Oregon Books

Alex Kuo's new novella, "White Jade," is a compelling narrative exloration. The story's narrator is actually a long deceased mother. Her voice remains to tell her story, which is meant by the author to tell the story of her son's life in and out of war-torn, early-20th-century China. The narrative is powerful in its evocation of the experience of cultural and national dislocations connected to both China and the U.S. The characters' lives are dramatically disrupted and, in some cases, educationally and vocationally expanded by their travels both away from and toward their native China.

I was moved by the power of the mother's voice and the emotional shadow that our beloved cast upon us as we live on, their voices becoming louder and more insistent as we age. And my imagination was also compelled by the readerly experience of watching successful people cope with the forced emigration and dislocation brought on by war, an experience that many American-born people have not often undergone. While countless Americans have suffered from war, we have not been invaded and reorganized by foreign peoples, and yet, we are peopled by families who have suffered from these numerous troubles abroad.

Kuo's writing is impressively controlled and evocative of China and of a Chinese family whose emotions are likewise carefully modulated. I would agree with Kuo himself, who has said that "White Jade" might be the best thing he's ever done.

Alex Kuo's "White Jade" is a unique and wonderful reading experience. The stories are like good jazz--you swing with them, but never know quite where they are going until you get there. In fact, they are amazing. This collection belongs in the Pantheon with Lu Xun and Borges.

White Poplar, Black Locust is about the joys and sorrows of growing up in a small town in the `50s, but it's no Leave It to Beaver or Happy Days. Louise grew up in an isolated company logging town on the California-Oregon border, in many ways a paradise for kids. But it wasn't all white poplar, her childhood had its thorny locust side as well. One marvels at the resiliency of the human spirit in memoirs like Jeanette Wall's Glass Castle and Frank McCourt's Angela's Ashes. This spirit is very much in evidence in White Poplar, Black Locust, as is the same tone of detached and loving acceptance of circumstances and parents who are not as good as they could be. Wonderfully written, I loved this book from the first sentence to the last, and many times in the midst, I stopped just to marvel at a particularly apt phrase or to take in the deep honesty of the author.

I thought this was a phoenominal book. Louise weaves this memior of her childhood in a company logging town integrating social insight with the logging haydays of the 1950's and 1960's. Well researched and poignant. My copy was devoured by fellow employees while I was on vacation...

I found this book in my youth ministers office after he moved out. Evidently, it was a gift and obviously it was never read. Ready to give it the heave-ho into the trashcan, I paused and looked at it again. Am I glad it did- it is a delightful book.

It is a collection of short stories about the history of the Pacific Northwest up to the early twentieth century. A third generation Oregonian, thought I knew Northwest history, but this book filled me in a side of history never taught in school. For instance, Holbrooks tells us of outlaw Jim Turnow who he describes as the most crafty and dangerous man ever to roam the timbered reaches of the Pacific Northwest- a cold blooded killer who had a reign of terror in Grays Harbor. Compare this killer to the story of Miss Fern Hobbs, a twenty-five year old, 104-pound secretary to Governor West, who single handily disarmed and brought peace to lawless mining town of Copperfield Oregon. By far, my favorite story is about The Death and Times of Joshua the Prophet. A charismatic leader who lead astray the women of Corvallis Oregon, the ending of this story is both surprising and tragic.

Holbrook takes us to another time and to another culture. His prose is beautiful; it is a work of art. So put on your cartharts and cork boots and flannel shirt and tin hat, this is a great read. Even if you are not from the Pacific Northwest, you will be captivated by these stories. Buy this book and place it in your guest room. Your guests will thank you for a great read.

This is an anthology of some of Holbrook's mid-1900's articles about the development of the NW around the turn of the last century. Holbrook's prose is easy-reading but carries well-researched along with humor and style. Each chapter is a treat!

If you haven't read Holbrook before, who should I compare him to?..... Well, if Ken Burns was primarily a writer, I think that he might produce similar stuff.

There is a bonus in the introduction. The editor's lengthy piece fills us in on who Stewart H Holbrook was and is fascinating reading in itself.

This writer's work deserves further resurrection.

A great opportunity to experience a Rancher's love of the land and devotion to animals. The author engadges the reader in his challenges and sacrifices in order to survive in a world most of the population can not imagine. The book moves along quickly and leaves you wanting more.

This book was so good that I had to limit myself to a few pages a day in order to make it last as long as possible. Dayton Hyde has such an appreciation of nature, wildlife, and the delicate relationship between man and his surroundings. It was just an incredible book.

Excellent guide to keep with you while roaming the city. Filled with
lots of tips. Great buy. Jim

On my last trip to Portland I came across a huge stack of copies of this book at Powell's Books near the front of the store. It only took a brief browsing to tell that this was a keeper and I spent the entire trip back to Seattle on the Amtrak reading it. This is the fourth edition of this guide and is primarily useful for lots and lots of cheap (or relatively cheap) restaurants, coffeehouses, bookstores, bars, clubs, record stores, etc. It is broken down by the various parts of town and has additional chapters on Bridges, The Multnomah County Library System, Bicycling in Portland, City Repair, Museums, Hiking in and around Portland and Skateboarding. It is basically intended for locals as it's full of the kinds of places that one would frequent if one lives in Portland as opposed to the four star hotel rankings and expensive retail stores that often make up the listings in a more typical travel guide. The design and layout of the book is especially appealing...small, easy to carry in a pocket, with lots of illustrations by Portland zine/comic artists and easy to read type.

This book features an excellent range of hikes: from challenging longer hikes to short hikes suitable for families with kids, well known hikes and little known gems. The author has done a great job selecting hikes that explore the mountains and high desert of Easter Oregon, and his written descriptions are precise and descriptive. Sullivan's maps and photos add a lot to the book. A great book for hikers in Central or Eastern Oregon -- or those of you visiting.

The is the best guide ever! I thought planning my wedding was going to be a difficult experience, but when a friend reccommended this book, I had no idea how easy planning my wedding would become. This book not only lists ceremony sites, reception sites, photographers, florists, etc, it also gives very detailed information such as price, deposits and capacity. I also discoverd this book is online at bravowedding.com. I fully reccommend this book to anyone planning a wedding in Oregon or SW Washington

Paul is a knowledgeable hiker, passionate outdoorsman and entertaining writer. His attention to detail, whether giving driving directions or adding tidbits of historical interest to a certain location, make this a useful book both on and off the trail. In this, the third edition, Paul has fine tuned the content of the previous two editions, adding new hikes hitherto un-popularized in other hiking books, making this the most complete and best edition yet. This is not a book based on hearsay and bookish research; Paul has actually hiked, many times, all the locations profiled. Paul's treatment of the material is so thorough that I was able to use some of his research in the writing of my own book about fishing Oregon. Paul's new book on the day hikes on the Pacific Crest Trail is a great companion book. Thanks for the great work, Paul.

This is an excellent and much needed book on the history of railroad building in the Interior Northwest. Some of the chapters include the various Palouse lines, Stampede Tunnel, Coeur d'Alene area, NP's Central Washington Branch, and more. Well written and researched. A few photos, mostly text. Lengthy appendix. Highly recommended. I hope somebody writes another book on this area continuing on from 1893.

As someone who was closely connected to the events detailed in Adoption Politics: Bastard Nation & Ballot Initiative 58, I was very happy to see that Professor Carp has changed his position on open records for adult adoptees since his Family Matters, in which he advocated mutual consent registries as the most equitable solution to the contentious issue of adoptee access to adoption and birth records. Here he clearly comes out for open records for those to whom they pertain, the adult adoptee.

In his introduction to Adoption Politics, Carp says: "In blending adopted adults' access to their original birth certificates with a protection for the birth mothers' right to privacy through a contact preference form (without legal penalties for violation), Measure 58 should be viewed as a model piece of legislation for other states to emulate." (p. 3-4)

And in the conclusion: "It [a coalition of adoption activists, adoption agencies and social workers] would not only confirm that a new age is dawning, but also that this new age makes it imperative to give adult adoptees access to their original birth certificates. It would be a clarion call that in the world of adoption it is time to look with fresh eyes at an old institution." (p. 169)

I do have to disagree with several points, though, such as the following in the conclusion: "But to achieve this goal nationwide, Bastard Nation and its supporters must free themselves of ideological blinders and recognize that adoption agencies do not constitute a single, monolithic 'adoption industry.' They must recognize that, either out of altruism or self-interest, the majority of adoption agencies support openness in adoption, including open records. ... The NCFA [National Council for Adoption]...will become increasingly isolated." (p.168)

I think BN does recognize that. The "adoption industry" usage was appropriate political rhetoric for our ballot initiative campaign in Oregon. On the other hand, in California, for example, many adoption agencies joined the CA Open Coalition in its legislative push for open records for adult adoptees, at BN's urging. One has to recognize that the neutrality of Oregon's Right to Life and Catholic Charities was extremely fortunate and unusual, and not something BN can count on elsewhere. In many states Catholic Charities is one of our biggest foes.

I was dismayed by the imputation of anti-birth mother sentiment to BN as a whole on p. 109 ("BN's dislike of birth mothers"), explained by the fact that "some adopted adults harbored resentment toward their birth mothers, whom they viewed as having callously abandoned them." I can't argue that some adoptees didn't/don't feel that way, but it was unjust to tar the organization as a whole with that sentiment. Nothing in Bastard Nation's policy, strategy or tactics reflects such a bias.

In regard to his discussion of the controversial use of the term "birth whore": the book states that "e-mail messages from Bastard Nation members ... that frequently referred to birth mothers as 'birth whores'" were found on the unmoderated Usenet newsgroup, alt.adoption, by members of the Boys and Girls Aid Society of Oregon, which opposed Measure 58. (p. 86) Carp does say in a footnote that this term wasn't used on BEST (BN's internal e-mail listserv) or in BN publications or in public during the campaign (can you imagine?!), and that the organization wasn't a home for "virulent anti-birth mother beliefs," having several respected birth mothers as members, but he doesn't put those many messages on alt.adoption into any kind of context. (p. 194-195) Only one person used that term seriously, and she wasn't a Bastard Nation member for long. The vast majority of posts were from BN members and others who objected to her use of that term, and several were posts in which BN birth mothers themselves used the term as a joke, as in someone's calling herself the leader of Birth Whore Nation. It is really too bad that this kind of misinterpretation has found its way into this book since one of the points we've always tried to make is that the struggle for open records isn't one of adoptees vs. birth mothers, but of all of us (enlightened adoptive parents as well) against the dinosaur faction of the industry as represented most strongly by the NCFA.

On the whole, though, very well done! The roller coaster excitement of those days was vividly brought back to me, the feeling of making history in adoption reform. The case on both sides is fairly presented, and the legal explanations are exceptionally lucid. (...)