Book Reviews
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An example and an antidote
In Imagination in Place, his new collection of essays, writer/farmer/poet Wendell Berry shares some of his honest wisdom and sharp-eyed observations.
by Kurt Caswell, Jul 13, 2010 -
Compassionate listening, fierce conversation
Photographer Meredith Ogilby and writer Corinne Platt interview 49 Western "heavy-lifters" in their new book, Voices of the American West.
by Allen Best, Jun 20, 2010 -
Life in a doomed dome
In Dreaming the Biosphere, Rebecca Reider looks into the story behind the failed Arizona experiment.
by Stephanie Paige Ogburn, Jun 20, 2010 -
Notes from a Wyoming sheepwagon
Laura Bell's new memoir, Claiming Ground, tells of her years spent working as a Wyoming sheepherder.
by Traci J. Macnamara, Jun 06, 2010 -
Stories from the shadow sides
The short stories in Aryn Kyle's Boys and Girls Like You and Me are threaded by themes of solitude and unrest.
by Karen Rigby, Jun 06, 2010 -
What lies beneath?
The likable characters in the three novellas in Jim Harrison's The Farmer's Daughter are all confronted by loneliness and brutality.
by Brian Kevin, May 23, 2010 -
A California Bestiary: Beauty of the beasts
A California Bestiary celebrates the state's wildlife with vivid illustrations by Mona Caron and thoughtful words by Rebecca Solnit.
by Michael Engelhard, May 09, 2010 -
Ghosts of Wyoming: A haunted past and present
The haunting short stories in Alyson Hagy's collection resonate with themes of loss, resignation and hope.
by Melissa Mylchreest, May 09, 2010 -
A Western state of mind
The short story anthology Best of the West 2009 is filled with memorable characters and muscular prose.
by Tania Casselle, Apr 25, 2010 -
Building a more effective environmental movement
In The Rebirth of Environmentalism, activist Douglas Bevington explores the relationship between the giant national organizations, like the Sierra Club, and the small grassroots groups.
by Felice Pace, Apr 25, 2010 -
A once and future abundance
In The Living Shore, food writer Rowan Jacobsen’s interest in the vanishing Olympia oyster leads him to a consuming fascination with threatened coastal ecosystems.
by A.E. Smith, Apr 11, 2010 -
Saving the U.S. Forest Service
Timothy Egan's new book, The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America, credits early firefighters for saving the Forest Service.
by Cherie Newman, Apr 11, 2010 -
Untold tales of the American frontier
The second edition of John Ravage's book, Black Pioneers: Images of the Black Experience on the North American Frontier, illuminates the roles blacks played in settling the West.
by Wayne Hare, Mar 19, 2010 -
Pulp friction
Philip Caputo's seventh novel, Crossers, amounts to little more than the literary equivalent of a popcorn flick.
by Brian Kevin, Mar 14, 2010 -
The myths of Native American identity
Paul Chaat Smith's latest book, Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong, is a funny and painful collection of essays on the ways that Indians are stereotyped.
by Annie Dawid, Feb 28, 2010 -
A dark and disjointed journey
The short stories in Sam Shepard's new collection, Day out of Days, have an unhinged, distinctly Western flavor.
by Traci J. Macnamara, Feb 14, 2010 -
The limits of memory
Jeannette Walls' "true-life novel," Half Broke Horses, is hampered by the author's memories of her grandmother, the main character.
by Alexa Mergen, Feb 14, 2010 -
How the West was really won
Paul VanDevelder digs into the rotten core of the American experience in his new book, Savages & Scoundrels: The Untold Story of America's Road to Empire through Indian Territory.
by Debra Utacia Krol, Jan 31, 2010 -
Finding freedom in Yosemite
Shelton Johnson's novel Gloryland traces the adventurous life of Elijah Yancy, a young man of black and Indian heritage, who roams the West in the 19th century.
by Melissa Mylchreest, Jan 31, 2010 -
The genesis of the West
Douglas Brinkley's magisterial The Wilderness Warrior describes how Teddy Roosevelt created the American West we love today.
by Ed Marston, Jan 14, 2010
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