Book Reviews
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Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border: Film, Music andStories of Undocumented Immigrants
In Alambrista and the U.S.-Mexico Border, editors Nicholas J. Cull and David Carrasco describe the making of the 1977 movie Alambrista, which explored the lives of undocumented migrant workers
by Staff, May 16, 2005 -
The Guymas Chronicles
The Guaymas Chronicles by archaeologist David E. Stuart is a funny and touching memoir of the time he spent in Mexico in the early 1970s
by Staff, May 16, 2005 -
More than numbers: The dead of Idaho's Sunshine Mine
In The Deep Dark, Gregg Olsen tells the tragic story of the 1972 fire in the Sunshine Mine in Idaho’s Silver Valley, which took the lives of 91 men
by Stephen J. Lyons, May 16, 2005 -
Finding good grub in Mormon redrock country
In With a Measure of Grace: The Story and Recipes of a Small Town Restaurant, Blake Spalding and Jennifer Castle tell how they ended up running the Hell’s Backbone Grill in the remote community of Boulder, Utah
by Michelle Nijhuis, May 16, 2005 -
A geography of the imagination
In Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape, edited by Barry Lopez and Debra Gwartney, 45 diverse writers define unusual geographical terms used across the country.
by Eliza Murphy, Mar 05, 2007 -
Native Waters
In Native Waters: Contemporary Indian Water Settlements and the Second Treaty Era, scholar Daniel McCool explores the current struggle by tribes to finally get the water they have long been promised by treaty.
by Matt Jenkins, Oct 14, 2002 -
Cowgirl meets lawsuit
In her first novel, Jackalope Dreams, Western writer Mary Clearman Blew gives us a tale of the contemporary West that rings both sad and true.
by Annie Dawid, May 26, 2008 -
The (non)idiot’s guide to energy
In Power of the People: America’s New Electricity Choices, energy specialist Carol Sue Tombari has written a concise and remarkably readable book about the best way to tackle our nation’s energy problems.
by Allen Best, May 26, 2008 -
Small-town struggle in a big land
In his first book, The Enders Hotel, Brandon R. Schrand describes a childhood spent growing up in a funky hotel in the small town of Soda Springs, Idaho.
by Andrea Clark Mason, May 12, 2008 -
Words that mountains speak
In Contact: Mountain Climbing and Environmental Thinking, Jeffrey Mathes McCarthy has assembled 23 essays from a wide range of authors.
by Sylvia Torti, May 12, 2008 -
Rolling on the rivers
The essays in Page Stegner’s Adios Amigos celebrate the fragile beauty of Western rivers and the lives of the artists and explorers who journeyed down them.
by Janice Gable Bashman, Apr 28, 2008 -
Forces of nature
Amy Irvine’s memoir, Trespass, describes how she moved to rural Utah after her father’s suicide.
by Sara Rubin, Apr 28, 2008 -
Lines in the sand
The essays in Gary Paul Nabhan’s Arab/American celebrate the landscape, culture and cuisine of two great deserts: The Middle Eastern lands from which his ancestors came and the Sonoran Desert he now lives in.
by Evelyn Schlatter, Apr 14, 2008 -
A life of words and wilderness
Rick Bass’ memoir, Why I Came West, describes how his 20-year struggle to save Montana’s Yaak Valley held him hostage, preventing him from concentrating on writing the short fiction that he loves.
by Eric Peterson, Apr 14, 2008 -
Thinking like a fish
The essays in Chad Hanson’s collection Swimming with Trout celebrate the wonder of water and its mysterious inhabitants.
by Irene Wanner, Mar 31, 2008 -
Reasons to stay
In Charlotte Bacon’s novel, Split Estate, a damaged New York family seeks refuge and renewal on a Wyoming ranch.
by T.K. Dalton, Mar 31, 2008 -
Remembering Rrrrrip City!
The essays in Matt Love’s anthology Red Hot and Rollin’ take a lively and nostalgic look at Oregon in 1977, the year the Portland Trailblazers won their one and only NBA championship.
by Michelle Nijhuis, Mar 03, 2008 -
Men, machines, memories
In Five Skies, novelist Ron Carlson tells the terse and occasionally poetic stories of three emotionally damaged men working in Idaho for the summer.
by T.K. Dalton, Mar 03, 2008 -
Die with me
Three new books about the West’s Indian wars – Ned Blackhawk’s Violence Over the Land, Kingsley Bray’s Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life, and Robert W. Larson’s Gall: Lakota War Chief – seem to romanticize a violent past.
by Annie Dawid, Feb 04, 2008 -
Madame Merian and her passion for metamorphosis
In Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis, Kim Todd uncovers the life and legacy of a pioneering 17th century woman
by Michelle Nijhuis, Jan 21, 2008
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