Portland Notables

Beasts of a Little Land

“Juhea Kim's debut novel is at once massive in breadth and intimate in scale. Upending Dickens and Tolstoy by setting some of their themes in Japanese occupied Korea, Kim delves into the depths of her characters - social outcasts all - and builds an ensemble of unique voices that speak to today's world nearly a century on from her setting. Parallels are exposed between the imperialism and revolution of early-twentieth-century Korea and early-twenty-first-century America, Britain, Brazil, Venezuela, Myanmar - take your pick - proving that we have not yet learned from history and are still dooming ourselves to repeat the horror of our past. The setting not only allows for a political backdrop that reverberates to modern readers, but also allows Kim to center her characters in a society shift as well; one where mysticism is giving way to harsh reality; where prior social mores are becoming popular entertainment; and where social outcasts can become leaders of industry. This is a thrilling read, and brought to mind the best of Merchant-Ivory films while also exploring the racist and colonizing effects of the aristocracy.”

Jesse, Odyssey Bookshop

“A modern coming-of-age full of love, desperation, heartache, and magic” (Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning author) about “the ways in which family, grief, love, queerness, and vulnerability all intersect” (Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author). Perfect for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Thirty Names of... Read more »

Two mothers and their teenage daughters, whose lives collide in a fatal car crash, take turns narrating Ellen Urbani’s breathtaking novel Landfall, set in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Eighteen-year-olds Rose and Rosebud have never met, but they share a birth year, a name, and a bloody pair of sneakers. Rose’s quest to atone for the accident...

The author of the acclaimed, bestselling In Praise of Difficult Women delivers a hilarious feminist manifesto that encourages us to reject "self-improvement" and instead learn to appreciate and flaunt our complex, and flawed, human selves.

Why are we so obsessed with being our so-called best selves? Because our modern culture force feeds women...

THE FIRST RULE about fight club is you don't talk about fight club. Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with whitecollar jobs and failed lives take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded just as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and... Read more »

The Child Finder

“In Rene Denfeld's new novel, a woman who searches for abducted or lost children must confront her own memoires of being abducted as a young girl. While searching for a girl recently kidnapped in her hometown, she is haunted by her past and the lies that she used to weave her present, lies that often took the form of stories. Meanwhile, the abducted girl must survive years of terror and heartbreak, all while constructing a magical mythology to shield herself from the atrocities of her captor. These characters, especially the women, are strong and imaginative. Readers who enjoyed Room will devour this literary thriller, which promises to open up Denfeld's readership to a much wider level.”

William Carl, Wellesley Books

Red Clocks

“I never understood what it meant for someone's writing to be 'lyrical' until I picked up Red Clocks. With beautiful prose, Leni Zumas tells the story of a young girl seeking an abortion in a world where abortion is illegal and dangerous; a woman on the quest to have children when in-vitro fertilization is illegal and folks aren't allowed to adopt without a partner; a woman in a dead-end marriage desperate to escape from her husband and children; and a woman considered a witch by most who provides homeopathic reproductive healthcare, including illegal abortions. Zumas beautifully weaves these stories together and gives each individual a strong and unique voice, while also maintaining suspended disbelief. These characters felt real and this world felt possible. I suspect this will be one of the best books published in 2018.”

Hanna Foster, BookPeople

Nominated for the National Book Award, Geek Love is mesmerizing, daring, and unconventional. Award-winning novelist Katherine Dunn fascinates and amazes much the same way tornados, earthquakes, and volcanos do. No one wants to be a victim, but most find the event too hypnotic to ignore. In order to save their traveling carnival from bankruptcy,... Read more »

"The shapeless mass of darkness split apart. It sundered, and a pale spindle of light gleamed between his open arms. In the oval of light there moved a human shape: a tall woman . beautiful, and sorrowful, and full of fear."-from A Wizard of Earthsea A Wizard of Earthsea, first in a tetralogy that includes The Tombs of Atuan and The Farthest... Read more »

Winner of the Hugo and Nebula Awards A groundbreaking work of science fiction, The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants can change their gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between... Read more »

Mink River

“Mink River tells the lives, dreams, and pains of the beings—human and animal—in a coastal Oregon town. It breaks your heart and lovingly stitches it back together. It uses the line between reality and magic for hopscotch, and plays fast and loose with the art of language until you're giddy. I have read this book three times in the last year because I absolutely refuse to let it end.”

Emily, Tsunami Books

This is not your mother's memoir. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch expertly moves the listener through issues of gender, sexuality, violence, and the family from the point of view of a lifelong swimmer turned artist. In writing that explores the nature of memoir itself, her story traces the effect of extreme grief on a young woman's... Read more »

The Alehouse at the End of the World

“This is a tough one to describe, because as soon as I start I’m afraid I’ll scare some of you off. Avian demigods? Fertility goddesses? An epic journey to the Isle of the Dead to recover a lost love? Sure, fantasy fans will hear me out, but the rest of you should, too. Drawing on European, Asian, and North American folk traditions, Stevan Allred plows the oldest narrative field there is, the open commons that existed before anyone thought of subdividing it with genre fences. Pure story, in other words, once-upon-a-time stuff that doesn’t seem fringy at all. Turns out that a modern version of ancient myth involving love, death, and talking birds is exactly what we need in these trying times.”

James Crossley, Island Books

A self-defined misfit makes a powerful case for not fitting in—for recognizing the beauty, and difficulty, in forging an original path.

A misfit is a person who missed fitting in, a person who fits in badly, or this: a person who is poorly adapted to new situations and environments. It’s a shameful word, a word no one typically tries to own.... Read more »

For fans of the Chronicles of Narnia comes the first book in the Wildwood Chronicles, the New York Times bestselling fantasy adventure series by Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists.

Wildwood captivates readers with the wonder and thrill of a secret world within the landscape of a modern city. It feels at once firmly steeped in the...

Gretchen Lowell, the world's most beautiful serial killer, has escaped from prison in Chelsea Cain's next unpredictable, edge-of-your-seat thriller, Sweetheart.

With Heartsick, Chelsea Cain took the crime world by storm, introducing two of the most compelling characters in decades: serial killer Gretchen Lowell and her obsessed pursuer Portland...

"Lyrical and emotionally gutting." —O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
“Intellectually satisfying [and] artistically profound.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
“Mesmeric.”—THE PARIS REVIEW
“Vividly awesome and truly great." —EILEEN MYLES
“Gorgeous, gutting, unforgettable." —LENI ZUMAS
“Brilliant.” —MICHELLE TEA

An arresting memoir equal parts... Read more »

Avis Muir is a brilliant pastry chef, Brian Muir a corporate real estate attorney. Their son, Stanley, is the proprietor of a trendy food market. Their beautiful daughter, Felice, is missing. A runaway at 13, Felice has spent five years modeling tattoos, skateboarding, clubbing, and sleeping in a squat house or on the beach. She’s about to turn... Read more »

Why would we need music if our lives were exactly as we wanted them to be?

Karl Bender is a quiet guy who lives in three places: his bar, his apartment, and the cheap Mediterranean place on the corner that keeps him well-fed with his daily portion of hummus and chicken shwarma. But that’s all about to change. When he stumbles upon a...

Martin Marten

“I will wholeheartedly recommend any and all of Brian Doyle's novels, but Martin Marten is the most finely crafted of his odes to the people and land of Oregon. This charming tale winds through the human and animal lives on the sides of Mt. Hood, exploring the pain and beauty they all share. The waters of Doyle's stories run deep and rich, and his books are the kind you should read at least twice to drink in all they have to offer.”

Emily, Tsunami Books