Utah Books

This handsome volume opens with a few pages of introduction about the Wasatch Mountains, followed by forty pages discussing the progress of the Painters of the Wasatch Mountains; an account illustrated in colour with examples of the artists' work which often highlight interesting comparisons. The text is informative accessible and well written in a conversational style. The last thirty pages of the book provide brief individual biographies of the artists.

However the real delight of the book is the nearly two hundred and thirty pages comprising the Portfolio of Images, full colour reproductions, one or occasionally two to a page. The large almost square format of the book allows for good size images without the need to turn the page to accommodate those of landscape proportions; and a few pictures are even reproduced life size. The quality of the images is excellent often revealing the texture of the brush work in the original. Most artists are represented by quite a few examples of their work, they provide for a range of painting styles; the majority of the paintings are in oils, with a few watercolours, and date from around the 1850s to as recently as 2005. In total there are about two hundred and seventy five artworks in colour.

This is a sumptuous work, what an art book should be with the emphasis on the beautifully reproduced paintings and the text kept to a minimum.

A stunning book. Anyone who is a fan of the mountain wilderness cannot help but enjoy viewing this book. It takes you back to the time when 'white eyes' first happened upon these mountains. The delicate color, the wide field, and the land itself breathes life. A treasure.

A big coffee-table book, with exactly the kind of panaromic images you expect. You can while away an afternoon gazing at these cooly complacent views of an idealized West.

my family has been reading and then re reading this book for at least 10 years.. for us its like poetry and takes us all back to some faboulous river trip memories..

This book is a gem. If Abbey had a feminine counter-voice Meloy's would be it. Like Desert Solitaire Meloy speaks of the raw, untamed beauty of the southern Utah wilderness. We travel with her and her husband Mark down the Green River through Desolation Canyon and deep into the wild places of the human psyche. Meloy takes us back to our more primitive self with an eye for detail and a soft, gentle humor. She transports us on a journey that few of us will ever take. Through her eyes we see the river from a myriad of uses and view points: the prehistoric Fremont culture, early river runners to the modern river rat. Like Abbey before her, Meloy gives us a sense of place that comes alive through her words. This is an ode to a wild river and as she feared, possibly a eulogy. Desolation Canyon its environs remains one of the more endangered places in the southwest. The wild in all of us lost a voice with her untimely death in 2004.

A meditation on the Green River, water in the West, and wilderness.

I first read Meloy's EATING STONE, a book about desert bighorns. In comparison to that book, where the specificity of the theme reined in the author's imagination somewhat, RAVEN'S EXILE ranges widely. I think it should be read as a meditation/rant rather than as a factual account or even a memoir. At times the language is poetic; at other times I found it imprecise and over-the-top. Sometimes Meloy's outrage at American culture's lack of concern for wilderness, the hubris of building huge cities in the middle of the desert, and the arrogance of wanting to replace native fish with others that give better "sport" is acutely expressed and trenchant; sometimes the text degenerates into idiosyncracy and misanthropy.

Recommended, but I tend to think Craig Childs' book on water in the desert addresses the topic better.

Recollections of a Handcart Pioneer of 1860 (Second Edition): A Woman's Life on the Mormon Frontier

As a Gr Granddaughter of handcart pioneers, I've wondered what could have driven them to such extreme efforts, but my ancestors left very little in writing. This book was a small window into a culture that is difficult to understand. I only wish she had gone into more detail. Her calm acceptance of polygamy, and her courage in raising 7 children in such a desolate place, almost single-handedly, leaves much unsaid.

A fascinating peep into the everyday life of one woman who, along with many others, braved the trail west. Her story is told simply and factually - it has the feel of sitting down with an old friend you haven't seen for a long time and catching up on the news. Whether you're of the Mormon faith or not (I'm not, but enjoyed the book for its historical content), you can't help but admire the hardy spirit of this pioneer woman in the face of death and hardship and rejoice with her in the simple delights that come along just often enough to make it all worthwhile. Though the title sounds like the book focuses mostly on the trail experience, it actually tells her story through the rest of her life.

I must admit that I am a bit biased, since Mary was my wife's great grandmother. A touching book, and does not white wash the trials experienced.

Having recently moved back to the mid-west after living in the west for four years, I am amazed at the lack of awareness or information on what many describe as the War in the West. Before you protest that War may be to strong, consider: Employees of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the U.S. Forest Service, and other federal employees in certain areas of the west carry sidearm's and long rifles; government vehicles have been firebombed; anonymous threats directed at government workers are routine; and county commissioners have authorized bulldozing or roads into National Parks and Monuments. Add to this volatile situation the recent decision of the Forest Service to charge a fee to anyone desiring to walk into a national forest and proposals to limit, or eliminate, logging and drilling in large sections of government land in the west and you have the makings of a real, well...war. Oh, did I mention the decision to increase the amount ranchers must pay to graze their cattle on public land? Needless to say, that has been a real popular decision among western ranchers that consider their right to use public lands as sacred. Speaking of sacred, the environmentalist movement had made itself real popular as well by proposing that millions of acres of land in the west be placed in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Such a designation would effectively remove it from any use by the public other than those associated with hiking. No way in or out except by foot, period. Then there is the proposal, gaining credibility and supporters, to decommission Glen Canyon Dam and drain Lake Powell. Some folks in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix have some concerns about this endeavor. While this battle is being waged geographically in the west, it is over public lands that belong to all citizens, including those of us that live a long day's drive to be even close to the action. In looking at the available literature on the myriad of issues in this war I find, as usual, a lot of publications that are long on rhetoric and short on real information or facts. I treasure the book that make's it argument in an honest, heartfelt, straight-forward manner. I may not agree with the opinion or argument of the author but I can respect their honesty and sincerity. Such books are few and far between. Edward Abbey did it with Desert Solitaire. Wallace Stegner did it with Coda: Wilderness Letter in The Sound of Mountain Water. The late T.H. Watkins has done it with The Redrock Chronicles. If you want a concise, upfront, spirited argument for the preservation of an area that many consider ground zero in the environmental war in the west, this is one of the best. Watkins, an award-winning writer, historian, and scholar has written an eloqquent testament tothe redrock country of southern Utah that is destined to become a classic. In just 163 pages, Watkins provides the reader with the history, geology, politics and sense of place in both the written word and with stunning photographs, that capture the mystery and complexity of a land under siege. This is one of those rare books that will capture your heart and spirit regardless of your political leanings in this war. It does so because Watkins has managed to write a love story so unique and touching that it could only come from what he calls the "home of his heart." Southern Utah's wild country is not for the timid, spandex-attired tourist on a carefully planned, scripted vacation. This 130,000 square miles of the Colorado Plateau was chosed by Brigham Young as just the kind of wild, desolate, forbidding place to send his followers in order that they might practice their particular brand of religion in peace and solitude. It is an area where a young wanderer from California could find spiritual comfort and disappear without a trace (Everett Ruess.)It is such a desolate place that during the 1950's the Atomic Energy Commission considered it expendable should fallout from atomic testing in Nevada drift northward, which it did. Why then, all the fuss over such desolate, forbidding land? Because it's there and because it weighs so heavy on the heart to see it destroyed, even on the altar of so-called economic development. Because, as Watkins stated shortly before he died,"I am helplessly addicted to this place, this wondrous geographic puzzle of canyons turning in on themselves, of upthrust plateaus and big blisterlike mountains, of multicolored rocks all layered and bent and broken, of curling rivers dammed by beavers and shaded by grandfather cottonwoods, of horizon-wide sweeps of sunlit emptiness and gracile unknown places where darkness hides and will not tell its name." After reading this gem of a book there will be many readers that will wonder about what was lost with the building of Glen Canyon Dam. One thing is for sure; those that advocate its decommissioning will likely garner some additional supporters. Love stories are like that.

This brief eloquent book is a treasure. The history of the battle for Utah wilderness is a story that needs to be read by everyone who visits the redrock deserts and National Parks of Utah, and by everyone who lives in the region. Our astounding wild landscapes are not there by accident, but because there are people who love and defend them. The photos show places that would be protected if America's Redrock Wilderness Act were passed into law. These are the places that could be lost forever if public lands were privitized (as wise-use and sagebrush rebel groups would like) or managed for industrial tourism, resource extraction and grazing (as the BLM seems inclined to do). I hope that in the future this book becomes a triumphant chronicle of the vision and persistance that saved Utah's public lands wilderness instead of a sad chronicle of what was lost.

Living in Utah, the battle over wilderness is a continual part of my life. And being an environmentalist, it is an important part of my life. There are 9.1 million acres up for wilderness designation in this state, but because of opposition from mining, timber, grazing, and off highway vehicle users, the process is slow- going. T.H. Watkins does an admirable job of making the reader feel the spirit of the west and the heart of the battle... which should make one realize the importance of wilderness designation, especially for these last few million acres. The Redrock Chronicles is not a political commentary, nor is it easily dismissed propaganda from the environmentalist faction. It is simply a writer's statement about the utter importance of wild places.

Aside from sloppy editing, this book wasn't bad. Not good, but not bad. The author's first book had a tight plot, but this one kind of meanders and doesn't go anywhere. There's no suspense and the climax seems hurried and forced. I hope the author will do better with his next book.

Reviewed by Dr. Carol Hoyer for Reader Views (2/08)

Author Norman has the uncanny ability of capturing the reader's interest from page one with his vivid descriptions of his early characters and their lifestyle, which happens to be contradictory to the majority of Utah's population - Warren Jeffs' Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Detectives Sam Kincaid and Kate McConnell not only enjoy working together, but they also enjoy their intimate relationship. Neither detective has much concern about protocol and rules - their job is to investigate, prosecute and put in prison. Little did they know when Kate called Sam to help her they would become involved in a gay community, hook horns with the new executive director of the Utah State Department of Corrections and put their own lives on the line. To add further interest to his life - Kincaid's ex-wife has decided that she thinks their daughter would be better off living with her.

Not only has Norman given us twisting plots, murders, runaways and a religious group that believes in polygamy - he gives us an in-depth view of life as a Latter Day Saint in the state of Utah. His background information not only adds much needed knowledge but also helps thicken the plot.

"Silent Witness" is the first novel the reader has read by Norman; I look forward to reading many more.

In Salt Lake City, police officer Kate McConnell investigates the brutal murder of Arnold Ginsberg and the disappearance of Robin Joiner; they are the eyewitnesses to a failed armored car robbery. Utah Department of Corrections Special Investigations Branch Chief Sam Kincaid joins Kate on her inquiry because the alleged armored robbery gang's leader, Mormon polygamist Walter Bradshaw awaits trial without any witnesses to testify against him.

At the same time as he works on the Bradshaw case, Sam also deals with his former wife filing for custody of their daughter. Still in spite of the distraction in his personal life that tears at his guts, Sam diligently and obstinately works the investigation along side of Kate; both hoping the college student who was snatched remains alive.

SILENT WITNESS, the sequel to (see THE COMMISSION), is an enjoyable Utah police procedural that uses the headlines of the Jett case to tell a strong investigative tale. Kate and Sam are competent cops trying to do the job, which entails rescuing a twentyish college coed while the brass hinders their efforts. Sam's personal life also intrudes on the investigation, but it is his new CYA boss who makes the inquiry that much more difficult. Michael Norman provides a fine thriller.

Harriet Klausner

This book would get five stars from me for being a compelling story of a walk through the southwestern desert (most of the locales well-known to me) if that's all it purported to be. But I downgraded it to three because it purports to be a spiritual quest but is almost empty of the kind of personal questions, thoughtful reflections, and insights you would expect in that kind of book. It seemed to me that he covered a lot of ground but never got anywhere. If you want hearty on-foot adventure and survival, though, your money will be well spent. Everything long-distance hikers have nightmares about: You'll sweat with him through a harrowing time when a friend forgets to send money at an agreed time to an agreed place and the author has no cash for food, and another time when his boots fall apart, the endless and sometimes frightening search for water. You'll wonder why he started his trip through the desert during the hottest time of the year, and it is never explained. Still, he's got guts and determination and these qualities see him through.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Brett's book about his amazing adventure into the wilderness of the Southwest. It is a well written and exciting story and I found that I did not want to put it down. I read the whole thing in two sittings. Few people have the courage to undertake what Brett did. The book has inspired me to live simpler and closer to my heart and to cherish the beauty of this Earth.

This isn't just a book, it's an adventure you can enjoy again and again. Brett's journey is a soulful evolution through the most magical land in the USA. It shows what the culmination of dreams and the human will can co-create. This man WALKED through 1400 miles of the American Southwest, recording his thoughts and personal unfolding. It is a journey not to be missed. If you enjoy philosophy, the desert, or just pure adventure, you will love this book.

Sometimes a book is born from a creative need, from a story caught in a head, a fantasy world that needs to be released. Sometimes a book comes from facts to be taught or a point to be made. And sometimes, every once in a while, a book is born from bravery. These are books that exemplify the power of words, of the sharing of an experience to both release and capture. These are the books that hug our hearts, embrace our souls and make us human. Stranger in my Skin is such a book.

Stranger in my Skin weaves it way through the life of a young woman. Back and forth through time and place Alysa Philips shares the story of her battle for survival. As the child of a Mormon family with a strict, harsh father and yielding mother she grew up in an environment she describes in terms that seem both commonplace and extreme. Her father counts the food his family eats and the gas they use with no exceptions. Her mother accepts this and adds her own brand of rigidity. It is from this background that she meets Joel, the man who will come to haunt her every minute for, what seems like now, forever. Joel is the son of a self identified doctor- a man who believes God has shared only with him the secrets to cure all disease. He uses his sons to help sell this idea of lymphnogenesis (not the real name) . His fervor forms the cult that entraps Alysa into a life of starvation, violence and rigidity.

Joel convinces her that she is ugly, unacceptable and unwanted. He and his cult family control every move of Alysa Her mother refuses to speak to her, "Instead, she emailed me or copied inspirational thoughts and scriptures onto pink cards, decorated them with stickers and left them in my shoes, under my pillow, or in my backpack. Her small notes added pounds to my backpack after I found them, but I never had the courage to throw them away." Alysa is alone to cope with the overwhelming stress of trying to measure up to the impossible as judged by the immovable. Her mother, doctors and teachers all ignore the obvious resluts of this strain, the bruises and cuts. With more strength than she ever gives herself credit for in this memoir, Alysa is able to leave Joel. Even though he continues to contact her and tries to see her, she is able to stay away. She begins a series of moves as she looks for a place that will be the answer to her search for relief, small town Arizona to Alaska and back. But the pain follows at every step in her journey; it can not be left behind.

This pain and fear in her life oozes out in the blood of her body as she self-injures. She explains she has "cut, burned, gouged and otherwise mutilated more than two hundred times." This is a powerful look at the world that engulfs her in confusion and panic. As she attempts to find out how to cope in a world seems to ignore her drowning, self mutilation becomes her tool for survival. In graphic descriptions Alysa Phillips has the courage to share her struggle though the fog and terror.

The poignant chapter, Afterword, gives a glimpse into the present, the world that still engulfs Alysa today as she tries to organize the past. The realization that she lived in the same cult with the nomadic pair David and Elidah- who becomes the infamous pair that kidnapped and held Elizabeth Smart- is a hard fact for the reader . It is interesting that Alysa does not use any of the true names of the cult or cult members to avoid a potential legal issue, which is telling in itself. The world protects the abusers but at what price to their victims, both past and future.

This book is a triumphant gift that shares its questions and fears with us. It will find its way to those who will see themselves in its pages, those that will find solace through familiarity. Self-mutilation, self-injury is no longer a hidden secret, Alysa Phillips has brought it from darkness to the front and center of society's consciousness. And in the glaring daylight it can be faced.

Stranger In My Skin is the true-life memoir of author Alysa Phillips, whose adolescence in a conventional Utah town turned dark and oppressive due to her controlling father and her involvement with a threatening boyfriend and his cult-leader father. The physical, sexual, and emotional abuse she suffered in her childhood left long lasting scars that simple "geographic cures" of moving herself from one place to another could not heal. Post-traumatic stress syndrome from the horrors she experienced drove her to mutilate herself and attempt suicide. Her survivor's story of a long, slow struggle toward the semblance of a normal life is an emotionally overwhelming testimony that cannot be put down.

As a somewhat-former cutter, I've read all (that I know of) the available memoirs about cutting, and this one is probably the best. The author describes vividly the feelings that have led her to cut, and I found that her words mirrored my own feelings and experiences. In addition, Alysa is just generally a great writer, putting phrases together beautifully and elegantly. It's a pleasure to read well-written literary nonfiction, even if the topic is a difficult one.

I would recommend this book for people who've come from rigid backgrounds and struggle with cutting. You'll see yourself often in the book. As always, of course, make sure you're in a safe place when you read the book in case you find parts of it triggering. I would also recommend this book for those who want to understand the people they love or care about who struggle with cutting.

Although the author doesn't offer a perfect, neat and tidy ending (is that kind of ending even real, anyway?), she does offer solidarity and hope that we all can begin to make better choices that lead us away from the pain we've been unwittingly subjected to.

This is the first of two books by photographer David Muench about Utah, each entitled "Utah". It is the better of the two, because Muench hadn't yet come to rely so completely on photographih tricks and overuse of the telephoto lens. In this book as opposed to its successor, the traveler/reader will actually see some photos of things he or she will recognize when the traveler arrives at the site.

The photographs are all in color and emphasize the touristic draws of the state, e.g. the National Parks, particularly Zion , Bryce Canyon, and Arches, and the national monuments.
Little attention is paid to more out-of-he-way places such as the Escalante canyons and the San Rafael Swell. Good pictures of Monument Valley and the Temple Square in Salt lake City are also present. Again, however, the reader is cautioned that Muench's use of the telephoto lens may result in a pretty picture, but that the sight depicted will never be seen without one.

Hartt Wixom's companion essay is a compelling, evocative portrait of the courage and determination his Mormon ancestors used in making Utah their version of the Promised land. It is well worth reading.

This book is worth having if picked up at a reasonable price. It is a fine coffee table work.

This is the book I use to entice friends and family to come and visit! An absolutely stunning portrait of an incredible landscape.

This is the second work by David Muench that I have purchased. I happen to be a native Utahn and looking at the photographs in this collection made me realize that I really don't get out much! Every picture contained herein has inspired me to visit these places.

Utah has some of the most spectacular national preserves in the country and David Muench shows us why they are considered national treasures.

This is a great book for not just tourists, but also locals. I have lived in Utah almost my whole life, and I had never heard of half the stuff listed in this book. I have already made a list of everywhere that I want to visit. In fact, I just went to Ray's Tavern and the John Wesley Powell River Rafting Museum this weekend!

Once in a lifetime, every American should visit the state of Utah, known for its great skiing, glorious scenery and national parks, but most people will never discover another side of this interesting state unless they bring along a copy of this delightful book which is full of historical factoids as well as descriptions of unusual sites and places well off the beaten track. I highly recommend it.

Awesome Book. Everyone is borrowing it to plan short day trips and vacations. Wish I had bought all my family and freinds one.

Not being a history buff, I stumbled on this book while healing a broken bone and with nothing I could do but read. I found it to be a fascinating adventure. I would never have believed that I'd enjoy a history book so much - it's as much a study of the human mind as of historical events. Mr. Topping is brilliant and a fine fine writer.

"Utah Historians" is a study by a Catholic (imagine!) scholar of five writers whose careers revolutionized the practice of Utah and Mormon history. Indeed, the quirky, craggy faces of Bernard DeVoto, Dale L. Morgan, Juanita Brooks, Wallace Stegner, and Fawn McKay Brodie on the book's cover are a Mount Rushmore of native brilliance, sculpted from salt flats and starvation.

First, a word on what "Utah Historians" might represent. There is always the question of what roles a minority, whether religious, ethnic, or otherwise, will adopt within a community overwhelmingly dominated by another group. In Hollywood, which was invented by the Jews, Catholics found niches as censors and gossip columnists. In the State of Utah (a concept debunked by Federal Judge Willis Ritter as "a figment of your imagination"), invented, owned, and operated by Mormons, Catholic historians have made disproportionate and invaluable contributions to the annals. Aside from the afore-mentioned DeVoto, Utah's first Pulitzer winner, these have included Fr. Robert Joseph Dwyer, a skilled editor who vouchsafed several landmark volumes of Utah Historical Quarterly; Polly Aird, an expert on mass movements to and from Utah; and the author at hand, Gary Topping, archivist for the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Topping implies this contribution is possible because of the Catholic sense of irony, which (let's face it) is foreign to Mormon thought.

Although Topping respects and reveres his five subjects, he is sufficiently conversant with and perceptive of not only their writings but also their sources to know in each case when they were fudging and how, when, and why they did so. For example, while Topping admires Brooks's tenacity and skills of persuasion in tracking down original documents, he can demonstrate instances in which she "altered," "invented," or even "falsified" certain factual materials when it suited her. It is staggering to contemplate the erudition by which Topping saw right through his subjects, as it were. As was also said of Brooks and The Mountain Meadows Massacre, this may be a book that Topping was born to write, as it must needs be written with a clear head, absent a vested interest in whether Joseph Smith and Brigham Young spoke as God's mouthpiece.

In his final pages, Topping laments that despite the appearance of new source material, no Joseph Smith biography subsequent to Brodie's 1946 No Man Knows My History has "put forth a compelling alternative interpretation." He supposes this is because "no non-Mormon scholar has been willing to master the materials, while Mormon scholars are aware of the fate of [writers] who were rebuked by [their] Church and may be afraid to propose a bold interpretation that could challenge Brodie's." The solution would seem to reside in Topping himself, who has obviously mastered the materials and who, as a friend of the Mormons a la Wallace Stegner, is inclined to write with fairness.

Gary Topping attempts a summary and evaluation of five Western historians, all associated with Utah and Mormonism in some way (Bernard DeVoto, Wallace Stegner, Juanita Brooks, Dale Morgan, and Fawn Brodie), in this fairly broad but somewhat shallow book. All the historians receive both praise and condemnation for the histories they wrote. Morgan, for example, is praised for his factual thoroughness, but criticized for allowing facts to speak for themselves and for refusing to interpret these facts. (When one looks at the extreme psychoanalytical interpretations Fawn Brodie made regarding her subjects, especially Richard Nixon, one can appreciate Morgan's hesitation to go beyond the facts themselves.) Sometimes Topping's criticisms seem petty and academically self-serving as when he faults Juanita Brooks's lack of training in formal psychology when she writes of hysteria and mob violence at the Mountain Meadows massacre. Also occasionally a waft of political correctness filters through the text, as when Topping, referring to chapter 7 in DeVoto's ACROSS THE WIDE MISSOURI, praises him for acknowledging "the vital role of the Indian women who took up with the trappers not only as wives or concubines but also as business associates." I reread DeVoto's chapter again and failed to see the Indian wives described in any way approaching "business associates." Regarding DeVoto (and also Stegner, but to a lesser degree), Topping is right to criticize him as interpreting history often as overblown caricature, but he's also correct in applauding DeVoto's (and Stegner's) superb literary skills and boldness in advancing generalizations, attributes sorely lacking in the works of many historians writing today. Topping can also be repetitious. But he's especially good at showing how Mormonism, about which they all wrote at some point, effected each of these historians either directly or obliquely. Despite its faults, I still found this book thoroughly compelling and well worth the time spent in reading it.