By Amy Wang | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Need a gift for a reader this season? Check out these 2017 titles with Oregon connections.
PICTURE BOOKS
"Grandmother Thorn" (Ripple Grove Press, 44 pages, $17.99)
Portland artist Rebecca Hahn painted, sewed and crafted the intricate and lovely artwork for this picture book from a Portland publisher. Katey Howes wrote the story of friendship and acceptance set in a rural Japanese village where the title character prides herself on orderliness and keeping the upper hand.
"City Mouse, Country Mouse" (Henry Holt and Co., 40 pages, $16.99)
This endearing retelling of the classic story about the country mouse and the city mouse comes from Portland artist-author Maggie Rudy, who handcrafts the figures and scenes for all of her photo illustrations. Rudy has been making mice for decades; this is her third book featuring them.
Husband and wife Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis team up again for a delightful caper of a book. (Jamie Francis/2011)
CHILDREN'S FICTION
"The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid" (Balzer + Bray, 432 pages, $17.99)
Charlie Fisher is a bored child of privilege living in the French port of Marseille with his diplomat father when he unexpectedly falls in with a gang of young pickpockets. Portland author Colin Meloy, who also leads the band The Decemberists, infuses this caper with enough elan for a sequel. The text is punctuated by droll black-and-white illustrations by Caldecott honoree Carson Ellis, Meloy’s wife.
CHILDREN'S FICTION/GRAPHIC NOVEL
"Swing It, Sunny" (Graphix, 224 pages, $12.99)
In 2015, the brother-sister team of Matthew Holm (he’s a Portlander) and Jennifer L. Holm began a series of children’s graphic novels about a girl named Sunny growing up in the 1970s. In this book, Sunny copes with starting middle school and missing her older brother, who’s been sent to boarding school.
(Photo of Meagan Macvie courtesy of Ooligan Press)
YOUNG ADULT FICTION
"The Ocean in My Ears" (Ooligan Press, 300 pages, $16)
Portland’s Ooligan Press presents Washington author Meagan Macvie’s debut novel, an earnest coming-of-age tale about a teenage girl in Alaska in the 1990s who yearns to go “outside” but dreads leaving behind everyone and everything she knows. Macvie deftly captures the painful but necessary lessons about family, friendship, love and being true to oneself that mark adolescence.
(Photo of Omar El Akkad courtesy of Knopf)
FICTION
"American War" (Knopf, 352 pages, $26.95)
In the latter 21st century, the United States has collapsed back into its never-quite-repaired Civil War fault lines after a bitter dispute over fossil fuels. That's the premise of Portland author Omar El Akkad's astonishing debut novel, in which a young Southerner's hardening from girl into guerrilla illustrates themes of political and social polarization, climate change, family and vengeance.
"No Place I'd Rather Be" (Kensington, 480 pages, $15)
Beaverton author Cathy Lamb blends a delightfully quirky family, historical fiction and romance in her newest novel. A chef who left her native state of Montana for a heartbreaking reason has returned, bringing along two young sisters she promised to protect from their abusive mother. Then she discovers an old family cookbook that finally reveals her grandmother’s painful past.
(Photo of Fonda Lee courtesy of author)
FANTASY 
"Jade City" (Orbit, 512 pages, $26)
Portland author Fonda Lee explodes into adult fantasy fiction with this epic. On an island that reads like Hong Kong or Singapore, two clans battle for supremacy with jade-derived powers. Lee’s characters could go toe to toe with the Corleones from “The Godfather” as they wrestle with loyalty, vengeance, leadership and love.
(Photo of Emily Lloyd-Jones by Tammie Gilchrist)
"The Hearts We Sold" (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 400 pages, $17.99)
Emily Lloyd-Jones, who grew up in Oregon, builds this young-adult novel around teens making desperate deals with demons:
“There are places, in every major city, where demons are known to frequent. … In Rome, there was a church. In Vegas, there is a casino.”
“And in Portland…?” Dee prompted.
James let out a heavy breath. “There is a farmers market.”
"Odd & True" (Amulet Books, 368 pages, $17.99)
Portland author Cat Winters specializes in blending historical fiction with the paranormal. In this young-adult novel, she weaves the legend of the Leeds Devil – better known as the Jersey Devil, said to roam the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey – into a story about two sisters in difficult circumstances who sustain themselves on their family legacy of hunting monsters.
Portland author Ursula K. Le Guin. (Motoya Nakamura/2010)
SCIENCE FICTION
"Ursula K. Le Guin: The Hainish Novels & Stories" (Library of America, 1,921 pages, $80)
This two-volume set collects Portland author Ursula Le Guin’s writings about a galactic confederation centered on the planet Hain. The set contains seven novels, including “The Left Hand of Darkness” and “The Dispossessed,” and more than a dozen short stories. It’s part of a Le Guin series from the nonprofit Library of America, which promotes the nation’s literary heritage.
Ursula Le Guin anthology showcasing early work goes far beyond science fiction
(Photo of Elly Blue courtesy of Microcosm Publishing)
"Biketopia: Feminist Bicycle Science Fiction Stories in Extreme Futures" (Microcosm Publishing, 128 pages, $9.95)
Portland bike activist Elly Blue edits this annual-ish anthology, which collects speculative tales about the roles that bikes could play in future societies. In the 2017 edition, published by a Portland press, bikes are a means for humans to stay fit while living in space, vehicles for fleeing various dystopian predicaments, even pets in a whimsical parody of animal shelters.
"The Rift Frequency" (Harper Voyager, 368 pages, $24.99)
Teenage super-soldier Ryn Whittaker, who helps guard Earth against aliens arriving through interdimensional Rifts, returns in the second volume of Portland author Amy S. Foster’s fast-paced young-adult Rift Uprising trilogy. Here, Ryn has left her Clark County home to jump repeatedly to alternate Earths to figure out who is behind the Rifts and why.
(Photo of Katherine Bolger Hyde by Wendy Russell Photogra
MYSTERY
"Bloodstains with Bronte" (Minotaur Books, 288 pages, $24.99)
Reed College alumna Katherine Bolger Hyde continues her Crime With the Classics series celebrating classic authors. This time her Reed professor-on-sabbatical hosts a murder mystery dinner in the Oregon Coast mansion she inherited, and the young man playing the victim becomes an actual corpse. References to the Bronte sisters’ “Wuthering Heights” and “Jane Eyre” abound.
(Photo of Catherine Anderson by Athena Lonsdale)
ROMANCE
"The Christmas Room" (Berkley, 432 pages, $19)
Oregon author Catherine Anderson’s latest book spreads the romance across two generations: a single dad freshly arrived in Montana and the daughter of a neighboring rancher, and their bereaved parents, each grieving the loss of a beloved spouse. As summer gives way to winter, the two families become close and each member learns something about love.
NONFICTION
"American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World" (Liveright, 352 pages, $27.95)
David Baron’s exhaustively researched, fascinating book about the 1878 total solar eclipse across the American West is ideal for anyone who sought out the path of totality in Oregon this summer. The 1878 eclipse, he argues convincingly, was a defining moment not only for individual witnesses but also for Thomas Edison, U.S. astronomers and women in science.
Norma Paulus as an Oregon state representative. (Jim Vincent/1973)
"The Only Woman in the Room: The Norma Paulus Story" (Oregon State University Press, 288 pages, $24.95)
This authorized biography of Norma Paulus is an intriguing read for those interested in Oregon history and politics from the 1960s through 1990s. Laced with period photos, the book traces her pioneering path as a Republican passionate about public schools, environmental preservation and recycling and her rise to statewide office, first as secretary of state, then as state schools superintendent.
--Betsy Hammond
Susan Sokol Blosser in 1988. (Oregonian/OregonLive file photo)
MEMOIR 
"The Vineyard Years: A Memoir With Recipes" (Westwinds Press, 286 pages, $16.99)
Susan Sokol Blosser delivers an expressive, balanced memoir about what it was like for a young woman from the Midwest to help start a state wine industry that’s grown from pointing out Oregon on a map to recording a half-billion dollars in sales in 2016. She also writes frankly about the challenges of passing Sokol Blosser to her three children.
"The Education of a Young Poet" (Counterpoint, 208 pages, $26)
David Biespiel is a past National Endowment for the Arts literary fellow and Oregon Book Award winner, poetry columnist for The Rumpus (and former poetry columnist for The Oregonian), and founder of Portland’s literary Attic Institute. His new memoir is less about his life than his literary experiences and influences – call it a memoir of the mind.
(Author photo courtesy of Scottie Jones)
"Country Grit: A Farmoir of Finding Purpose and Love" (Skyhorse Publishing, 248 pages, $24.99)
After a midlife crisis, Scottie Jones and her husband bought an Oregon farm despite lacking agricultural experience and proceeded to encounter every setback in the book. Eventually, Jones hit upon agritourism and began marketing their Alsea farm as a travel destination; she’s now executive director of Farm Stay U.S. Her memoir recounts her experiences with abundant humor.
(Photo of Lidia Yuknavitch by Andrew Kovalev)
ESSAYS
"The Misfit's Manifesto" (Simon & Schuster/TED, 120 pages, $16.99)
Portland author Lidia Yuknavitch gave a TED Talk in 2016 titled “The Beauty of Being a Misfit”; this book expands on that talk. She writes not for and about those who choose to be eccentric or alternative, but for and about those who have been broken by circumstances beyond their control. Ultimately, this is a rallying cry for resilience.
"A Glorious Freedom: Older Women Leading Extraordinary Lives" (Chronicle Books, 152 pages, $19.95)
Portland author and artist Lisa Congdon’s latest book celebrates and seeks to inspire women no longer in their salad days. It’s a blend of essays, interviews, short profiles and sketches featuring women such as Grandma Moses, Cheryl Strayed, Christy Turlington, Vera Wang and Laura Ingalls Wilder, all held up as examples of how to redefine aging.
"This is the Place: Women Writing About Home," edited by Margot Kahn and Kelly McMasters (Seal Press, 336 pages, $16.99)
Oregon writer Debra Gwartney is among the 30 women who contributed personal essays to this anthology. Her essay, “Broken Home,” is about her search for a safe home for her four daughters after her divorce, a search she thought had been successful until she discovered how shatteringly wrong she was.
Mark Rothko in 1953. (Henry Elkin (c) 2011 Kate Rothko Prizel and Christopher Rothko)
ART 
"Rothko: The Color Field Paintings" (Chronicle Books, 120 pages, $40)
One of the 20th century's most significant abstract painters, Mark Rothko, grew up in Portland. This new book opens with a foreword by his son, Christopher Rothko, and an essay by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's curator of painting and sculpture, Janet Bishop. Fifty images of Rothko paintings follow, bound sturdily for years of enjoyment.
"Colors of the West: An Artist's Guide to Nature's Palette" (Mountaineers Books, 192 pages, $24.95)
The landscapes of the American West are natural subjects for artists. Seattle artist Molly Hashimoto’s book uses a number of Oregon sites as case studies in seeing color in outdoor spaces: Crater Lake National Park, John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, and Ecola and Smith Rock state parks, to name several.
NATURE
"Wild and Scenic Rivers: An American Legacy" (Oregon State University Press, 256 pages, $45)
Oregon author and photographer Tim Palmer has assembled 160 of his images of U.S. rivers into an ideal gift for perusing during long, dark nights. The book also includes essays on efforts to keep U.S. rivers free-flowing, including work by the Oregon Rivers Council, now Pacific Rivers.
NATIVE AMERICAN LORE
"Legends of the Northern Paiute" (Oregon State University Press, 216 pages, $19.95)
Wilson Wewa, a Northern Paiute/Palouse spiritual leader, recounts 21 previously unpublished legends of the Northern Paiute, whose Great Basin homeland includes a swath of central Oregon. Everyone’s favorite trickster, Coyote, features prominently in tales such as “How the Stars Got Their Twinkle and Why Coyote Howls to the Sky” and “Why Porcupines Eat Willows and Cottonwood Saplings.”
DANCE
"Beauty is Experience: Dancing 50 and Beyond" (210 pages, $75)
Dancer and writer Emmaly Wiederholt and photographer Gregory Bartning put together and self-published this book, which features more than 20 Oregon dancers including Linda Austin, Nancy Davis and Jim Lane, Tracey Durbin, Jamey Hampton, Jayanthi Raman and Eric Skinner. Their portraits and voices celebrate dance at every age.
NEED MORE IDEAS?
Check out our recent sampling of authors appearing at Wordstock, our 2017 summer reading list and the books we featured in a roundup of Oregon literary road trips.
Also check out these titles featured in our books coverage this year:
In 'The Book of Joan,' Lidia Yuknavitch blends dystopia with a redefinition of hope
Author sets coming-of-age novel in Oregon Coast Range during timber battle
A river runs through 'At the Waterline,' a debut novel with lots of Portland spirit
Daniel H. Wilson sends his robots backwards in history
In a novel set on the Oregon coast, misery is the catch of the day
Valerie Geary's new novel blends UFOs, memory, family
Portland artist Nicole Georges looks back on her life with a 'bad dog'
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