Books Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver. This novel is such a good read, funny, generous, unpredictable, that it took me a while to realize how stunningly intelligent and brave it is. It talks ab   More

Books Karen Brooks’ new Portland-dining book, The Mighty Gastropolis (Chronicle, 256 pages, $24.95), is a torrid love affair with Portland   More

Books With each new novel, acclaimed British author Zadie Smith seems as if she’s reacting violently against the one before it. After the exuberant prose and plot of her sprawling, Rushdian debut, W   More

Books Don’t worry, there aren’t any beanbag chairs, and these books of stories don’t have any pretty pictures. Lunch Pail Tales: A Story Hour for Grown-ups is exactly what it sounds like: an adult   More

Books Punk zinester Joe Biel’s Powell’s chat will be a riot. Expect stories about cops breaking up fights outside house shows, roadies on endless tours and squatting mobs reclaiming abandoned homes   More

Books As the 50th anniversary of the John F. Kennedy assassination nears, in 2013, two out of three Americans still believe Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone in murdering the president. Judyth Vary    More

Books Author Robin Sloan’s paean to books—both digital and on paper—is filled with elements so plausible readers will want to Google them to see whether they’re real. And that’s fitting, bec   More

Books The title story of Todd Grimson’s new collection, Stabs at Happiness (Schaffner Press, 216 pages, $24.95), is made almost literal: It recounts an art-punk lesbian—Wavves’ “Surf Goths” on   More

Books Portland’s annual literary festival, Wordstock, is back and it’s…roughly the same size as ever. For two days, the hallowed halls of the Oregon Convention Center will play host to some 200 vi   More

Books In the age of DVRs, Hulu, Netflix, iTunes and, let’s be honest, BitTorrent, there’s very little reason to buy DVDs of movies and TV shows—unless they come packed with extras. That’s the at   More