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Lola Milholland was just one of more than 100 authors who converged downtown Saturday, Nov. 2, for the Portland Book Festival, Literary Arts’ schmoozy, inspiring annual event that celebrates the written word in spectacular fashion. We perused the book fair and popped into readings to come up with this mini gift guide of promising books by Pacific Northwest authors. Buy them for loved ones or hoard them all for yourself.
For Your Tween
Tales of a Seventh-Grade Lizard Boy by Jonathan Hill (Walker Books, 288 pages, $15)
Portland graphic novelist Jonathan Hill draws from his experiences growing up in a Vietnamese American family and his love of ‘80s sci-fi shows to produce his middle-grade debut. The story follows main character Booger Lizk’t, a lizard, as he tries to survive socially in a human middle school. The sequel drops in 2025.
For Your Dad
The Horse by Willy Vlautin (HarperCollins, 208 pages, $26)
Local author and musician Willy Vlautin’s seventh book follows protagonist Al Ward, a grizzled man in his 60s who “survives on canned soup, instant coffee and memories of his ex-wife.” After a blind and helpless horse arrives on his doorstep, the novel turns into a moving meditation on addiction, regret and second chances.
For Your Mom
skin & bones by Renée Watson (Little, Brown and Company, 416 pages, $30)
Renée Watson’s debut adult novel features the complicated nature of mother-daughter relationships. Told in Watson’s signature lyrical style—some chapters are written in traditional prose while others are short and punchy like poems—she weaves in plenty of Portland references such as KBOO Radio and the Vanport flood.
For Your Edgy Niece
Thunder Song by Sasha taqwšә blu LaPointe (Counterpoint Press, 256 pages, $27)
LaPointe lives in Tacoma, but we’re squeezing her into our selection of local books on the strength of her previous memoir, Red Paint. Thunder Song is a follow-up collection of essays from her perspective as a queer, Coast Salish punk. Early on, she hears Bikini Kill on the bathroom floor of her family’s single-wide trailer on the reservation and nothing is ever the same.
For Your Artsy Friend Who’s Into True Crime
An Incomplete Catalog of Disappearance by Diana Oropeza (Future Tense, 84 pages, $12)
Diana Oropeza’s debut book of flash fiction (stories so short they could be pinned to the fridge) is a surrealist mystery that explores missing things, including the Statue of Liberty, a Raphael self-portrait, a leg, and D.B. Cooper. It begins with an urgent warning: “This message will self-destruct in three, two, one.”
For Your Hippie Aunt
The Mushroom Color Atlas by Julie Beeler (Chronicle Books, 288 pages, $35)
This is a gorgeous coffee-table book about the chromatic wonders of the fungi kingdom by artist, mycophile and educator Julie Beeler. The hefty tome covers foraging, species identification, and preparing fungi to produce dyes and pigments. Botanical illustrations by Yuli Gates.