The reading season
After the summer's whirl of activity, after the mountains have been hiked and the rivers have been run and the garden has been weeded for what we hope to God is the final round, it's a good time to kick back with a book. Fall invites a slower pace, gives us lazy afternoons by the woodstove to lose ourselves in words. This autumn's crop of great new reads includes offerings from much-loved authors, like T.C. Boyle Stories II, a wicked-funny story collection from the California master, and the latest from Ivan Doig, Sweet Thunder, about the further adventures of Morrie Morgan from The Whistling Season. For fans of now-deceased mystery writer Tony Hillerman, his daughter, Anne Hillerman, has written Spider Woman's Daughter, continuing the saga of Navajo sleuths Leaphorn and Chee. And lesser-known authors have produced some intriguing titles. In the novel In Calamity's Wake, Canadian writer Natalee Caple imagines Calamity Jane's abandoned daughter on a quest to find her notorious mother. Oregon author Don Waters' Sunland is an authentic and comical novel set in Tucson and the Sonoran Desert. From Chicano noir author Ito Romo comes The Border Is Burning, haunting stories that take place along the chaotic, often violent border between the U.S. and Mexico. Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere: A Memoir is itinerant writer Poe Ballantine's exploration of a murder in Nebraska and of his High Plains town. The endless wolf wars are chronicled by Aimee Lyn Eaton in Collared: Politics and Personalities in Oregon's Wolf Country. We're proud to note new books by HCN contributors, too: Jared Farmer's Trees in Paradise: A California History, Kathie Durbin's posthumous Bridging a Great Divide: The Battle for the Columbia River Gorge, and a memoir from Bryce Andrews, Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West.
We're also keeping an eye out for some important works that won't be out till spring: The Crusades of Cesar Chavez, described as the "first complete and impartial biography" of the labor leader, by Miriam Pawel, and Poison Spring, an exposé of the Environmental Protection Agency by E.G. Vallianatos, a former agency insider.
Below are some of our top picks, listed alphabetically by author. If a book is currently available, no publication month is shown.
FICTION
Rain Dogs Baron R. Birtcher, The Permanent Press
T.C. Boyle Stories II T.C. Boyle, Viking Adult, October
In Calamity's Wake Natalee Caple, Bloomsbury, October
Return to Oakpine Ron Carlson, Viking
Killing Custer: A Wind River Mystery Margaret Coel, Berkley, September
Sweet Thunder Ivan Doig, Riverhead
The Best of McSweeney's Dave Eggers, McSweeney's Publishing, November
The Book of Jonah Joshua Max Feldman, Raincoast Books, February 2014
Kuessipan Naomi Fontaine, Arsenal Pulp Press, October
Spider Woman's Daughter Anne Hillerman, Harper, October
Road to Nowhere and Other New Stories from the Southwest D. Seth Horton, Brett Garcia Myhren, editors, University of New Mexico Press
The Shadows of Owls John Keeble, University of Washington Press, October
Where They Bury You Steven W. Kohlhagen, Sunstone Press
Desert Death-Song: A Collection of Western Stories Louis L'Amour, Skyhorse Publishing, October
The Thicket Joe R. Lansdale, Mulholland Books
Crow-Blue Adriana Lisboa, Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, October
If I'd Known You Were Coming Kate Milliken, University of Iowa Press, November
The Wives of Los Alamos TaraShea Nesbit, Bloomsbury, February 2014
Doomed Chuck Palahniuk, Doubleday, October
The Sky Manifest Brian Panhuyzen, ECW Press, October
This Darksome Burn: A Novella Nick Ripatrazone, firthFORTH Books, Queen's Ferry Press, October
The Border Is Burning Ito Romo, University of New Mexico Press
Even a Street Dog: Las Vegas Stories John L. Smith, CityLife Books
Raw: A Love Story Mark Haskell Smith, Grove Press, Black Cat, December
Father Junípero's Confessor Nick Taylor, Heyday
Goat Mountain David Vann, Harper Collins
Sunland Don Waters, University of Nevada Press, October
Let Him Go Larry Watson, Milkweed Editions
Grand Tally Robert Wolf, Ruskin Press, January
NONFICTION, BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR
Into the Night: Tales of Nocturnal Wildlife Expeditions Rick Adams, editor, University Press of Colorado, October
Badluck Way: A Year on the Ragged Edge of the West Bryce Andrews, Simon & Schuster, Atria Books
Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere: A Memoir Poe Ballantine, Hawthorne Books
Rough Breaks: A Wyoming High Country Memoir Laurie Wagner Buyer, University of Oklahoma Press
Accomplishing NAGPRA: Perspectives on the Intent, Impact, and Future of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act Sangita Chari, Jaime M.N. Lavallee, Oregon State University Press, November
Bridging a Great Divide: The Battle for the Columbia River Gorge Kathie Durbin, Oregon State University Press, November
Collared: Politics and Personalities in Oregon's Wolf Country Aimee Lyn Eaton, Oregon State University Press, October
Animal Stories: A Lifetime Collection Max Evans, University of Oklahoma Press
Trees in Paradise: A California History Jared Farmer, W.W. Norton & Company, October
Desert Rims to Mountains High Richard F. Fleck, Westwinds Press
Nobody's Horses: The Dramatic Rescue of the Wild Herd of White Sands Don Höglund, Simon & Schuster, Atria Books
Touching the Wild: Living with the Mule Deer of Deadman Gulch Joe Hutto, Skyhorse Publishing, November
Between Urban and Wild: Reflections from Colorado Andrea M. Jones, University of Iowa Press, November
Starting from Loomis and Other Stories Hiroshi Kashiwagi, University Press of Colorado, October
Continental Quotient: Stories from Both Sides of the Divide Kristen Lodge, Homebound Publications, October
Meander Scars: Reflections on Healing the Willamette River Abby Phillips Metzger, Oregon State University Press, October
Notes from the San Juans: Thoughts about Fly Fishing and Home Steven J. Meyers, Westwinds Press
Even Cowboys Carry Cell Phones Teresa Milbrodt, editor, University Press of Colorado, Western Press Books
Almost White: Forced Confessions of a Latino in Hollywood Rick Najera, SmileyBooks
The Crusades of Cesar Chavez Miriam Pawel, Bloomsbury, March 2014
Vacationland: Tourism and Environment in the Colorado High Country William Philpott, University of Washington Press
Death Valley National Park: A History Hal K. Rothman, Char Miller, University of Nevada Press
New Mexico: A History Joseph P. Sánchez, Robert L. Spude, Art Gómez, University of Oklahoma Press, October
Renewable: The World-Changing Power of Alternative Energy Jeremy Shere, St. Martin's Press, November
A Bushel's Worth: An Ecobiography Kayann Short, Torrey House Press
Poison Spring E.G. Vallianatos, Bloomsbury, April 2014
