The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi

September 4, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Knopf, 2015. 371 pgs. Library copy. Set in the not-too-distant-future, Bacugalupi’s novel finds the southwestern United States desolate and abandoned after a series of Category 6 hurricanes – a new categorization on our 1 to 5 scale – flattens coastal Texas and a massive, continuous drought has stopped the Colorado River from flowing downstream at the rate required by the Colorado River Compact of 1922. The details are sketchy as the story largely takes place in the […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Book Club, Dystopia, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, Science Fiction, United States • Tags: Paolo Bacigalupi

The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo

August 12, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Atria Books, 2015. 417 pgs. Purchased. In 1987, fourteen-year-old Ted Systead and his father were camping in the backcountry of Glacier National Park when a grizzly bear attacked Ted’s father, dragging him out of the tent and to his death. Ted managed to stay awake all night, starting a fire to keep himself warm and plotting how he would get help. But, in his delirious and anxious state, Ted tripped over a rock, smashing his head […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, 20BooksofSummer, Animals, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: Christine Carbo

The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson

March 18, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction – print. Vintage, 2011. Originally published 2010. 622 pgs. Purchased.   Subtitled “The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration”, Wilkerson’s book follows three individuals in order to construct a larger narrative about the movement of black Americans between 1915 and the 1970s. Historians estimate roughly six million black Americans moved from majority black southern states governed by white minorities to northern and western states where racism had not (yet) been codified through Jim Crow laws. The three individuals profiled […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Chunkster, Mountain West, Nonfiction, ReadDiverse, United States • Tags: Isabel Wilkerson

Paradise Valley by C.J. Box

February 12, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – print. Minotaur Books, 2017. 340 pgs. Gift. Two years after the events of Badlands, Chief Investigator Cassie Dewell has finally ensnared the Lizard King in her trap. The serial killer she’s has spent nearly four years chasing is on his way to Grimstead, North Dakota to pick up a load, and Cassie and her fellow officers at the Bakken County Sheriff’s Department are prepared to take him into custody. Cassie is certain he won’t get away this time; […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Educated by Tara Westover

January 31, 2019 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Random House, 2018. 334 pgs. Purchased. Westover’s memoir generated considerable buzz after its publication last year. Former US President Barack Obama included it in his list of favorite books for 2018, and it seemed like every single book club I considered joining in my new town had read or planned to read this book. I bought a copy figuring I’d end up reading it for a book club eventually, but bumped up to the top of my […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Education, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, Religion, United States • Tags: Tara Westover

The Highway by C.J. Box

January 27, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — Kindle edition. Minotaur Books, 2017. Originally published 2013. 398 pgs. Library copy. Two years after the events of Back of Beyond, Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Cody Hoyt has stayed sober, reunited with his ex-wife and teenage son, and been assigned a new investigating partner, Cassie Dewell. Cassie is a so-called “diversity hire” — a single mother on a male-dominated force — but Cody sees promise in the young deputy and considers the hiring to be one of the […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Off the Grid by C.J. Box

January 17, 2019 by Christina

Fiction — print. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2016. 371 pgs. Borrowed from a Little Free Library. It is always a gamble to jump in the middle of a series, and I took a huge gamble by starting Box’s Joe Pickett series with the sixteenth book in the series. In this book, the series’ title character is back working for the state of Wyoming as a game warden while he tries to deal with the insurance company over his daughter’s outstanding medical bills. […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

Back of Beyond by C.J. Box

January 8, 2019 by Christina

Fiction – Kindle edition. Corvus, 2011. 382 pgs. Library copy. Cody Hoyt returned to his hometown of Helena, Montana after washing out with the police force down in Colorado. His marriage to the woman he married while still in high school disintegrated years ago, and while he tries to be the exact opposite of his own father, his relationship with his son Justin is strained. Despite the infamy of his family’s criminal behavior in Helena, Cody still manages to get […]

Categories: 2019 Reads, Crime, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: C.J. Box

The Newcomers by Helen Thorpe

December 31, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction — print. Scribner, 2017. 416 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom”, Thorpe spent a year and a half in an English Language Acquisition (ELA) class at Denver’s South High School. The twenty-two students she shadowed arrived in America as refugees with little English comprehension from around the world, including Iraq via Syria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma, and El Salvador. Over this period of time, these students struggled to adjust to […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Africa, Asia, Book Club, Education, Middle East, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, South America, Thailand, United States • Tags: Helen Thorpe

Fidelity by Susan Glaspell

December 26, 2018 by Christina

Fiction – print. Persephone Books, 1999. Originally published 1913. 358 pgs. Purchased. In 1900, Ruth Holland made the decision to leave her hometown of Freeport to be with the man she was in love with. Her lover, Stuart Williams, was married, and the scandal of Ruth’s actions — because women always carry the blame — divided the small Iowa town and the Holland family. “That part of her life had been cut away from her. With most lives the past […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Feminism, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, Persephone Books, United States • Tags: Susan Glaspell

American Wolf by Nate Blakeslee

February 7, 2018 by Christina

Nonfiction — Kindle edition. Crown, 2017. 320 pgs. Library copy. Subtitled “A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West”, Blakeslee follows the life and death of one of Yellowstone National Park’s most famous residents, a gray wolf known as O-Six.  Born in 2006 (hence the name), O-Six became the alpha female for a large portion of prime real estate in Yellowstone, a stretch known as the Lamar Valley, in part because of her unique ability to take down […]

Categories: 2018 Reads, Animals, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America • Tags: Nate Blakeslee

Letters from Yellowstone by Diane Smith

August 10, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Penguin, 2000. 256 pgs. Purchased. A case of mistaken identity — or, rather fanciful wishing on the part of Professor Howard Merriam and the use of initials on the part of Alexandria Bartram — allows a young woman who dreams of becoming accomplished in the field of botany to join a field study in Yellowstone National Park during the summer of 1989. Displeased that find a woman on their team, Professor Merriam and the rest of his […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, United States • Tags: Diane Smith