use as a last-minute coaster or ice scraper. This... (read more)

Powells.com Staff Pick
This may not be Cormac McCarthy's best book, or even one of the best books of the year (in fact, its construction is a bit incoherent), yet I remain a sucker for the peculiar blend of melancholy and savagery that permeates all of McCarthy's work... (read more)

Publisher Comments
A city is hit by an epidemic of "white blindness" which spares no one. Authorities confine the blind to an empty mental hospital, but there the criminal element holds everyone captive, stealing food rations and raping women. There is one eyewitness to... (read more)