Book Reviews
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For farmers, small is beautiful
In Deeply Rooted, Lisa M. Hamilton introduces the reader to three small farmers who are bucking the trend toward industrial agribusiness.
by Andrea Appleton, Nov 08, 2009 -
Still riding the edge
In her memoir, Riding the Edge of an Era, Diana Allen Kouris relates the life described in her subtitle’s words: Growing Up Cowboy on the Outlaw Trail.
by Linda M. Hasselstrom, Oct 25, 2009 -
The diplomacy of water
Norris Hundley's magisterial Water in the West is back in print to enlighten readers about water politics, especially the Colorado River Compact.
by Matt Jenkins, Oct 26, 2009 -
Bordering on injustice
Jimmy Santiago Baca's novel A Glass of Water compassionately describes the lives of Mexican immigrants.
by Don Waters, Sep 13, 2009 -
Confronting life's essentials
Two recent memoirs -- Siesta Lane by Amy Minato and Lift by Rebecca K. O'Connor -- raise questions about the meaning of home, for both humans and falcons.
by Melissa Hart, Sep 13, 2009 -
Why some men are the way they are
Three new short story collections -- Nine Ten Again by Philip Condon, Where The Money Went by Kevin Canty, and Maile Meloy’s Both Ways Is The Only Way I Want It -- feature working-class men coping with damaged lives.
by Cherie Newman, Sep 13, 2009 -
A life unwound
In Michelle Huneven's novel Blame, a woman tries to deal with her guilt after a drunken-driving accident.
by Hillary Rosner, Sep 13, 2009 -
Books for lonely times
When you're camped all alone in the wilderness, there is nothing like a book to bring you comfort.
by Emma Brown, Sep 13, 2009 -
Writers of the Native American Renaissance
Native American literature is collected and analyzed in the anthology In Beauty I Walk.
by Emily Underwood, Aug 30, 2009 -
As the crow flies
In Crow Planet, Lyanda Lynn Haupt looks to the corvid family for lessons about life.
by Irene Wanner, Aug 30, 2009 -
Desperate people
In the short stories collected in The Mechanics of Falling, Catherine Brady describes fragile people whose precarious lives are unraveling.
by Andrea Clark Mason, Aug 16, 2009 -
The spirit of the place
In The Wild Marsh, Montana nature writer Rick Bass takes us through four seasons in his beloved Yaak Valley.
by Andrea Appleton, Aug 17, 2009 -
The meat of the matter
In Righteous Porkchop, Nicolette Hahn Niman takes on factory farming but gives ranching a pass.
by Andrea Appleton, Aug 03, 2009 -
Forager, feed thyself
In the essays and recipes collected in Fat of the Land, Langdon Cook retraces his path from fast-food junkie to wild-food chef and gourmand.
by A.E. Smith, Aug 03, 2009 -
The stories we believe
In Rick Collignon's new novel, Madewell Brown, the long-ago disappearance of a black man from a small New Mexican village is investigated by his granddaughter.
by Tania Casselle, Jul 21, 2009 -
Conservation's First Lady
A fiery environmentalist is fondly remembered in Dyana Furmansky's biography, Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy: The Activist Who saved Nature from the Conservationists.
by Laura Paskus, Jul 21, 2009 -
The other Trail of Tears
British author Brian Schofield pulls no punches in his account of a tragic episode in American history, Selling Your Father’s Bones: America’s 140-year War Against the Nez Perce Tribe.
by Brian Kevin, Jun 15, 2009 -
Old trees, new ideas, and humility
In Old Growth in the New World, 28 writers and experts debate whether and how the Pacific Northwest’s old-growth forests should be managed.
by Valerie Rapp, Jun 05, 2009 -
Forestry from the inside
The newspaper columns collected in Mary Stuever’s The Forester’s Log give an insider’s view of the challenges facing Western forests today.
by Irene Wanner, Jun 05, 2009 -
The bizarre intersection of humanity and nature
The short stories in Laura Chester’s Rancho Weirdo revolve around the unexpected interactions of middle-class people with nature.
by Melissa Hart, May 26, 2009
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