The Colorado Plateau II: Biophysical, Socioeconomic, and Cultural Research Charles van Riper III and David J. Mattson, eds. 352 pages, hardcover: $35 University of Arizona Press, 2005. Every two years, scientists gather to discuss the history, biology and geology of the vast Colorado Plateau, which sprawls across the Four Corners area. This book presents their […]
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Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures
John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures Sally M. Miller and Daryl Morrison, ed. 272 pages, hardcover: $29.95 University of New Mexico Press, 2005. This new collection of essays, John Muir: Family, Friends, and Adventures, manages to break fresh ground in discussing the great naturalist. Historic photographs, sketches and excerpts from letters brighten the sometimes-scholarly essays, […]
Posted inFebruary 6, 2006: The Killing Fields
Slaughter in Serene: The Columbia Coal Strike Reader
Slaughter in Serene: The Columbine Coal Strike Reader Lowell May and Richard Myers, ed. 196 pages, softcover: $19.05 Bread and Roses Workers’ Cultural Center, 2005. workersbreadandroses.org, 303-433-1852 Coal mining has played a major role in the histories of most Western states, including Colorado. Slaughter in Serene tells the story of striking miners in the late […]
Posted inJanuary 23, 2006: Timberlands up for grabs
Quick Stats
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story, “Timberlands up for grabs.” BUT WHO’S COUNTING… 2 Acres of timberland lost per minute. 1 million Acres of timberland lost per year. 23 million Acres of timberland projected to be lost by 2050. 340 Number of species threatend by timberland loss. 300 million Acres […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
The Sum of our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women
The Sum of our Past: Revisiting Pioneer Women Judy Busk 224 pages, hardcover: $32.95 Signature Books, 2004. Pioneer women are often portrayed as strong, brazen heroines or meek, conforming housewives. Author Judy Busk looks beyond the stereotypes to find the truth of these women’s lives in a book that’s part personal memoir, part historical research. […]
Posted inDecember 26, 2005: A New Green Revolution
The Pictograph Murders
The Pictograph Murders P.G. Karamesines 352 pages, softcover: $21.95 Signature Books, 2004. P.G. Karamesines combines pot hunting, witchcraft, and murder in a chilling first novel set on an archaeological dig in southern Utah. A sinister stranger appears in the field camp; he models himself on Coyote, the legendary Indian trickster. When Alex McKelvey, an archaeology […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Bear
Bear Robert E. Bieder 286 pages, softcover: $19.95 Reaktion Books, 2005. From cave bears to dancing bears, totemic bears to teddy bears, this elegant little book comes lavishly illustrated with bear photos, drawings and paintings. Author Robert E. Bieder tells the history of this fascinating animal through time and across cultures; there’s a treat on […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Earth Notes
Earth Notes Edited by Peter Friederici 70 pages, softcover: $6.95 Grand Canyon Association and KNAU, 2005. Served up in two-page bites, Earth Notes is a tasty selection of tidbits about the Southwest’s canyon country. Editor Peter Friederici dishes out a smorgasbord of nicely illustrated topics ranging from heirloom plant seeds to ancient stone calendars to […]
Posted inDecember 12, 2005: The Final Energy Frontier
Living Within Our Means: Beyond the Fossil Fuel Credit Card
Living Within Our Means: Beyond the Fossil Fuel Credit Card Kamyar Enshayan 54 pages, softcover: $12 Congdon Printing & Imaging, 2005. Engineer and city councilman Kamyar Enshayan considers the inevitable end of the fossil-fuel joyride. Short essays ponder topics we’ll all need to grapple with — like the truth about hydrogen and ethanol and what […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Buffalo Calf Road Woman
Buffalo Calf Road Woman Rosemary Agonito and Joseph Agonito 245 pages, softcover: $12.95 Globe Pequot Press, 2005. In Buffalo Calf Road Woman, the Agonitos describe the final, tragic days of Plains Indian culture as it was being ripped apart by settlers and soldiers. This fictionalized account portrays Buffalo Calf Road Woman, who rescued her brother […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
The Ardent Birder
The Ardent Birder Todd Newberry and Gene Holtan 214 pages, softcover: $14.95 Ten Speed Press, 2005. Professor Todd Newberry and artist Gene Holtan have produced a whimsical, fun book about the “lovely madness” that possesses bird watchers. Useful tips abound: how to host a birding field trip, what gear to bring, ways to identify a […]
Posted inNovember 28, 2005: Gold from the Gas Fields
Hear Him Roar
Hear Him Roar Andrew Wingfield 240 pages, softcover: $19.95 Utah State University Press, 2005. Puma concolor, the mountain lion, meets Homo dingus dongus, the urban dweller who is all for wild nature — as long as it’s predator-free. Set in Sacramento, Calif., this is a tensely told novel about the inevitable conflict between humans and […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
Imperfect Pasture: A Century of Change at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming
Imperfect Pasture: A Century of Change at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming Bruce Smith, Eric Cole and David Dobkin 156 pages, softcover: $14.95 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Grand Teton Natural History Association, 2004. The National Elk Refuge near Jackson, Wyo., is either a conservation success, or, as the scientist-authors of […]
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
The Mountain Encyclopedia
The Mountain Encyclopedia Frederic V. Hartemann and Robert Hauptman 291 pages, softcover: $29.95 Taylor Trade Publishing, 2005. The Mountain Encyclopedia delivers just what its title promises: intriguing facts and figures about mountainous topics from calderas and Chomolongma to vicuñas and virga. Colorful maps and photos complement the entries, many of which come from the authors’ […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming
Recovering the Sacred: The Power of Naming and Claiming Winona LaDuke 294 pages, softcover: $18 South End Press, 2005. Environmental and Indian rights activist Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwe, was the Green Party’s vice presidential candidate in 1996 and 2000. In this book, she examines the struggle of American Indians to reclaim their sacred sites and […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Cougar Management Guidelines
Cougar Management Guidelines Cougar Management Guidelines Working Group 137 pages, softcover: $21.95 WildFutures, 2005. Wildlife managers and citizen activists alike will find this book useful. It collects current cougar research into a set of guidelines for managing these secretive and increasingly rare big cats. Full of charts and figures, the book explores topics such as […]
Posted inOctober 31, 2005: The Public Lands' Big Cash Crop
Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland
Tony Hillerman’s Navajoland Laurance D. Linford 318 pages, softcover: $19.95 University of Utah Press, 2005. Fans of Tony Hillerman’s mysteries, featuring Navajo policemen Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, will delight in Laurance Linford’s obsessively detailed guide to every single mesa, pueblo, trading post and gully mentioned in the books. This second edition adds 45 new […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
The Boys of Winter
The Boys of Winter Charles Sanders257 pages, softcover: $19.95University Press of Colorado, 2005. Charles Sanders, an avid skier himself, tells the true stories of three champion skiers who joined the Army’s 10th Mountain Division during World War II. After training on the West’s snowy peaks, they went off to fight — and die — in […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
To Save the Wild Bison
To Save the Wild Bison Mary Ann Franke309 pages, hardcover: $29.95University of Oklahoma Press, 2005. Mary Ann Franke traces the controversial history of Yellowstone National Park’s bison, the only wild bison herd that’s persisted since pre-Columbus days. Praised as a potent restorer of biodiversity, the animals have also been persecuted as transmitters of disease; dozens […]
Posted inSeptember 19, 2005: Squeezing Water from a Stone
Wounded
Wounded Percival Everett 256 pages, hardcover: $23 Graywolf Press, 2005. Set in the Red Desert of Wyoming, this novel is a modern-day Western with a twist. John Hunt, a black horse trainer, gets pulled into the dark currents of hate crimes when an Indian friend’s cows are killed by racists and a friend’s gay son […]