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2006: Novel

The Best People in the World: A Novel by Justin Tussing

Review
"In his debut novel...Justin Tussing achieves a significant literary feat, managing to keep the reader engaged while portraying lives characterized largely by idleness and inertia." Boston Globe (read more)

2006: General Nonfiction

Modern Passings: Death Rites, Politics, and Social Change in Imperial Japan by Andrew Bernstein

Publisher Comments
"Bernstein has marshaled an impressive array of facts and ordered them to present a history of Japanese attitudes toward dissolution and its celebration." Donald Ritchie, Japan Times (read more)

2005: Novel

How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship, and Musical Theater by Marc Acito

Powells.com Staff Pick
Former theatre geeks unite! I truly enjoyed this nostalgic romp through the life of Edward Zanni, a young thespian in suburban New Jersey. Edward's quest to attend Juilliard and the madness and mayhem that surround him turn the pages of this great story. This book is like a John Hughes movie — with a much better ending. Danielle, Powells.com (read more)

2005: General Nonfiction

Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown by James C. Mohr

Publisher Comments
A little over a century ago, bubonic plague — the same Black Death that decimated medieval Europe — arrived on the shores of Hawaii just as the islands were about to become a U.S. territory. In this absorbing narrative, James Mohr tells the story of that fearful visitation and its fiery climax — a vast conflagration that engulfed Honolulu's Chinatown. (read more)

2004: Novel

Axeman's Jazz by Tracy Daugherty

Publisher Comments
Axeman's Jazz explores the volatility of race, class, and economics as they affect three generations of a Houston, Texas, family and traces the rise and decline of an inner city neighborhood from the point of view of a prodigal daughter who is the product of a racially mixed union. (read more)

2004: General Nonfiction

Portland: People, Politics, and Power, 1851-2001 by Jewel Lansing

Review
"Deeply researched, richly detailed, and ably organized. Along with the works of Carl Abbott and E. Kimbark MacColl, this book is an essential reference for anyone studying the history of Portland." Chet Orloff, former director, Oregon Historical Society (read more)

2003: Novel

His Mother's Son by Cai Emmons

Publisher Comments
Jana Thomas has built a successful life with a loving husband, a darling six-year-old son, Evan, and a rewarding position as an emergency-room doctor. She has always been a nervous, hypervigilant parent, but Evan’s seemingly normal all-boy tendencies are escalating her worry into something close to hysteria, threatening her job, her marriage, and her motherhood. The real source of Jana's disintegration is a past she has kept buried for sixteen years. (read more)

2003: General Nonfiction

Dispatches and Dictators: Ralph Barnes for the Herald Tribune by Barbara S. Mahoney

Synopsis
From Mussolini's Italy, Stalin's Russia, and Hitler's Germany, Oregon native Ralph Barnes reported firsthand on the events of the 1930s for readers of the New York Herald Tribune. Barbara Mahoney's biography chronicles Barnes's short life and brilliant career and provides insights into the events leading to World War II. (read more)