It’s the time of year for winter evenings spent cuddled up in a warm blanket as a means of avoiding the fog, wind, and rain. And what better way to do that than with a book by one of our many local authors or publishing houses!
Here are nine recommendations for foggy winter reading.
Biographies
Black Women in Green: Gloria Brown and the Unmarked Trail to Forest Service Leadership by Gloria Brown and Donna L. Sinclair (OSU Press, 2020).
In 1981, Gloria Brown was a dictation transcriber for the U.S. Forest Service with dreams of television journalism. When her husband passed away suddenly, Brown moved into an apartment in Maryland with their three children and continued working as a transcriber. In 1987, Brown transferred to Missoula, Montana where she began to work as a public affairs officer for the Forest Service. In Montana, she rode a horse for the first time and learned about the forests from people who worked, hunted, and fished them:
She said, “the talk around the fire educated me. At first, I was too excited to be afraid.” In 1991, Brown earned a certificate in natural resources management from Oregon State University. She worked as a district ranger, for the Bureau of Land Management, then for the Forest Service in 1997 as monument manager at Mount St. Helens. Two years later, Brown became forest supervisor of the Siuslaw National Forest; she was the first Black woman in American history to achieve this position.
“My position as forest supervisor was new territory not only for me, but also for the Forest Service. We were betting on each other, and the stakes were high,” she said. “Now, it was 1999, and I was the first black woman to manage an entire national forest—ever.”
To read about her incredible journey, you can find Black Women in Green at the Corvallis-Benton Public Library or at OSU Press.
On Assignment by James Larison (Chicago Review Press, 2021).
Larison’s book chronicles decades of work and marriage in some of the most thrilling, educational, and dangerous locations on Earth.
In order to get footage of wild places for their work making films for National Geographic, Elaine and James Larison had to survive in wild places. They summited mountains and dived oceans to share these places – and the effects of climate change – with viewers. Together, they made such award-winning films as “Ancient Forests,” Diversity of Life,” and “Sagebrush Country.” They also raised two sons – John and Ted.
James Larison earned his MFA at OSU in 2007, and has taught writing. Find On Assignment at Grassroots Books.
A Place for Inquiry, A Place for Wonder: The Andrews Forest by William G. Robbins (OSU Press, 2020).
Established in 1948, the nearly 16,000-acre H.J. Andrews Forest is one of 81 “experimental forests” administered by the United States Department of Agriculture. In 1980, the forest became a National Science Foundation Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site, which differs from other kinds of NSF research in that LTER sites are chosen to reflect common ecological trends and to facilitate the collection of data over many years. In this book, historian and OSU Professor Emeritus William Robbins presents the history of the H.J Andrews forest, the relevance of the research it hosts, and the shifting federal priorities that have shaped its last 75 years.
A Place for Inquiry, A Place for Wonder: The Andrews Forest is available at the library and on backorder at Grassroots Books.
Essay Collections
The Environmental Politics & Policy of Western Public Lands, edited by Erika Allen Wolters & Brent S. Steel (OSU Press, 2020)
Erika Wolters is an associate professor of political science at OSU and the associate director of the undergraduate public policy program. Brent Steel is a professor of political science at OSU and the director of the graduate public policy program.
Wolters and Steel compiled a collection of essays that address many topics, like tribal sovereignty over lands, the past and future of energy generation in the US, and the future of ecological policy in the face of climate change.
Contributors include Kathleen Dean Moore, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at OSU, and Jodi A. Hilty, President and Chief Scientist of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.
The Environmental Politics & Policy of Western Public Lands is available by special order at Grassroots Books, but may be slow to arrive.
Earth’s Wild Music: Celebrating and Defending the Songs of the Natural World by Kathleen Dean Moore (Counterpoint Press, 2021).
Human beings are drawn to birdsong. Aside from being pleasant to hear, birdsong signals safety — vulnerability announcing itself in a dangerous world.
Birds, whales, wolves, wind, water, mountains, and children: music makers all in Moore’s new collection, which celebrates the voices of the Earth and laments the forces that threaten them.
Her essays are sorted into 4 sections: Tremble, Weep, Awaken, and Sing Out. Moore shares information about the natural world in reverential language; in “The Song of the Canyon Wren,” she writes: “Sometimes sounds turn me almost inside out with longing.”
In her prologue, Moore asks, “Truly, if we can’t save the songs, can we save ourselves?”
Earth’s Wild Music is available at the library and Grassroots Books.
Fiction
In The Quick by Kate Hope Day (Random House, 2021).
This is the story of one woman’s journey for answers in the lethal, revealing vacuum of space.
June is a gifted engineer two years younger than her classmates in the National Space Program. She is buffeted by legacy — attending the school named for her uncle, bedeviled by mystery — her uncle’s ship and crew disappeared when she was 12, and ultimately compelled to seek out her uncle’s former student, James, for answers. Their connection is as powerful and immediate as it is threatening to June’s mission.
The Advocate’s book reviewer gave this novel by Corvallis resident Day one of her best reviews. In the Quick is available at Grassroots Books, the Book Bin, and the library.
Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor (Scholastic Press, 2022).
Anticipated February 2022, Thor’s newest book explores the politics of a place called Candesce where magic is drunk like water, passed from generation to generation, and coveted by all. Seventeen-year-old Ingrid — penniless and magicless — intends to join the ranks of the magicked by playing companion to Linden Holt, heir to the largest fortune of magic — or “flare” — in Candesce. When Linden’s father announces a major political campaign, Ingrid proposes a trade: information about his opposition in exchange for the status she needs.
Fire Becomes Her is notably pun-filled. Thor recently lamented on Twitter that they had “never been so … desperate for a time machine” as when they thought of a pun after the book had already gone to print.
Corvallis resident Thor also contributed in 2021 to Common Bonds, a collection of stories that explores the ways platonic relationships impact and enrich our lives.
Visit Thor’s website for where to purchase Fire Becomes Her.
Reference
Oregon Painters: Landscape to Modernism, 1859-1959 by Ginny Allen & Jody Klevit (OSU Press, 2021).
In 1999, Allen and Klevit published the first edition of Oregon Painters, an index of painters with information about trends, education, and exhibitions in the northwest. The newest edition includes essays about a variety of key moments in Oregon history, like the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition — held in Portland in 1905 to celebrate the centennial of the expedition and position Portland as a major civic center — and the Oregon Federal Art Project, funded by the Works Progress Administration in the 30s and 40s and responsible for the creation of a number of works featured in Oregon Painters. The biographical section includes detailed information about 630 painters with color images available for many of their paintings.
Oregon Painters: Landscape to Modernism, 1859-1959 is available at the Book Bin.
For Young Readers
The Meaning of Pride, written by Rosiee Thor and illustrated by Sam Kirk (Versify, 2022).
This upcoming children’s book from Thor and Kirk celebrates the diversity of LGBTQ+ experiences, historically and in the present, illustrated by muralist Sam Kirk.
Visit Thor’s website for where to purchase.
Many thanks to Tiffany Harlan of Grassroots Books, Emilie Ratcliff of the Book Bin, and Mari Beth Hackett of the Corvallis-Benton public library for their help compiling this list.
Happy reading!
By Grace Miller
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