Wyoming Books

With the flinty images produced by the sytlistic prose of Annie Proulx, the story plot just comes along as an extra added bonus. Here is an example: "...from tight-wound kid hustler in a wool suit riding the train out of Cheyenne to the geriatric limper in this spooled-out year, Mero had kicked down thoughts of the place where he began..." The collection contains the now-famous story, Brokeback Mountain; but there are many other stories in the collection that are just as gripping.

After reading anything written by Annie Proulx, whether a full-fledged novel or short story, it is no wonder that she is a prize winning author. Her ability to craft stories both strange and familiar that captivate the reader's soul is a remarkable gift. "Close Range: Wyoming Stories" is famous in that it is the collection that contains 'Brokeback Mountain', but there are other stories in the collection that are just as deserving of praise and recognition.

While the reader may not be familiar with Wyoming or the ranching way of life, Proulx manages to make the reader feel automatically at home. It is in her simple yet poetic way of showing the yearnings and loneliness that everyone feels that makes these stories and their characters come alive. A few of the stories, such as 'The Half-Skinned Steer' and 'The Blood Bay' are reworkings of common tales and myths, quickly told but long-lasting in terms of imagery. One of my favorite stories in the collection is 'People in Hell Just Want a Drink of Water', a tale of two families and their tribulations and an ending that stings. Other favorites are 'The Bunchgrass Edge of the World' and 'A Lonely Coast', two stories about the women of Wyoming rather than the men, that depict a harsh loneliness underlying their hopes and dreams. And of course, the signature story, 'Brokeback Mountain', a thorough and unflinching portrait of a love that could not be, beautifully told and impossible to forget. For all its controversy, it truly is a universal tale.

Annie Proulx is an incredibly talented writer, able to bring to vivid life the starkest of realities. Her characters are not heroes, and neither are they all likeable, but even the minor ones are fully formed and live on after they have exited the story. It is hard to put this collection of stories down; each one, no matter how short or bizarre, leaves an indelible and haunting impression. These stories have life.

While this is certainly not easy reading, I thought it was fantastic.
The writing is sparse and lives fly by and disintegrate in single
paragraphs. It really seems that not a single word is wasted.
I think that the comparisons with other books about
cowboys and life in the untamed West are off the mark. If anything,
these books are much closer to Chekhov's writing about people
"of the land" although that comparison is certainly imperfect.

I am somewhat surprised that some people took offense
at the way characters were depicted. I liked McMurtry's book,
but Captain Call and Gus are about as real as Hector and Achilles.
On the other hand I could well imagine meeting some people
from the pages of this book in a bar, not just in Wyoming.

I took this book and Into the Wild by Krakauer with me on a 3 day backpacking trip in the mountains. Read Proulx.

This author is clearly very, very good in painting a picture of mid-century life in Wyoming. Brokeback Mountain is a gem of a little story, but it and the others are real downers... life was tough then and Proux makes you understand just how tough it was through a group of short stories.

I did not read this book but it was my son who got it for a school assignment. he did tell me he enjoyed the book very much. I bought him the movie because sometimes it helps him understand the book a little better. We all enjoyed the movie as well.

The western genre is well endowed with forgettable writing, but certain books stand out from the rest. Shane is one of them.

For awhile I resisted reading it because I had seen the movie several times, so I already "knew" what happened. But I enjoyed this book almost as much as I would have if I was totally unfamiliar with the material. I won't comment on the debate between which is better. They're both good.

Jack Shaeffer dealt with the aftermath of violence much more than your typical western writer. Typically, you'll have a shootout, then the surviving party rides out, unchanged. But not Shane. Something happened in Shane's past that haunts him, and feeds his restlessness. Being a gunfighter, you would imagine that this involved a killing that he very much regretted. Not just the killing of bad men, but the killing of a good one. Shane's actions after his pummeling of the young cowhand Chris, suggest this. Chris wasn't bad like Wilson the hired killer. He was just a young showoff that Shane kind of liked. Shane didn't want to fight--he was forced into it. Much like the earlier, unknown killing, one can suppose. Shane carrying the unconscious Chris back to the table and wiping the blood from his face seem to be Shane trying to atone for the past, the past where "Chris" wasn't so lucky.

Shane, the restless drifter, the good man with a heavy conscience, finally found his good fight when he wandered into Joe Starrett's spread. Starrett provided Shane with everything he lacked--namely the stability that can only be found in a family, and a chance to start over with a clean slate. For awhile it works. He really does start over, but circumstances force Shane to once again don the hat of the gunfighter.

For Starrett, Shane provides the muscle and the comradeship that his neighbors so conspicuously lack. The fellow homesteaders are either rash fools, or timid weaklings. Shane, steady and sure, is neither. Starrett and Shane become best friends--friends of the sort where they don't need to say any words--just to work together to achieve a common end. The common end being the success of the Starrett homestead. Ah, but when Starrett's wife Marian falls for Shane, what's to happen? Starrett recognizes it, and realized that it's up to her. Shane desires her, that's for sure, but won't wait for her decision. He cannot break the very home that provided his rejuvenation. Also, his respect for Starrett is such, that he must swallow his longing and ride off into the horizon. But not before completing his part in the larger battle. Only Shane can match the hired killer, Wilson.

The scene at the end which the movie left out was a very good one. Shane gone, possibly dead, and Starrett starts to doubt the whole enterprise. What's it worth? It's just a piece of ground. Why not just pack it in and leave, start over? If the horizon's good for Shane, why can't it be good for us? But Marian pulls him out of his dark cloud, as only she can.

All in all, an enjoyable book. When it was finished, I was sorry it was over. It's no WAR AND PEACE, but its not trying to be. Schaeffer wasn't batting for the stars, he was trying for a solid base hit, and this he achieved.

I just recently finished 149 page book that you could say has taken me 30 years to finish and is considered by many to be the best Western novel of all time, Shane by Jack Schaefer.

Shane was actually the first book I'd ever read that had no illustrations. I can't remember why, but one time in 5th grade, a few us had to stay in upper-grade classroom, and with nothing better for us to do, the teacher had us grab a book off the shelf to read. So basically I read the first few chapters and those first few chapters have always stuck with me and I always meant to go back and finish. It's weird how these things work -out sometimes, but I finally did. All I can say is; what the heck took me so long! For its size, Shane is one of the most well written and emotionally impacting books I've ever read.

Mr. Schaefer's skill at projecting emotion and his ability to just "imply" what's going-on with out actually telling the reader is nothing short of amazing. Many mysteries are teasingly never solved in the story but the conclusion still has no less of an impact.

Shane should be considered a modern classic. It's a must read for fans of Western fiction, a great first Western for any new-comers, and should definitely be on the list for literary scholars.

Unlike most students, when I read this novella in 8th grade I actually liked it. We were required to read a book in a genre we ordinarily avoided. I chose the western genre, which to this day I dislike.

I believe the success and failure in popularity of Shane is due to breaking of genre lines. The description of this novella sounds like the archetypal Western. You have a lone gunman, a battle that can't be avoided and the inevitable showdown. Yet Shane refuses to fit the Western mold.

The action sequences are few and most of the written word is devoted to description of the relatively few characters involved. Even when action occurs, it isn't described in scintillating, pulpy detail.

Partly this is a result of the author's chosen protagonist. This novella is less of a Western and more a coming-of-age story. We see the events unfold through the fuzzy and at times myopic lens of a young boy. Shane is a vehicle used to challenge Bob's understanding of right/wrong, and the makings of a "good" man.

Readers have complained that Shane's past is never fully explained. There are many reasons for this. It isn't necessary in the development of the plot concerning Fletcher. It also isn't necessary for the plot concerning Bob's psychological journey into young adulthood. Most importantly though, is the fact that anything Schaefer might have written would pale in comparison to our own imaginations. Most of Shane's impact comes from his mysterious past. Illuminating it would decrease his affect on the reader.

Shane remains one of my favorite books today. I encourage young people to give it a try with the above caveats in mind. This isn't a mindless adventure. Shane requires a lot of effort on the part of the reader. In particular the infamous "stump" scene comes to mind. I've read a number of different analyses of that scene and my own is slightly different still. That is part of the wonder, the joy, and yes the frustration of reading Shane.

My high school English teacher, Father Dwyer, assigned us this book in the Fall of '80. I wasn't really up for it since I never particularly liked westerns, but I liked Father Dwyer so I decided to read it. Boy was I glad I did. It's a short novel that can be read in a single sitting, but once it's over you'll wish there were more. If you're a guy you'll easily be able to identify with each of the male characters(Joe, Shane and Bob). Don't miss this book.

This book is ATROCIOUS. It is so repetitive and trite. Does Daisy have magical powers? Is James really that "hard"? Is David Jake? And just why is Paul in the story at all? This is a great example of the difference between novelists who evoke feelings and ideas versus those who slam you over the head with a baseball bat (or a wolf bone :))

Ick!

This was the second book I read written by Rice. It was the first, SAFE HARBOR, that made me want for more! The Secret Hour is better, well, maybe not better, but written from a much different voice. Rather than go into detail about characters, location, plot, etc. - AMAZON does a great job of that - I'll just add that it was the suspense coupled with the building attraction between the two main characters in the book that made this book so hard to put down. If you are looking for a good read, interesting yet complicated character building, romance that builds around suspense, then this is your book. Warning: You will want to stay up each night to read "just one more chapter" before you finish this one!

Luanne Rice chooses inviting settings and paints colorful and easily pictured characters. This is my favorite of her works. You will not want to put it down, until you have read to the last page, and then the story will haunt you until you read it again.

After the mysterious disappearance of her three-year-old son Jake, Daisy Tucker divorces her husband James and moves back to Connecticut with her daughter Sage.

Thirteen years later, a pregnant Sage runs away from home with her boyfriend Ben. Desperate for a place to go, she decides to head to Wyoming, for the ranch where her father - whom she hasn't seen since the divorce - resides.

Halfway across the country, Ben decides to head back. But Sage persists, determined to get to what she considers her "true" home...no matter what the cost.

A horrific encounter in Nebraska causes Sage to meet David, a troubled 16-year-old who has made it his mission to rescue animals from puppy mills. He agrees to take Sage the rest of the way to Nebraska.

As the two spend more time together, Sage begins to realize that "David" - who was adopted at very young age - actually bears numerous similarities to her long-lost twin brother...

Meanwhile, a distraught Daisy - surmising where her daughter is headed - flew out to Wyoming and waits with her ex-husband. Although they haven't seen one another in 13 years and separated because of tragedy, they quickly find that nothing has changed between them...

Overall, this story is intriguing and holds a great deal of promise. The idea of following a family in the years after a child's disappearance is rich for plots. But Rice pushes the notion of "twin connection" and coincidence a bit too far...how likely is it that a pregnant hitchhiking teenager would randomly stumble upon a key person...in a state where neither resided, or had any real reason to be, other than David's feeling he was being "called" to drive through Nebraska? How likely is it that Sage would just "know" a brother she hadn't seen since she was three? That same brother, in turn, has no recollection of *her*...

And how convenient that neither Daisy nor James remarried after all those years! They broke up because of their lost son, but somehow right when they meet again - son still lost - everything is right in their world again.

I think I'll stick with Rice's other books.

When her toddler son Jake disappears in the mountains outside their Wyoming ranch, Daisy Tucker cannot bear to remain, and packs up Jake's twin and moves to Connecticut to be closer to family and raise Sage as a single mom. She is further devastated 13 years later when a pregnant teenage Sage runs away from home with her boyfriend to join her father James on the ranch. She has always felt that something is missing, When Ben decides that he has had enough of the road trip, he heads home, but Sage forges on, and with the help of a mysterious young man with a shady past, eventually makes it to Wyoming.

James has never been able to leave the ranch, in hope that Jake may return to the family fold. Daisy must swallow all pride and return to the place that holds harrowing memories and face the man she still loves while they wait out Sage's return. The ranch is also being stalked by a mysterious "guardian" who is shooting cattle and causing problems for the Tucker family. Upon seeing each other again, the chemistry between James and Daisy is immediate and intense.

The fate of Jake is revealed, as well as the culprit behind his disappearance, which is a bit of a twist. Rice has penned another wonderful and uplifting drama of a family that reunites and bands together despite the odds.

Product arrived quickly and in better condition than stated. Very Pleased with purchase. Highly recommend seller. Thank You.

This is the first C.J. Box novel I have started to read (threw it away after p.59) and it will be the very last that I buy. The writing was poor, there was no plausible story line and the author resorted to grim and gory animal cruelty. Don't waste your money on this book!

I started the Picket novels on recommendation from Amazon after buying the Alex McNight series by Steve Hamilton. Both book series are easy reads that will draw you in before you know it. They are slightly incredible in storyline over the series (as are most series books -after all, how many exciting things can happen to the same person over and over), but still enjoyable. Not as complex as someone like Ludlum, but very enjoyable for a tired mind after a busy week of work.

If you like these, try The McNight books by Steve Hamilton.

And plenty of snow there is, adding proper atmosphere to a brooding mystery. Good character development, plausible (most of the time) plot lines, some weird characters, painted so as to generate maximum hatred or respect. When the lady from the Forest Service first appears, you almost can hear readers hissing all across America. When the sheriff gets snide with Pickett, you want to relish what you hope will be his humiliation before the book ends. Scenes at the snowed-in Pickett household are poignant in light of future plot turns. A good page turner, with nicely done descriptions of the Big Horn Mountain area of almost-mystical Wyoming. May you write long and well, C.J. Box.

The third Joe Pickett mystery once again finds trouble brewing in the wilds of Wyoming, but this time there is an added obstacle to maintaining peace and tranquility in this beautiful part of the world - the harsh winter storms have closed the place down. In the first two books by C.J. Box, (Open Season and Savage Run), we have been treated to mysteries with strong environmental themes. In Winterkill Joe turns his attention to a murder investigation and then a more pressing personal crisis.

Joe Pickett is the game warden with the Wyoming Game and Fish Department living in the small town of Saddlestring, Twelve Sleep County. He is a quiet and easy-going family man, husband to Marybeth, father to 11 year-old Sheridan, 6 year old Lucy and foster-father to 9 year-old April. A fair, hard-working man he stands up for what he believes in even when that means leaving himself and, occasionally, his family open to get hurt.

While out on his regular patrol one winter's day, Joe witnesses a hunter who flouts the 1 elk bag limit by running amok through a herd, taking down 7 animals before Joe can get to him. When he does he is shocked to find that the hunter is none other than Lamar Gardiner, the district supervisor for Twelve Sleep National Forest, the person who makes the hunting laws, not the person who breaks them. In a typically Joe Pickett moment, Lamar escapes his custody and rushes into the forest in the middle of a worsening snowstorm. By the time Joe finds him again, he has been brutally murdered.

Coinciding with the murder is the arrival of a ragtag group of people in SUV's and camper-vans who take up residence in the National Park outside of town; they call themselves Sovereigns and are a mixture of anti-government protesters and dropouts. Among the Sovereigns is Jeannie Keeley, April's mother, a bitter and angry woman who abandoned April when she was a toddler. Joe and Marybeth are faced with the prospect of losing the little girl they had come to love as their own daughter.

The murder results in the arrival of another Forest Service agent, Melinda Strickland, supposedly sent to investigate her fellow officer's death. But she's bad news, you can tell that straight away when, moments after being introduced to Joe he watches as she barely restrains from kicking her dog in a moment of anger. Dog-kicking proves to be the least of her sins though. She is a self-centered woman with little regard for the safety of others, a dangerous woman when dealing with murderers and harsh climactic conditions.

Joe is dragged into the mess as a potential bloodbath looks a likely result of the standoff between the Sovereigns and the Federal Agents. To start with he is merely a concerned local citizen whose concern is primarily for a peaceful existence, but it becomes personal when April is placed right in the firing line inside the Sovereign camp.

Winterkill starts out at a very relaxed pace and we are allowed to settle in and enjoy a snowed-in Christmas with the Picketts, giving us a chance to feel comfortable with them. We are also given ample opportunity to enjoy the descriptions of the spectacular scenery surrounding them. This soon changes to the mounting tension and frustration levels as Strickland and the feds take over the town. Finally, we are thrust into a dramatic race against time through atrocious conditions ensuring a breathless ending.

It was established in the earlier books of the series that Joe Pickett is a "good" man. He always takes the passive option, often to his own detriment, and is ruled by his conscience. This is carried on in Winterkill, but it tends to restrict his effectiveness as a protagonist, particularly when he comes up against completely morally bankrupt people, as he does here. Enter a new character and eventual ally for Joe, Nate Romanowski. Nate oozes confidence and violence and adds a touch of the maverick for the good guys. He's a perfect foil to Joe's upstanding philosophy and, although we don't learn a lot about his past, every time he entered the scene he was a breath of fresh air.

A murder investigation, a Ruby Ridge style stand-off on Battle Mountain and a desperate bid by a father to protect his daughter makes Winterkill a thrilling book. Add to that Box's ability to paint the Wyoming landscape with wonderful clarity that gave me a strong sense of place and you've got a very enjoyable book.

This is the second novel featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett. The novel deals with contemporay issues. The villains in the novel are wealthy "ranchers" who hunt animals for trophies and demand their rights to despoil the environment (oil drilling, logging, mining, grazing cattle). They are willing to hunt people, arranging to kill anyone who opposes them.

They are opposed by environmental activists (sometimes called tree huggers) who are willing to violate the law if it suits their purposes. Both sides have an attitude that the end justifies the means.

Joe Pickett and others are caught in the middle, and things emerge about his wife's past. Readers should be forewarned that some scenes in the novel are a bit gruesome.

Solid writing style, really great characters who you empathize with, well drawn plot. C.J. Box has a unique series going here and I hope he can maintain the quality over time.

"But this is how they do it. They go after the weakest first. When the mother stays back, the wolves open a hole in her belly and pull out the entrails. Then they wait until she doesn't have the strength to protect herself, then they'll move in and tear her throat out."

C.J. Box does not mince words. Nature can be brutal as well as stunningly beautiful.

Two years have passed since we last met up with Saddlestring, Wyoming Game Warden (and Wildlife Biologist), Joe Pickett and his family. In "Savage Run", famous environmental "terrorist" Stewie Woods and his wife are blown up by a cow. Joe is called to investigate and from that auspicious start "Savage Run" builds the brutality, tension, and mystery in a thoroughly enjoyable book filled with wilderness reality.

Joe Pickett is not perfect. He has a tendency to trust people more than he should, and to go places alone where backup help would be needed. He is honest to the point of detriment to his own career (hmmm, this is a good thing really). During the investigation, Joe meets with the owner of the cow (actually 10 cows were killed in the explosion) at this person's home. Oddly, the owner, Jim Finotta does not seem surprised nor does he ask the questions one would expect from someone who is concerned about the death of other human beings or animals. In addition, Jim, a lawyer, puts Joe on the defensive. Not a good thing to do, especially if you have the head of a large male elk mounted on your wall, that the Game Warden recognizes, and knows was killed off-season.

A mini-battle begins between dirt poor Joe and the all powerful Finotta.

Killers Charles Tibbs (the best tracker in Wyoming) and the" Old Man" leave Wyoming after ensuring that the exploding cow did what they intended (i.e. make for an embarrassing death for Stewie) for Washington State. There they murder famous environmental writer, Hayden Powell. These two are then responsible for a string of brutal environmentalist murders that follow. This has the makings of an old-fashioned range war. And the reader finds out that it is and that a group called the "Stockman's Trust" hired the old west throwback stock detective (Charles) to take care of business.

Circumstances bring the killers, Joe Pickett, and several others together as the book climaxes with a chase through the deepest wilderness to the impassable (except by, according to legend, Cheyenne's fleeing for their lives over 100 years ago) canyon known as Savage Run.

"Savage Run" is sometimes brutal, sometimes beautiful, sometimes controversial as it straddles the worlds of game wardens, ranchers, landowners, and environmentalists. C.J. Box is fast becoming one of my favorite authors and I am looking forward to the next Joe Pickett adventure. In the meantime, pick up "Savage Run" if for nothing else, to read the explosive ending.

by TracyReaderDad

I just finished reading Savage Run and was, on the whole, quite disappointed. First, it was even more violent than Open Season, a book that I DID like for the most part. Second, it had only one sympathetic character other than Joe Pickett. I really hated the ending and found it totally unnecessary after all the trials and tribulations the characters had gone through to get to that point.

I also felt the character of Pickett was overly thorny and obtuse. His aw shucks boyish charm didn't make up for it.

All in all, it had some good parts, but it wasn't worth the time.

I *loved* Open Season, and I certainly like the way C.J.Box writes, and I also loved the first half of Savage Run. But, I'm sorry, the plot contained too many wildly unbelievable coincidences and dei ex machina for me. Amazon guidelines and common decency prevent me from listing them, but they caused my suspension of disbelief to disintegrate completely, and I was so disgusted that I could only skim the last bit of the book.
Having said all that, I'll still read his next book, because C.J. certainly has talent. But with this book I felt much the same frustration I feel after seeing a thriller movie that has so much promise and then tanks at the end: don't authors or screenwriters let someone read the book (or see the movie) before publication, so they can find out if the story seems to fall apart and become a comic book at some point? If you want us to suspend disbelief and be completely into the story, then the story must be believable on some level.
Box still gets three stars from me because I like his writing, but *please* work out the plots a little better!

If you've never read Trouble On Cabin Creek, then perhaps you'd enjoy this one because it is so similar. The reader knows from the start that the Red Dog will in some way be presented as faithful, loyal, and brave and at some point come to the rescue. It does present some helpful thoughts for children being raised by step parents or extended family.
The portrayal of the step father and son, is well done and gives some good points to ponder.

Ever read a book that you couldn't put down? I read the book Red Dog which was an exciting adventure. The setting took place in a cabin in the middle of a forest, away from town. The main characters are, Sam, Mother, Lily, Adam, and Ruff. Adam has to escape his house and find help because, Mother, and Lily are in trouble, and people are going to murder his family, that's in the house. The genre of this book is realistic fiction, because of where it took place, and how everything related to the nature of the world.

The beginning of the book was slow, and not interesting as in the end of the book it was more interesting how he escaped and tried to find help and when the action kicked in. I recommend this book to people who are patient, and can wait till the action occurs; any age could read this book, mainly for kids and teens. This book was a page turner when the action was kicking in, most of the chapters was page turning, but I cant say all of the chapters were page turners. Mostly every chapter had a cliff hanger, after the chapter it would leave you hanging when something interesting, or action is going on, and you can't put the book down, where kids would mainly want to read this book because it's fun and still leaves you hanging. In the beginning of the book, it was boring with fights with Adam and hi family, and showing how their life really is, but once the action came it towards the end, it made you want to keep reading. The end is the best part of the book, and the most suspenseful... but you have to read it to find out...

I agree with others that have written negatively about this book. While the cover is enticing and appears innocent enough (which is maybe why I bought it), the story, is NOT appropriate for 8-10 year olds. Wallace goes over the top in giving a blow-by-blow description of a home invasion where 3 wanderers invade Adam's home and take him, his mother, and his sister hostage. It only gets worse from there - the violent detail is just too much. Short of a rape-scene of the women, Wallace apparently thinks everything else is fair game for a young reader eyes/imaginations. STAY CLEAR OF THIS BOOK!!

I began reading this book with my daughters, ages 7 and 9, and soon realized it was a story of lawless men holding a family at knife point and planning to murder them once "dad" returns with proof of land ownership----all very frightening for children. My daughter couldn't sleep that night. I threw the book away---I wouldn't even donate it to anyone else given the violent premise.

We were so disappointed, given that Bill Wallace has other much more joyous dog stories that we have enjoyed!

This is one of my least favorite books. The book is called Red Dog. This book is about a boy who's name is Adam. His mom is marring a guy that he hates. Once they got married his stepfather made them move out to Wyoming. This is where he always grew up so he knew the place from front to back. Adam hated it because he was out in the middle of no where. He has never seen anyone but his family members for months. He has a dog that does not have a name. Adam has not named his little red hound yet because he does not know what he should name the dog. He wants to give the right name because the dog will have to live with him for the rest of his life. Adam hates his name he wishes that his mom would have let him pick his own name when he was old enough. When his sister and him went down to the creek to play because there mom was trying to clean the house. She didn't want them around because they always cause trouble. The dog was playing with his little sister and after while Adam gets tired of the dog playing so ruff with his little sister. Adam then begins to think the dog's likes to play Ruff with his sister so he calls the dog Ruff. The two of them always go down to the creek because they also hate there step dad and they just want to get away from in once in a while.

I thought that this book was an ok book. It was not the best book that I have read in my life time. The one thing about this book was that Adam was a lot like me. He likes to do dare devil things and he does not really care what he has to do. He just wants to get it done.

I think this book is for more outdoors type of people because the setting takes place in the mountains. They do a lot of things out side like fishing hunting. His dad does a lot of trapping so the people into hunting should like this book.

I enjoyed the CD of this book very much! I don't see the audio version of BAD DIRT for sale here at Amazon, but if you enjoy books on tape and Annie Proulx stories, try to get these CDs. I don't recall the reader's name, but he does a fantastic job telling the stories and voicing the various peculiar characters of Proulx's Wyoming. And the stories themselves are amazing, at times harrowing, at times laugh out loud hilarious.

Once again, Annie Proulx has "painted" a masterpiece of individuals, locations and situations. I find myself totally immersed in every one of her stories. Would I personally want to be associated with any of these strange characters and/or plights? Probably not, but I certainly do enjoy becoming a part of their lives through the pages of Ms. Proulx's books! I look forward to her next collection!

This book has hilarious short stories that totally capture the way of life out here in the REAL West.. Annie must live the life and know the characters personally to have created such rich little stories about people I swear I know. I live in a small town in Idaho and I've long thought about writing about the characters around here, but I didn't think anyone would believe me. She even slips in a tall tale or two which you are suckered into for a few pages before you realize, no.... wait..... that can't be, even though it's a nice thought! I've shared this book with my whole family and they love it too.

but I haven't read it yet. I bought and read the first Wyoming collection, and I've read a few other Proulx stories in The New Yorker. I think I know what I'll find in "Bad Dirt."

I was born and grew up in Wyoming, in the Goose Creek valley east of the Big Horns, a region that's been compared to the Vale of Kashmir for its complex beauty. (I suspect that's an exaggeration, although it was made by a person who'd been to both places. I hope to go to the Vale someday, and judge for myself.) Many other parts of Wyoming are beautiful, terrible, and strange. I don't recognize find many -- or any! -- of them in Annie Proulx. Neither do I recognize the rather austere and capable people I grew up with among her rural grotesques. (They make me think of Richard Russo's laughably unlikely characters in his Gloversville novels.) I guess city folks like to imagine rural people that way. Annie gives 'em what they want.

I should mention that I bought "Bad Dirt" off a remainders pile for $5.98US.

This book of stories depicts the life of the sparsely populated lands of Wyoming. The hardscabble, tough fought life for existence is depicted with Proulx' usual excellence. Her language is that of the Wyoming environment. Her characters are the wind toughened, deep winters folks of the life that tests each and every persons ability to cope with a severe environment.

Her stories are loosely connected through the bars that the people of Wyoming patronize and some of the characters that reappear from story to story. From her story about the devil's hole that consumes people in flames, to the unique method of keeping cattle off one's land, the stories are true and bare portrayals of an existence of challenge.

The book is recommended to all readers who like great prose and excellent depictions of hard lives with which Annie Proulx is so familiar. Her life in both Wyoming and Newfoundland allows her to observe how those that live in such challenging territories manage to keep on going. Once again, Proulx creates a wonderful portrait of life under stress. It is a truly fine read.

This was more a personal essay than anything and of course that was the intention of the author. But all in all I could not get through it. It was not that interesting and the writing style was lacking for my taste.
However, it was pretty good at times and being a writer my self I have to admit that just because I didn't like it to a 5 star extent doesn't mean it was bad.

Not being a fan of travel books, my comments may be biased. Years ago when I wandered the globe, my desire was to live as a part of the places in which I found myself. I made a terrible tourist. I mostly wanted to go where I could speak the language of the natives and getting a letter home took weeks. The world isn't like that any more, nor maybe has it so been for a while for tourists and travel writers. The four books by Gretel Ehrlich I have read run the gauntlet. "This Cold Heaven", tells of her visits to Greenland between 1995 and 2001. It best conveys a feel of what life is like for, maybe the last generation of, Inuit hunters who use dogsleds. And out on the sled is where Ms Ehrlich most wants to be. It is a beautiful book interspersed with Rasmussen's, diaries and descriptions of his life in the north. The reader gets a sense of how the Inuit world is put together, its roots, some differences between various groups and the challenges it faces, at the edge of the internet age. The greatest changes, to a relatively remote First Nation in Canada I am familiar with, were brought about by television. A kind of passivity set in: no more making music and living by one's body became less central. When dogsled, hunting Greenlanders tell Ehrlich that they just want to give their children the experience of the hunt and that the children will decide in their turn whether they will live that way, I sense she is documenting the last of the dogsled hunts. In my First Nation, the elder who last used dogs is now too old, so four wheelers and snow mobiles are a way of life.

What I lose patience with in Ehrlich's writing is most manifest in her book, "Questions of Heaven." She goes to China in search of Buddhism during the early stages of "getting rich is good." I don't quite understand her purpose except relating the difficulties of travel, telling anecdotes about some Chinese and their experiences from "let a thousand flowers bloom" to the cultural revolution, and her frustrated search. She goes to decayed monasteries which are just beginning to be opened to tourists. She is overwhelmed by the density, filth, poverty, pollution, etc. of China. Had she done some homework, all this wouldn't be such a revelation. In the Tibetan areas, she mentions the existence of Tibetan speaking westerners but does not explore who they are and why they are there even though she says she practices Tibetan Buddhism. The most interesting part of the book are her descriptions of the old man who was tortured during the cultural revolution and survived to resurrect traditional forms of music with a rag tag bunch of people from his valley. She doesn't explain why where he lives is more prosperous and happy than other places she visits.

What I find difficult in many nature/travel writers she pours on in this book. Flowery language describing clouds, hills and landscape doesn't do much for me. I have spent much time out of doors. I could wax poetic about the blood red bark of an old manzanita in contrast to the peeling orange brown of a madrone, or the stages of a slime mold or a clown nudibranch grazing urchins. The silence of the redwoods, desiccated by summer dryness just before the coming rains, filled my yesterday's walk. No signs of animal life but a few dragonflies and a fleeting flock of bushtits. A few days earlier I had used "dead" to describe it to a walking companion, and she was a bit offended. A precontact California Indian would have known what I meant. Ehrlich evens makes mention of it during her recovery in California related in book four. But it takes more than poetic adjectives to convey a scene in nature. Reading lengthy passages of romantic descriptions of nature becomes tedious. I want to know why Ehrlich travels and writes, how the places she goes are assembled, the role landscape plays, their history, their challenges, the differences among their inhabitants, etc. If her book is the journey of an American Buddhist, there is very little critical relating to Buddhism except that either nobody she meets practices meditation, even chanting, or she doesn't inquire about it.

The other two books, "Solace of Open Space," and "A Match to the Heart," fall somewhere in between. The former is good in the beginning, particularly in the descriptions of sheep herding, but becomes spotty after her marriage and life ranching. Ehrlich has really lived in Wyoming. She earned her spurs. But it would be great to know more about the strong, silent herders and ranchers: who are they; what is their inner landscape like; what are the tensions and rewards of working as they do? How does machinery effect their lives? During my brief stint as a cowboy, besides pushing cows between gigantic pastures, and sorting out the non-pregnant ones, I spent days building fences and hours in a four wheel drive pickup bouncing off-road. The chapters on the rodeo and Sun Dance give us far too little information on what these institutions are really like and what makes them tick. Ehrlich is also a tease when it comes to her personal life. We learn of the tragic death of her boyfriend which leads to her to stay in Wyoming, but the stuff of her one affair and her marriage are only hinted at. She is a beautiful woman in cowboy country. There has got to be more to it.

In the last of the foursome, "A Match to the Heart," she is truck by lightening and relates her torturous recovery. It is a touching book. I have a lot of empathy with her struggle. Her descriptions of the deep humanity of her cardiologist are beautiful. But the book also leaves me a bit unsatisfied. The husband who doesn't seem to care, her trip to London, which seemed so inappropriate given her physical condition, the people with whom she connects but also seems distant from---I want to know more about her inner processes, her meditation practice. "A Match to the Heart" has aspects of a travel book, a chapter about being on a boat in the Alaska Panhandle without any sense of why she is there: a paying tourist; a guest of scientists or friends? When Ehrlich is on the way to recovery she lays out a map of the world pondering where next. It is hard to fathom, that she runs off from her Wyoming ranch to far distant travels and undertakes similar jaunts during her absences from Greenland. When she casually mentions these, the style of life implicit in so bouncing around the world seems inconsistent with the sense of place she is trying to convey. I am deeply attracted to what she has to say when she really inhabits the places in which she spends, as they say, quality time. I guess I want more of that from her.
Charlie Fisher author of Dismantling Discontent: Buddha's Way Through Darwin's World

I have to confess that part of my enthusiasm for this volume resides in the fact that Erlich's poetic leanings summon similar images from my rural surrounds, unlikely as the thought may be of Central Australia's arid bush from Wyoming high country. Her slim volume, polished from journal observations, realises her hopes to make authentic art with parallel qualities of earth:'weather would land on it harshly; light would elucidate the most difficult truths; winds would sweep away obtuse padding'. Her hold over this reader slackens after her marriage, as if the budding sexual tension gave to her writing, her observations, a newcomer's keeness of perception. Of course these don't suddenly disappear after consummation. Something in the rythym of the construction weakens; the warp and weft between perceptions of elements, the gossip, the events, the researched historical passages that inform the present. I haven't followed Erlich's career. Annie Proulx's,'Close Range', in the sense I'd prefer, has, assuming the deft observational writing with more expanded takes on her characters that the 'solace of open space' has ellicited. The Erlich book is a tonic for jaded urban spirits and confirmation that the elemntal life can regenerate a metaphoral attitude.

Outsiders (Easterners, city types) are generally disoriented by Wyoming upon first encountering it. 99% of them probably equate the place with the far side of the moon and hope they never have to return. Ehrlich is one of the remaining 1% who came to Wyoming from "outside" and fell in love with it enough to move there permanently (I put myself in the same category though I haven't moved there - yet). In this book, actually a series of short essays, she tries to capture the allure of the place for her readers. She writes about the land, of course, and the weather, but also about the people who "are strong on scruples but tenderhearted about quirky behavior." Much of her time is occupied with sheepherding, something she describes as "a slow, steady trot of keenness with no speed." Ranch life, living on land short of water, and winter, which "laminates the earth with white, then hardens the lacquer work with wind" - all come under her scrutiny. She describes a rodeo which she thinks must only make sense to a rancher. Like Wyoming itself, it's a tough though gentle book, unsentimental and honest. An excellent book.

This little collection of prose is surprising. A reviewer who didn't care for this book mentioned that it didn't do much to develop or push its theme forward. I think that description is accurate, but misses the point: the book, like its subject matter (Wyoming, mostly, NOT Montana), defies being pushed in any direction. It has a way of imposing itself upon the reader. The vividness of phrase dominates the imagination, but the place it brings you to is an open space, where you're only supposed to linger, discovering and uncovering little surprises of detail as they arrive. It is a wonderful experience and highly recommended, though with a warning: you must be prepared to wander a bit and fall into a different rythm, with different rules, for at least a little while.

This deals with the brave and dramatic subject matter of breast cancer along with the recovery from it.

This was the first Kathleen Eagle novel I have read. I will say that Eagle is brave in her choice of issues and plot. Savannah, her heroine, is a former famous lingerie model who is attempting to recover from a mastectomy. The physical and psychological issues of cancer "recovery" are important, and I credit Eagle for dealign with them.

Clay, the last good man of the title, is a wonderful chracter, as is Claudia, Savannah's daughter. There are also a range of supporting characters who are vividly drawn.

My concern here is that Savannah doesn't come off as a particularly sympathetic character. I can empathize with her position, and maybe some of what appears to be selfishness or shallowness is supposed to be seen in the context of both her illness and her early life with a mother who emphasiezed her physical beauty to the exception of everything else, but Savannah's behavior to Clay is less than kind. I wished for better for him, even at the end of the novel.

I agree with one of the other reviews that there is just too much dialogue involving the little girl, Claudia. And Savannah really is a little too selfish. It hard to get passed that. The hero is solid though. I can tell that Kathleen Eagle is a very talented writer, though. I plan to look at her other books. This book was a little more mainstream fiction in my opinion.

I enjoyed this book but found the heroine, Savannah, to be exasperatingly self-absorbed. I loved her daughter, Claudia, though! As a mother and author, of NEW PSALMS FOR NEW MOMS: A KEEPSAKE JOURNAL, I appreciated the bond between mother and daughter. I was also curious about Kole, the elusive Indian who never even appears in the book, but who is the father of little Claudia. But maybe that's another book...

I'm very glad that this was not the first Kathleen Eagle book I ever picked up, otherwise I would not have read any of her others (and would have missed out on a great author).
The main female character, Savannah, is just so selfish, self-absorbed and pathetic that you are hard pressed to feel any empathy for, or relate to her, in any way. She has a six-year old daughter,Claudia, mature beyond her years, who has to do the "mothering" at times because Savannah is not able to cope emotionally with all that has happened in her life over the last few years. The inappropriate role-modelling, and it's possible future consequences, made me shudder, yet another mark against the main female character.

The main male character, Clay,is well written, a nice blend of masculine macho and sensitivity. He is easy to relate to and care about, but he takes so much emotional rubbish from Savannah that it makes you want to scream at times.

Boring, turgid scenes of endless conversations, trying to flesh out and explain Savannah's background and present behaviour, make this book feel bogged-down and heavy. Early sex scenes without emotional bonding between the reader and characters don't help,either, and come across as almost bizarre in their description and placement in the story!

I was so bored and annoyed by this book, mainly because of Savannah that I skimmed a lot of it in the end.
Could not recommend, even with good characters like Clay and Claudia in it, the annoying, unlikeable character of Savannah overshadows everything else.

The official first book of the Antonio Burns series has Anton, a Wyoming state narcotics agent, investigating a supposedly accidental death in Laramie. Laramie is quite the hopping place when Anton arrives in the middle of the "trial of the century," as two brothers are being tried for the brutal murder of a woman who was believed to be on the verge of turning them in for dealing drugs. The death Anton is investigating is supposed to be an open-and-shut accident case, as the girl fell off the rock face of Vedauwoo. He has been called in because of a possible conflict of interest, as the dead girl was climbing with the son of Nathan Karge, the prosecutor, who is certain to be the state's next governor. Unfortunately, her death doesn't look like much of an accident to Anton, as she fell on her face but has a suspicious contusion on the back of her head. Equally suspicious is the lackadaisical job the coroner did with the autopsy, destroying valuable evidence. Anton meets with resistance at every stage of his investigation, not only from the local cops, but all the way to the state attorney general's office. Since Nathan Karge has a lot to lose if his son is implicated in a murder, he's not very happy about Anton's investigation. Neither is the small climbing cult in Laramie, run by thuggish Billy Heller, a climber past his prime who surrounds himself with adoring younger climbers, some of them girls who endure his rough sexual practices in order to get their hands on the methamphetamine he sells.

Most of the local police are hostile toward Anton and his investigation, and any of the climbers Anton talks to seem to wind up dead. That their deaths all bear similarities to the death Karge is pinning on the brothers convinces him that Heller, not the brothers, are guilty of that crime. But, since implicating the chief prosecutor's son in that crime will destroy his career, Karge pulls every string he can to hamper the investigation. In addition, Anton's wild brother Roberto has just escaped from prison, and the authorities believe Anton helped him out. Anton only has a few allies, his boss, a big black deputy, a lovely reporter, and his big dog Oso. Everyone else seems to want him suspended or dead.

This book bore a lot of similarities to "Point of Law," its prequel which was published second, but changes a few details from the back story. I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see more of Roberto, Anton's wild brother, who in this book is not just a felon, he's doing time for manslaughter. However, his character rang true, as did the personalities of both Anton and Oso. It was no secret who the bad guys were, but there was a bit of suspense as to what actually happened the night the girl fell off the cliff, and I turned the pages quickly to find out what was going to happen next. This is an entertaining series of thrillers, and I look forward to more.

I enjoyed every page-turning page of this rock and mountain-climbing thriller/mystery. For me, the writer compares well with favorites such as Dick Francis. McKinzie's love of climbing (and of his dog) shine through. Yes, the narrator is super-human (doesn't bother me, I don't want to read about ordinary people) and some plot turns may be inevitable or contrived, but even so, the genuine voice of Ant and the supporting good guys carries it for me.

Yes, I do have a niggle, perhaps at the editors as much as anyone. (I hate nigglers, but I can't resist. Sorry.) The crescent moon does not rise in the east at sunset. And I suspect that stunted , high-altitude trees are not oxygen-starved.

I'm sure I miss a lot of really great stories due to my inability to get past an author's poor grammar or punctuation skills. However, in this case, it's the first person, present tense style that turned me cold by page 2. I'd hope it was a short excursion into the moment, but thumbing through the book showed me that it persisted until the bitter end. If you don't mind this writing style, I'm sure it's worth a read.

Superlatives such as "adrenaline-pumping, heart pounding thrill ride" or "high octane adrenaline-powered" are some of the descriptions of this book on the cover testimonials of this debut by author, Clinton McKinzie, a mountain climbing ex- Deputy DA. His story is about a mountain climbing (no surprise) Special Agent Antonio Burns.

In the mountains of Laramie, Wyoming, a young woman is found at the base of a mountain presumably the result of a climbing accident. However, Antonio Burns, in his investigation, finds a bottle on a high cliff with her blood and hair on it. The possibility of murder must be entertained. Suspects include a local hooligan who is a climbing enthusiast, as well as, the son of the DA, Nathan Karge, who is running for Governor. It is a case Burns must tread very carefully on. At the same time, Karge is trying a case concerning the murder of another young woman-perhaps racially motivated. On trial for their lives are two brothers whose only crime may be their racist views. Again, with Karge in control, there may be more than meets the eye.

Clinton McKinzie can write. Of that there is no doubt. However, I would tend to disagree with the above superlatives. There is no "heart pounding" action. In fact, this is a character driven regional mystery with the unique aspect being the passages describing rock climbing. It is a well-written formulaic novel that, in my mind, never really develops a steady pace. The pedestrian plot moves leisurely through the book until the obligatory final confrontation, which holds little surprise. A warning to cozy lovers-a dog gets hurt.

Clinton McKinzie has made me a convert to thriller/crime/adventure stories. He truly has a gift for shaping character and plot, drawing you in to encounter people you care about in situations that are simultaneously extreme and realistic. I recommend his work to a variety of readers; it's a page-turner, a great escape into a world where McKinzie is the expert guide. The story may also encourage you to give climbing a try!