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This month in City of Readers we're featuring Portland's first book publican, Elise Schumock, owner of the Rose City Book Pub.

Where are you from originally?
NE Portland, Oregon

Last book you loved:
Wrong Highway by Wendy Gordon. It’s about suburban discontent in the 1980s, a lot like Revolutionary Road with compelling, fully developed characters.

Describe your first memorable reading experience.
The first book I read entirely on my own was Popcorn by Frank Asch. This bear accidentally makes so much popcorn it fills his whole house and he had no choice but to eat it all. It tapped into so many concerns of childhood: making a mistake you didn’t see coming, trying to solve problems that are way outside of your ability, and having a food you love in abundance.

I spent a lot of time in the library at Sabin Elementary. My librarian was Mrs. Frye, who passed away last spring. At the book pub, just a few blocks from my old school, I named a rocking chair in her honor...

I thought I was pretty damn smart. Smart about myself, I mean. For over 40 years I’ve been working as a psychologist and that means thousands of people. Thousands of people with rich family dynamics to explore. Together we dug around, examined, looked at things from every conceivable angle, lifted every rock. And when you’re doing that with someone else, it’s inevitable that you subject yourself to the same scrutiny. Truth is, I believe that most of us who get into this field to begin with are motivated, at least in part, by a deep need to understand ourselves and our family dynamics. Along with time spent with clients, I’ve had years of work with my own therapists, and endless hours mulling it all over with my sister, with my friends. I had ruthlessly interviewed myself. Scrutinized every wacky family interaction. I had most definitely led an examined life...

This week we're taking a closer look at Powell's Pick of the Month A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities by Mady G and J. R. Zuckerberg.

A slim graphic novel, A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities features humorous, borderline psychedelic illustrations of people, snails, and fantastical forest creatures having intimate talks and cavorting with friends in safe, idyllic natural settings. It’s a gentle, joyously weird celebration of the many ways that people can identify in terms of sexuality and gender that emphasizes the beauty in self-acceptance and individual expression.

Guided by a perky, baseball cap-wearing pet snail named Iggy, A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities walks the reader (and a group of curious wild snails) through excellent tutorials on subjects like gender identity, asexuality, and relationship basics...

When I was six, my dad signed me up for a marine biology class at the community college. There were courses available to elementary school kids on Saturday mornings. The old Hardie Building was just a few blocks from the ocean in Beverly, MA. I remember walking down to the beach to collect seawater for an experiment. I liked beachcombing along the way because the instructor would tell true stories about the things we stumbled across, like that mermaid purses weren’t just an extension of a dried up, pile of seaweed. They were egg cases for small sharks.

When we got the seawater back to the school, we boiled it in a beaker until all that was left in the glass was salt. I can’t imagine we were allowed to taste it in a laboratory, but somehow I ate it. And my mind was blown...

How would you describe your job to someone you just met?
I’m a matchmaker! I match people with the book they didn’t know they wanted. My focus is on literature and local authors. I also write reviews for shelf-talkers in the store and blurbs for the website.

Last book you loved:
Smoke City by Keith Rosson, Red Clocks by Leni Zumas, and Mammother by Zachary Schomburg (sorry, I can’t pick just one!).

Where are you originally from?
Born and bred in Portland.

What did you want to be when you grew up?
Seriously, I’ve wanted to work at Powell’s since I was 12!...

Every evening, the limbs of the frangipani tree that shaded our second story apartment shivered and rustled, strewing star shaped blossoms onto our balcony’s floor. Balmy lake breezes mixed the petals’ thick perfume with the aromas of brewing coffee and fried snacks wafting from our neighbors' kitchen windows. In the distance, auto rickshaws and motorcycles revved their engines, announcing the start of Bangalore’s evening commute.  

The minute I heard the creaking branches, I'd stop what I was doing and come outside. Leaning over the balcony’s wrought iron railing, I smiled and waved at the black-haired girl who was, inevitably, perched somewhere on the tree’s trunk, her bare feet tight against the rough bark, her long fingers plucking flowers. 

“Namaskara, Varuna,” I’d call out. “Hege ideera? How are you?”...

I woke early on our first morning on Kaua‘i. Early, because I always have a hard time sleeping my first night in any new bed, and early because my body was two hours ahead, on Portland time. I started a pot of Kona coffee and opened the curtains to the lanai. In Portland, the sun had already risen, but I knew it was still dark, cold, wet — the 45th parallel in February. In the tropics, darkness faded into purple and gray shadows, revealing the outline of swaying palms. The peculiar physics of the condo’s location on C-shaped Keoniloa Bay meant that, somehow, you could see the sun both rise and set, dawn to dusk, beginning then ending then beginning again. 

My back and legs hurt from being crammed into an airplane seat the previous day, and my arm and neck from the accident that totaled my car three months earlier...

This week we're taking a closer look at Powell's Pick of the Month The Best Coast: A Road Trip Atlas by Chandler O'Leary.

We’re enthralled by artist Chandler O’Leary’s road trip guide to the West Coast, The Best Coast: A Road Trip Atlas. It’s not just that Portland gets its own mini-chapter featuring Powell’s (although we’re not immune to flattery). It’s that The Best Coast may be the quirkiest, prettiest, and most enthusiastic guide/love letter to the coast we call home to ever land on our desks.

O’Leary is a veteran road tripper, having logged over 100,000 road trip miles across the lower 48 states. This makes her not just an authoritative guide to sightseeing highlights throughout the U.S., but an expert in what to pack and prepare for. The early sections of The Best Coast are devoted to trip planning and safety, covering what to wear (the geographical and climatic diversity of our coast being vast), how to secure your belongings, how to maximize your budget, and how to take care of your vehicle, plus delightful, unexpected tips...

It happened when Michael Corleone saw Apollonia Vitelli for the first time in The Godfather. Thunderstruck. He just knew. It was a light bulb flick, the eureka moment when everything else melts away and you’re faced with an unexpected future — if you accept the challenge.
 
Several years ago, in a museum in London, I was gobsmacked by an idea that hit me as I stared at portraits of trailblazing women from the 18th century. They reminded me of my own unconventional mother, a woman who had skirted the rules all her life, concocting her own version of womanhood — and motherhood — in the same determined manner. I suddenly knew that I had to learn more about them and then write about her. 
 
I had begun untangle our complex mother-daughter relationship during another trip to London the year before. More than 20 years after her death, I was still caught in a wrenching cycle of love and longing for the larger-than-life, extraordinarily beautiful woman...

Whenever we’re feeling blue, a stroll through the kids’ sections at our stores perks us right up. The rainbow of covers, happy families browsing books, and enthusiastic Kid Pick customer recommendations never fail to delight us. Here are some recent reading suggestions from the witty, adorable future booksellers of America.