It’s raining. It’s pouring. The old man is snoring. And you? You,
my friend, are searching for a book with which to curl up by the fire. You’re
looking for the perfect title to alleviate the drudgery of a drizzly Oregon
day, something to excite your senses and spark your synapses. And what better
way to spend a day indoors than snuggled beneath a blanket, hot cocoa in hand,
eyes glued to a page? I’ll answer that one for you: none.
Still not convinced? Then here’s some inspiration from your fellow
book lovers at OSU Press. Grab your heated blanket, prepare the hot water, and
read on to hear some of our staff’s recommended rainy day reads.
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Marty Brown,
Marketing Manager
I’m a sucker for historical novels and all
things Oregon, so how could I not love Don Berry’s 
Trask? Loosely based on the life of Elbridge Trask, an early fur
trapper and mountain man, the novel follows its eponymous character as he treks
in the early 1850’s from the Clatsop Plains, near Astoria, to the mouth of
Tillamook Bay. Trask takes the form
of a hero’s journey, but this is not your typical myth of manifest destiny. The
story is sensitive to the many complexities of native culture and has a strong
spiritual thread running through it. It’s full of adventure and the search for
meaning at the wet edge of the continent. For best effect, read it while
wrapped in a Pendleton blanket.
The Next Tsunami by Bonnie Henderson
As long as we’re on the north coast of Oregon,
I have to mention The Next Tsunami by
Bonnie 
Henderson. Like a lot of other people, I have a certain… prurient
fascination with natural disasters. I thought that Henderson might offer a
cautionary tale, a dark vision of how our coast will look after its bays and
estuaries are scoured out by the next big tsunami, with marinas reduced to
match sticks, collapsed highway bridges, underwater shopping districts, and
etc. Instead, I finished this book with an uncanny sense of calm and hope.
Henderson tells the story of how scientists came to discover the Cascadia
Subduction Zone and definitively proved the Pacific Coast’s long geological
history of earthquakes and tsunamis. Thanks to Henderson’s skillful telling, this
history of science unfolds like a mystery. Who knew that geologists could be
such fascinating characters?
What else? We have so many worthy books and
authors on our list, I could go on all day, and all then all night. Which reminds
me of Up all Night by Martha Gies, another personal favorite. This collection
of stories about swing- and graveyard-shift workers takes readers on a guided
tour of one city’s nocturnal professions. That city happens to be Portland, but
it could be anywhere. Night workers live in a country all their own, and Gies
is a friendly, companionable guide.
Tom
Booth, Associate Director
Three books that I’m likely to pull from the shelf during
the dark, wet days of an Oregon winter:
Doyle’s debut novel brings to life a wet Oregon coastal
town through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people. Rain, “in
every form from mist to sluice,” is a constant presence in the book:
"Rain
slips and slides along hawsers and chains and ropes and cables and gladdens the
cells of 
mosses and weighs down the wings of moths. It maketh the willow shiver
its fingers and thrums on doors of dens in the fens. It falls on hats and cats
and trucks and ducks and cars and bars and clover and plover. It grayeth the
sand on the beach and fills thousands of flowers to the brim. It thrills worms
and depresses damselflies. Slides down every window rilling and murmuring.
Wakes the ancient mud and mutter of the swamp, which has been cracked and hard
for months. Falls gently on leeks and creeks and bills and rills and the last
shriveled blackberries like tiny dried purple brains on the bristle of
bushes."
Martha Gies guides readers on a nocturnal tour of
Portland, offering fascinating profiles of the graveyard shift workers who keep
our city running after dark. I grew up here and have lived in Portland for most
of my life—but Gies shows a side of the city that even longtime locals haven’t
encountered. It’s one of the great unsung books about Portland.
An essential tome for understanding and
identifying terrestrial slugs and snails in the Pacific Northwest. Know thy
neighbor.
Faye
Chadwell, Director
Breaking
Chains by R. Gregory Nokes 
Greg Nokes explores an important aspect of Oregon’s
history that I don’t believe a lot of Oregonians know. That includes
Oregonians who moved here like myself 20 years ago.
Ava
Helen Pauling by Mina Carson 
Mina Carson’s biography is the first ever to reveal more
of the personal side of the Paulings’ life together. More importantly,
she rightfully establishes or acknowledges Ava Helen’s contributions to Linus
Pauling’s anti-nuclear stance for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Arguably many feel like this should have been his 2nd shared Nobel Prize.
I love reading and rolling along with Brian Doyle’s
lyrical prose. I would actually recommend reading this title and Kesey’s Sometimes a Great Notion. Together
the two provide two worthwhile perspectives on coastal communities in Oregon
albeit separated by time and imagination of their respective authors.
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Still
looking for the perfect rainy day read? Browse our online database, read some
previous blog post synopses, or request a print copy of our Spring 2015
catalog. Questions, comments, or concerns? Shoot us an email!