Utah State University Press
$33.95
April 2024
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From the publisher<\/strong><\/strong>: This is the continuing story of Westwater \u2014 a relatively short, deep canyon near the Utah-Colorado state line that has become one of the most popular river-running destinations in the Southwest \u2014 and its lasting significance to the study of the Upper Colorado River. Thousands of recreational river runners have pushed this backwater place into the foreground of modern popular culture in the West. Westwater represents one common sequence in western history: the late opening of unexplored territories, the sporadic and ultimately often unsuccessful attempts to develop them, their renewed obscurity when development doesn\u2019t succeed, their attraction to a marginal society of dreamers and schemers, and the modern rediscovery of them due to new cultural motives, especially outdoor recreation, which has brought many people into thousands of remote corners of the West.<\/p>\n From Marya Johnston, owner:<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> I hadn\u2019t read the first edition of this book, so when the second edition came out and had an introduction by my long time acquaintance, river historian Roy Webb, I took it as a sign that it was time to give the book a go.\u00a0 I\u2019m so glad I did.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What a great history \u2014 not only of the Westwater portion of the Colorado River, but of western Colorado and eastern Utah in general. From Utes and early mountain men who followed the Gunnison River to the Colorado and traversed Westwater Creek into northern Utah, to modern day river runners, the narrative is engrossing.\u00a0 Have you ever wondered about the first white men to negotiate the Gunnison River gorge?\u00a0 That story is here, and those guys were crazy.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What about\u00a0 the McCarty gang\u2019s bank robbery in Delta? When and why did people start floating through Westwater Canyon for recreation? The portion of the book about mountain man inscriptions near us had my husband and I exploring for nearly a month for a particular signature. We found it, by golly.\u00a0 No trail, no wide spot in the road\u2026.we had to think like a mountain man, and were very excited when we found it. I\u2019ve often mentioned that reading makes you explore your world, and we are certainly an example of that.<\/p>\n The River\u2019s Daughter<\/p>\n By Bridget Crocker<\/strong> From the publisher<\/strong><\/strong>: After Bridget Crocker\u2019s parents\u2019 volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming.<\/strong> Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River with a stepfather she loved, a new baby brother, and the river as her companion \u2014 until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle, becoming someone Bridget barely recognized. The one constant in her life \u2014 the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself \u2014 was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she\u2019d found her calling.<\/p>\n From Marya Johnston, owner:<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> Bridget Crocker had a difficult late childhood. Hooking up with an older river runner in her mid teens was the best thing that could have happened to her. He showed her the river and the river saved her life. Bridget\u2019s story will tighten your chest from the first page and will have you laughing, crying, raging, and pausing with admiration.\u00a0 Sometimes all at the same time.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n While the stories of running the Zambezi river and rivers of the west are thrilling, ultimately, this book is about a young woman fighting to shed the shackles of the past in order to become the person she was meant to be\u2026. a strong woman who advocates for the\u00a0 empowerment of women in the outdoors, a woman of the river. Bridget Crocker has delivered a difficult but uplifting story with grace and honesty. This is a keeper.<\/p>\n Is A River Alive?<\/p>\n By Robert Macfarlane<\/strong> From the publisher<\/strong><\/strong>: Hailed in the New York Times as \u201ca naturalist who can unfurl a sentence with the breathless ease of a master angler,\u201d Robert Macfarlane brings his glittering style to a profound work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history. \u201cIs a River Alive?\u201d is a joyful, mind-expanding exploration of an ancient, urgent idea: that rivers are living beings who should be recognized as such in imagination and law.<\/p>\n Macfarlane takes readers on three unforgettable journeys teeming with extraordinary people, stories, and places: to the miraculous cloud-forests and mountain streams of Ecuador, to the wounded creeks and lagoons of India, and to the spectacular wild rivers of Canada \u2014 imperiled respectively by mining, pollution, and dams. Braiding these journeys is the life story of the fragile chalk stream a mile from Macfarlane\u2019s house, a stream that flows through his own life.<\/p>\n From Marya Johnston, owner:<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong> Yes, this is the Robert Macfarlane known for \u201cUnderland.\u201d For me, Macfarlane is the absolute monarch of the metaphor.\u00a0 HIs prose is so vivid and lyrical, you will find yourself rereading passages to soak in the beauty of his writing. So, yes, rivers are alive, despite our best efforts over the last 200 years to use them as trash dumps, sewage channels, something to be exploited.\u00a0 I hope we think differently now. Take notice: you have fewer smashed insects on your windshield than you used to because rivers are drying up and being poisoned..<\/p>\n Though the Epic of Gilgamesh is relatively new to us, since cuneiform was only deciphered in the mid-19th century (please read the wonderful book, \u201cThe Mesopotamian Riddle\u201d for more on that subject), it is the oldest known story, coming in at a mere 4,000 years old. Why am I talking about Gilgamesh?\u00a0 Because Macfarlane reminds us that it was written on blocks of river mud using a <\/strong>river reed <\/strong>as a writing instrument. Rivers and books. We need them both to flow freely in our lives.<\/p>\n THIS WEEK\u2019S BOOK RECS COME FROM:<\/strong><\/p>\n Out West Books<\/strong><\/p>\n 533 Main St., Grand Junction<\/p>\n
Spiegel & Grau
$30
June 2025
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W.W. Norton & Company
$31.99
May 2025
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