I’ve enjoyed reading along with you this summer, but by the time this issue of High Country News hits your mailbox, our summer reading challenge — along with the season itself — will have officially come to a close.
Readers have already submitted nearly 150 different titles for this year’s nine reading prompts — well, eight prompts, if you don’t count Step 7, which calls for a historical marker. Hundreds of folks watched our live reading events with authors. And a few of you even managed to traverse the entire summer reading path start to finish — congratulations!
The most popular prompt was Step 9: “Read a book that challenges your assumptions about Western history.” Your selections were wonderfully varied: travel collections, fiction set in various Western locales, history and nonfiction about everything from chocolate, housing, time and microchips to disasters and climate and more! I was especially intrigued by the submissions that centered Indigenous narratives: The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, The Bear River Massacre: A Shoshone History by Darren Parry, Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks by Mark David Spence, Yellow Dirt: A Poisoned Land and the Betrayal of the Navajos by Judy Pasternak and this summer’s most popular pick: Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer.
As for Step 7, which asked you to read a historical marker and send in your alternative version for bonus points — I’d consider it this summer’s sleeper hit. Readers sent in well-researched reinterpretations from across the West, showing falsehoods, errors of omission, shocking language and even entirely misplaced markers! We also heard from folks involved with state efforts to update historical markers and readers who’ve pursued the topic on their own. Stephen Benz shared a chapter of his book, Reading the Signs, while Jonah Das edits a project, Illahee Rising, about neglected Indigenous historical sites. Bonus points all around!
I want to thank HCN editors Melissa Chadburn, Paisley Rekdal and Michelle Nijhuis for coming up with the excellent reading prompts, and staffers Marissa Garcia, Michael Leveton, Emily Benson and Jennifer Sahn for helping out behind the scenes or in front of the webcam. (You can still view this summer’s author events online here.) And thank you to everyone who submitted a book this year! Browse a collective summer of good reads at reading.hcn.org.
So what should we do next year? Let me know what you’re looking forward to at dearfriends@hcn.org.
Your favorite books, ranked by total of submissions and votes:
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Overstory by Richard Powers
Brave the Wild River by Melissa L. Sevigny
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Question of the month
What does the Endangered Species Act mean for the species you coexist with?
This landmark law turns 50 this year. Beyond marquee success stories like bald eagles and peregrine falcons, the Endangered Species Act and its predecessors have extended protections to thousands of species large and small, some of them charismatic and others less obviously photogenic. Have you encountered, or do you know about, any species in your area that have been impacted by the law? Let us know at dearfriends@hcn.org.
A list of listed species by state is available here.
Michael Schrantz is the marketing communications manager for High Country News based in Santa Fe. Email him at michael.schrantz@hcn.org or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Thanks for reading.
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