Think Out Loud

Authors Kristen Arnett and Jess Walter at the Portland Book Festival

Sometimes laughter can be the best way to make it through difficult times. And a good joke can go a long way to connecting with another person, no matter how different they are. Those are themes in the two new books “Stop Me if You’ve Heard This One” [https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753099/stop-me-if-youve-heard-this-one-by-kristen-arnett/] by Kristen Arnett and “So Far Gone” [https://www.harpercollins.com/products/so-far-gone-jess-walter?variant=43148536315938]by Jess Walter. OPB’s Jess Hazel talked to Walter and Arnett about their books at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

Leni Zumas and Cleyvis Natera in conversation at the Portland Book Festival

What does survival look like if it comes at the expense of freedom? How can we build safe places in an increasingly unstable world? These questions are at the heart of two new books by authors Leni Zumas and Cleyvis Natera. Zumas’s book “Wolf Bells” [https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/leni-zumas/wolf-bells/9781643756578/] tells the story of an intergenerational group home determined to make a space for people who fall through capitalism’s cracks. Natera’s book “The Grand Paloma Resort” [https://www.randomhousebooks.com/books/753030/BB/] tells the story of staff at an exclusive Caribbean resort as they navigate class, race and colonialism. OPB’s Allison Frost spoke to Leni Zumas and Cleyvis Natera at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

Author Emma Donoghue talks about her novel 'The Paris Express'

Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue is perhaps best known for her novel “Room,” told from the perspective of a 5-year-old boy held captive with his mother. Most of Donoghue’s work, however, is rooted in historical fiction. She frequently writes about characters and perspectives that are often erased from history. Her latest novel, “The Paris Express,” [https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Paris-Express/Emma-Donoghue/9781668082799] tells the story of a fateful disaster on a French train in 1895. Donoghue spoke to OPB’s Crystal Ligori in front of an audience at the 2025 Portland Book Festival.

Owyhee Canyonlands protection effort remains in limbo

The Owyhee Canyonlands area encompasses millions of acres along the Owyhee River on the borders of Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. The land is rugged and remote and beautiful, and efforts to to protect it in some way have dragged out for years. There were pushes for the last two Democratic presidents to designate the area a national monument and most recently, a bill to protect over 1 million acres of the land as wilderness failed in Congress at the end of last year [https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/local/oregon/2024/12/19/owyhee-canyonlands-bill-fails-ron-wyden/77088394007/]. We traveled to the area and talked to people about the land and the efforts to protect it.    We stopped in Jordan Valley and talked to Mindy Kershner, a lifelong Jordan Valley resident, rancher, and owner of the Ranch Hand Hardware & Mercantile. Then we travelled down to Birch Creek Historic Ranch on the edge of the river to talk to Tim Davis, executive director of Friends of the Owyhee [https://www.friendsoftheowyhee.org/]. We spoke to rancher Elias Eiguren on his family’s land in Arock. And then we talked to Reginald Sope, an elder of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes who lives near the head of the canyon in Nevada.

Portland author's new book celebrates threatened ponderosa pine trees

Ponderosa pine trees dominate parts of Eastern Oregon and Washington and have long been an icon of the American West, but in the past decade more than two hundred million ponderosa have died. Particularly in the Southwest, scientists estimate that by mid-century less than 5% of the ponderosa trees may remain. Portland author Gary Ferguson explores the history and the future of the ponderosa forests of the Southwest in his newest book, “The Twilight Forest.”