Book Reviews
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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 -
Creating a precedent for forgiveness
In Naseem Rakha's novel, The Crying Tree, a woman tries to forgive her son's murderer.
by Cherie Newman , Dec 20, 2009 -
A search for meaning in the Pacific Northwest
Jon Raymond's short-story collection, Livability, is compassionate and quietly devastating.
by Lawrence Lanahan, Dec 20, 2009 -
Birders without borders
In Jim Lynch's second novel, Border Songs, an eccentric, gawky birdwatcher works for the Border Patrol along the Canadian border.
by Brian Kevin, Dec 06, 2009 -
The wild home of hope
Rock Water Wild: An Alaskan Life is Alaska writer Nancy Lord's celebration of her state.
by Michael Engelhard, Nov 22, 2009 -
A scientist's view of change
In Of Rock and Rivers, Ellen Wohl, a geomorphologist, reads the story behind the Western landscape.
by Valerie Rapp, Nov 22, 2009 -
'Yes' to desire and an end to fear
Charles Bowden's new book, Some of the Dead Are Still Breathing, reiterates the bad news of today but declares that times are changing.
by Laura Paskus, Nov 08, 2009
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