Portland Notables

Beasts of a Little Land

A Novel

By: Juhea Kim
Narrated by: Sue Jean Kim & Raymond Lee
Length: 13 hours 29 minutes

“A saga spanning over fifty years, Beasts of a Little Land will whisk you away to the streets of Seoul, the forests of Manchuria, and a wealthy courtesan school in Pyongyang. Following two friends of drastically different backgrounds throughout the Korean independence movement, this epic story will have you rooting for love and redemption. A... Read more

The Boy with a Bird in His Chest

A Novel

By: Emme Lund
Narrated by: Nicky Endres
Length: 11 hours 10 minutes

Longlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize

A “poignantly rendered and illuminating” (The Washington Post) coming-of-age story about “the ways in which family, grief, love, queerness, and vulnerability all intersect” (Kristen Arnett, New York Times bestselling author). Perfect for fans of The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The... Read more

Landfall

A Novel

By: Ellen Urbani
Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
Length: 12 hours 24 minutes

Two mothers and their teenage daughters, whose lives collide in a fatal car crash, take turns narrating Ellen Urbani’s breathtaking novel Landfall, set in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Eighteen-year-olds Rose and Rosebud have never met, but they share a birth year, a name, and a bloody pair of sneakers. Rose’s quest to atone for the accident... Read more

Yeah, No. Not Happening.

How I Found Happiness Swearing Off Self-Improvement and Saying F*ck It All--and How You Can Too

By: Karen Karbo
Narrated by: Karen Karbo
Length: 6 hours 28 minutes

The author of the acclaimed, bestselling In Praise of Difficult Women delivers a hilarious feminist manifesto that encourages us to reject ""self-improvement"" and instead learn to appreciate and flaunt our complex, and flawed, human selves.Why are we so obsessed with being our so-called best selves? Because our modern culture force feeds women... Read more

Fight Club

By: Chuck Palahniuk
Narrated by: Jim Colby
Length: 5 hours 34 minutes

“Want to have your brain scrambled in a good way? Read Fight Club. The main character is odd at best, obsessed with death and masquerading as a cancer patient in support groups. He meets Tyler Durden, and together they start a fight club as a way of therapy, forgetting the nonsense that is the world they live in. A critique of toxic masculinity,... Read more

The Child Finder

A Novel

By: Rene Denfeld
Narrated by: Alyssa Bresnahan
Length: 8 hours 40 minutes

“In Rene Denfeld's new novel, a woman who searches for abducted or lost children must confront her own memoires of being abducted as a young girl. While searching for a girl recently kidnapped in her hometown, she is haunted by her past and the lies that she used to weave her present, lies that often took the form of stories. Meanwhile, the... Read more

Red Clocks

A Novel

By: Leni Zumas
Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
Length: 9 hours 5 minutes

“I never understood what it meant for someone's writing to be 'lyrical' until I picked up Red Clocks. With beautiful prose, Leni Zumas tells the story of a young girl seeking an abortion in a world where abortion is illegal and dangerous; a woman on the quest to have children when in-vitro fertilization is illegal and folks aren't allowed to... Read more

Geek Love

By: Katherine Dunn
Narrated by: Christina Moore
Length: 15 hours 28 minutes

Nominated for the National Book Award, Geek Love is mesmerizing, daring, and unconventional. Award-winning novelist Katherine Dunn fascinates and amazes much the same way tornados, earthquakes, and volcanos do. No one wants to be a victim, but most find the event too hypnotic to ignore. In order to save their traveling carnival from bankruptcy,... Read more

A Wizard of Earthsea

Earthsea Cycle: Book #1

By: Ursula K. Le Guin
Narrated by: Rob Inglis
Length: 7 hours 17 minutes

Winner of the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award
Winner of the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
One of TIME's 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time

Ged was the greatest sorcerer in Earthsea, but in his youth he was the reckless Sparrowhawk. In his hunger for power and knowledge, he tampered with long held secrets and loosed a terrible shadow upon the world. This... Read more

The Left Hand of Darkness

By: Ursula K. Le Guin
Narrated by: George Guidall
Length: 9 hours 39 minutes

“Le Guin has no interest in spoonfeeding her reader exposition, nor allowing them to wade in slowly to the alien world of her characters. Like Genly Ai, one must simply accept their place in the narrative and dwell within it, and try to understand and love what this new, complex, foreign, fascinating planet offers its envoys. This novel is like... Read more

Mink River

By: Brian Doyle
Narrated by: David Drummond
Length: 12 hours 30 minutes

“Mink River tells the lives, dreams, and pains of the beings—human and animal—in a coastal Oregon town. It breaks your heart and lovingly stitches it back together. It uses the line between reality and magic for hopscotch, and plays fast and loose with the art of language until you're giddy. I have read this book three times in the last year... Read more

The Alehouse at the End of the World

By: Stevan Allred
Narrated by: Stevan Allred
Length: 15 hours 21 minutes

“This is a tough one to describe, because as soon as I start I’m afraid I’ll scare some of you off. Avian demigods? Fertility goddesses? An epic journey to the Isle of the Dead to recover a lost love? Sure, fantasy fans will hear me out, but the rest of you should, too. Drawing on European, Asian, and North American folk traditions, Stevan Allred... Read more

The Misfit's Manifesto

TED Books: Book #18

By: Lidia Yuknavitch
Narrated by: Lidia Yuknavitch, Melanie Alldritt, Jason Arias, Sean Davis, Zach Ellis, Melissa Febos, Jordan Foster, Domi Shoemaker & Mary Thompson
Length: 3 hours 58 minutes

A self-defined misfit makes a powerful case for not fitting in—for recognizing the beauty, and difficulty, in forging an original path.

A misfit is a person who missed fitting in, a person who fits in badly, or this: a person who is poorly adapted to new situations and environments. It’s a shameful word, a word no one typically tries to own.... Read more

Wildwood

Wildwood Chronicles: Book #3

By: Colin Meloy
Narrated by: Amanda Plummer
Length: 15 hours 52 minutes

For fans of the Chronicles of Narnia comes the first book in the Wildwood Chronicles, the New York Times bestselling fantasy adventure series by Colin Meloy, lead singer of the Decemberists.Wildwood captivates readers with the wonder and thrill of a secret world within the landscape of a modern city. It feels at once firmly steeped in the... Read more

Sweetheart

A Thriller

Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell: Book #2

By: Chelsea Cain
Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick
Length: 11 hours 39 minutes

Gretchen Lowell, the world's most beautiful serial killer, has escaped from prison in Chelsea Cain's next unpredictable, edge-of-your-seat thriller, Sweetheart.

With Heartsick, Chelsea Cain took the crime world by storm, introducing two of the most compelling characters in decades: serial killer Gretchen Lowell and her obsessed pursuer Portland... Read more

Mother Winter

A Memoir

By: Sophia Shalmiyev
Narrated by: Sophia Shalmiyev
Length: 5 hours 38 minutes

"Lyrical and emotionally gutting." —O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
“Intellectually satisfying [and] artistically profound.” —KIRKUS REVIEWS (STARRED REVIEW)
“Mesmeric.”—THE PARIS REVIEW
“Vividly awesome and truly great." —EILEEN MYLES
“Gorgeous, gutting, unforgettable." —LENI ZUMAS
“Brilliant.” —MICHELLE TEA

An arresting memoir equal parts... Read more

Birds of Paradise

By: Diana Abu-Jaber
Narrated by: Tamara Marston
Length: 14 hours 38 minutes

Avis Muir is a brilliant pastry chef, Brian Muir a corporate real estate attorney. Their son, Stanley, is the proprietor of a trendy food market. Their beautiful daughter, Felice, is missing. A runaway at 13, Felice has spent five years modeling tattoos, skateboarding, clubbing, and sleeping in a squat house or on the beach. She’s about to turn... Read more

Every Anxious Wave

By: Mo Daviau
Narrated by: Zach Villa
Length: 8 hours 8 minutes

Why would we need music if our lives were exactly as we wanted them to be?Karl Bender is a quiet guy who lives in three places: his bar, his apartment, and the cheap Mediterranean place on the corner that keeps him well-fed with his daily portion of hummus and chicken shwarma. But that’s all about to change. When he stumbles upon a... Read more

Martin Marten

A Novel

By: Brian Doyle
Narrated by: Travis Baldree
Length: 10 hours 11 minutes

“I will wholeheartedly recommend any and all of Brian Doyle's novels, but Martin Marten is the most finely crafted of his odes to the people and land of Oregon. This charming tale winds through the human and animal lives on the sides of Mt. Hood, exploring the pain and beauty they all share. The waters of Doyle's stories run deep and rich, and... Read more

Strange the Dreamer

Strange the Dreamer: Book #1

By: Laini Taylor
Narrated by: Steve West
Length: 18 hours 19 minutes

“Get ready to be swept up in this hauntingly beautiful story of an orphan boy who dreams of places no on remembers and a powerful girl fighting to do what is right. Laini Taylor creates a fantasy world that is sure to stay in your dreams. Great for readers who enjoyed Six of Crows, An Ember in the Ashes, or Taylor's other books. Read more