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

Smoke by Ellen Hopkins

August 3, 2014 by Christina

Fiction — print. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006. 532 pgs. Library copy. Pattyn Von Stratten’s abusive father is dead, and Pattyn is on the run disguising her identity and living amongst immigrant communities who also fear the police. Only her sister Jackie knows what happened the night their father died, but Jackie is struggling to find her voice in a home where their mother clings to normalcy by allowing the truth of what happened to Jackie before her father’s death […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Chunkster, Fiction, Mountain West, North America, Poetry, United States, Young Adult • Tags: Ellen Hopkins

Last Stand by Todd Wilkinson

June 29, 2014 by Christina

Nonfiction — iBooks edition. Lyons Press, 2013. 392 pgs. Purchased. Subtitled “Ted Turner’s Quest to Save a Troubled Planet”, Wilkinson’s biography of the creator of CNN and the twenty-four hour news cycle concentrates on his life after stepping down from the helm of CNN. Turner turned his attention to environmentalist and the plight of the American bison becoming the second largest landowner in the United States after the U.S. Government. Bison are not universally loved in the American West, and […]

Categories: 2014 Reads, Mountain West, Nonfiction, North America, United States • Tags: Todd Wilkinson