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Powell's Staff:
Five Book Friday: In Memoriam
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Every year, the booksellers at Powell’s submit their Top Fives: their five favorite books that were released in 2023. It’s a list that, when put together, shows just how varied and interesting the book tastes of Powell’s booksellers are. I highly recommend digging into the recommendations — we would never lead you astray — but today...
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Brontez Purnell:
Powell’s Q&A: Brontez Purnell, author of ‘Ten Bridges I’ve Burnt’
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Rachael P.:
Starter Pack: Where to Begin with Ursula K. Le Guin
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Customer Comments
Rose City Reader has commented on (57) products
Blue Desert
by
Celia Jeffries
Rose City Reader
, June 20, 2021
Sixty years after Alice George lived in the Sahara desert with the nomadic Tuarig tribe, she received a telegram telling her that Abu was dead. "Who is Abu?" her husband asks. "My lover," she replies. This is the set up for Blue Desert, the new novel by Celia Jeffries. The story braids the two narratives of Alice's time spent in the Sahara during the years of World War I and 1970s London, during the week she tells her secrets to her husband for the first time. If you like historical fiction with a feminist bent, Blue Desert is the book for you.
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When in Vanuatu
by
Nicki Chen
Rose City Reader
, June 20, 2021
If you are looking for armchair travel to tide you over until your next IRL trip, Nicki Chen's novel, When in Vanuatu is the pick for you. It is the page-turning story of expats Diane and Jay, living in Manila when circumstances result in their move to the South Pacific island of Vanuatu (where James Mitchener wrote Tales of the South Pacific). The beautiful tropical island is not the idyllic paradise it first appears. Although part of a captivating international community, the couple faces disappointments that test their marriage and lead to Diane's personal transformation.
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Blood and Oranges: The Story of Los Angeles: A Novel
by
James O. Goldsborough
Rose City Reader
, June 20, 2021
This historical novel tells the story of Los Angeles from the roaring twenties to the uproarious nineties. Three generations of Los Angeles history are packed into this fast-paced novel. Goldsborough brings the research skills of his nonfiction writing and the crisp style of his years in journalism to this tale of tale of urban glamour, corruption, crime, beauty, glitz, and grime. It is a story as sprawling and fascinating as Los Angeles itself.
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Garden in Every Sense & Season A Year of Insights & Inspiration from My Garden
by
Tovah Martin
Rose City Reader
, June 17, 2021
In The Garden in Every Sense and Season: A Year of Insights and Inspiration from My Garden, Tovah Martin chronicles four seasons in her garden, carefully describing what each of her five senses experiences each season. Martin has been creating her seven-acre garden in northeastern Connecticut since 1996, so there is plenty for her to see, smell, hear, touch, and taste. She offers practical gardening advice, organized by season and senses, told in a lively and chummy style. The book is like spending a year in a garden with a good friend. You’ll have a few laughs, pick up some sound pointers, get fresh ideas, and maybe appreciate your own garden in a new way.
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Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan A Novel of a Life in Art
by
Deborah Reed
Rose City Reader
, January 31, 2021
Reed's writing is lovely but not obtrusive. You can picture each character and scene, but she but lets the story do the heavy lifting. She packs a lot into the 302 pages of this rich family drama. Pale Morning Light with Violet Swan could have been twice as long and I would have enjoyed it twice as much – I didn't want it to end. This was the first book I read in 2021 and it may end up being my favorite book of the year.
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Town Crazy
by
Suzzy Roche
Rose City Reader
, January 10, 2021
The Town Crazy is set in Hanzloo, Pennsylvania, a suburban Catholic community in Pennsylvania in 1961, when a single father moves to town with his son Felix. The dads are suspicious, most of the moms are smitten, and Lil O'Brien, one of the town moms, seems to be losing her mind. Felix befriends his classmate, Lil's daughter Alice, but when the town busybody jumps to a conclusion of misbehavior, tragedy follows. Meanwhile, Lil's bottled-up secret is leading to greater emotional collapse. This character-driven, captivating story will keep you engaged from cover to cover.
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She Said God Blessed Us: A Life Marked by Childhood Sexual Abuse in the Church
by
Gail Hovey
Rose City Reader
, January 10, 2021
Hovey's memoir discusses the often overlooked issue of sexual abuse of girls by women. But don't be put off by the subject matter. It is really the story of how easily young people can be enthralled and exploited by someone older who seems charismatic simply by showing the young person a little special attention. That manipulation leads to feelings of guilt and shame that take a long time to recognize and and even longer to understand, well into adulthood. When Hovey was a teenager, she was emotionally and physically seduced by Georgia, the education director at her church. It took her decades, including a move to South Africa, to break free of Georgia's influence. Hovey tells her story well, with compassion and insight. She Said God Blessed Us is a memoir worth reading for anyone whose family has been touched by abuse or who wants to understand dynamics and effects of abuse.
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Always an Immigrant: A Cultural Memoir
by
Mohammad Yadegari
Rose City Reader
, January 10, 2021
Mohammad Yadegari was born in Iraq in an Iranian family. At 18, he moved to Iran to finish high school in Tehran. Later, he immigrated to the United States for college and graduate school where he met and married his wife Pricilla. He wrote his memoir in the form of personal stories and anecdotes about growing up in the Middle East in the the 1940 to early 1960s and then moving to America. He's a good storyteller and the book is full of humor and real life wisdom. Immigrant stories are a part of American life and it is fascinating to get the perspective of someone who immigrated from the Middle East in the mid-1960s.
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Braided in Fire: Black GIs and Tuscan Villagers on the Gothic Line 1944
by
Solace Wales
Rose City Reader
, January 10, 2021
Solace Wales tells the story of the Tuscan village of Sommocolonia and the Black 366th Infantry Regiment that defended the village in WWII during the Battle of Garfagnana. At the center of her story are Lieutenant John Fox, who posthumously won the Medal of Honor for his heroism, and the brave Biondi family. Wales explores how the bonds between some of the Black GIs and Italian villagers, forged during the battle, remained strong for lifetimes. As the Black Lives Matter movement continues, Braided in Fire is a timely record of the Black lives given during WWII to save Europe from fascism.
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Dudes Rush In
by
Lynn Downey
Rose City Reader
, January 10, 2021
This debut novel takes us back to 1952 Arizona, the heyday of Dude Ranches, when war widow Phoebe McFarland leaves her settled life in San Francisco to spend six months on her in-laws' ranch. Her discovery of a diary from the First World War years sets her on the path of a mystery and her own rebirth. The story is packed with engaging characters, plot twists, and memorable settings, and Phoebe is a smart and likeable heroine. Downey was the archivist for Levi Strauss, Co. and her skills as a researcher show in this page-turner of a historical novel.
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Rough House
by
Tina Ontiveros
Rose City Reader
, January 10, 2021
Tina Ontiveros's memoir is a tough read but it lays bare what it was like to grow up in the logging camps of the Pacific Northwest. Raised by a charming but abusive father and a mother worn down by small-town poverty, Ontiveros writes with heartbreaking honesty about family dysfunction and intergenerational trauma. Rough House makes an excellent companion read with Dan Cox's short story collection, The Canyon Cuts Both Ways, because it is the nonfiction version of the same world, as seen by the women and children who live in it.
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Never Leaving Laramie Travels in a Restless World
by
John W. Haines
Rose City Reader
, January 10, 2021
Haines was an adventure seeker from a young age. He biked through Tibet, kayaked the Niger River, and rode the Trans-Siberian Express from Beijing to East Berlin. A fall from a train in the Czech Republic in 1999 left him partially paralyzed and radically changed his life. His new memoir, Never Leaving Laramie, weaves the stories of his travels with his philosophy of travel as Haines writes about how growing up in Laramie, Wyoming gave him perspective and taught him lessons he carried with him around the globe. He ends with a chapter on his life since his accident and the different ways people can travel through the world.
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Off Island
by
Lara Tupper
Rose City Reader
, July 25, 2020
In Off Island, Lara Tupper creates an imagined history of artist Paul Gauguin, famed for his vibrant paintings from the South Seas, visiting an island off the coast of Maine. A hundred years later, a contemporary painter finds the paintings and letters Gauguin left behind and learns that maybe Gauguin also left a family in Maine. Off Island is a terrific book for anyone who enjoys fictionalized art history and historical fiction with a braided contemporary narrative.
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Shedding Our Stars: The Story of Hans Calmeyer and How He Saved Thousands of Families Like Mine
by
Laureen Nussbaum and Karen Kirtley
Rose City Reader
, July 03, 2020
Laureen Nussbaum and her family lived in Amsterdam during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She was a childhood friend of Anne Frank. Hans Calmeyer was a lawyer appointed by the Germans to adjudicate "doubtful cases" of people trying to leave the country. He saved at least 3,700 Jews from deportation to Nazi camps, including Nussbaum and her family. In her memoir, Nussbaum writes about how Calmeyer removed them from the deportation lists by declaring her mother non-Jewish. She follows the story of her family and Calmeyer after the war. Her book is an important tribute to an unsung hero and an inspiration.
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When a Toy Dog Became a Wolf and the Moon Broke Curfew: A Memoir
by
Hendrika de Vries
Rose City Reader
, July 03, 2020
Hendrika de Vries was a child in Holland when her father was deported to a Nazi POW camp and her mother joined the Resistance. Her new memoir tells the story of the tragic events of Amsterdam during WWII, as seen through the eyes of a young girl, and reflects on the wisdom she gained from her experience. It is a beautiful and extraordinary story, finely told.
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Listening at Lookout Creek Nature in Spiritual Practice
by
Gretel Van Wieren
Rose City Reader
, July 03, 2020
Gretel Van Wieren went on a retreat to the Andrews Experimental Forest in Oregon’s western Cascade Mountains to reconnect with the natural world. She wrote about her experience and what she learned in Listening at Lookout Creek: Nature in Spiritual Practice (OSU Press). The book describes Gretel's time at the Andrews Forest, looks back at her earlier outdoor experiences growing up and with her own children, and ties it together with her spiritual practice. It reminded me a bit of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. Reader's who enjoyed Dillard's classic would enjoy Listening at Lookout Creek, as would parents hoping to get their kids outdoors, the fishing and hunting community, and spiritual seekers.
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This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story
by
Jackie Shannon Hollis
Rose City Reader
, June 16, 2020
Jackie Shannon Hollis is a writer, storyteller, and speaker who grew up with the assumption she would get married and have kids. When she fell in love with a man who didn't want children, she had to examine her assumptions and chose a different path. Her new memoir, This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story (Forest Avenue Press), looks back on her happy life without children of her own. Hollis shines a light on the complex decisions around becoming a parent or not. She looks at her upbringing and how it influenced her choices in relationships and the question of whether to become a parent. She considers how much of her longing for kids came from external pressure and how much was her own desire. She examines her husband’s history and what made him uninterested in becoming a parent – and why she still wanted to build a life with him. While the book focusses on the decision to become a parent, it has broader appeal as a book about self-discovery. Hollis explores this bigger topic of trying to find one's true self. The ultimate message of her book is that happiness is beautifully complex, and we each have our own “particular” way of being happy. The title reflects Hollis's surprise at finding happiness in life she didn’t expect, a “happiness” made of being present for all the joys and pains of being alive.
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This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story
by
Jackie Shannon Hollis
Rose City Reader
, June 16, 2020
Jackie Shannon Hollis is a writer, storyteller, and speaker who grew up with the assumption she would get married and have kids. When she fell in love with a man who didn't want children, she had to examine her assumptions and chose a different path. Her new memoir, This Particular Happiness: A Childless Love Story (Forest Avenue Press), looks back on her happy life without children of her own. Hollis shines a light on the complex decisions around becoming a parent or not. She looks at her upbringing and how it influenced her choices in relationships and the question of whether to become a parent. She considers how much of her longing for kids came from external pressure and how much was her own desire. She examines her husband’s history and what made him uninterested in becoming a parent – and why she still wanted to build a life with him. While the book focusses on the decision to become a parent, it has broader appeal as a book about self-discovery. Hollis explores this bigger topic of trying to find one's true self. The ultimate message of her book is that happiness is beautifully complex, and we each have our own “particular” way of being happy. The title reflects Hollis's surprise at finding happiness in life she didn’t expect, a “happiness” made of being present for all the joys and pains of being alive.
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Morning Will Come
by
Billy Lombardo
Rose City Reader
, June 16, 2020
Morning Will Come is the story of a marriage and family struggling with the disappearance of the oldest daughter. It is told through the different stories and points of view of the husband Alan, the wife Audrey, and the son Dex. Their struggle to give language to their grief is raw and honest, and often difficult to read. But the book ends with some small hope for the family as Dex has the final chapter.
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Other Oregon People Environment & History East of the Cascades
by
Thomas R Cox
Rose City Reader
, June 12, 2020
Historian and author Thomas R. Cox has written widely about environmental, social, and economic history. In his new book, The Other Oregon: People, Environment, and History East of the Cascades (OSU Press), he returns to his roots in Eastern Oregon to explore a diverse and under-appreciated region of the Pacific Northwest. Eastern Oregon covers 17 counties, with geography that includes high dessert, rolling farmland, and alpine peaks. The people of the region have never been a homogeneous whole. While the relationships between the people and the land have always been paramount, the relationships vary and have changed over time. Attitudes towards environmental issues and much else differ widely. Cox explores the environmental history, geography, and natural resources or Eastern Oregon to write a history of this specific region. But the story he tells is broadly relevant to anyone interested in how values and attitudes are shaped by the land of their home place rather than built environments.
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Other Oregon People Environment & History East of the Cascades
by
Thomas R Cox
Rose City Reader
, June 12, 2020
Historian and author Thomas R. Cox has written widely about environmental, social, and economic history. In his new book, The Other Oregon: People, Environment, and History East of the Cascades (OSU Press), he returns to his roots in Eastern Oregon to explore a diverse and under-appreciated region of the Pacific Northwest. Eastern Oregon covers 17 counties, with geography that includes high dessert, rolling farmland, and alpine peaks. The people of the region have never been a homogeneous whole. While the relationships between the people and the land have always been paramount, the relationships vary and have changed over time. Attitudes towards environmental issues and much else differ widely. Cox explores the environmental history, geography, and natural resources or Eastern Oregon to write a history of this specific region. But the story he tells is broadly relevant to anyone interested in how values and attitudes are shaped by the land of their home place rather than built environments.
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Bad Dad Jokes: That's How Eye Roll
by
Bart King
Rose City Reader
, June 12, 2020
This goofy book of eye-rolling, corny "dad jokes" is the perfect gift for every dad. It is packed with every g-rated pun ever told! Along with some great illustrations by Pulitzer-winning cartoonist Jack Ohman. If you are trapped at home with kids, get a copy. This will inspire plenty of giggles and family fun along with the eye rolling.
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Due Diligence and the News: Searching for a Moral Compass in the Digital Age
by
Stanley E. Flink
Rose City Reader
, May 18, 2020
Stanley E. Flink had a long career in journalism before teaching "Ethics and the Media" to journalism students for over 25 years. His new book Due Diligence and the News: Searching for a Moral Compass in the Digital Age is a collection of essays drawn from his lectures. The book highlights the significant role that a free and responsible press has in our society, the need for truth and trust in a democracy, and how technology has fundamentally changed the environment in which information and news are conveyed. Flink raises questions with no simple answers, which is what makes his book so interesting. Due Diligence and the News is timely, readable, and captivating for any newshound, whether journalist or news junky.
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Melon
by
Amy Goldman, Victor Schrager
Rose City Reader
, December 28, 2019
Author and gardener Amy Goldman is an zealous advocate for heirloom seeds, fruits, and vegetables. Her latest book, The Melon, is an expanded revamp of a book on melons she published years ago. This new version is glorious. It should be a top pick for gardener gift giving. I got a copy of The Melon and was so enchanted by the pictures and melon stories that I immediately ordered copies of Amy's Heirloom Tomato and Compleat Squash books. AND I DO NOT GARDEN! I just love these books.
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At the Narrow Waist of the World: A Memoir
by
Marlena Maduro Baraf
Rose City Reader
, December 28, 2019
Marlena Maduro Baraf grew up in a large, extended Jewish family in Catholic Panama of the 1950s and 1960s, then moved to the US in her late teens. Her new memoir, At the Narrow Waist of the World, explores how community and families of any size have incredible power to sustain young people. She tells her story through a collection of vignettes, each one capturing a memory. Through these snapshots, the reader learns of the author’s glamorous but mentally ill mother, her father’s premature death, her many aunts and uncles in Panama, and her new life as an immigrant to the US. Hers is a beautiful and captivating story.
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Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners
by
Charles Jennings
Rose City Reader
, December 28, 2019
Entrepreneur and author Charles Jennings wants to help non-techies understand artificial intelligence (AI). His new book, Artificial Intelligence: Rise of the Lightspeed Learners, is a short and fascinating introduction to how AI affects our lives today and what's in store for the future. Artificial Intelligence, now generally known as AI, is self-learning software. Jennings uses the term “Lightspeed Learners” to highlight how AIs leverage our connected global infrastructure to learn very, very quickly. Jennings uses stories, interviews, humor, opinion, and informed musings to explain AI to a general audience. He wants people to understand the risk in the very short term of an “AI war” and the not too distant risk that AI will be out of human control.
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Celibate: A Memoir
by
Maria Giura
Rose City Reader
, December 28, 2019
When she was a young woman, Maria Giura fell in love with a Catholic priest. In her new memoir, Celibate, Giura writes about their complicated, angry relationship and how it led her to finally find her true calling. In working through her history with Father Infanzi, Giura writes about how she began to appreciate that neither partner in their relationship was all right or all wrong; everyone brings emotional wounds from youth into adult relationships. Unlike what she felt at the time, Giura came to understand that she was not a victim of circumstance or even God’s will, but that she had choices. Writing her book – and figuring out the real truth about her relationship with the priest, her mother, others close to her, and her relationship with God – helped Giura grow up. Giura tells her story with guts and grace.
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Winded: A Memoir in Four Stages
by
Dawn Newton
Rose City Reader
, December 28, 2019
In her new book, Winded: A Memoir in Four Stages, Dawn Newton writes about living life to the fullest after she was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. She has been treated with the drug Tarceva for the past seven years and writes unflinchingly but with great tenderness about her cancer fight and her struggle with depression. Winded is a worthwhile read for anyone who has ever suffered from depression, cancer, or a chronic illness and the people close to them.
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Raw Material Working Wool in the West
by
Stephany Wilkes
Rose City Reader
, December 16, 2019
Stephany Wilkes started out searching for "local yarn" and ended up learning how to shear sheep. Eventually, she found herself at the center of a growing community of hardworking Americans trying to bring eco-friendly wool to market. Her book, Raw Materials: Working Wool in the West (OSU Press). explains this fascinating industry and introduces the people involved. Raw Material would make a great gift for the knitter on your list, as well as anyone interested in sustainable fashion, shopping locally, and life in the West. It is a really interesting book!
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The Preserve
by
Steve Anderson
Rose City Reader
, November 19, 2019
Steve Anderson’s new book is a post-WWII thriller set on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1948. Wendell Lett, war hero turned deserter, seeks treatment for combat trauma at an isolated facility called The Preserve. Instead of a cure for his jangled nerves, he finds himself caught up in an assassination plot that runs all the way to General Douglas MacArthur. The Preserve is a first-rate historical thriller. It is fast, dark, complicated enough without being ridiculous, with characters and relationships you are interested in, and enough historic facts salted through the narrative to make you ponder long after the last page. The Preserve is Anderson's second book featuring Wendell Lett, who first appeared in Under False Flags. They can be read as stand-alones, and are even better read back to back.
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Son of Amity
by
Peter Nathaniel Malae
Rose City Reader
, July 31, 2019
Three lives converge in the small town of Amity, Oregon, a town straddling line between upscale wine country and rural poverty. The story is grim, but Malae tells it well, right up to the gripping conclusion and the final, hopeful, last scene.
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Shores Beyond Shores From Holocaust to Hope My True Story
by
Irene Hasenberg Butter
Rose City Reader
, July 31, 2019
Butter was a child when her family tried to escape the Nazis in pre-war Germany, occupied Amsterdam, and Bergen-Belson. She was Anne Frank's neighbor in Amsterdam before her family was taken to a concentration camp. It was decades before Butter told her story outside a close circle of family and friends. Her memoir is a testimony to the Holocaust and an affirmation of survival, beautifully written and suitable for young adults.
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Song of the Jade Lily
by
Kirsty Manning
Rose City Reader
, July 31, 2019
The Song of the Jade Lily is the story of Jewish refugees in Shanghai in WWII. It goes back and forth between the friendship between a local girl and a Jewish refugee in WWII Shanghai, and 2016, when a granddaughter returns to dig up family secrets. It has everything you want from a historical novel -- excellent storytelling, characters to worry over, and information about a little-known episode in history. This would make a great book club pick.
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Grit & Ink An Oregon Familys Adventures in Newspapering 1908 2018
by
William F Willingham, R Gregory Nokes, Stephen A Forrester
Rose City Reader
, July 31, 2019
Grit and Ink is the history of the East Oregonian Publishing Company, an independent newspaper company that has been publishing across Oregon for close to 140 years. The history is still living -- the company was in the news in July 2019 for outbidding two national newspaper chains to buy The Bulletin in Bend, and the weekly Redmond Spokesman. Grit and Ink is a great read for anyone interested in the newspaper business, local journalism, or Oregon history.
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Rash: A Memoir
by
Lisa Kusel
Rose City Reader
, July 07, 2019
Living in Bali did not turn out to be the tropical paradise Lisa Kusel thought it would when she and her husband decided to move there with their toddler daughter. They packed up their life in California and moved to Indonesia mere weeks after learning about the Green School where her husband got a job. She then spent the next months battling mosquitoes, rogue monkeys, and invading ants; watching the wheels come off the cart of the utopian school while her husband became more and more miserable; and struggled to keep her marriage and sanity intact living in an open-air bamboo hut. Fortunately for her readers, Kusel laughs in the retelling, even at the scariest and craziest situations. She is a natural storyteller and her story is one worth reading. Rash is a frank and funny account of what can happen when you and your dreams go south.
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Warnings Unheeded: Twin Tragedies at Fairchild Air Force Base
by
Andy Brown
Rose City Reader
, January 29, 2019
Andy Brown was serving in the Air Force as a law enforcement specialist when, in 1994, he responded to an active-shooter incident in progress at the base hospital where he was stationed. Four days later a B-52 bomber crashed during an air-show practice flight. Both tragedies had been predicted and warned about. Brown's book, Warnings Unheeded, is part of his ongoing effort to share the lessons learned from the Fairchild Air Force Base tragedies and his experience with the effects of trauma. He struggled with guilt and other mental health issues as a result of the shooting. His own experience with trauma is another powerful story in the book. Brown draws from investigation reports and witness statements from the Air Force. He also had copies of the gunman’s medical records, journal entries, and other documents and personally interviewed many of the people involved. The result is a compelling account of double tragedies that could have been avoided. Warnings Unheeded would be a hit with true-crime fans, veterans, and readers with an interest in psychology, history, law enforcement, military, or aviation.
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Warnings Unheeded: Twin Tragedies at Fairchild Air Force Base
by
Andy Brown
Rose City Reader
, January 29, 2019
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Burnside Field Lizard
by
Theresa Griffin Kennedy
Rose City Reader
, November 04, 2018
Burnside Field Lizard is an evocative collection of debut fiction set in Portland, from nonfiction writer and poet Theresa Griffin Kennedy. These “domestic noir” stories are about women who are tossed away, devalued, and fighting to survive. The tone is gritty and dark, but honest.
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Burying Leo
by
Helga Gruendler-Schierloh
Rose City Reader
, November 04, 2018
Helga Gruendler-Schierloh is a bilingual author who grew up in Germany and now lives in America, like the heroine of her new book, Burying Leo. Her book tells a timely #metoo story of an aspiring singer who leaves Europe for a new life in America after an audition ends in sexual assault. It is a powerful and moving story. Helga does a good job of showing both how being raped haunted the heroine for years and how confronting her worst fears finally allowed her to reclaim her life’s dream.
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Date Like A Woman
by
Kai Nicole
Rose City Reader
, November 04, 2018
After her years of dating experience, discussions with girlfriends (and men), and what she read on social media, Kai Nicole realized that she approached dating differently from other women. Her upbringing and personal approach to life gave her the mental freedom she thinks many women do not feel when it comes to dating. So she wrote Date Like a Woman, "key strategies to simply enjoy the art of dating." Her hope was to teach women to enjoy dating and not approach dating with the goal of “landing a husband.” I don't date anyone besides my husband, but I wanted to read this because I have several friends who are single and I listen to them complain about dating all the time. I thought I'd read this and have more to say than "have you tried Match again?" I like it. I like Kai Nicole’s no-nonsense, almost bossy tone. She encourages women to take responsibility for themselves, has a sex-positive approach to dating, and offers some fresh advice on an old topic.
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Burglars & Blintzes
by
Morgan C. Talbot
Rose City Reader
, November 04, 2018
Pippa Winterbourne owns a B&B for mystery writers on the Oregon coast and, like all good amateur sleuths, finds herself solving mysteries on the side. In BURGLARS & BLINTZES, the second book in Morgan C. Talbot's Moorehaven Mysteries series, Pippa finds herself chasing skeletons and possible pirate treasure. The setting sounds too contrived, but Morgan makes it work. Since Pippa markets her B&B as a writers’ retreat only for mystery writers, she makes a point of staying neutral about her guests’ styles of writing and particular sub-genres. And as mystery writers, every character is not only willing and able to contribute to Pippa’s mystery-solving efforts, but also make good suspects because they have plotted out how to commit crimes. Each chapter starts with a quote from Raymond Moore, the (fictional) world-famous mystery writer who formerly owned the Moorehaven mansion, before his home became a B&B. The fictional quotes are all clever, shaded from wry to campy, and set the tone for the chapter. It’s a charming touch. This Moorehaven Mysteries series is a fun one to keep up on.
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Beginner's Luck: Dispatches from the Klamath Mountains
by
Malcolm Terence
Rose City Reader
, August 17, 2018
In the 1960s, journalist Malcolm Terence helped found the Black Bear Ranch, a commune near the California-Oregon border that still exists. His new memoir, Beginner's Luck: Dispatches from the Klamath Mountains, is an exuberant record of this piece of America's 1960s history. Terence lived at Black Bear Ranch for four years. While there, he watched the advent of the first wave of feminism, both women claiming their rights and men learning to do their share of domestic labor. People at the commune had left the world they had been raised in to reinvent their lives, so women cut firewood, men cooked took care of the kids. Terrence writes about attending home births and even being the only helper present for one when the midwives were late. Many people cycled through Black Bear Ranch over the decades and stayed a few years or a few days until they knew what they wanted to learn. Over the years, hundreds of people came through. Terence now thinks of the commune as a sort of “feral graduate school.” He eventually settled down in the small Salmon River towns near the commune, where he worked in gold mining, logging, firefighting, and tree planting before becoming a school teacher. His memoir is a heartfelt testimony to these communities.
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Till Death Do Us Tart A Bakeshop Mystery
by
Ellie Alexander
Rose City Reader
, August 02, 2018
Alexander continues to turn out cozy and clever mysteries in her Bakeshop Mystery series featuring Jules Capshaw, amateur sleuth and owner of Torte, Ashland, Oregon's favorite café. Ashland is the perfect setting for a culinary cozy series because it has some of the charm of an old English village, but with plenty of Northwest foodie culture. It offers colorful characters and mysterious settings, because it’s a college town with a world-famous Shakespeare Festival, and has a thriving community of artists, outdoor enthusiasts, wine makers, and the like. There is always a lot going on in Alexander’s stories. This latest, Till Death Do Us Tart, finds Jules planning a wedding for her mom and soon-to-be-stepdad -- a wedding that ends in poisoned death! When Jules discovers that she was the intended victim, it’s time again to put down the oven mitts and find the killer.
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All Coyotes Children
by
Bette Lynch Husted
Rose City Reader
, July 08, 2018
When Annie Fallon's husband Jack, a professor of Native American history, disappears without a trace into the wilderness surrounding the family ranch, Annie is left to pick up the pieces. She gets some help from Leona, a Umatilla-Cayuse neighbor with long but hidden ties to Jack's family. This exciting new novel is set in eastern Oregon and explores the conflicts between the Native American and ranching cultures of the American West. Husted keeps the dialog flowing, the action moving, and the pages turning. Bette Lynch Husted is known as a poet and essayist. All Coyote's Children is her first novel.
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The River by Starlight
by
Ellen Notbohm
Rose City Reader
, July 05, 2018
Ellen Notbohm’s new book, THE RIVER BY STARLIGHT, tells the story of a homesteading couple in Montana in the early 1900s struggling with the wife's recurring postpartum depression. The book was inspired by research into Ellen's own family history. Maternal mental health rarely appears in historical fiction, which makes this book a particularly interesting historical novel. The frontier setting also creates space around the topic to examine it without today’s expectations or pre-conceived ideas about solutions. Just how would a woman and her partner deal with postpartum psychosis, given the general ignorance and social stigma surrounding women’s mental health issues in the early 20th century, not to mention the gender-biased laws of the day? Notbohm does a good job of telling both Annie and Adam’s stories authentically. Annie is the main player, but Adam’s grief and desperation also ring true.
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Fill the Sky
by
Katherine Sherbrooke
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
Katherine A. Sherbrooke's first novel, Fill the Sky, is the dynamic story of three friends who travel to Ecuador so one can seek cancer treatment from traditional healers. This sophisticated debut about women's friendships would be a smart pick for a book club and makes a great summer read.
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Queen of Spades
by
Michael Shou-Yung Shum
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
Queen of Spades is a debut novel that retells Pushkin's short story of the same name, but sets it in a Washington state casino in the 1980s. It's a terrifically imaginative story that grabs you from the first page. I love it!
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Bel Book & Scandal A Belfast McGrath Mystery
by
Maggie McConnon
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
This is the third Bel McGrath mystery, set in the Hudson Valley of New York State, featuring an Irish-American wedding chef who solves mysteries on the side. For fans of culinary cozies, there's nothing not to like! McConnon is the pen name of Maggie Barbieri, author of the cozy Murder 101 series about a college professor and amateur sleuth named Alison Bergeron, and the edgier Once Upon a Lie series, featuring Maeve Conlon, a professional baker and divorced mother with a dark secret.
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Burdens by Water: An Unintended Memoir
by
Alan Rifkin
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
Once I started reading this collection of essays about life in Southern California, I couldn't stop, and I have no connection with or affinity for Southern California. I'm just entranced by Rifkin's stories.
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Bloody Marys Sanguine Solutions for a Slew of Situations
by
Judy Bennett
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
This is a very funny book, filled with reminiscences, girlfriendly advice, and recipes for every kind of Bloody Mary you can think of. It's a lot of fun.
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Chasing Portraits: A Great-Granddaughter's Quest for Her Lost Art Legacy
by
Elizabeth Rynecki
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
Moshe Rynecki was a painter and sculptor who created over 800 paintings and sculptures in pre-war Warsaw. When the Nazis came, he entrusted his art to friends who hid it for him, but when he was killed in the Majdanek concentration camp, his works scattered. Inspired by Moshe's son's journal describing the art, Elizabeth Rynecki, Moshe's great-granddaughter, worked with art curators, historians, and other supporters to find and catalog Moshe's body of work. The book is a compelling mix of memoir, family history, art catalog, and detective story. It is also an important testimony to an artist who depicted the everyday lives of the Polish-Jewish community before that way of life, and his own, was destroyed.
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The Seasons of Doubt
by
Jeannie Burt
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
When Mary Harrington’s husband abandons Mary and their son in a sod house on the Nebraska prairie, she doesn't know if he will ever return, or even if he is still alive. When their food and fuel run out, Mary and her five-year-old leave the homestead to try to survive the freezing winter. Burt's writing crackles and she knows how to bustle the story right along. Seasons of Doubt is a historical novel whose strong heroine will appeal to modern readers.
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Homing Instincts
by
Dionisia Morales
Rose City Reader
, June 13, 2018
Dionisia Morales grew up in New York City and now lives and writes in Oregon. Her new collection of essays, Homing Instincts, explores concepts of home and belonging. She draws inspiration from her kids, hobbies, and travels, but has a knack for moving beyond her personal experience and connecting to the lives and interests of other people.
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All Set for Black, Thanks.: A New Look at Mourning
by
Miriam Weinstein
Rose City Reader
, November 20, 2016
Author Miriam Weinstein often focuses on parenting and grandparenting, helping readers get the most out of family life. In her new book, All Set For Black, Thanks: A New Look At Mourning, Miriam offers friendly and forthright help, drawn from her own experience, needed in times of mourning and grief. Most of the essays are autobiographical, acknowledging how closely we remain involved with people who died years ago. The title sets the tone for the whole book. Recognizing that funny can coexist with sadness, the essays have an insouciant tone that make them wonderfully readable.
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Boundary Layer
by
Kem Luther
Rose City Reader
, November 14, 2016
In Boundary Layer, Kem Luther examines some components of Pacific Northwest ecosystems that live closest to the ground — mosses, fungi, lichens — and the fascinating characters who have spent their lives studying these often overlooked subsystems. He also uses the metaphor of a boundary layer to talk about a wider human posture toward natural systems. For example, Luther sees the debate about what is wilderness and what is artificial as one that can be approached as a conceptual boundary layer. At the end of the book, he briefly discusses what he considers the largest conceptual boundary layer in Western society, the struggle between a cultural understanding based on humanities and one based on science. This may sound like a lot for a slim volume of nature writing, but Luther’s book is an enlivening mix of botany, natural history, philosophy, and biographical sketches of the scientists who study the “stegnon” or layer closest to the ground.
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Caught Bread Handed
by
Ellie Alexander
Rose City Reader
, November 14, 2016
Caught Bread Handed is the fourth book in Ellie Alexander’s Bakeshop Mystery Series set in Ashland, Oregon, home of the world-famous Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Here, the heroine, professional baker and nonprofessional sleuth Jules Capshaw, contemplates a reunion with her ex-husband while hunting for the killer of a new restaurant owner. Alexander makes the most of the Ashland setting for this culinary cozy series, playing on the town’s English village charm and Northwest vibe. The series centers around Torte, Jules’s bakeshop, now turned café, and a growing number of local characters that give the stories depth and color.
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Wrong Highway
by
Wendy Gordon
Rose City Reader
, August 22, 2016
Wendy Gordon's debut novel, Wrong Highway, gives fresh energy to the story of a frazzled suburban mom trying to meet her family obligations and what happens when she takes that first wrong turn. Erica and Debbie are sisters, both married and living seemingly calm family lives on Long Island. But when Debbie’s teenage son rebels against his straight-laved parents and turns to Erica for help, Erica is the one who ends up in trouble. The book takes place in 1980s and has a strong ‘80s vibe, with music and cultural references that capture the brash, sometimes destructive energy of the decade. While many of the themes of the story are timeless, the pre-digital setting gives Gordon room to explore themes of family obligation, personal freedom, addiction, and secrecy without technical interruptions from today’s text messages and social media. Whether or not you grew up in the ‘80s, if you enjoy family dramas with well-developed, original female characters, you will like Wrong Highway.
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