Posted July 8, 2015
The heft of a big, weighty book. The deliciously papery aroma. The promise of more and more knowledge, accumulating with each turn of the page. What more is there in life?
I couldn’t have said it better, dear Powells. For a limited time, save on select nonfiction titles at Powells.com during its “nonficionado sale”.
Personally, I picked up a copy of Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania, Erik Larson’s latest nonfiction thriller (the hardcover is part of the sale!). They synopsis:
On May 1, 1915, a luxury ocean liner as richly appointed as an English country house sailed out of New York, bound for Liverpool, carrying a record number of children and infants. The passengers were anxious. Germany had declared the seas around Britain to be a war zone, and for months, its U-boats had brought terror to the North Atlantic. But the Lusitania was one of the era’s great transatlantic “Greyhounds” and her captain, William Thomas Turner, placed tremendous faith in the gentlemanly strictures of warfare that for a century had kept civilian ships safe from attack. He knew, moreover, that his ship — the fastest then in service — could outrun any threat.
Germany, however, was determined to change the rules of the game, and Walther Schwieger, the captain of Unterseeboot-20, was happy to oblige. Meanwhile, an ultra-secret British intelligence unit tracked Schwieger’s U-boat, but told no one. As U-20 and the Lusitania made their way toward Liverpool, an array of forces both grand and achingly small — hubris, a chance fog, a closely guarded secret, and more — all converged to produce one of the great disasters of history.
I am one of the many who loved The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America , which started my love for Larson’s work. Also, In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler’s Berlin was a wonderfully done (and very disturbing) read – if you want fantastic book club fodder, you found your author.
There are many other fantastic picks you could choose from during this sale. You can pick up the popular H Is for Hawk or Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China.
Or…fitting with my favorite theme…you can troll through Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America’s Whiskey. This title is best enjoyed while sipping on some Basil Hayden’s (or your brown liquor of choice).
Per the obligatory fine print, the Powell’s Nonficionado sale offer is good on new (full-priced) copies of select titles, in the featured edition only. Happy shopping!
