Claire Stanfield became a lawyer to make her father proud, but after a troubling case leaves her shaken, she escapes to Alaska and immerses herself in the world of dog sledding. Dillon Cord became a police officer to serve his community, but he moves to Nome in the wake of a life-altering incident. For both, the Iditarod—the toughest sled dog race in the world—offers a chance for forgiveness, redemption, and healing.
When Roger Henneous first dons his keeper uniform and sets foot in the Oregon Zoo, he doesn’t know what to expect. Over Roger’s thirty-year career, he discovers the joys, pains, and dangers of life in a zoo, all the while maintaining an unwavering devotion to Belle, Packy, and the rest of the Asian elephants he cares for. Roger faces many risks—but his willingness to learn the elephants’ language earns him a rare level of trust among the herd, reminding us how much we can achieve when we choose to listen.
An eccentric writer and self-proclaimed “socio-anthropo-lingui-loreologist” ventures into the fictional town of Odsburg, Washington, to research the location’s unusual history and residents. Convinced the name of the town is no coincidence, Wallace Jenkins-Ross goes about uncovering its mysteries through shady (and sometimes illegal) means. He discovers one man contending with a family of mountain lions living in his basement, another who can’t stop hallucinating after getting laser eye surgery, and a corporate employee whose skin is gradually receding. Despite his immersion into local traditions of flannel and bar food, the residents prove hesitant to speak on record—particularly within earshot of OdsWellMore Pharmaceutical, whose ominous presence extends not only to call centers and pet parades but to maintaining (and testing) the physical and mental well-being of the community.
Dangerous secrets, past tragedies, and a violent obsession emerge when Emerson and her estranged family agree to care for a ten-year-old Native-Alaskan girl and a complete stranger, Addie, in the wake of Addie’s single mother attempting suicide. Emerson has buried her emotions since her husband’s suicide a decade past. Meanwhile, her younger sister, Tillie, pursues a new romance with a woman and avoids her questions about the accident which left her in a wheelchair.
Portland, Oregon, didn’t always have a wildly successful craft brew scene. Someone had to be daring enough to innovate, and the Widmer brothers were just the men for the job.
Written by Portland beer guru Jeff Alworth (The Beer Bible, Beer Tasting Tool Kit), The Widmer Way chronicles Kurt and Rob Widmer’s journey from humble homebrewers to craft beer pioneers and purveyors of the iconic Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen. Alworth also dives deep into Portland’s history, setting the scene for Widmer’s rise in the city now known for its exquisite beer.
Sixteen-year-old Mattie Rollins has her life all figured out. She’ll ace her high school classes, earn a college scholarship, and create a new life for herself and her family. But Mattie’s brilliant plans begin to crumble when her family is forced to move into their beat-up station wagon, Ruby. Then, her mother mysteriously disappears.
In Three Sides Water, Peter Donahue delves deeply into the lives of three young characters who, though learning to act for themselves and make decisions with lasting consequences, persevere in an often insensible world. Donahue’s characters are ordinary people, defined by history and place, transcending the limitations imposed on them. Across the dramatic landscape of the Pacific Northwest’s Olympic Peninsula, these characters take extraordinary steps to show what it means to become the agent of one’s own destiny.
“Less known to Oregon hikers, the deep woods of the Tillamook State Forest are a mystery no longer. Close to Portland, but uncrowded and easy to access, these 50 hikes lead to explorations of meadows, creeks, swimming holes, and peaks in an iconic Oregon ecosystem, the temperate rainforest.” —Laura O. Foster, author of Columbia Gorge Getaways: 12 Weekend Adventures from Towns to Trails
Meri Miller lives in Soldotna, Alaska. Never heard of it? That’s because in Slowdotna the most riveting activities for a teenager are salmon fishing and grabbing a Big Gulp at the local 7-Eleven. More than anything, Meri wants to hop in her VW Bug and head somewhere exciting, like New York or L.A. or any city where going to the theater doesn’t only mean the movies. Everything is so scripted here–don’t have too much fun, date this guy because he’s older and popular, stay put because that’s what everyone else does.
It’s 1960. In a small logging town called Calamus that’s about as far in the middle of nowhere as you can get, Wade Curren, star of the high school baseball and football teams, is content living out his role of local hero, holding court in the corner booth of the town diner where his girlfriend Lorna waits tables.
It’s been a year since the Big One―the Cascadia subduction zone earthquake―devastated Portland. While Meryem Zarfati’s injuries have healed and her neighborhood is rebuilding, her mother is still missing. Refusing to give up hope, Meryem continues to search for her mother, even as she learns to live without her in a changed Portland. Along the way, she struggles with her Jewish-Vietnamese heritage and what it means to honor her ancestry. After she receives a magical prayer shawl handed down from her maternal grandmother, a mysterious stranger appears and Meryem is called to save a young girl living in slavery―in sixteenth-century Istanbul. The third companion in the Oregon Book Award–winning Blue Thread series explores how we recover―and rebuild―after the worst has happened.
After the devastating loss of her father on a canoe trip meant to bring them closer together, fifteen-year-old Emma Wilson finds herself alone on the river. As she treks out from their remote campsite, she faces wild rapids and a numbing sense of guilt. Back home, Emma confronts the complexity of grief and realizes that leaving the river behind was only the first step forward.
Triinu Hoffman has to face cruelties like this every day. Shy, intellectual, and living in a rural town, she just doesn’t fit in. She does her best to hide behind her dyed hair and black wardrobe, but it’s still hard to ignore the bullying of Pip Weston and Principal Pinn. It’s even harder to ignore the allure of other girls.
Hope Friis leads a normal life for any teenager living in Berkeley, California in the 1960s: she hangs out with friends, spends time with her family, and dreams of winning a singing competition and college scholarship despite her pronounced stutter. It seems like she has everything under control, until she takes part in the Free Speech movement that engulfs the city—a choice that could crush her chance of competing.
The women’s suffrage movement is in full swing in 1912 Portland, Oregon—the last holdout state on the West Coast. Miriam desperately wants to work at her father’s printing shop, but when he refuses she decides to dedicate herself to the suffrage movement, demanding rights for women and a different life for herself. Amidst the uncertainty of her future, Miriam’s attention is diverted by the mysterious Serakh, whose sudden, unexplained appearances and insistent questions lead Miriam to her great-grandmother’s Jewish prayer shawl—and to her destiny. With this shawl, Miriam is taken back in time to inspire the Daughters of Zelophehad, the first women in Biblical history to own land. Miriam brings the strength and courage of these women with her forward in time, emboldening her own struggles and illuminating what it means to be an independent woman.
