nonfiction

A Family, Maybe By Lane Igoudin

$20.00

In his candid and emotional memoir, Lane Igoudin shows the human side of public adoption as he and his partner Jonathan seek to adopt their foster daughters from the Los Angeles County child welfare system. Desperately wanting to be fathers, they enter into a complicated legal process that soon becomes a tangle of drama-filled birth parent visits and children’s court hearings. Lane and Jon spend years not knowing whether they will be able to officially adopt the girls, or if the county will reunite the sisters with their birth mother, Jenna, a teenager in the state’s custody herself.

Tribal Histories of the Willamette Valley by David G. Lewis

$24.95

The Willamette Valley is rich with history—its riverbanks, forests, and mountains home to the tribes of Kalapuya, Chinook, Molalla, and more for thousands of years. This history has been largely unrecorded, incomplete, poorly researched, or partially told. In these stories, enriched by photographs and maps, Oregon Indigenous historian David G. Lewis combines years of researching historical documents and collecting oral stories, highlighting Native perspectives about the history of the Willamette Valley as they experienced it.

Elephant Speak: A Devoted Keeper’s Life Among the Herd By Melissa Crandall

$17.00

When Roger Henneous first dons his keeper uniform and sets foot in the Oregon Zoo, he doesn’t know what to expect. Over Roger’s thirty-year career, he discovers the joys, pains, and dangers of life in a zoo, all the while maintaining an unwavering devotion to Belle, Packy, and the rest of the Asian elephants he cares for. Roger faces many risks—but his willingness to learn the elephants’ language earns him a rare level of trust among the herd, reminding us how much we can achieve when we choose to listen.

The Widmer Way: How Two Brothers Led Portland’s Craft Beer Revolution By Jeff Alworth

$18.00

Portland, Oregon, didn’t always have a wildly successful craft brew scene. Someone had to be daring enough to innovate, and the Widmer brothers were just the men for the job.

Written by Portland beer guru Jeff Alworth (The Beer Bible, Beer Tasting Tool Kit), The Widmer Way chronicles Kurt and Rob Widmer’s journey from humble homebrewers to craft beer pioneers and purveyors of the iconic Widmer Brothers Hefeweizen. Alworth also dives deep into Portland’s history, setting the scene for Widmer’s rise in the city now known for its exquisite beer.

Oregon At Work: 1859–2009 By Tom Fuller & Art Ayre

$21.95

If you had searched the want-ads in 1859 Oregon, what kind of jobs would you have found? What sort of hours would you have worked, what work would you have done, and how much money would you have made? Oregon At Work: 1859–2009 looks at three eras in Oregon’s history: the mid-to-late 1800s, the early-to-mid-1900s, and the mid-1900s to the present. Using personal stories, photos, and historical data, the book shows what it was like to work and live in these very different periods of the state’s history.This meticulously researched and beautifully illustrated book brings to life the stories of real Oregonians. A foreword by former Governor Ted Kulongoski is included, as well as over 100 photographs and artifacts. The project has received support and endorsement from the Oregon Employment Department, Sons and Daughters of Oregon Pioneers, Oregon Small Woodlands Association, and others.

The Portland Red Guide By Michael Munk

$17.95

Ooligan Press is proud to release the second edition of Michael Munk’s The Portland Red Guide. This definitive guidebook, which includes maps and walking tours, artfully explores Portland, Oregon’s rich heritage of radical social dissent. Taking the reader beyond the common history book, Munk tells stories that many have forgotten, and links them to physical sites within the city. People and organizations that fought for equality and justice against the abusive powers of their day are given new life in this revelatory title. The Portland Red Guide is both a guidebook and an informal history that will expand your perspective on the city and its past. The book is divided by physical and topical entries, loosely grouped into the following chronological periods

Speaking Out: Women, War, and the Global Economy By Jan Haaken

$23.72

What can the rest of the world do to help a war torn country? Every day in the headlines, on the home front, and around the world, we face the issue of how war affects people. Speaking Out leads this important discussion by asking the question: why war? Speaking Out addresses the effects of war on gender and reparation in a five-part, interactive curriculum that is adaptable for differing educational levels, from secondary school to college. Based on the documentary Diamonds, Guns, and Rice, Speaking Out bridges the local and the global, placing gripping personal stories in an international landscape and highlighting the creative capacities that survive war. The relevance of such lessons in today’s world proves invaluable as we ask the questions: who are the victims of war? What are the effects of war? How are these effects overcome?

Classroom Publishing By Ooligan Press

$34.95

Classroom Publishing: A Practical Guide for Teachers is a resource guide for educators using publishing as an educational tool. Contents include real-life examples of classroom publishing projects, background on the publishing process, and a resource guide with information from project planning to eco-friendly publishing options. This totally revised second edition shows teachers how to combine new technologies and traditional book publishing to create engaging lesson plans and encourage student literacy. Classroom Publishing is part of Ooligan Press’s OpenBook series.

Brew to Bikes By Charles Heying

$24.95

Dissatisfied with passive consumption, many residents of Portland, Oregon, take matters into their own hands. Associate Professor of Urban Studies Charles Heying noticed these local artisans prospering all over the city and set out to study their thriving economy. Profiling hundreds of local businesses, and with an eye on Portland’s unique penchant for sustainability and urban development, Brew to Bikes is about everything from bike manufacturers to microbreweries, from do-it-yourself to traditional crafts. A treatise to local, ethical business practices, Brew to Bikes positions Portland as a hub of artisan ingenuity worthy of admiration.

The Wax Bullet War By Sean Davis

$16.95

The day after September 11, 2001, Sean Davis—18 months out of uniform—strode into the Oregon National Guard’s recruiting office and reenlisted. An art school dropout slogging through the day-to-day monotony of a dead-end job, the attacks of 9/11 gave him a new sense of purpose and direction as a staff sergeant in Bravo Company. But what he finds in Iraq is nothing like what he expected. He discovers the oddities of a pop-up America in a hostile desert wasteland and is confronted with more questions and contradictions than answers.

Untangling the Knot: Queer Voices on Marriage, Relationships & Identity By Carter Sickels, Editor

$16.95

Ariel Gore participates in a marriage equality demonstration as she struggles for footing in her divorce. Trish Bendix receives a painful reminder that legal recognition of gay marriage is only one step toward societal recognition of her own marriage. Emanuel Xavier pays tribute to heroes of the LGBTQ community who didn’t live to enjoy the benefits of their activism.

The Ghosts Who Travel With Me By Allison Green

$15.95

When the flower children were flocking to Woodstock, Allison Green was in preschool. As a teenager, yearning for the counterculture movement she felt she just missed, she discovered the writing of Richard Brautigan, finding refuge in his visions of America and refusal to conform. Years later, however, she questions her attachment. Why would a lesbian and feminist writer identify with an author whose most famous work doesn’t even name its female characters? Searching for the answer, Green embarks on a journey retracing Brautigan’s steps in Trout Fishing in America. Along the way, she examines how we relate to the influences in our lives-the ancestors who created us, the past that shaped us, the writers who changed the way we saw the world–and how these elements intertwine to make us who we are.

Rhythm in the Rain: Jazz in the Pacific Northwest By Lynn Darroch

$21.95

Rhythm in the Rain is a nonfiction narrative about the jazz community in the Pacific Northwest that examines the people, places, and events that have made cities like Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, so popular among musicians. From the genesis of Jackson Street and Williams Avenue in the 1940s & ’50s with such legends as Ray Charles and Quincy Jones, to the modern voices of George Colligan, Rebecca Kilgore, and Esperanza Spalding, this book aims to encompass and illuminate the rich musical history of a region that, while not widely recognized as a jazz mecca, has seen its relevance within the local community. Written by local musician, radio broadcaster, and author Lynn Darroch, Rhythm in the Rain serves to inform and entertain, while showing that jazz is undoubtedly another of the countless cultural offerings this wonderful corner of the country has cultivated throughout its history.

Do Angels Cry? Tales of the War By Matko Marušić

$14.95

In 1991, war broke out in Croatia. Matko Marušić’s short stories offer a human perspective on the war that is not told in history books. Each story illuminates the love and dedication the Croatian people have for their country, and their struggle to find purpose and meaning in the midst of tragedy. Matko Marušić’s other writings include a novel, a collection of short stories for children, and two additional collections of short stories for adults. Do Angels Cry? Tales of the War was originally published in Croatia and Great Britain in 1996. A preface, written by Dr. Stanimir Vuk-Pavlovic, has been added for the American edition.