http://www.newwest.net/index.php/city/main/C94/L94/ New West Network: The Voice of the Rocky Mountains en info@newwest.net Copyright 2009 Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:48:18 MST Mon, 09 Nov 2009 14:48:18 MST This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site. http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/m53MU3eCBdU/ Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:00:38 MST Best of the West 2009: New Stories from the Wide Side of the Missouri Edited by James Thomas and D. Seth Horton, foreword by Rick Bass University of Texas Press, 268 pages, $19.95 Best of the West 2009 is a welcome revival of anthology series that ran from 1988 through 1992, collecting outstanding stories set in "the Wide Side of the Missouri" that previously appeared in literary journals.  Unlike some recent one-off Western story anthologies, such as New Stories from the Southwest (also edited by D. Seth Horton) and Forge Books' Best Stories of the American West, Volume I, the editors plan to make this an annual publication, and in the 2009 edition, the quality of the stories is just as high as those in the well-known national Best American Short Stories series. In the foreword, Rick Bass tries to put his finger on "what constitutes a Western short story," and although he notes, "Is it my imagination, or are there extra teaspoonfuls of loneliness in these stories, extra pinches of desperation?" and "a good many Western short stories tend to possess a kind of intensity or power of the felt physical senses," he decides, "I'm not convinced there is a Western short story, yet." Bass doesn't remark on it, but in this year's anthology, the overwhelming common theme is sex: the people in these stories might be lonely, but they manage to partner up pretty well. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/west_is_a_sexy_place_in_best_of_the_west_2009/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/6gAkPAUtgGY/ Thu, 05 Nov 2009 08:56:07 MST Open Fields was a "major victory" for hunters and wildlife conservation, according to the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and many other green groups that lobbied for it. It passed back in December 2008, but almost a year later, this innovative hunter access program is still mired in the administrative rule making process. Now, predictably, conservationists who struggled mightily for the program are asking Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack for a little more priority. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/open_fields_still_closed/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/AAQKW-DZcs0/ Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:00:05 MST As I've mentioned on a couple of occasions over the years I've written the Roundup, when I'm not reading other people's books, I'm trying to write my own, and after many, many years of effort, I have some good news: my first novel, The Ringer, will be published by The Permanent Press in 2011.  I am delighted about it.  Now I just need to edit the book and figure out how to convince people to read it.  (Beg?  Bribe?  Cajole?) Check out my new website for more information. • The winners of the Utah and Oregon Book Awards were announced recently.  In Utah, the winners included David McGlynn in fiction for The End of the Straight and Narrow, Stephen Trimble in nonfiction for Bargaining for Eden: The Fight for the Last Open Spaces in America, and in the poetry category, Craig Arnold won the award posthumously for his collection Made Flesh.  Ben Fulton of the Salt Lake Tribune wrote in greater detail about all the winners. Also in the Roundup: Oregon Book Award winners, events at the Center of the American West, and Annie Proulx donates her papers to the New York Public Library. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/utah_and_oregon_book_awards_announced_and_hooray_i_sold_my_novel/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/lKBq4PJBLaI/ Sun, 01 Nov 2009 11:00:45 MST The Lacuna By Barbara Kingsolver HarperCollins, 464 pages, $26.99 Barbara Kingsolver worked her way up to becoming one of America's Current Top Novelists the old-fashioned way, beginning by writing smaller, tightly-focused novels with some autobiographical elements, earning a loyal readership through word-of-mouth and independent bookseller raves in her former home base of the Southwest, then expanding her stories to globe-spanning epics such as her riveting The Poisonwood Bible.  Kingsolver has followed up her recent nonfiction bestseller Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, about her family's quest to eat locally-grown foods for a year, with her first novel in nine years, The Lacuna, a sweeping tale that follows a young man destined to become a popular American novelist in the years before and after he befriends Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Leon Trotsky.  The Lacuna is another epic work, setting one man's story against the grand events of early twentieth century history, and it's also a bildungsroman and an epistolatory novel, for those AP English students keeping score at home.  The Lacuna is one of a handful of titles which Amazon and Walmart, in their current book-price war, will sell for nine bucks, along with genre fiction juggernauts including the latest books by John Grisham and James Patterson.  Kingsolver's novel is an ironic pick, because leftist politics are at its heart and its protagonist, Harrison Shepherd, is a reclusive, mostly-celibate gay man who writes about Aztec and Mayan history, elements which would not normally cause the books that house them to fly off the shelves.  But The Lacuna will please Kingsolver's plentiful fans because it is full of the qualities that her books have always contained--striking, precise detail, human passion, vivid language, snappy dialogue, and a singularly fascinating character in Kingsolver's imagining of Frida Kahlo. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/barbara_kingsolver_tackles_epic_themes_with_the_lacuna/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/3QbkVS9lEr0/ Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:00:33 MST So, you've finally decided to take that fishing trip of a lifetime--to Alaska, Canada, Patagonia, the Caribbean or another exotic location. Now, be sure you choose the right lodge. The cost is always key, of course, but hardly the only concern. Regardless of your passion--bonefish, tarpon, muskie, salmon, monster rainbows or pike, whatever--you don't want your long-awaited (and deserved, right?) vacation to turn into a stressful and costly disappointment. If you're a do-it-yourself type of guy, this column isn't for you, but if you decide to stay at a fishing lodge and have a guided adventure, finding the right outfitter and avoiding problems along the way can be challenging. I'm hardly an expert, but I've stayed at a dozen or more lodges through the years.  Along the way, I've picked up a few tips that might be helpful. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/choosing_a_fishing_lodge/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/n7zVI30CtU0/ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:00:06 MST Helena-raised Kevin Connolly is on the road talking about his new memoir, Double Take.  He'll visit Bozeman today (Country Bookshelf, 7 p.m.), and he'll be in Helena on October 28 (Montana Book Company, 7 p.m.), and in Missoula on October 29 (Fact & Fiction, 7 p.m.).  The 24-year-old Connolly was born without legs, but according to his bio on his publisher's website, he "was otherwise a healthy baby and grew up like any other Montana kid; getting dirty, running in the woods, and getting dirty some more." Connolly began taking photographs four years ago, traveling around the world on a skateboard and "documenting the reactions" people had to him.  The photos in this series became "The Rolling Exhibition," which Connolly's website describes as: 31 Cities, 32,000 photos, one stare." Double Take is getting great reviews; Kirkus Reviews described it as "A courageous, immensely rewarding chronicle expressed in arresting words and pictures." Visit Connolly's website for an entertaining trailer about his experience reading an ebook on an over-sized PC. Also in the Roundup: A Utah State senior wins the national Norman Mailer Award for nonfiction, two forthcoming regional novels, and David Sax finds some good Jewish delis in the Rockies. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/helena_native_born_without_legs_shares_his_perspective_in_double_take/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/3gN45GY0ZUA/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 08:01:03 MST Wisdom of the Last Farmer by David Mas Masumoto Simon & Schuster, 238 pages, $25 David Mas Masumoto's Wisdom of the Last Farmer will make you want to go out and pay a farmer more than the asking price for his produce at a market.  Masumoto grows organic peaches, nectarines, and grapes on his farm in California's central valley, carrying on in the tradition of his family.  His grandparents emigrated from Japan over a hundred years ago with the dream of buying land.  Because they weren't native born Americans, laws forbade them from purchasing land, so instead they worked in other people's fields and suffered through internment in the Arizona desert during World War II.  But they persevered and eventually their sons established the 80-acre farm that Masumoto now runs with his wife and children.  Masumoto is on a mission to preserve flavorful heirloom peaches that his family has grown for decades, varieties most farmers have abandoned because of supermarkets' demands for harder, redder peaches with longer shelf life and transport durability.  Masumoto wants people to experience the "Sun Crest peach, a fat and juicy gem with a stunning, honeyed flavor." If people could try it, he thinks, they probably wouldn't settle for the fruit that's sold as peaches today. In Wisdom of the Last Farmer, Masumoto, a columnist for the Fresno Bee and the award-winning author of several previous books, discusses his father's decline in the wake of a stroke, and how their hard work in pursuit of a perfect peach breaks their bodies and spirits down.  "Organic farming is not simple or easy," Masumoto writes.  "It's easy to want to be environmentally responsible, but it's a damned hard thing to achieve.  I cannot replace tedious labor with faster technology or equipment when things go wrong." David Mas Masumoto will be in Utah to present his book in Salt Lake City at the King's English Bookshop on Thursday, October 22 (5:30 p.m.).  On October 23 and 24, he will participate in the Moab Confluence "Eating the West" literary festival, and on October 25 he will visit Denver's Tattered Cover (Colfax, 2 p.m.) as a part of the Rocky Mountain Land Library reading series. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/david_mas_masmuto_pays_the_price_for_perfect_peaches/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/Zkxb9WnpChQ/ Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:42:04 MST Unnoticed by many, two members of Congress from Washington have decided it's about time to do something to resolve the seemingly endless debate over the future of our last roadless lands. Senator Maria Cantwell and Representative Jay Inslee, both Democrats, have re-introduced the National Forest Roadless Area Conservation Act (S.1738, H.R. 3563) to codify the Clinton-era Roadless Rule that has been on a legal roller coaster for the past nine years. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/roadless_rule_bill_the_timing_is_right_so_just_pass_it/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/sAfqXKqtzmw/ Wed, 21 Oct 2009 07:58:23 MST President Obama isn't the first American President to win the Nobel Peace Prize.  The first President, as well as the first American, to receive that coveted honor was a one-time member of the Montana Stock Grower's Association. Theodore Roosevelt was also the first and only future President to win the Congressional Medal of Honor. Roosevelt was awarded the peace prize for successfully mediating the end to the bloody Russo--Japanese War. He received the Medal of Honor for leading his Rough Rider's in their hell-for-leather assault on San Juan Hill. In my opinion Theodore Roosevelt (he disliked the moniker "Teddy") was the most remarkable American who ever lived.  His portrait has been on my office wall for three decades. I have over 60 volumes by him or about him. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/the_first_american_president_to_win_the_nobel_peace_prize/C94/L94/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newwest/city/boulder/~3/VgFjPTp2LUs/ Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:00:28 MST This year's Montana Festival of the Book, which begins Thursday, has an incredible lineup scheduled.  The October 23 reading with humorist David Sedaris is sold out, but there's so much else going on that nobody who missed out on tickets for that event should go home with an empty brain.  On Thursday, October 22, four renowned crime novelists will participate in the panel discussion "The Last Good Kiss: An Appreciation of James Crumley." Michael Koepf will interview Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman and James Grady about "the work of Montana mystery writer James Crumley and its impact on the mystery genre and literature as a whole" (Wilma Theatre, 3 p.m.). Many writers of some of the great books I've reviewed here over the past few years will offer readings, including Maile Meloy (with Dennis Lehane and Andrew Sean Greer on Thursday, October 22, Wilma Theater, 7:30 p.m.), Marianne Wiggins and Kevin Canty (with James Lee Burke, October 24, Wilma Theater, 7:30 p.m.), and Rick Bass (October 24, Holiday Inn, 11 a.m.).  Bass and Wiggins will participate on a panel discussion called "Locating the Novel" that sounds fascinating, described in The Missoulian in this way: "Some novels are 'high concept.' Some authors start out with a setting, a room, a landscape. And sometimes the story begins with the sound of a voice, a character. How does the 'initiating impulse' affect the final product? And do some authors only hear voices while others always see visions?" (October 23, with Andrew Sean Greer, and Peter Orner, Holiday Inn, 2:30 p.m.) The one presentation that makes me wish teleportation existed so that I could just zap myself up to Missoula is "'The Wire,' An Interview," with the show's creator David Simon, and George Pelecanos, one of the show's co-producers and writers (Holiday Inn, October 24, 1 p.m.). Also in the Roundup: A call for submissions to an anthology about living and working in the National Parks, Sun Valley's Hemingway festival, a Boise man wins Esquire's fiction contest, Denver novelist Carleen Brice shares her home with the Denver Post, and David Wroblewski kicks off his paperback tour. http://www.newwest.net/city/article/montana_festival_of_the_book_brings_crime_fiction_superstars_to_missoula/C94/L94/