Books I was first gulled into reading Ayn Rand’s books the same way a lot of overachieving high-school kids were: by the promise of money. The conservative political foundation Rand started years ago ...   More

Books Does the world really need another book about Paul McCartney? By now the story of the Beatles has been picked apart from every conceivable angle, from Peter Brown’s insider’s tale The Love ...   More

Books Is free speech really free in a publicly owned and paid-for venue? That seems to be the question driving Portland writer Tom Krattenmaker’s Onward Christian Athletes (Rowman & Littlefield, 212 p ...   More

Books The market is awash in memoirs and paeans to baseball. So a reader might ask what Jesse Katz could possibly add by writing The Opposite Field (Crown Publishers, 352 pages, $25), a memoir centering on ...   More

Books Were you dismayed to see Portland invaded by emo sparkle-vamps when Twilight was shot in Oregon in 2008? We were too. Luckily, Portland novelist and screenwriter Jon Raymond, 38, is providing a welcom ...   More

Books Why don’t Jonathan Lethem’s novels ever quite work? It’s a valid question, because it’s certainly not for lack of diligence (16 books under the belt at 45), nor for any lack of ...   More

Books So many history books are written essentially the same way. First, the author immerses himself in research. Then, based on a preponderance of the evidence, he crafts a seamless, chronological narrativ ...   More

Books David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries (Viking, 320 pages, $25.95), to quote another well-known cyclist, is not about the bike. Or at least, not entirely. Even though the former Talking Headman has used ...   More

Books Jen Yates stared at the forwarded email—a photo of a white sheet cake decorated with yellow and orange roses, chocolate curlicues and this fateful message scrawled in shaky lines of icing: &ldqu ...   More

Books If you fall into the ocean wearing Nike Airs, the only thing they’ll find is your feet—perhaps along the oceanic garbage patch spanning from British Columbia to Baja, perhaps on one of Aus ...   More