We convened at Dick Malmquist’s house on Saturday, July 8, 2023. Renee proposed this book by Toni Morrison. It’s the second Toni Morrison book we’ve read as a group (the other: A Mercy). Renee is an unabashed Toni fan. Many of us found the book riveting and lyrical. It’s long for us: 318 pages. We…
Refuge transforms tragedy into a document of renewal and spiritual grace, resulting in a work that has become a classic. Author Terry Tempest Williams is an American author, conservationist and activist. Williams writing is rooted in the American West and has been significantly influenced by the arid landscape of her native Utah in which she…
A remarkable classic of nature writing, an account of a journey both physical and spiritual. A detour from U.S. 66 to visit the Grand Canyon on a June morning in 1963 inspired Fletcher to walk the length of the Canyon below the rim. Author Colin Fletcher was a pioneering backpacker and writer. In 1963, Fletcher…
On August 5, 1949, a crew of fifteen of the United States Forest Service’s elite airborne firefighters, The Smoke Jumpers, stepped into the sky above a remote forest fire in the Montana wilderness. Two hours after their jump, all but three of these men were dead or mortally burned from a “blowup” — an explosive,…
From its first magnificent sentence, “In our family, there was no clear line between religion and fly fishing,” to the last, “I am haunted by waters,” “A River Runs Through It” is an American classic. Based on Norman Maclean’s childhood experiences. Author Born in Iowa, on December 23, 1902, Maclean was the son of Clara…
The narratives in this book are of journeys made in three wildernesses – on a coastal island, in a Western mountain range, and on the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. The four men portrayed here have different relationships to their environment, and they encounter each other on mountain trails, in forests and rapids, sometimes…
An incendiary call to protect the American wilderness requires more than a little of the old willing suspension of disbelief. Moving from one improbable situation to the next, packing more adventure into the space of a few weeks than most real people do in a lifetime. Author Edward Paul Abbey (1927–1989) was an American author…
The story of the American West is the story of a relentless quest for a precious resource: water. It is a tale of rivers diverted and dammed, of political corruption and intrigue, of billion-dollar battles over water rights, of ecologic and economic disaster. Author Marc Reisner was an American environmentalist and writer best known for…
