These 10 must-read books set in Portland include award-winning novels and travel guides by award-winning novelists, beloved children’s series, and post apocalyptic sagas. Travel to the City of Roses with these books that take place in Portland.

1. The Residue Years by Mitchell S. Jackson

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“Mitchell S. Jackson grew up black in a neglected neighborhood in America’s whitest city, Portland, Oregon. In the ’90s, those streets and beyond had fallen under the shadow of crack cocaine and its familiar mayhem. In his commanding debut autobiographical novel, Mitchell writes what it was to come of age in that time and place, with a breakout voice that’s nothing less than extraordinary.”

2. Ramona Series by Beverly Quimby

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“Kids everywhere feel connected to Ramona’s unique way of looking at the world as she tries to adjust to new teachers, encounters bullies at school, and puts up with her bossy older sister. The scrapes she gets herself into—like wearing pajamas to school or accidentally making egg yolk shampoo—are funny and heartwarming, and sometimes embarrassing. No matter what, Ramona’s lively, curious spirit shines through.”

Also don’t miss Quimby’s Henry Huggins series.

3. Geek Love by Katherine Dunn

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“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.”

4. Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis

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“Prue McKeel’s life is ordinary. At least until her brother is abducted by a murder of crows and taken to the Impassable Wilderness, a dense, tangled forest on the edge of Portland. No one’s ever gone in—or at least returned to tell of it. So begins an adventure that will take Prue and her friend Curtis deep into the Impassable Wilderness. There they 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.”

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

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“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.'”

6. The Emberverse series by S. M. Stirling

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“A New York Times bestselling postapocalyptic saga set in a world where all technology has been rendered useless.”

7. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula Le Guin

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“In a future world racked by violence and environmental catastrophes, George Orr wakes up one day to discover that his dreams have the ability to alter reality. He seeks help from Dr. William Haber, a psychiatrist who immediately grasps the power George wields. Soon George must preserve reality itself as Dr. Haber becomes adept at manipulating George’s dreams for his own purposes.”

8. My Abandonment by Peter Rock

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“Thirteen-year-old Caroline and her father live in Forest Park, an enormous nature preserve in Portland, Oregon. They inhabit an elaborate cave shelter, wash in a nearby creek, store perishables at the water’s edge, use a makeshift septic system, tend a garden, even keep a library of sorts.

“Once a week they go to the city to buy groceries and otherwise merge with the civilized world. But one small mistake allows a backcountry jogger to discover them, which derails their entire existence, ultimately provoking a deeper flight.

“Told through the startlingly sincere voice of its young narrator, My Abandonment is a riveting journey into life at the margins and a mesmerizing tale of survival and hope.”

9. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky by Heidi Durrow

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“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. I Loved You More by Tom Spanbauer

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“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.”

Related: 10 Must-Read Books Set In Oregon

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