Shinsuke Yoshitake
[isbn]
What makes life fun, and what makes it dreadfully boring? When the inquisitive main character in Japanese author/illustrator Shinsuke Yoshitake’s adorable picture book explores the subject of boredom with intense scrutiny, the result is anything but dull. With the help of bright, funny illustrations bound to put a smile on anyone’s face, The Boring Book demonstrates how a creative young mind can turn any topic — even a philosophical... (read more)
Recommended by Renee P.
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Ibi Zoboi
[isbn]
When Ebony Grace is sent to Harlem for the summer, her (inter)stellar imagination gets a boost of new fuel as she navigates the ways of seeing and being that city life has to offer. For a girl with a mind of her own and dreams as big as a spaceship, however, she may have just as much to share with Harlem as it has in store for her.
Recommended by Aubrey W.
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Yuval Noah Harari
[isbn]
Having written about mankind’s past and future, Harari turns his keen eye and provocative fusion of historical and scientific reasoning to an examination of the present. Harari is a captivating writer, unafraid to follow the paths technology, climate change, national politics, and other hot button issues are leading us on. It’s a journey well worth joining.
Recommended by Matt K.
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Ibram X. Kendi
[isbn]
In this fascinating and meticulous follow-up to his award-winning Stamped From the Beginning, Kendi identifies the many areas of American life informed by racism and explores what institutions and individuals can do to create antiracist solutions. This challenging book is buoyed by frequent autobiographical anecdotes, which illustrate key points and highlight Kendi’s candor and passion.
Recommended by Moses M.
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Molly Schaar Idle
[isbn]
Molly Idle, the Caldecott Honor author of Flora and the Flamingo, is back with the playful winter tale Flora and the Penguin. This lift-the-flap adventure features Flora and her penguin friend skating, sliding, dancing, and ice-fishing among the glaciers. Molly Idle’s unique use of layered lift-the-flaps creates amazing movement and tells a wonderful story of friendship.
Recommended by Kim T.
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Zadie Smith
[isbn]
A snapshot of the multitudes of experience in 1970s London. White Teeth won Zadie Smith the Guardian First Book Award, the Betty Trask Award, and others. This is also Smith's debut novel.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Louise Penny
[isbn]
A Better Man, the latest from master mystery writer Louise Penny, sees Armand Gamache back in his old position of head of homicide, after a demotion due to his actions in previous books. Penny's graceful, gentle writing and incisive psychological portraits continue to make this series better and better; this most recent addition to the story of Three Pines will please current fans and recruit new ones.
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Hanif Abdurraqib
[isbn]
Hanif Abdurraqib’s unflinching and unabashed new poetry collection is a deeply personal work of grief, sorrow, loss, self-reflection, remembrance, violence, love, and death. Gritty and graceful, piercing and profound, A Fortune for Your Disaster connects the forgotten and the unforgettable — stirring your heart almost as easily as it breaks it.
Recommended by Jeremy G.
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Dianna Hutts Aston
[isbn]
From the award-winning author of A Seed Is Sleepy and An Egg Is Quiet comes this gorgeously illustrated and very informative book on nests. Learn how orangutans keep their nests dry, how tall a flamingo’s nest is, and which birds make their nests in cacti, among other fascinating facts. You’ll be so captivated by the incredibly beautiful art that you’ll forget that you’re learning such interesting facts about multiple species... (read more)
Recommended by Kim T.
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Melanie Golding
[isbn]
I'll read just about anything with elements of creepy folklore, so I was all over this contemporary-thriller-meets-modern-fairy-tale. And it met my high hopes — I was fully engaged from the beginning, and sections were downright terrifying.
Recommended by Emily F.
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Bryn Greenwood
[isbn]
Starting a new Bryn Greenwood book is like the best first date — all butterflies and promise. I fell immediately and hopelessly in love with Zee and Gentry, just like I did with Wavy and Kellen in All the Ugly and Wonderful Things. Greenwood writes characters that I feel in my soul, and I very nearly cannot bear to see them hurt.
Recommended by Emily F.
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Akihito Tukushi
[isbn]
Made in Abyss transitions smoothly between sugary cuteness and body horror, delightful coming-of-age adventuring and heartrending gut punches to your soul. It's the best thing ever and everyone should experience it!
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Shuzo Oshimi
[isbn]
Inside Mari is the quintessential body swap tale with a twist — a dark and deeply psychological coming-of-age story that plumbs the depths of gender, desire, and identity. A must-read.
Recommended by Cosima C.
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Carmen Maria Machado
[isbn]
Impossible to put down, even when it made my heart hurt/stomach turn/eyes sting with tears, Machado's memoir unfolds with the insidious, blooming ache of a bruise into something spectacular and necessary. One of the best books I’ve read this year, and ever.
Recommended by Tove H.
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Schertle, Alice
[isbn]
From Alice Schertle, the author of the beloved book The Little Blue Truck, comes this adorable story of a little mouse who lives under a clump of dandelions in a meadow in the wide world. Starting with spring, the little mouse pops his head out of his mouse hole and greets each season, visiting friends, gathering food, and taking it down to his tidy little home. Lots of wonderful details and lessons about the seasons make this incredibly... (read more)
Recommended by Kim T.
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Molly Ostertag
[isbn]
A wonderful tale of Aster, a 13- year-old boy, and his magical community of witches and shapeshifters. Great world-building and character development make this one of my favorite all-ages graphic novels.
Recommended by Kim T.
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Saeed Jones
[isbn]
Saeed Jones has written a great memoir. Told with a poet’s skill at expression, the true strength of How We Fight For Our Lives is the clarity with which Jones can view both his interior and exterior selves. Each of Jones’s intersectional identities is conveyed in the holistic manner that he experiences them, providing every reader with a broader understanding.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Beth Piatote
[isbn]
Beth Piatote’s collection is a stunning debut. The variety of forms that her writing takes is audacious, and the skill with which she pulls it all off is enviable. Each story is filled with insight and empathy and the book as a whole is both moving and invigorating. This is a writer to watch. The Beadworkers is the best short story collection I’ve read this year.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Rachel Lynn Solomon
[isbn]
Seattle author Rachel Lynn Solomon (first book: You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone) has blessed us with this complex novel about what unrequited love can do to a friendship. Not just the heartbreak, but also the alternating feelings of guilt and entitlement — and the seeming impossibility of moving forward. This book is gorgeous and heart-wrenching in the very best of ways.
Recommended by Joanna S.
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Akwaeke Emezi
[isbn]
This is a fast and powerful read, which I highly recommend. Emezi has created a fascinating world where monsters don’t exist anymore. Jam has believed this her whole life, until a winged creature emerges from her mother’s painting and tells her that her friend is in danger. Jam must then figure out who to trust and how best to protect the people she loves.
Recommended by Jennifer H.
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Juan Jose Millas, Thomas Bunstead, Daniel Hahn
[isbn]
With an outlandish premise that is equal parts discomforting and absurd, From the Shadows probes the psyche of a middle-aged man who, after having been unceremoniously laid-off, decides to dabble in a bit of domestic hermitism. That is, he surreptitiously occupies the negative space, both literal and figurative, in a nuclear family's suburban abode, tidying up and doing odd jobs when no one is looking. As privacy violations go, it's on... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Franz Wright
[isbn]
Almost every one of the poems in this collection had me shouting obscenities and purring in delight, clutching my chest in overwhelm; what more could you want from a book of poems?
Recommended by Darla M.
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Téa Obreht
[isbn]
In Obreht's newest novel, she proves that the success she had with her debut (The Tiger's Wife) was no fluke. Her beautiful use of language perfectly captures the harsh, punishing experience of Arizona in the 1800s. This lovely, sad, and haunting book will stick with you for a very long time.
Recommended by Leah C.
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Amanda Goldblatt
[isbn]
Hard Mouth is one of the most unique novels about grieving I've ever read, with an utterly original narrative voice. Denny lives a solitary life working in a laboratory in Washington, DC, hanging out with her family, her longtime best friend, and her imaginary friend Gene. When her dad's cancer comes back and he decides to forego treatment, her existence is upended in almost every way imaginable. Thoughtful, dark, and page-turning,... (read more)
Recommended by Jill O.
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Lorraine Heath
[isbn]
Beyond Scandal and Desire is the first book in the A Sin for All Seasons series. The whole series revolves around the Trewlove siblings. They are not related to each other but all have a fierce love for the widow who took them in as babies and an incredible loyalty to their makeshift family. With three books out so far and the fourth about to arrive in August, Mick and Aslyn's story from Beyond Scandal is still my favorite of... (read more)
Recommended by Mecca A.
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Beverly Jenkins
[isbn]
I love historical romances, but I'm guilty of picking up books that cover obscure parts of English history and ignoring excellent authors writing about American history. My new favorite author is Beverly Jenkins and her books about powerful African American men and women after the Civil War. Rebel has one of her strongest leads yet with the story of Valinda Lacy and her quest for independence from her family. Her growing relationship... (read more)
Recommended by Jennifer V.
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Maria Vale
[isbn]
I devoured the three books in the Maria Vale series The Legend of All Wolves. The third book, Forever Wolf, came out this year and it was the most wild of the pack. These books have the most natural and untamed account of a pack that is trying to survive living with humans and other shifters. I've enjoyed Vale's unique Wolf world and hunger for more books about the Great North Pack.
Recommended by Jennifer V.
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Thea Harrison
[isbn]
Pia is half human and half... something else. She's not entirely sure what. Pia made the mistake of trusting someone with her secrets and to fix it, she has to steal from a dragon. When this dragon catches up with her, their passion practically sets them on fire. While the romance is very intense, this book still had me laughing. My first paranormal romance... and you never forget your first.
Recommended by Rose H.
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Julia Quinn
[isbn]
Julia Quinn's Bridgerton series is one of my all-time favorites. The first book, The Duke and I, introduces a family saga so heartwarming, funny, romantic, and sexy that I find myself coming back again and again. Don't sleep on these books — especially because Shonda Rhimes is adapting the series for Netflix. Looking for queer historical romance as good as Julia Quinn? Try Cat Sebastian!
Recommended by Joanna S.
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Jean Baptiste Del Amo, Frank Wynne
[isbn]
A poetical, naturalistic revelation steeped in pervasive filth and shrieking fauna that's as sumptuous in detail as it is revolting in its bloodletting specificity. Animalia is a novel epic in both scope and execution, spanning the 20th century on a spit of farmland that grows from agricultural backwater to industrialized operation without ever sacrificing its central thesis: life is precious, life is cruel. Jean-Baptiste Del Amo renders... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Yukio Mishima, Sam Bett
[isbn]
Mishima's glitzy melange of playboy paranoia and heartthrob ennui cracks the proverbial 15 minutes wide open, spilling all the juicy details regarding fawning sycophants, monotonous re-shoots, and the anesthetizing effect of prolonged exposure to the limelight. Death-haunted and contemptuous, Star is a sneering "up yours" to celebrity and fanaticism depicted in panoramic decadence — though, notably, nowhere is its critique more biting... (read more)
Recommended by Justin W.
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Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks
[isbn]
Faith Erin Hicks and Rainbow Rowell team up for Pumpkinheads, a sweet and entertaining graphic novel. Deja wants Josiah to talk to the girl he’s been crushing on all these years. Two Pumpkin Patch veterans, one mad crush, and you have all the ingredients for a truly heartwarming and satisfying tale.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Franny Choi
[isbn]
Choi's collection is a brilliant exploration of how we choose to recognize or deny other people's humanity. The tension between "hard" and "soft" sciences, between machinery and emotion, art and artifice, the real world and an online one, human and cyborg, was a constant reminder of the way we make hard and fast distinctions between "us" and "them" — and what we lose in doing so. Implicating everything from gendered language to Twitter trolls,... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Kira Jane Buxton
[isbn]
A foul-mouthed crow and a bloodhound adventure through the wilderness of postapocalyptic Seattle fighting monsters while rescuing animals in need of help. Kira Jane Buxton’s dark sense of humor and witty narrative make Hollow Kingdom a dystopian delight.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Jos Charles
[isbn]
This book is astounding in so many capacities — its queering of language, its commitment to ambiguity and opacity, its attentiveness to violence against trans bodies on the one hand and to beauty and wonder on the other. What I love most is the way I find myself having to sound out each and every word in order to really recognize the language I am reading — the alternate spellings of words not only allow for different possible readings of a word,... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Drew Brockington
[isbn]
In this latest CatStronauts adventure, Flight Director Maisy is off on a vacation — and the rest of the cat scientists don't do so great without her. Is this really the end? Or can these felines learn how to communicate and work together to save the day?
Recommended by Leah C.
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Rebecca Green
[isbn]
Curious about ghosts or perhaps a little scared of them? This informative guide, complete with diagrams, footnotes, and recipes, will demonstrate the ghost friend-making process and what great, long-lasting pals ghosts can be. Perfectly illustrated, this surprisingly sweet and tender book will inspire the next generation of wonderful weirdos. Truly one of a kind!
Recommended by Christine R.
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DK
[isbn]
With over 50 plans for creative models including a Corellia hologram, a Vader Jet Ski, and a Scavenger crane, along with the bricks to create your own Cloud Car with Bespin Guard minifigure, this set is bound to keep young Jedi Knights dreaming up their own galactic creations.
Recommended by Matt K.
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Jaron Lanier
[isbn]
Social media is certainly affecting your life and your perceptions more than you realize, and you should challenge yourself to contend with Lanier’s arguments, which are clear, concise, and (unlike so much other technology writing) neither utopian nor dystopian.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Joy Harjo
[isbn]
Joy Harjo is our new U.S. Poet Laureate and I'm so excited! Her poems never fail to make me gasp, they are always so perfectly truthful and beautiful, painful and real. This collection weaves between the past and present of both her tribe and her personal experiences and is once again gasp-worthy.
Recommended by Leah C.
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Ben Macintyre
[isbn]
It would be fair to call The Spy and the Traitor British espionage nonfiction that reads like Le Carré, but truthfully it reads like classic Macintyre: thrilling, carefully researched, a bit controversial, and stunningly plotted. Macintryre brings the Cold War to life, and reminds us that decades-old tensions between Russia and the West remain unresolved.
Recommended by Moses M.
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Amanda Coplin
[isbn]
Amanda Coplin’s debut novel fits squarely into the Really Wonderful Novel category, and deserves a far wider readership. Set among the apple orchards of Washington’s Wenatchee Valley, The Orchardist follows the life of the introspective Talmadge, who, as a child, loses his family in quick succession to accident, illness, and mystery. As an adult, Talmadge’s solitary life is disrupted by the arrival of two pregnant runaway prostitutes,... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Don DuPay
[isbn]
DuPay writes a vintage noir crime story that sheds light on the ugly racism and crookedness of the Portland Police Bureau in the mid-1970s. Long ago fired from the PPB, Frank is now working private investigations when he's hired to find a serial killer who's stalking the black community in North Portland. Raw and dark, with lots of politically incorrect language, DuPay's story is engaging with interesting characters and the tiniest hope of a... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Rachel Cusk
[isbn]
A writer goes to Athens to teach a class... and nothing much happens. And yet, I couldn't put this quiet, consuming novel down. Cusk just lets her characters talk, and her narrator listen, and the whole thing comes together in an impressionistic chaos of images and muted longing.
Recommended by Eva F.
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Sarah Gailey
[isbn]
Magic for Liars is a magical noir set in a faux-Hogwarts, and dives deep into the millennial psyche. I found myself relating more to the main character (a struggling, non-magical private investigator) in ways I didn't expect, and which I've been dwelling on ever since I put the book down. I will read everything Sarah Gailey writes in perpetuity.
Recommended by Joanna S.
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Elizabeth Neal
[isbn]
We should all be so lucky to live inside Elizabeth Neal's head. There is so much going on in there, and lucky for us, she has the writing chops to lay a beautiful, bizarre sliver of it out in this tiny chapbook. With a wry, acerbic voice, a passion for satire, and the oddest of story lines, these short stories will dazzle you with their dark depths ingeniously cloaked in sparkles. More please, Miss Neal.
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Andre Aciman
[isbn]
The sequel to Call Me by Your Name is probably one of the most anticipated books in the literary world, and yes, it was worth the wait. The continuation of the story of Elio and Oliver examines the lives they've lived separately for the past 20 years, and it's genius how well Aciman recaptures the essence of these two. Untangling themes of loneliness, love, commitment, and the intangible idea of soul mates, Aciman writes a story that... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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N K Jemisin
[isbn]
I had to put off this final story in the Broken Earth trilogy simply because I devoured the previous two with breakneck speed. As the story concludes, N. K. Jemisin's talent does not. Readers have reached the end of Nassun's journey, but I daresay that it won't be the last time you enter the Stillness.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Amanda Yates Garcia
[isbn]
Amanda Yates Garcia’s memoir of fostering power in a hostile world is an intimate look at having to forge one’s own journey, even down a path blazed by countless marginalized ancestors. Initiated sits at the crossroads of personal memoir and Wiccan empowerment guide, elucidating both her personal traumas and how her understanding of the hidden forces of the universe gave her the perspective and strength needed to heal.
Recommended by Keith M.
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Jeanette Winterson
[isbn]
Veering between satire, romantic reverence, and meditation on the nature of intelligence, Frankissstein explores how the ongoing quest for the future often comes at the expense of the present.
Recommended by Keith M.
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David Goodner, Louis Thomas
[isbn]
Ginny Goblin isn't supposed to open the box until after finishing her dinner. Ginny Goblin certainly wouldn't try to open the box before dinner, right? She certainly doesn't have a ninja outfit and a grappling hook to use, right? Ginny is adorable, and her increasingly elaborate attempts to open the box will have you in stitches. Her expressive face and determination will remind you of all those times that you too found it hard to wait for... (read more)
Recommended by Christine R.
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Sara Beth Greene and Jimmy Thompson
[isbn]
One Max train, four dragon boats, ten Portland bridges… even the Chapman swifts make an appearance. With fun cartoons in bright primary colors, Portland 1 to 10 is an adorably small board book packed with delights. A great way for Portland kids to get to know their city.
Recommended by Matt K.
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Beverly Cleary
[isbn]
I have always been the Beezus to my sister Faith’s Ramona. I have so many fond early memories of our parents reading this series aloud to us (and later to my youngest sister, whose arrival paralleled Roberta’s and cemented in our minds that this series was somehow Meant For Us) that for a long time, “reading” and “Beverly Cleary” were practically synonymous in my mind. On our first childhood trip to Portland, the two most important stops on our... (read more)
Recommended by Madeline S.
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Mitchell Jackson
[isbn]
Survival Math is a brilliant memoir told in a unique and powerful voice. Jackson explores his family history, the history of Portland, and the larger issues that surrounded his childhood. “Survival math” refers to the hard economic choices he and his family made in one the whitest cities in America. Jackson’s eloquent and mesmerizing prose makes this a standout read.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Sarah Henning
[isbn]
Runa and Alia, the Sea King’s twin daughters, are as close as two sisters can be. When Alia makes a desperate trade of her voice for a chance at true love, Runa must place an even greater sacrifice on the line to the Sea Witch, who has the power to help or destroy the girls. But Evie has plans of her own, and just as much at stake as the sisters… if not more.
Recommended by Aubrey W.
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Olga Tokarczuk and Antonia Lloyd Jones
[isbn]
Crackling with energy and wholly original, Olga Tokarczuk dazzles with this literary thriller that is both ecofeminist manifesto and page-turning whodunit. Tokarczuk transports the reader to a snowy, isolated plateau in Poland where villagers are mysteriously turning up dead. This book is fierce and essential, fundamentally challenging how we perceive the world.
Recommended by Mary S.
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Vicki Conrad and David Hohn
[isbn]
How did a young girl who had trouble reading grow up to be the beloved writer Beverly Cleary? With beautifully rendered illustrations that pay homage to Cleary’s books, Just Like Beverly paints a detailed picture of the spirit, ambition, and downright genuineness of one of our best-known children’s writers.
Recommended by Gigi L.
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Clarice Lispector, Benjamin Moser, Johnny Lorenz
[isbn]
A dazzling novel of surfaces — every sentence enchants. Lispector's protagonist, Lucrecia Neves, becomes a kind of vehicle for exploring the function of looking — the way that looking is not a passive act but a participatory one, an act in which we not only observe the world we live in, but create it. The Besieged City is one of Lispector's more experimental novels, and as far as I'm concerned, one of her best.
Recommended by Darla M.
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Joe Sacco
[isbn]
I’ve been an admirer of local war reporter/comics journalist Joe Sacco since reading Safe Area Goražde, his incredible long-form comic about the Bosnian War. Journalism gathers many of his shorter cartoon pieces from war zones ranging from the Russian military occupation of Chechnya to the Iraq War to the Gaza Strip. Though the locations change, Sacco’s commitment to capturing the daily realities of both military and civilian... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Rebecca Kim Wells
[isbn]
Wells's debut is a unique and exciting take on the traditional YA fantasy. In particular, her attention to diversity breathes new life into the story and leaves you anxiously awaiting the sequel!
Recommended by Lucinda G.
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Margaret Malone
[isbn]
Margaret Malone's debut book of short stories will grab you and amuse you and maybe horrify you with its wry and dark look at the small imperfections that make us human. A lovely, clear, engaging voice.
Recommended by Doug C.
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Raymond Carver
[isbn]
In Cathedral, Carver’s third short story collection, he adds more detail and color to his bleak landscapes, and the unrelenting misery of his characters abates a bit. There’s a breath of possibility in every story, a beam of light that illuminates and pierces the heart of the reader, and it’s those moments of illumination that grab me every time I read through Cathedral.
Recommended by Mary Jo S.
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Timothy Egan
[isbn]
Regional author Egan’s classic travelogue of the Pacific Northwest has only grown more prescient (and pressing) since its 1990 release. In The Good Rain, Egan follows the path of Theodore Winthrop, who in 1853 journeyed across Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Winthrop was overcome by the wild majesty of the Pacific Northwest; Egan is equally in awe, but also angry about the clear-cutting of old-growth forests, threats to local... (read more)
Recommended by Matt K.
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Eli Clare
[isbn]
I first encountered Eli Clare’s slim memoir in a graduate course on Disability Theory, but to be honest what really struck me at the time — and has stayed with me in the years since — is Clare’s way of integrating the seasonal shifts and geography of Oregon into his powerful story of navigating life as a trans man with cerebral palsy. Exile and Pride does an astonishing job of conveying the parallel experiences of personal and... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Ruth Ozeki
[isbn]
A Tale for the Time Being is a hard book to describe. First of all, it’s two stories in one — the story of Ruth Ozeki (the character, who may or may not also be Ruth Ozeki, the author), a writer living on a Pacific Northwest island where a diary from Japan washes up on the beach, and Nao, the teenaged Japanese journal writer whose story Ruth gets caught up in. But it’s so much more than that — it’s also the story of Nao’s family, Ruth’s... (read more)
Recommended by Leah C.
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Katherine Dunn
[isbn]
As a teenager who often felt alone in my weirdness, reading Geek Love changed EVERYTHING for me. Discovering this story of a circus family that purposefully experiments with drugs and chemicals to create children (and therefore performers) with physical deformities rocked my world! The idea that weird could be considered good, that uniqueness was a gift, and that differences should be celebrated? Well, that was mind-blowing. Fast forward... (read more)
Recommended by Leah C.
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Charles D'Ambrosio
[isbn]
Charles D'Ambrosio's essays are excitingly good. They are relevant in the way that makes you read them out loud, to anyone who happens to be around. Their subjects include Hell House, a Christian haunted house in Texas designed for conversion; Mary Kay Letourneau (at the time of her trial); whaling rights for the Makah Tribe in Alaska; his brother's suicide; and the title piece, about life in a Russian orphanage. D'Ambrosio's essays do what good... (read more)
Recommended by Jill O.
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Peter Stark
[isbn]
Astoria is Peter Stark’s epic telling of the establishment of what was intended to be the base of John Jacob Astor’s Pacific fur trading empire. The harrowing journeys that led the settlers — by sail, canoe, or overland — to the mouth of the Columbia River are almost beyond belief. The obstacles they faced included not just the many natural barriers of an unmapped continent — sand bars, river canyons, and mountains — but also the... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Don Berry
[isbn]
Set along the northern Oregon coast range in the late 1840s, Don Berry’s 1960 landmark novel, Trask, was inspired by the life of settler, mountain man, and fur trapper Elbridge Trask (for whom both a river and a mountain are named here in the Beaver State). Compelling and adventurous, the story follows the titular character as he tries to become the first white man to settle in Tillamook Bay. Along the arduous journey, he and his guide... (read more)
Recommended by Jeremy G.
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Robert Hill
[isbn]
It’s tea time for two of the three remaining residents of New Eden. He’s 99, she’s about to turn 100. Heading their way, hoping to break up this tea, is the third human still standing in this strange, isolated town, himself a spry 89 years old and carrying with him the deep secret he’s been holding all his adult life. Robert Hill’s marvelously bizarre tale is full of rollicking weirdness, quirky characters with names like Brisket Whiskerhooven... (read more)
Recommended by Gigi L.
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Tom Spanbauer
[isbn]
“If you’re the devil, then it’s not me telling this story.” How can a book that opens like that not be the perfect combination of intimate and epic? Tom Spanbauer’s iconic tale of the (very quirky, very particular) Old West follows the lives of Idaho madam Ida Richlieu, widowed prostitute Alma Hatch, Montana cowboy Dellwood Barker, and narrator “Shed,” a half-Shoshone bisexual young man seeking love in a hostile world. Written with his brilliant... (read more)
Recommended by Gigi L.
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Jeannie Vanasco
[isbn]
Jeannie Vanasco's Things We Didn't Talk About When I Was a Girl is one of the bravest, most honest, and most unusual memoirs I've read. Vanasco's decision to confront her college rapist, who was at the time a close friend, is extraordinary enough, but her narrative voice — her lyricism throughout her interrogation of her motivations and thought processes, as well as "Mark's" and their shared history — makes this a riveting reading... (read more)
Recommended by Jill O.
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Molly Gloss
[isbn]
Set in the brutal Oregon high country in the 1890s, The Jump-Off Creek tells the story of the widow Lydia Sanderson and her struggles to settle in an unforgiving land. Gloss did her research, drawing on pioneer journals and hand-me-down stories, and she writes with a quiet restraint that respects the characters and their vast surroundings. Anyone interested in what life was actually like for Oregon's pioneers — the elaborate... (read more)
Recommended by Renee P.
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Barry Lopez
[isbn]
As someone who has broadened the notion of what it means to be both a world traveler and a profoundly curious writer, it’s no wonder that National Book Award–winning author Barry Lopez, now 74 years old and battling terminal cancer, has given us a work so expansive it can only be named Horizon. Lopez has visited more than 70 countries, and though his book is loosely divided into just six regions — from the Oregon Coast to the... (read more)
Recommended by Renee P.
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Jay Ponteri
[isbn]
This deeply introspective and meditative memoir is near and dear to my heart: I reread it often, and recommend it to those who aren't afraid to ask difficult questions and sit with the uneasiness of where those questions might lead — deeper into the unknown, unknowing self, perhaps. Wedlocked deals heavily with questions of shame and its consequences: the struggle to be both seen and to remain secretive inside a marriage, the appeal of... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Danielle Sered
[isbn]
Until We Reckon is a powerful examination of the brutality of the U.S. prison system. Sered illustrates through research, rational thought, and her experiences with Common Justice — a racial equity program that offers alternatives to incarceration — the ongoing cost of separating people from their communities, and how our current system punishes and degrades those who have caused harm without actually holding them accountable, making our... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Clint McElroy, Griffin McElroy, Justin McElroy
[isbn]
The second volume of this graphic novel adaptation of the McElroys' much-beloved D&D podcast grants +2 to all stats and delivers the goods. Longtime listeners and first-time readers alike are sure to be delighted by Carey Pietsch’s joyous rendering of this classic train mystery — featuring, as all good train mysteries do, a secret moon base (with no dogs allowed), a mystical being known as Garfield the Deals Warlock, questionable physics, and... (read more)
Recommended by Madeline S.
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Margaret Owen
[isbn]
No one in Sabor trusts the Crows. They have no magical birthright; they’re nomads and plague tenders (being the only caste with immunity doesn’t earn them any goodwill); and their witches have an uncomfortable gift: they can channel other castes’ birthrights through bone. When Fie, a Crow chieftain-in-training, finds herself in the midst of a royal conspiracy, she just might be able to leverage her help to make a better life for her people — if... (read more)
Recommended by Madeline S.
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Lauren Ace, Jenny Lovlie
[isbn]
Four best friends, one apple tree, and many years. This beautiful ode to the power of female friendship brings tears to my eyes, and I want to get it for all my friends. The girls in this book are different from each other, but through good times and bad, they support each other unconditionally. Seeing my own experience of friendship reflected in a picture book makes me so happy, and I hope many girls are handed this positive vision of female... (read more)
Recommended by Christine R.
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Angela Garbes
[isbn]
Angela Garbes asks the reader, what if we actually listened to mothers? What if we actually devoted research dollars and prioritized their care? This book was a bold and easy-to-read analysis of experiences facing those who are pregnant, were pregnant, or want to be. The book is a wonderful expansion of the author's massively popular online article on breastfeeding in The Stranger.
Recommended by Ruth J.
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Rene Denfeld
[isbn]
Like the iridescence of butterfly wings, dazzling and magical, Butterfly Girl is perfectly stunning.
Recommended by Adrienne C.
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Ocean Vuong
[isbn]
Vuong's debut novel is easily my favorite book I've read in the past year. He writes from a place of incomprehensible loss and heartbreak, but also from deep, abounding love for the world. The prose is evocative, lyrical, and I found myself struggling not to underline every sentence as each was a perfect gem I want to revisit again and again. Vuong's novel reads like a love letter: to immigrants, to single, working mothers, to loss, to queerness,... (read more)
Recommended by Darla M.
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Jo Baker
[isbn]
Baker pens a timely story of the female experience today, and it's unpleasant — the experience, not the story. After a violent attack, our nameless narrator can only express that she needs to flee, to get away from the man, the memory. But it's not long before her new situation devolves into something far worse than the attack she fled. Baker lays bare the underlying problem of male/female relationships: women are often seen only in reference to... (read more)
Recommended by Dianah H.
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Shawn Levy
[isbn]
There's no better summer escape than a deep dive into the history of the infamous Chateau Marmont, which for 90 years has served as refuge and playground for the world's most famous (and ill-behaved) movie stars and musicians. Film critic Shawn Levy dishes on Jean Harlow, Natalie Wood, Jim Morrison, and more in this entertaining and surprisingly thoughtful peek inside Hollywood's notorious pleasure palace.
Recommended by Moses M.
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David Quammen
[isbn]
David Quammen, one of the most beautifully lyrical — though also accessible — science and nature writers of our current age, has written an extraordinary chronicle of horizontal gene transfer (genes transferring across species lines — including eight percent of human DNA). In The Tangled Tree, Quammen illuminates this fascinating discovery with colorful narrative and thorough explanations of its wide-reaching implications.
Recommended by Jill O.
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Maria Kuznetsova
[isbn]
Oksana, Behave! begins as a quirky, darkly humorous coming-of-age story. Oksana, the daughter of a Ukrainian family relocated to Gainesville, doesn't fit in, or doesn't want to, and the family's Eastern European sensibilities are withering in the Floridian sun. But as Oksana matures, so does the novel. A family tragedy changes her trajectory and we follow Oksana as she navigates adulthood, making some head-scratching choices as she tries... (read more)
Recommended by Bill L.
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Tehlor Kay Mejia
[isbn]
Kept away from the lower classes on the other side of the wall, the elite girls of Medio are trained to either bear children or run households as one of two wives granted to each powerful man. Daniela Vargas is impeccably trained to be the perfect wife, but she also holds a secret that if revealed would mean her death. If possible, my review for this book would be all flame emojis because this book is FIRE! I fell in love with the characters... (read more)
Recommended by Christine R.
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Tana French
[isbn]
French's latest is a brilliant psychological mystery. It left me feeling deeply unsettled, in the very best way. It is an intelligent, painful examination of familial bonds. It questions the price of embracing the dark night of the soul and the moral danger inherent in close examination of individual intent, in facing truths clouded by time, personality, and affection. It also has a creepy mansion, a long dead body, conflicted characters, a... (read more)
Recommended by Kathi K.
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R.O. Kwon
[isbn]
To call The Incendiaries a love story would be an oversimplification. There is love, yes, but there is also the darkness beyond that, where love crosses the line into obsession, and faith into fanaticism, and pain into annihilation. R. O. Kwon doesn't waste a single word, with prose sharp enough to draw blood and a distinctive, fully realized voice. I fully expect this to be one of the most-discussed debuts of 2018!
Recommended by Lauren P.
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Oyinkan Braithwaite
[isbn]
Blood is thicker than bleach, and you can find both in abundance in this short and addictive novel about two sisters who have to cover up some very dark secrets. The dynamic between Ayoola, a compelling and murderous golden child, and her sister Korede, the one roped into cleaning up the dirty work, is strained with tension and adoration that play a wicked game of tug-of-war so close it could seemingly tear the book right in half.
Recommended by Brianna B.
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Maaza Mengiste
[isbn]
From its first beautiful sentence — “She does not want to remember but she is here and memory is gathering bones” — Maaza Mengiste’s magisterial The Shadow King drew me into the stark, dusty sweep of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War. Drenched in the blazing light of near-equatorial Africa , a light that feels almost omniscient as it slants through the narrative, the novel focuses most closely on a female servant named Hirut who becomes a... (read more)
Recommended by Rhianna W.
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Edie Windsor, Joshua Lyon
[isbn]
Edie Windsor rose to national prominence as the named plaintiff in United States v. Windsor, the case that ended the discriminatory Defense of Marriage Act. Important as that contribution was, it tends to overshadow the incredible life she lived before and after the day that Supreme Court decision came down. Her memoir, finished posthumously with added information from interviews and historical context by coauthor Joshua Lyon, tells the full... (read more)
Recommended by Keith M.
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Joe Hill
[isbn]
It's no wonder that Joe Hill is one of my favorite authors of horror. These electrifying, horrifyingly fantastical stories are mind-blowing! Huge imagination and strange creatures
make Full Throttle so good! Perfect for around the campfire!
Recommended by Adrienne C.
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Kimberli Johnson
[isbn]
Graphic novels are already a wonderful way to get children to read and this graphic novel goes a step further by being dyslexia-friendly. Emiline, our heroine and knight in training, can do lots of hard things like confronting trolls. However, reading is something she struggles with. The letters dance on the page when she tries, but she doesn't let that stop her. She is determined to become a great knight. Everything about this book makes it... (read more)
Recommended by Rose H.
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Joyce Wan
[isbn]
Bright. Beautiful. Colorful. This board book has 15 diverse and inspirational women, all reminding us to follow our dreams. The illustrations are very sweet. My 2-year-old daughter likes to point out all the things she knows the words for. I love that at the end, there's a small blurb about each of the women featured in this book.
Recommended by Rose H.
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Sarah Gailey
[isbn]
By pieces True Grit and Ocean's Eleven, but with hippos, this novella is as stunningly brutal as it is effortlessly entertaining. Set in an alternate universe that is almost true to life, the prototypical cowboy heist story becomes a grim and swampy romp with diverse characters that you love to hate and hate to love. The only downside? River of Teeth is so short that you'll be begging for the sequel.
Recommended by Allison S.
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Nick Drnaso
[isbn]
Technically a mystery. Technically a graphic novel. But in my mind, Nick Drnaso's Sabrina occupies a category all its own, with its horrifyingly hyperrealistic story line juxtaposed with its drab and oversimplified art. Sabrina creeps up on you and will leave you with an urgent desire to get off the Internet.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Fonda Lee
[isbn]
Jade War is a deeply satisfying continuation of the story begun in Jade City. An amazing foundation of world building, realistic and very human characters, and the kind of tension found in the very best tales. I can’t wait for what comes next from Fonda Lee.
Recommended by Doug C.
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Tan France
[isbn]
Naturally Tan is a deep dive into this pop culture icon's life. Tan's unique experiences will inspire readers to accept themselves for who they are and find the courage to live their truths.
Recommended by Alex Y.
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Lisa Kleypas
[isbn]
Kleypas's Wallflowers books are the perfect Regency romance novels. A group of friends, dubbed this season's "wallflowers," are determined to find great husbands... "trap" is probably a better word. The first book in the series starts with Annabelle — she looks the part of a noble, except that she isn't one. And she's determined to find a rich aristocrat to save her family from the streets. Simon, rich but without a title, ruins everything...
Recommended by Rose H.
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