Daily Archives: November 17, 2024

Out West Books gift wraps three titles for the holidays

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Out West Books in Grand Junction recommends books ranging from Oz to outlaws to the building in the backwoods.

Toto

By A.J. HackwithAce Books$19November 2024Purchase

From the publisher: I was mostly a Good Dog until they sold me out to animal control, okay? But if it’s a choice between Oz, with its creepy little singing dudes, and being behind bars in gray old Kansas, I’ll choose the place where animals talk and run the show for now, thanks.

It’s not my fault that the kid is stuck here too, or that she stumbled into a tug-of-war over a pair of slippers that don’t even taste good. Now one witch in good eyeliner calls her pretty and we’re off on a quest? Teenagers. I try to tell her she’s falling in with the wrong crowd when she befriends a freaking hedge wizard made of straw, that blue jay with revolutionary aspirations, and the walking tin can. Still, I’m not one to judge when there’s the small matter of a coup in the Forest Kingdom…. 

     Look, something really stinks in Oz, and this Wizard guy and the witches positively reek of it. As usual, it’s going to be up to a sensible little dog to do a big dog’s job and get to the bottom of it. And trust me: Little dogs can get away with anything.

From Didi Herald, bookseller: All my life whenever someone asked me what I wanted for Christmas I always replied “books!” As an adult traveling over the holidays in some years, I always hoped to be gifted an enthralling book to make the post holiday journey home bearable. When I give a book as a gift, I want it to give the reader an enjoyable read with a giggle or two and, especially if they are traveling, some first class escapism.

With “The Wizard of Oz,” “The Wiz” and “Wicked” so ingrained in our culture for generations, Toto offers a comfortably familiar story but with 21st century characters that would be a blast to hang out with. It is truly Toto’s story. He’s a trash talking snarky little dog with a big heart who will protect his snarky, hoody wearing, teen girl. Landing in Oz thrusts them into the middle of a family feud that is escalating into a world war but friends and found family give Toto and company an edge. “Toto” is at the top of my gift giving list.

By Patrick HutchinsonSt. Martin’s Press$29December 2024Purchase

From the publisher: Wit’s End isn’t just a state of mind. It’s the name of a gravel road, the address of a run-down off-the-grid cabin, 120 shabby square feet of fixer-upper Patrick Hutchison purchased on a whim in the mossy woods of the Cascade Mountains in Washington state.

To say Hutchison didn’t know what he was getting into is no more an exaggeration than to say he’s a man with nearly zero carpentry skills. Well, used to be. You can learn a lot over six years of renovations.     CABIN is the story of those renovations, but it’s also a love story; of a place, of possibilities, and of the process of construction, of seeing what could be instead of what is. It is a book for those who know what it’s like to bite off more than you can chew, or who desperately wish to.

From Marya Johnston, owner: Haven’t each of us, at some point in time, attempted a carpentry project that was way out of our league? A birdhouse? A doghouse?

Patrick Hutchison hardly knew how to use a chainsaw when he tired of his office job as a copywriter and bought his own little “shabbin” (as some friends of mine call their own shabby cabin or shed/cabin). It’s such a dream idea, isn’t it? Building a cabin in the woods? But sometimes the actuality of building it and/or living in it can be far less romantic. Hutchison’s humor and heart are evident in this DIY tale of fulfilling that dream of a cabin in the woods, the reality of said dream, and the satisfaction of overcoming the challenges and obstacles that are part of the deal. 

I loved this book. My husband (who has had his own “shabbin” experiences), chuckled and read me passages out loud (even though I’d already read the book, mind you)  which is a good indicator that he enjoyed it, too. This is a great gift for anyone on your holiday list.  But beware: purchase of this book could lead to larger purchases, like land and lumber.   

Didi Herald, bookseller, adds: My husband, who spends most of his time building, fixing, and creating at our off-grid home, in back of beyond, rarely reads. He devoured this book in a couple days when I took it home and read a bit out loud. I couldn’t get it back until he finished it.

Bandit Heaven

By Tom ClavinSt. Martin’s Press$30October 2024Purchase

From the publisher: Robbers Roost, Brown’s Hole, and Hole in the Wall were three hideouts that collectively were known to outlaws as “Bandit Heaven.” During the 1880s and ‘90s these remote locations in Wyoming and Utah harbored hundreds of train and bank robbers, horse and cattle thieves, the occasional killer, and anyone else with a price on his head.

Clavin’s “Bandit Heaven” is the entertaining story of these tumultuous times and the colorful characters who rode the Outlaw Trail through the frigid mountain passes and throat-parching deserts that connected the three hideouts—well-guarded enclaves no sensible lawman would enter. There are the “star” residents like gregarious Butch Cassidy and his mostly silent sidekick the Sundance Kid, and an array of fascinating supporting players.

From Marya Johnston, owner:   If you live in the West and you don’t know about the Outlaw Trail, this book is for you.  If you DO know about our outlaw history, it’s still a new, fun read.  I was telling some young men about this book the other day and they didn’t know who Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were.  How is that possible?  Here in western Colorado, we literally follow in the footsteps of the Wild Bunch.  They traipsed all over the ground we walk on! 

     This is a small book full of lots of rich history and interesting characters; many of whom have books written about them in their own rite: Tom Horn, the ruthless bounty hunter; Matt Warner, outlaw turned sheriff; the Basset Women, Anne and Josie, who grew up around the Wild Bunch; Charlie Saringo, the Pinkerton “Cowboy Detective” who spent his life chasing after Butch. Their colorful lives are all detailed in this book.  And if you want to read more about them, we’ve got lots of books on these people in the store! 

     I know a thing or two about the Wild Bunch and the Outlaw Trail, and I can tell you that Tom Clavin has done some extensive research…and gets it right. I’m planning on giving this book to several members of my family.  It’s a great read and would make a gift that anyone would be happy to receive.

THIS WEEK’S BOOK RECS COME FROM:

Out West Books

533 Main St., Grand Junction

outwestbooks.co

As part of The Colorado Sun’s literature section — SunLit — we’re featuring staff picks from book stores across the state. Read more.

Type of Story: ReviewAn assessment or critique of a service, product, or creative endeavor such as art, literature or a performance.

Crawford County Quorum Court and library spar as book spat legal bills near $500,000

VAN BUREN — Crawford County’s legal quagmire over LGBTQ-related books in its library system has thrust other volumes into the spotlight: specifically, the budget books for both the library system and the county itself.
Leaders of both entities say they cannot afford to pay more than $118,000 in plaintiffs’ legal fees that they expect to be ordered by a federal judge to cover.
That sum would bring the taxpayer bill to almost $500,000 in legal expenses thus far over this issue.
Since May 2023, Crawford County has faced two lawsuits related to its treatment of LGBTQ-related books in its libraries. The issue bubbled up after some residents complained to the Quorum Court in late 2022 and early 2023.
Public comments regarded “some material that was being displayed at our county library on LGBT in which our county tax dollars are being used,” according to minutes from the Dec.

8-year-old boy raising money for Boston nonprofit with pop-up book stand

An ambitious second grader has started his very own pop-up book stand in Winchester, Massachusetts, and it’s all to benefit a local charity.

When 8-year-old Bobby Atchinson had books piling up in his bedroom, he wanted to give them away to give other kids the chance to enjoy them. But with help from his mom, Jeanna Atchinson, Bobby was able to take his idea to the next level.

“We started donating them and then I said to my mom, ‘why can’t we make a bookstore?’ And she said yeah and then she said we could give them to charity, and I said, ‘yeah, we can do that.'”

So Bobby and his mom put together “Bobby’s Books” — a pop-up book stand right in Winchester’s town center.

“It got on the newspapers and the radio and the newspaper and it started spreading out,” he said.

On the stand’s first day, 200 books were sold raising $1,000 that day alone for The Home for Little Wanderers — a Boston-based nonprofit helping children get housing and support.

“When he got the word out to his friends at school and to other families in town, they all dropped books off to our house and they all offered to help with the bookstore,” Jeanna Atchinson said. “And it’s been incredible to see other families excited about the option to raise money for other kids and help Bobby with this bookstore mission.”

Bobby’s Books will be open for its last day next Saturday, and then Bobby will present a check to the Little Wanderers on Giving Tuesday.

“He loves to read so it’s exciting to see that we’re able to do something with that passion and make him feel good about himself and also help kids in need,” his mom said. “It’s been a fantastic project for us as a family.”

The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad is a history book as gripping as a thriller

One of the Soviet Union’s finest achievements has gone largely unrecognised. Back in the 1920s, the world’s first seedbank was established in a former palace in Leningrad (the city later renamed St Petersburg). This living plant library provided the raw material for agriculturalists to breed higher yielding crops, and, in turn, help ease food shortages.Botany is not normally considered the stuff of drama but Simon Parkin’s account of the seedbank in The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad is extraordinary. He tells us that the seedbank’s founder, Nikolai Vavilov, was an intrepid botanist and explorer with a boundless ambition. Vavilov declared that the seedbank would be “a treasury of all known crops and plants”; he led expeditions in search of rare flora ranging from the deserts of Iran to the Amazon basin. By the outbreak of the Second World War, the seedbank contained 250,000 plant species.Then it ran into serious trouble. It was caught up in one of modern history’s most terrible episodes – the great blockade of Leningrad: the longest siege ever recorded, lasting almost 900 days between 1941 and 1944. Starvation was weaponised. A directive from Nazi high command stated: “we are not interested in preserving even a part of this city’s population.” At least 750,000 people died during the siege, most from hunger. This was, Parkin underlines, around “four times the number that died in the atomic bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima combined”.The staff in the seedbank faced death alongside the city’s other residents – but with one crucial difference. They knew that much of their collection was edible: if they wished to, they could eat the seeds and survive. It was an appalling ethical choice. They were, as Parkin writes, “faced with this ultimate and fundamental dilemma: to save a collection built to eradicate collective famine, or to use the collection to save themselves”.Read NextIn a further shocking development, Vavilov had fallen foul of Stalin’s purges. Every area of intellectual life had become dangerous and botany was no exception. “We shall go to the pyre,” Vavilov said, refusing to abandon his science. “We shall burn. But we shall not retreat from our convictions.” He was now languishing in prison.Parkin is the author of two previous books about the Second World War. The most recent was The Island of Extraordinary Captives, his award-winning account of the internment of enemy aliens on the Isle of Man. But his latest is by far the most dramatic. Striking narrative gold, he sets out this remarkable story in admirable detail, drawing upon fresh research sources. If the seedbank, siege and Stalin’s purges aren’t enough to be going on with, there is an additional, astonishing twist: Nazi SS botanists wanted to acquire the seeds for themselves and launched a secret military mission to seize them.The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad is as gripping as it is absorbing throughout. This is not least because the seedbank was such a crucial vital invention. As Parkin says: “The idea of a seedbank was novel, and the long-term value of a repository of genetic plants yet to be fully understood”.We now know that seedbanks are priceless. Vavilov’s innovation led to the establishment of today’s high-tech seedbanks around the world, which shield plant species against catastrophe wrought by war, famine or environmental collapse. The story of the Leningrad seedbank deserves wider airing, not simply due to its extreme drama but also because it was the pioneer that started the trend to protect the earth’s plants from destruction – and therefore, also, to safeguard the human race.Published by Sceptre, £25Peter Carty is the author of the novel ‘Art’ (Pegasus £10.99)