Colorado Books

Three government officials have been murdered and a Ute may have been killed on a remote part of Colorado. Jurisdiction seems to overlap between Federal, state, local, and tribal officials with everyone tripping over everyone else except the killer, who seems to have gotten away with murder. Denver homicide detective Gabe Wager has no jurisdiction so he is assigned to solve the case and end the bickering. ....... Gabe quickly realizes that he not only has to uncover a killer's identity, he has deal with all the various police authorities who have one thing in common: the desire to boss their compatriots. This leads to a lot of chiefs and one worker, Gabe. He soon realizes that there are plenty of motives and subsequently suspects. However, if Gabe does not identify the murderer soon, he will either go insane from the constant bureaucratic bickering or be killed by a murderer, who wants him out of the way. ...... Rex Burns is a great mystery writer, who always provides an intriguing and exciting novel. His latest book, THE LEANING LAND, is a fun read that refreshes Gabe Wager by placing him outside his element. The various law enforcement agencies add a Catch 22 comedic remedy to solving the mystery. Anyone who bets on reading this novel, will win their wager. ......Harriet Klausner

From the photo on the cover I originally thought this was going to be a collection of interviews from only one segment of Colorado County's population- but I was mistaken. The book contains interviews from all segments of the population of Colorado County- and the experiences are as widely varied as one can imagine. In reading this book we get to learn about everything from "The Orphan Train" to a lynching, to farming and ranching experiences in Colorado County. It's a great book for people without a lot of time to read, you can read a few interviews, and later when you find another quiet moment, you can read a few more. I love all the photos too! Patsy Craven put together a jewel of Texas History, one any collector of Texas History books should have.

From damage by fire or water to handling the emotional impact of library systems which come to a crashing halt, this provides the working librarian with a structure for planning for possible library disasters. Chapters cover the basics of handling damaged collections and systems, and provide excellent depth and detail on the recovery options and solutions to common problems.

Great book on a great American. Our lives are so easy now days. Read this and you can appreciate this!

I great slice of life from the 1880s in a small Colorado town. The kind of book one reads in one sitting.

An enthralling story wonderfully written and finely illustrated, Little Fox's Secret offers a plausible explanation for a true historical event long shrouded in mystery. The reader is swept along by the unfolding drama as well as the vivid descriptions. This is no ordinary children's book. The quality of the story, the fine writing, and the beauty of the book itself will make Little Fox's Secret a childhood possession to treasure a lifetime.

Living What You Believe: Wisdom From The Book Of James is the collaborative effort of Kenneth Boa and William Kruidenier and designed to take the reader on a guided tour of the Book of James to learn how to embrace a hands-on, concrete faith that will enable him or her to truly live out what they profess to believe as Christians. The issues and elements surveyed within the context of the Book of James include temptation, relationships, speech, finances, good works, prayer, and planning -- all for the purpose of encourage and instructed Christians to live wisely and well within the framework of the Gospel. Living What You Believe is a highly recommended addition to personal and small group New Testament and Christian Life studies.

"I want my stories to come from places and things I know in nature," Liz Caile writes. "I want to take some of my craziness and bury it ritually in the right place in the earth, to find a cure for my restlessness in plants and planets, roots and rituals" (p. 50). Before her death, Caile wrote for "The Mountain Ear" in Nederland, Colorado, a mountain town in the Rockies just west of Boulder (where I live). This book is a collection of the columns Caile contributed to that newspaper for twenty years. These essays are about living an authentic life, walking softly, and living simply.

Caile was a minimalist who practiced what she preached. "People should adapt to nature, rather than the other way around" (p. 49), she writes. She lived in a primitive mountain cabin, and prefered walking to driving a car. "So my kids learned to walk, a skill that will be one of the most valuable things I taught them," Caile says. "You can always get from here to there on your own two feet" (p. 6). She considered pavement a "form of imprisonment" (p. 103), and encourages her readers to walk. "If you live in town, walk at least to its edge, and better yet, beyond it" (p. 234). "I pray with my feet," she says. Her loving friends tell us that Liz "believed in living lightly on the earth, in using our resources carefully and thoughtfully. She believed in being conscious of the impacts of our actions, as a nation and as individuals" (p. v). The Sierra Club cup represents an ideal for Caile. "Let's face it," she writes, "the fewer dishes you dirty, the fewer you have to wash. It represents an economy of utensils that I wish we all could take into our lives. It says some basic things about our habit of consumption, drawing a line between what we really need and what is superfluous" (pp. 9-10). In her essays, Caile urges us to simplify our lives, to "act with responsibility to all species, not just ourselves" (p. 124), to commune with the power of nature, then vote, run for office, read about the issues, write and make phone calls (p. 96).

Caile's essays are organized into sections on simple living, changing seasons, environmental ethics, social values, war and peace, life at treeline, family, and walking. Each essay reveals her knack for seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. "What counts is the seeing," she reflects. "I don't know what it is," she writes, "except that if everyone were to discover the pleasures of just looking at things and listening to things, they'd probably stop spending money at breakneck speed--they might even stop working at certain jobs that, when clearly observed, appear to be counterproductive to a healthy society" (p. 14). "A moth," she confides, "only a moth, brings life to my life" (p. 73).

Caile wrote with integrity and courage. She was progressive even by Nederland and Boulder standards, confronting subjects including overpopulation, pavement, mountain bikers, mall shopping, advertising, pollution, consumption, species loss, the Forest Service, the death penalty and jet noise over Boulder in her columns. Caile's essays have a truthful ring, and she wrote from her heart. "I talk to the trees, I talk to the sky," she writes. "I talk sense and nonsense, and now and then I remember to say thanks. Thanks for the beauty. Thanks for the firewood. Thanks for the oxygen. Thanks for the ground cover. Thanks for the rain and snow" (p. 142).

This book is filled with local color, and the colors of nature. It offers us a breath of sweet, cool, Rocky Mountain air. And from Caile's TREELINE, you'll experience the most amazing views.

G. Merritt

Astounding, entertaining, often amusing account of an adventure's first recreational descent of the Green and Colorado rivers, through the tumultuous Lodore, Cataract, and Grand canyons, in a 15-1/2 foot wooden boat, in 1896. This "log," or journal was kept contemporaneously in handwritten notes (some of which are reproduced) as the journey progressed from one series of rapids and trepidations to the next. Informatively edited and elucidatingly annotated by the formidable team of Carmony and Brown, the book is illustrated with historical photos, and includes an impressive bibliography. This is "must" reading for anyone who works or plays on these rivers, and ought to be in the dry bag of every river tourist.

... about Longs Peak.

On the back cover of this book is a quote from Harold Dunning, 1930: "To tell all that one can see from the top of Longs Peak would be telling too much, so you must climb it yourself..." That is true. Yet even those who have climbed Longs Peak, or attempted to do so, love to read about it. To such people, this book was dedicated. Trimble writes with passion and understanding about a subject he obviously loves.

Fortunately, he has a grasp of history, both the more recent kind as well as the sort that is written upon the rocks. He also provides an appendix on climbing ratings, notable Longs Peak firsts, and deaths on Longs Peak. For those who want to read more about the topics he touches upon, he provides an excellent bibliography at the back of his book.