Recommended reading to take you into the next year
The season’s best titles for new fiction and nonfiction.
“I’ve found my consolation in the Breaks, the ten thousand shades of blue in the sky, tree bark the color of dried blood, the squabbling of birds and the rotation of stars; poetry.”
-Allen Morris Jones, A Bloom of Bones
“I think all kids start out Hopi. They don’t separate the real from the pretend, the living from the dead, the essence from its many forms. They see a fluidity to dogness: a rez dog, Clifford the cartoon dog, a stuffed dog, a boy barking like a dog, a hot dog.”
-Charlie Quimby, Inhabited
“I’ve spent more than half my life pointed northward, trying to answer private questions about violence and belonging and cold.”
-Blair Braverman, Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube
These quotes are from three of the new fall books I’m looking forward to reading, along with Brit Bennett’s debut novel The Mothers, about secrets in a black community in Southern California, Steven Schulte’s As Precious as Blood, a history of water in HCN’s Western Slope, Colorado, home, and wildlife biologist Bruce L. Smith’s Stories from Afield.
Several longtime HCN contributors have new titles. Board member Florence Williams studies how the natural world revitalizes us in The Nature Fix. Fans of “Rants From the Hill,” Michael Branch’s hcn.org blog on life in the Great Basin Desert, will relish Raising Wild. Michael Engelhard has two books: a memoir about his wildland travels, and a history of the relationship between polar bears and humans. Essayist Aaron Gilbreath describes the “journey of growing up in contemporary America” in Everything We Don’t Know, while Nick Neely’s Coast Range explores the Pacific Northwest’s geology and wildlife. And Bill McKibben recommends Piano Tide by Kathleen Dean Moore, “a savagely funny and deeply insightful novel of the tidepool and rainforest country she knows so well.”
Here are some of fall’s most promising titles, alphabetically by author. No publication month is shown for titles already available.
FICTION
The Bones of Paradise Jonis Agee, Morrow
The Angel of History: A Novel Rabih Alameddine, Atlantic Monthly Press
The Legend of Jesse Smoke: A Novel Robert Bausch, Bloomsbury
The Mothers: A Novel Brit Bennett, Riverhead
The Terranauts T.C. Boyle, Ecco
Good Morning, Midnight: A Novel Lily Brooks-Dalton, Random House
The Underworld: A Novel Kevin Canty, W.W. Norton & Company, March
Huck Out West: A Novel Robert Coover, W.W. Norton & Company, January
Dodger Blue Will Fill Your Soul Bryan Allen Fierro, University of Arizona Press
The Kid: A Novel Ron Hansen, Scribner
Monterey Bay: A Novel Lindsay Hatton, Penguin Press
IQ Joe Ide, Mulholland Books
In the Not Quite Dark: Stories Dana Johnson, Counterpoint Press
A Bloom of Bones Allen Morris Jones, Ig Publishing
The Outside Lands: A Novel Hannah Kohler, St. Martin’s
Pull Me Under Kelly Luce, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Shelter in Place Alexander Maksik, Europa
Piano Tide: A Novel Kathleen Dean Moore, Counterpoint Press, December
The Annual Big Arsenic Fishing Contest! John Nichols, University of New Mexico Press
Mammoth: A Novel Douglas Perry, Amberjack Publishing
Inhabited Charlie Quimby, Torrey House Press
My Bad: A Mile High Noir Manuel Ramos, Arte Público Press
Freebird: A Novel Jon Raymond, Graywolf Press, January 2017
The Talker: Stories Mary Sojourner, Torrey House Press, March 2017
Black Wave Michelle Tea, Amethyst Editions
NONFICTION, BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR
The Grid: The Fraying Wires between Americans and Our Energy Future Gretchen Bakke, Bloomsbury
Alaska Range: Exploring the Last Great Wild Carl Battreall, Mountaineers Books
Raising Wild: Dispatches from a Home in the Wilderness Michael Branch, Roost Books
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North Blair Braverman, Ecco
Through Early Yellowstone: Adventuring by Bicycle, Covered Wagon, Foot, Horseback, and Skis ed. Janet Chapple, Granite Peak Publications
The Earth is Weeping: The Epic Story of the Indian Wars for the American West Peter Cozzens, Penguin Random House
Losing Eden: An Environmental History of the American West Sara Dant, Wiley-Blackwell
The Man Who Thought He Owned Water: On the Brink with American Farms, Cities and Food Tershia d’Elgin, University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press
Where the Wind Dreams of Staying: Searching for Purpose and Place in the West Eric Dieterle, Oregon State University Press
Coming of Age at the End of Nature: A Generation Faces Living on a Changed Planet ed. Julie Dunlap and Susan A. Cohen, Trinity University Press
American Wild: Explorations from the Grand Canyon to the Arctic Ocean Michael Engelhard, Hiraeth Press
Ice Bear: The Cultural History of an Arctic Icon Michael Engelhard, University of Washington Press
Walking to Listen Andrew Forsthoefel, Bloomsbury
Everything We Don’t Know: Essays Aaron Gilbreath, Curbside Splendor
Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary Joe Jackson Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Where Water is Gold: Life and Livelihood in Alaska’s Bristol Bay Carl Johnson, Mountaineers Books
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature J. Drew Lanham, Milkweed Editions
Yellowstone Ranger Jerry Mernin, Riverbend Publishing
Not So Golden State: Sustainability vs. the California Dream Char Miller, Trinity University Press
Wild America: A Personal Celebration of the National Parks David Muench and Roly Smith, Rucksack Readers
Coast Range: A Collection from the Pacific Edge Nick Neely, Counterpoint
The Peace in Peril: The Real Cost of the Site C Dam Christopher Pollon, Harbour Publishing
Through a Green Lens: Fifty Years of Writing for Nature Robert Michael Pyle, Oregon State University
The Northern Rockies: A Fire Survey and The Southwest: A Fire Survey Stephen J. Pyne, University of Arizona Press
The New Trail of Tears: How Washington Is Destroying American Indians Naomi Schaefer Riley, Encounter Books
Wildlife Politics Bruce Rocheleau, Cambridge University Press, March 2017
Temperance Creek: A Memoir Pamela Royes, Counterpoint Press
Migrant Deaths in the Arizona Desert: La vida no vale nada ed. Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith et al., University of Arizona Press
Turning Homeward: Restoring Hope and Nature in the Urban Wild Adrienne Ross Scanlan, Mountaineers Books
As Precious as Blood: The Western Slope in Colorado’s Water Wars, 1900–1970 Steven C. Schulte, University Press of Colorado
Saving Wyoming’s Hoback: The Grassroots Movement that Stopped Natural Gas Development Florence Rose Shepard and Susan Marsh, University of Utah Press
Stories from Afield: Adventures with Wild Things in Wild Places Bruce L. Smith, University of Nebraska Press
Defending Giants: The Redwood Wars and the Transformation of American Environmental Politics Darren F. Speece, University of Washington Press
Land of Enchantment: A Memoir Leigh Stein, Plume
The Unsettlers: In Search of the Good Life in Today’s America Mark Sundeen, Riverhead, January 2017
Underground Ranger: Adventures in Carlsbad Caverns National Park and Other Remarkable Places Doug Thompson, University of New Mexico Press
Beaver’s Fire: A Regional Portfolio (1970-2010) George Venn, Redbat Books
Babe in the Woods: Building a Life, One Log at a Time Yvonne Wakefield, Boldface Books
No Barriers: A Blind Man’s Journey to Kayak the Grand Canyon Erik Weihenmayer and Buddy Levy, St. Martin’s/Dunne
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier and More Creative Florence Williams, W.W. Norton & Company, February 2017
Lassoing the Sun: A Year in America’s National Parks Mark Woods, Thomas Dunne Books
