Two Oregon writers read at the Hawthorne Powell's tonight. I'm not familiar with Kim Cooper Findling, whose memoir Chance of Sun describes growing up in Oregon in the ’70s and ’80s. I liked Matt Love's book, though; Love and the Green Lady catalogs the writer's obsession with Newport's Yaquina Bay Bridge, a "shining romantic jewel of Oregon socialism" that was built in the 1930s under the New Deal. As I wrote in this week's paper:

Love and the Green Lady is a rambling, imperfect, and very charming book that strings together history lessons, political irreverence, and memoir, along with photos taken by Love and his students (he's a high school teacher). Love comes off now and again like an excitable uncle, rhapsodizing over the shape of a bridge—but then, without missing a beat, he'll segue into a daydream about fucking Sarah Palin from behind, or a tirade about how America is going down the shitter. In short, it's a varied, informal, and passionate look at just how much meaning one artfully designed bridge can bear.

The reading is tonight at the Powell's on Hawthorne, 3723 SE Hawthorne, 7:30 pm.