“What are the best books about or featuring Portland, Oregon?” We looked at 388 of the top books, aggregating and ranking them so we could answer that very question!

The top 29 titles, all appearing on 2 or more “Best Portland” book lists, are ranked below by how many lists they appear on. The remaining 300+ titles, as well as the lists we used are in alphabetical order at the bottom of the page.

Happy Scrolling!

Top 29 Best Books About Portland Oregon

29 .) A Sweetness to the Soul by Jane Kirkpatrick

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

Based on historical characters and events, A Sweetness to the Soul recounts the captivating story of young, spirited Oregon pioneer Jane Herbert who at the age of twelve faces a tragedy that begins a life-long search for forgiveness and love. In the years that follow, young Jane finds herself involved in an unusual and touching romance with a dreamer sixteen years her senior, struggles to make peace with an emotionally distant mother, and fights to build a family of her own. Filled with heart-warming insight and glimpses of real-life pain, A Sweetness to the Soul paints a brilliant picture of love that conquers all obstacles and offers a powerful testimony to the miracle of God’s healing power.

28 .) Dead By Sunset by Ann Rule

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• Wikipedia

“The author of eight New York Times bestsellers, Ann Rule first won nationwide acclaim with The Stranger Beside Me, about serial killer Ted Bundy. Her Crime Files volumes, based on fascinating case histories, have assured her reputation as our premier chronicler of crime. Now the former Seattle policewoman brings us the horrific account of a charismatic man adored by beautiful and brilliant women who always gave him what he wanted…sex, money, their very lives….
When attorney Cheryl Keeton’s brutally bludgeoned body was found in her van in the fast lane of an Oregon freeway, her husband, Brad Cunningham, was the likely suspect. But there was no solid evidence linking him to the crime. He married again, for the fifth time, and his stunning new wife, a physician named Sara, adopted his three sons. They all settled down to family life on a luxurious estate. But gradually, their marriage became a nightmare…”

27 .) Dominion by Randy Alcorn

Lists It Appears On:

• Wikipedia
• Goodreads 1

“Sweet Revenge?

When two senseless killings hit close to home, columnist Clarence Abernathy seeks revenge for the murders—and, ultimately, answers to his own struggles regarding race and faith. After being dragged into the world of inner-city gangs and racial conflict, Clarence is encouraged by fellow columnist Jake Woods to forge an unlikely partnership with a redneck homicide detective. Soon the two find themselves facing dark forces, while unseen eyes watch from above. This re-release of Randy Alcorn’s powerful bestseller spins off from Deadline and offers a fascinating glimpse inside heaven. “

26 .) Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• Wikipedia

“Here is the unforgettable story of the Binewskis, a circus-geek family whose matriarch and patriarch have bred their own exhibit of human oddities (with the help of amphetamine, arsenic, and radioisotopes). Their offspring include Arturo the Aquaboy, who has flippers for limbs and a megalomaniac ambition worthy of Genghis Khan . . . Iphy and Elly, the lissome Siamese twins . . . albino hunchback Oly, and the outwardly normal Chick, whose mysterious gifts make him the family’s most precious—and dangerous—asset.

As the Binewskis take their act across the backwaters of the U.S., inspiring fanatical devotion and murderous revulsion; as its members conduct their own Machiavellian version of sibling rivalry, Geek Love throws its sulfurous light on our notions of the freakish and the normal, the beautiful and the ugly, the holy and the obscene. Family values will never be the same.”

25 .) Gone, But Not Forgotten by Phillip Margolin

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads 1
• Wikipedia

“Darkness has fallen on the city of Portland, Oregon. One by one, the wives of affluent and respected men are vanishing from their homes. The only clues to their disappearance are a single black rose and a note that reads “”Gone, But Not Forgotten.”” It is the rebirth of a horror that has already devastated a community at the opposite end of the country — and, as it did then, terror and death will follow.

Defense attorney Betsy Tannenbaum is trapped in a nightmare as the shadows of a killer darken her world. And she will soon be risking everything she has and everyone she loves to defend a cold, powerful, and manipulating client who may be a victim … or a monster.”

24 .) Heart of the Beast by Joyce Weatherford

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

After inheriting the family ranch, Iris finds herself being sued by the modern Nez Perce Indian tribe, who believe that her land is rightfully theirs, and as she digs deeply into generations of familiy history to discover who really owns the land, she makes some startling discoveries, in a powerful debut novel about one women’s quest to find love, absolution, and destiny.

23 .) Heartsick (Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell, #1) by Chelsea Cain

Lists It Appears On:

• Wikipedia
• Goodreads 1

Damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer, but in the end she was the one who caught him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go. She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind—addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. Archie’s a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she’s right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth—he can’t stay away.

22 .) Henry and Beezus (Henry, #2) by Beverly Cleary

Lists It Appears On:

• Wikipedia
• Goodreads 1

“For the well-meaning Henry Huggins, nothing ever works out quite as planned—including getting the bike of his dreams. Luckily his pal Beezus Quimby is there to help!

Henry’s attempts at raising money for his bike fund keep falling flat. Selling bubble gum on the playground gets him in trouble with his teacher, and then Ribsy’s nose for mischief almost ruins Henry’s paper route. Even pesky little Ramona Quimby manages to get in the way of Henry’s chance at a bike. But no matter what, Henry can always count on reliable Beezus to stick by his side.”

21 .) Henry Huggins by Beverly Clearly

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• Wikipedia

“In the first novel from Newbery Award-winning author Beverly Cleary, boys and girls alike will instantly be charmed by an average boy whose life is turned upside down when he meets a lovable puppy with a nose for mischief.

Just as Henry Huggins is complaining that nothing exciting ever happens, a friendly dog sits down beside him and looks pleadingly at his ice-cream cone. From that moment on, the two are inseparable. But when Ribsy’s original owner appears, trying to reclaim his dog, Henry’s faced with the possibility of losing his new best friend. Has Klickitat Street seen the last of rambunctious Ribsy?”

20 .) Honey in the Horn by H. L. Davis

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

A young man learns self-reliance in the Oregon wilderness after a mix-up involving a jail delivery

19 .) I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• The Guardian

Tom Spanbauer’s first novel in seven years is a love story triangle akin to The Marriage Plot and Freedom, only with a gay main character who charms gays and straights alike. I Loved You More is a rich, expansive tale of love, sex, and heartbreak, covering twenty-five years in the life of a striving, emotionally wounded writer. In New York, Ben forms a bond of love with his macho friend and foil, Hank. Years later in Portland, a now ill Ben falls for Ruth, who provides the care and devotion he needs, though they cannot find true happiness together. Then Hank reappears and meets Ruth, and real trouble starts. Set against a world of struggling artists, the underground sex scene of New York in the 1980s, the drab, confining Idaho of Ben’s youth, and many places in between, I Loved You More is the author’s most complex and wise novel to date.

18 .) Lean On Pete by Willy Vlautin

Lists It Appears On:

• The Guardian
• Wikipedia

“Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, Charley’s been pretty much on his own. When tragic events leave him homeless weeks after their move to Portland, Oregon, Charley seeks refuge in the tack room of a run-down horse track. Charley’s only comforts are his friendship with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete and a photograph of his only known relative. In an increasingly desperate circumstance, Charley will head east, hoping to find his aunt who had once lived a thousand miles away in Wyoming—but the journey to find her will be a perilous one.

In Lean on Pete, Willy Vlautin reveals the lives and choices of American youth like Charley Thompson who were failed by those meant to protect them and who were never allowed the chance to just be a kid.”

17 .) Night Dogs by Kent Anderson

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• The Guardian

“Former police officer Kent Anderson, author of the memorable Vietnam War novel Sympathy for the Devil, returns with a powerful new novel about a Vietnam-vet cop who still carries the war inside himself. Searing and brutally honest, Night Dogs plunges us into the free-fire zones of our cities, where the legendary thin blue line is breaking down.

The North Precinct of Portland, Oregon, is home to two kinds of cops: sergeants and lieutenants who’ve screwed up somewhere else, and patrolmen who thrive on the action on the Avenue. Officer Hanson is the second kind, a veteran who has traded his Bronze Star for a badge. War is what Hanson knows, and in this battle for Portland’s meanest streets, he’s fighting not so much for the law as for his own code of justice.

Hanson is a man who seems to fear nothing–except his own memories. And it is his past that could destroy him now: An enemy in the department is determined to bring him down by digging into his war record and resurrecting the darkest agonies of that nightmare time. And Hanson himself risks everything–his career, his equilibrium, even his life–when the only other survivor of his Special Forces unit comes back into his life. Doc Dawson is a drug dealer and a killer…but he’s the one man Hanson can trust.”

16 .) Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• Wikipedia

When he accidentally kills a security guard in self-defense, a scared teenager, realizing that no one even knows he was at Paranoid Park, wonders if he should confess, even though he has no alibi or witnesses–or pretend it never happened.

15 .) Ricochet River by Robin Cody

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

Set in a fictional Oregon town in the late 1960s, Cody’s superlative coming-of-age novel is the story of Wade, Lorna and Jesse–teenagers preparing to break out of their small-town lives. Wade is the local sports hero. Jesse is his friend, a mythical athlete and the Indian kid who applies his own rules to sports and life. And Lorna is Wade’s sweetheart who knows there’s no hope in Calamus for a bright, independent girl. The river rushes past the town, linking the three friends with their pasts, their plans and the world beyond. This new edition from the author addresses issues of graphic language and sex that thwarted the book’s use in high schools.

14 .) Searoad by Ursula K. Le Guin

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

In one of her most deeply felt works of fiction, Le Guin explores the dreams and sorrows of the inhabitants of Klatsand, Oregon, a beach town where ordinary people bring their dreams and sorrows for a weekend or the rest of their lives, and sometimes learn to read what the sea writes on the sand. Searoad is the story of a particular place that could be any place, and of a people so distinctly drawn they could be any of us.

13 .) Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

A bitter strike is raging in a small lumber town along the Oregon coast. Bucking that strike out of sheer cussedness are the Stampers: Henry, the fiercely vital and overpowering patriarch; Hank, the son who has spent his life trying to live up to his father; and Viv, who fell in love with Hank’s exuberant machismo but now finds it wearing thin. And then there is Leland, Henry’s bookish younger son, who returns to his family on a mission of vengeance – and finds himself fulfilling it in ways he never imagined. Out of the Stamper family’s rivalries and betrayals, Ken Kesey crafted a novel with the mythic impact of Greek tragedy.

12 .) The Bridge of the Gods: A Romance of Indian Oregon by Frederick Homer Balch

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world’s literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

11 .) The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• The Guardian

“Rachel, the daughter of a Danish mother and a black G.I., becomes the sole survivor of a family tragedy after a fateful morning on their Chicago rooftop.

Forced to move to a new city, with her strict African American grandmother as her guardian, Rachel is thrust for the first time into a mostly black community, where her light brown skin, blue eyes, and beauty bring a constant stream of attention her way. It’s there, as she grows up and tries to swallow her grief, that she comes to understand how the mystery and tragedy of her mother might be connected to her own uncertain identity. “

10 .) The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

“In the winter of 1917, a big-boned young woman shows up at George Bliss’s doorstep. She’s looking for a job breaking horses, and he hires her on. Many of his regular hands are off fighting the war, and he glimpses, beneath her showy rodeo garb, a shy but strong-willed girl with a serious knowledge of horses.

So begins the irresistible tale of nineteen-year-old Martha Lessen, a female horse whisperer trying to make a go of it in a man’s world. It was thought that the only way to break a horse was to buck the wild out of it, and broken ribs and tough falls just went with the job. But over several long, hard winter months, many of the townsfolk in this remote county of eastern Oregon witness Martha’s way of talking in low, sweet tones to horses believed beyond repair—and getting miraculous, almost immediate results—and she thereby earns a place of respect in the community.

Along the way, Martha helps a family save their horses when their wagon slides into a ravine. She gentles a horse for a dying man—a last gift to his young son. She clashes with a hired hand who is abusing horses in unspeakable ways. Soon, despite her best efforts to remain aloof and detached, she comes to feel enveloped by a sense of community and family that she’s never had before.”

9 .) The Jump-Off Creek by Molly Gloss

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

A reading group favorite, The Jump-Off Creek is the unforgettable story of widowed homesteader Lydia Sanderson and her struggles to settle in the mountains of Oregon in the 1890s. “Every gritty line of the story rings true” (Seattle Times) as Molly Gloss delivers an authentic and moving portrait of the American West. “A powerful novel of struggle and loss” (Dallas Morning News), The Jump-Off Creek gives readers an intimate look at the hardships of frontier life and a courageous woman determined to survive.

8 .) The Portland Bridge Book by Sharon Wood Wortman

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads 2
• Goodreads 2

Wortman offers technical information, history, and anecdotes for 12 bridges across the Willamette River, two across the Columbia River, and several railroad bridges in the Portland (Oregon) vicinity. Since the 1989 first edition, she has been leading bridge walks for children and adults, and has married a bridge engineer. The second edition adds more poetry, a couple of songs, a glossary of terms, a list of owners and web sites, and an index. The chronology has also been extended to 2001, and the captions updated. The superb line drawings of prospects and details are by Jay Dee Alley, about whom no more information is provided.

7 .) The Portland Red Guide by Michael Munk

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• The Oregon State Library

A historical guidebook of social dissent, Michael Munk’s The Portland Red Guide describes local radicals, their organizations, and their activities in relation to physical sites in the Rose City. With the aid of maps and historical photos, Munk’s stories are those that history books often exclude. The historical listings expand readers’ perspectives of the unique city and its radical past. The Portland Red Guide is a testament to Portland’s rich history of working-class people and organizations that stood against repression and injustice. It honors those who insisted on pursuing a better justification for their lives rather than the quest for material wealth, and who dedicated themselves to offering alternative visions of how to organize society.

6 .) The River Why by David James Duncan

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

Flyfishing genius Gus Orviston, seeking refuge from his stuffy, world-famous father and ripsnorting cowgirl mother, embarks on a reluctant quest for meaning that leads him to an astonishing task

5 .) The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• Wikipedia

Patrick deWitt, a young writer whose “stop-you-in-your-tracks writing has snuck up on the world” (Los Angeles Times), brings us The Sisters Brothers, a darkly comic, outrageously inventive novel that offers readers a decidedly off-center view of the Wild, Wild West. Set against the back-drop of the great California Gold Rush, this odd and wonderful tour de force at once honors and reshapes the traditional western while chronicling the picaresque misadventures of two hired guns, the fabled Sisters brothers. The most original western since the Coen Brothers re-interpreted True Grit—you’ve never met anyone quite like The Sisters Brothers.

4 .) Winterkill by Craig Lesley

Lists It Appears On:

• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

From the two-time winner of the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Association Award: a deeply moving and evocative novel of fathers and sons. Danny Kachiah is a Native American fighting not to become a casualty. His father, Red Shirt, is dead; his wife, Loxie, has left him, and his career as a rodeo cowboy is flagging. But when Loxie dies in a car wreck, leaving him with his son, Jack, whom he hardly knows, Danny uses the magnificent stories of Red Shirt to guide him toward true fatherhood. Together, Danny and Jack begin to make a life from the dreams of yesterday and the ruins of today’s northwestern reservations.

3 .) The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin

Lists It Appears On:

• Goodreads 1
• Reddit
• The Oregon State Library
• Wikipedia

“George Orr is a man who discovers he has the peculiar ability to dream things into being — for better or for worse. In desperation, he consults a psychotherapist who promises to help him — but who, it soon becomes clear, has his own plans for George and his dreams.

The Lathe of Heaven is a dark vision and a warning — a fable of power uncontrolled and uncontrollable. It is a truly prescient and startling view of humanity, and the consequences of playing God.”

2 .) Wildwood (Wildwood Chronicles, #1) by Colin Meloy

Lists It Appears On:

• The Guardian
• Wikipedia
• Goodreads 1
• Reddit

“In Wildwood, Prue and her friend Curtis uncover a secret world in the midst of violent upheaval—a world full of warring creatures, peaceable mystics, and powerful figures with the darkest intentions. And what begins as a rescue mission becomes something much greater as the two friends find themselves entwined in a struggle for the very freedom of this wilderness. A wilderness the locals call Wildwood.

Wildwood captivates readers with the wonder and thrill of a secret world within the landscape of a modern city. It feels at once firmly steeped in the classics of children’s literature and completely fresh at the same time. The story is told from multiple points of view, and the book features more than eighty illustrations, including six full-color plates, making this an absolutely gorgeous object.”

1 .) Fugitives and Refugees: A Walk in Portland, Oregon by Chuck Palahniuk

Lists It Appears On:

• Reddit
• Wikipedia
• Goodreads 1
• The Guardian
• The Oregon State Library

“How do you get to the Apocalypse Café?

In the closest thing he may ever write to an autobiography, Chuck Palahniuk provides answers to all these questions and more as he takes you through the streets, sewers, and local haunts of Portland, Oregon. According to Katherine Dunn, author of the cult classic Geek Love, Portland is the home of America’s “fugitives and refugees.” Get to know these folks, the “most cracked of the crackpots,” as Palahniuk calls them, and come along with him on an adventure through the parts of Portland you might not otherwise believe actually exist. No other travel guide will give you this kind of access to “a little history, a little legend, and a lot of friendly, sincere, fascinating people who maybe should’ve kept their mouths shut.”

Here are strange personal museums, weird annual events, and ghost stories. Tour the tunnels under downtown Portland. Visit swingers’ sex clubs, gay and straight. See Frances Gabe’s famous 1940s Self-Cleaning House. Look into strange local customs like the I-Tit-a-Rod Race and the Santa Rampage. Learn how to talk like a local in a quick vocabulary lesson. Get to know, I mean really get to know, the animals at the Portland zoo. “

The 300+ Additional Best Books About Portland Oregon

7 Best Books Featuring Portland Oregon Book Sources/Lists