Crystal Wilkinson
[isbn]
There isn't a word good enough to describe how special this book is. Never has there been a more important tome on Black Appalachia. And the recipes are each their own marvel, even the simplest ones. Truly remarkable.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Madeline Pendleton
[isbn]
I will trust no other authority on personal finance over Madeline Pendleton from this point forward. I can't believe I found hope in a business book in the year 2023. Madeline has ventured inside the belly of the beast and returned with real advice on how to navigate finance and prepare yourself for a future in a world that has made it nearly impossible to have one.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Ari Stocrate
[isbn]
How insane is it that the world's woes have driven me to seek shelter in a graphic novel about a stretchy dragon who lives in a swamp with a witch, hordes enchanted pacifiers and iPod nanos, and loves canned legumes? This was not on my 2023 bingo card. Anyway, her name is Bean. She is me and I am her.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Alexandra Tanner
[isbn]
So deliciously and expertly existential. To the point where I've begun noting every minutia of my day like they're somehow new and strange and connected and everything is an opportunity and nothing matters anymore and I want to hate that but it's kind of freeing and why am I desperately wanting to pick fights with anti-vax moms on Instagram?
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Andrew Joseph White
[isbn]
Andrew Joseph White blew me away with Hell Followed With Us, so I was on board for this one before ever reading the synopsis. Need to know: somehow, AJW has asserted a new corner of queer horror that is retrograde, demented, deeply personal, and in the BioShock wheelhouse. Del Toro but make it YA, trans, and more bloody. This book!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Aaron Adams and Liz Crain
[isbn]
Portland, OR is the most vegan-friendly city in the US, and with restaurants like Fermenter leading the charge, it's no wonder how. Seaweed kraut, tempeh bacon, and chickpea miso are just a few of the wonders local chef and vegan educator, Aaron Adams, has cooked up for you.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Cassandra Khaw
[isbn]
Without a doubt, the most insane thing (actually and in a good way) you'll read in 112 pages. The fairy tales got everything wrong. The kids are all frankensteined, the mermaid is eating discarded body parts, and the plague doctor is the hottest character ever written. Cassandra Khaw, I love you.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Satoshi Yagisawa
[isbn]
One of those slice-of-lifes that tend to reveal the magic in the ordinary, the power of unintended connection, and the excitement in the undetermined. If kind gestures and gentle pleasantries are your thing: here, have a treat.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Jaha Nailah Avery
[isbn]
This preservation of stories over 300 years in the making should be required reading, especially considering in 2023 we have conservative podcasters and talking heads stating that African American history, specifically involving slavery, is "embellished." Avery's mission to herald history as truth — bare, brutal, and beautiful as it is — sees its accomplishment met here, burning bright as the sun.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Waka T. Brown
[isbn]
Anya's Ghost and Coraline combine to give us this perfectly told and vivid reimagining of a timeless Japanese folktale. Is there anything better than a quizzical girl getting through life with the help (or hinderance) of the paranormal? Hint: the answer is no.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Graham Annable
[isbn]
Want to traumatize your kids the same way Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark traumatized you? Of course you do. It's only fair. This bone-chilling anthology is sure to keep your kids (and even you) up at night. I love imagining the next generation of kids reading these stories at sleepovers and seeing who chickens out first. Ghoulishly good fun!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Nathan Tavares
[isbn]
This is one of those books where you can tell the author's whole heart was in every single word. Kaleidoscopic in scale and with an infatuating cast of characters you can root for, A Fractured Infinity erupts in the same heart-tugging way Everything Everywhere All at Once did when it broke you in half. Remember?
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Mark Shaw, Gyles Lingwood
[isbn]
Quintessential for any burgeoning copy/technical writer. As relevant and forthright as you'd expect from a book based around the idea of communicating to a mass audience, Shaw and Lingwood made sure to fill in every gap your college business courses left over. As a business major, I can attest to the level of helpful detail this book offered. Highly recommend!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Jade Song
[isbn]
A modern, thalassic gothic about girlhood, obsession, and queerness briny with wit so sharp I almost can't believe it's a debut. Song shines brighter than any mermaid scale you can dream up. Yes, even brighter than your older sister's tail in the pool all those summers ago. Drag us down into the depths, Jade. More, more, more!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Reductress
[isbn]
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA *cries*
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Becky Chambers
[isbn]
Perfection. I will not be saying more.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Fonda Lee
[isbn]
Woman-led fantasy with middle-eastern mythology? Manticores?? Rocs??? Destructive paths of revenge???? ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? Excuse me while I scream about this book until I get a film adaption.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Alex Woodroe
[isbn]
If your eyes aren't on Portland-based publisher Tenebrous Press, you may need to get your prescription checked. This collection of Weird (with a capital "W") horror stories was concocted to unsettle and perplex you, and that it will. Highlighting Mae Murray's "The Imperfection" and Carson Winter's "In Haskins." Long live the Weird!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Matt Blairstone and Alex Woodroe
[isbn]
WTFs abound in this anthology benefitting trans youth from a powerful union of trans writers exploring the darkest pits of body horror. No pulled punches to be found here, and why should they be? Trans people live through horrors every waking minute. Sit down, get uncomfy, and PROTECT TRANS KIDS ALWAYS.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Eric LaRocca
[isbn]
If there's anything I've learned from LaRocca's work, it's that nothing is ever what it seems. In a spine-tingling subversion of the smalltown-with-secrets trope, Everything The Darkness Eats gives us a ruthless villain, a sympathetic yet disturbing main character, and more of its creator's signature writing style, which feels like it should be narrated by the late Tony Jay or Boris Karloff. You will be unnerved.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Haines Matt
[isbn]
Living in Portland is great, but if there's one thing that could convince me to head back to Louisiana, it's king cake — specifically from the bakeries in this book. Vibrant and welcoming, like Mardi Gras itself, this book is a must-have for your coffee table. If you can manage to order a king cake for yourself (many of these bakeries ship), allow me to highlight Don Phuong's, Haydel's, and Randazzo's.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Kyo Maclear and Francesca Sanna
[isbn]
This book is so special, but also so fun. A perfect book to read aloud and a great way to familiarize kids with geographical landmarks ahead of school. Even I had trouble recognizing some of them!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Hailey Piper
[isbn]
A noxious blend of horror and romance through an unabashedly queer lens from the name in horror no one can stop screaming about, Hailey Piper. Themed around women's agency and its incessant overriding, Queen of Teeth speaks to those who see the delight in the disgusting, the fairness in ferocity, and the vaudeville in the villainous. And, of course, to the gays.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Eric LaRocca
[isbn]
Eric LaRocca is a master of atmosphere and We Can Never Leave This Place is a study in how the true power of horror lies in the untold and nondescript. Gothic and morose, delicate and heartfelt, the fine line between grotesque and dazzling is where you’ll find LaRocca dancing like a Puritan girl liberated by witchcraft, naked and levitating. You’ll start this book willingly, hand-in-hand, but by the closing pages it’ll be dragging you... (read more)
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Fernando Pessoa, Margaret Jull Costa, Patricio Ferrari
[isbn]
Why, yes. I would like to lose myself in the imaginative musings of an uneducated shepherd that doubles as a latent homosexual, modernist poet's alternate personality. Recondite and for the melancholic, Caeiro (Pessoa) asseverates the incomparable feeling of saudade like a siren song across the Atlantic. I would advise learning to at least read EU Portuguese because the original poems are unbelievably beautiful read aloud.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Vince A. Liaguno and Rena Mason
[isbn]
As a peer and self-identified "other," I ran to this book like a madman. It's hard to say I was terrified by any of the stories in this compilation because I'm too focused on the justice of an inclusive horror anthology with Big 5 traction, but that's not to say that you won't be. The stories are both feral and poised, grotesque and dazzling, highlighting Hailey Piper's "The Turning" and Tananarive Due's "Incident at Bear Creek Lodge."
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Tori Bovalino
[isbn]
Disguieting, gothic splendor and a deeply robust reimagining of the classic Goblin Market poem. I adore this book. This is the eerie tale read in creaky corners of an old house on a blustery day with tea brewing. Tori Bovalino's voice and prose far exceed the musings of your typical YA gothic fiction. I don't care how toxic it is I WANT TO GO TO THE GOBLIN MARKET AND PEEP AT GOBLIN MEN.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Ainslie Hogarth
[isbn]
What an icky book, in the best possible way. Whip-smart writing on Hogarth's part. Some of the lines prompted me for the first time ever to take a highlighter to a printed book (don't worry, I didn't). Both a commentary on motherhood and inherited family trauma, Motherthing takes a foreboding and insidious plot and turns it into something else. Something, dare I say it, cheerful. Dark-horse book of the year for me.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Mae Murray
[isbn]
Too often queer authors — queer people — are expected to be congenial. Unless queer characters are lawful good and palatable to a broadly heteronormative audience, they are vilified. Even by queer communities who demand that queer writers create within moral guidelines that don't exist for their non-queer contemporaries. The Book of Queer Saints puts fangs back into the mouth of queer authors. It's the queer jailbreak you've been waiting... (read more)
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Joe Vallese, Carmen Maria Machado, Bruce Owens Grimm
[isbn]
Required reading for any queer horror enthusiasts. I can remember feeling very lonely in my adoration of horror as a queer man growing up. Sure, I had friends who loved horror movies like me.But when we'd reflect on our viewing experience, I couldn't help but feel a distinct sense of othering. It Came from the Closet holds the conversations I wish I'd had then. Haven't screamed, "YES, EXACTLY!" this many times in my whole life.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Andrew Joseph White
[isbn]
Blood, spit, innards, and bone brought to genesis by the religious nightmares of trans youth. An infernal Dies Irae for the gays. Queer horror at its most unholy and blasphemous. I could go on and on. This book is the dormant eruption that lies within every queer soul in existence. Be not afraid to let it burst from thee.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Sheridan Le Fanu
[isbn]
Yes, the patriarchy has wronged us again. Shocking. This time, it has robbed us of Carmilla, the deliciously sapphic vampire gothic that predates Bram Stoker's Dracula by almost half a century. Don't feel bad that you haven't heard of her. It's not your fault. Do yourself a favor; get lost in Le Fanu's sensuous prose and be sure to mind charming strangers on moonlit strolls.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Paul Prudhomme
[isbn]
As Powell's resident Louisianian, born n' raised, I feel it is my duty to point out Chef Paul Prudhomme's Louisiana Kitchen as the sole cookbook you should be trusting when it comes to Cajun food. Many chefs and cooks visit New Orleans, fall in love, and feel inspired to create their own spin on Louisiana food (looking at you, California). But if you knew Louisiana food, you'd know this is a huge no-no, couillon. Don't mess wit'... (read more)
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Gretchen Felker-Martin
[isbn]
Both a brutal fist to the teeth and a tender cry, Manhunt is unlike anything I've ever read. Fran and Beth are an insurmountable duo and I was locked in from the very first word. This book is a carbon-fiber arrow to the shoulder — it sticks with you and it hurts like a mother.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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V. Castro
[isbn]
Jennifer's Body and The Craft collide in this summery south Texas possession tale. Despite its finish-in-an-afternoon length, it packs a hefty, feminist uppercut to the chin. Reflexively engrossing from beginning to end. If it had a credit roll, "Quien Paga" by PIERI would be blasting over it.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Jennette McCurdy
[isbn]
A hard to stomach yet profoundly reassuring sentiment to anyone with an abusive or unsafe relationship with their parent(s). Many of us have been forced to excuse our parents' wrongdoings simply because they're our parents. In truth they are more, if not most, capable of hurting us, often in deeply profound ways. Jennette expertly picks this idea apart and opens up a door some of us can't open ourselves.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Dan Chaon
[isbn]
A love child of Mad Max: Fury Road and Cosmatos's Mandy with a peppering of The Last of Us, Sleepwalk is fast-paced chaos and the epitome of what I affectionately refer to as dystopian trucker fiction. Trust me, that's a compliment. Chaon's blending of hallucinatory storytelling and commentary on the human condition is truly masterful.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Ryan La Sala
[isbn]
Midsommar meets The Heathers in this kaleidoscopic YA horror from queer author Ryan La Sala. Enchanting and noxious all at once, The Honeys is the sticky-sweet summer scare you didn't know you needed. Quite frankly, when it comes to queer YA fiction, Ryan just gets it.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Sam J. Miller
[isbn]
Heartbreaking, world-shattering, and too timely for words, Boys, Beasts, and Men is a locked treasure chest fetched from the bottom of a forbidden lake. The voices for these stories were so brilliantly chosen that you'll have a hard time not connecting with each and every character. No skips.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Sofiya Pasternack
[isbn]
Was not expecting to love this one as much as I did. I loved the Eastern European setting and the Jewish representation, which seems to be lacking in kids fiction these days. In the same vein of Disney's Raya & the Last Dragon, Anya is a total gem!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Grady Hendrix
[isbn]
Clever, clever, hair-raising, and then cleverer still, Horrorstör is one of those books that makes you feel hip when reading it. Equal parts consumerism commentary and true-to-form haunted house horror, Horrorstör is one of those books you never shut up about it. Plus it's really fun to read in public, hehe.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Phil Stamper
[isbn]
This book is a warm hug to queer teens everywhere, and a shoulder to sob on for queer adults who never got one. I wish this adorable story could go down in history like Hinton's The Outsiders, but with state governments and school systems working hard to "not say gay," it doesn't seem likely. Heartbreaking to think that a book so pure in form could be seen as something worth banning. Hold this book tightly.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Ari North, Ariella Adler
[isbn]
Starry-eyed, pure, queer love that'll break your heart and then mend it back together. The animation is similar to popular web comic turned phenomenon, 'Lore Olympus,' and seems painted with strokes of heartache and passion. So, so, beautiful.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Vivian Shaw
[isbn]
In a twist of the Van Helsing classic, author Vivian Shaw gives us Dr. Greta Helsing, the Addams Family version of Meredith Grey. That's right. Even vampires, mummies, and werewolves have to call in sick. This London-based series has all the great makings of a cozy mystery but with a spooky streak any monster-lover will eat right up.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Nadja Spiegelman
[isbn]
Diversify your folktale repertoire and check out this graphic novel adaptation of Blancaflor, the Latin American story of a super-powered daughter of an ogre who falls in love with a prince her father wants to eat. Endearing as it is profound, Blancaflor should be required reading.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Bessel Van Der Kolk
[isbn]
I wish there was an accurate way to describe just how life-changing this book was. As a late-blooming queer adult with a turbulent and abusive relationship with his father, this book not only validated me, but carved me out a path to truly heal, beyond acknowledgement alone.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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AG Slatter
[isbn]
This book has mermaids, witches, and family curses. I'm not really sure what else you need to know before purchasing. I suppose I'll divulge that the book was a wonderful read while on a stormy, Oregonian, coastal vacation. But if you're looking to add some gloom to your TBR list, look no further.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Grady Hendrix
[isbn]
If you were devouring the Goosebumps books in the 90's, I give you Grady Hendrix. Jamie Lee Curtis (who played arguably the most famous Final Girl, Laurie Strode/Halloween) recommends this book, but if that's not enough to go on, this campy, heroic, slasher film of a novel will terrify and delight you. I loved every minute!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Jack Meggitt-Phillips
[isbn]
This hilarious new tale will absolutely be considered a classic in a decade's time. I wish I was an elementary school teacher so I could read it aloud to kids, because I know it will be burned into their core memory like Matilda and The BFG were burned into mine.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Tillie Walden
[isbn]
Hope you like to cry. I don't think I've ever actually sobbed over a book before, and I can't accurately explain why this one made that happen. I feel like if I tried to explain it in words it would just come out as incoherent babble. Pencil in a good cry and read this.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Rachel Smythe
[isbn]
Thought Greek mythology was tired? Think again. Rachel Smythe tells an age-old romance in a cleverly modern way. My early Greek mythology obsession has been completely reignited. I read it first as a free webtoon and now it's on its way to becoming a Netflix animated series. Worth every bit of hype surrounding it!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Phu Vuong, Isa Enriquez
[isbn]
An accessible sword and sorcery in the vein of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Dragon Prince. This original tale will appeal to audiences across age boundaries and without a saturated magic system or strong focus on messaging. Adventure and action in its purest form. I need an animated series IMMEDIATELY.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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K. A. Applegate and Michael Grant and Chris Grine
[isbn]
Any ’90s kid can attest to the iron grip The Animorphs had on readers of our generation. Now, the whole squad, including the original author, is back, this time as a graphic novel series! Got a kid of your own now? Introduce them to The Animorphs and relive this action-packed saga filled with superpowers, alien invasions, love, war, and loss.
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Maggie Tokuda Hall and Lisa Sterle
[isbn]
Clever as it is harrowing, Squad is a powerful, feminist thriller with enough bite to contend with adult works in the same genre. Though its tone bears some semblance to teen favorites Riverdale and Mean Girls, make no mistake. Squad is wholly unique and good-for-her horror at its best. Sink your teeth into this one!
Recommended by Stacy W.
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Adam Sass
[isbn]
Imagine telling your parents what you are, and instead of loving and accepting you, they have you kidnapped and sent to a remote island for you to be unmade. That's the all too familiar reality of Connor Major, who endures the horrors of Camp Nightlight, a remote conversion camp for gay teens. As he fights for his freedom and the freedom of his campmates, he begins to uncover sickening truths about Nightlight. And he's bent on revealing them to... (read more)
Recommended by Stacy W.
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