8 JULY 31-AUGUST 6, 2025 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | on the original) and Tom Noel, the historian known as Dr. Colorado, who’s written more than fi fty Colorado-based books, are working on right now. They’re adding everything from excerpts of books published over the last thirty years, to poems and songs, as well as a few items over- looked the fi rst time (work by nature writer Enos Mills, as well as the state’s fi rst offi cial historian, Leroy Hafen), while also subtracting about half of the original content. Both John Denver and Judy Collins made the cut for the update, as did Allen Ginsberg’s “Plutonium Ode.” The target publication date is in time for Colorado’s 150th birthday on August 1, 2026. There’s other intriguing action, too. One Book, One Denver, the citywide reading program started by John Hickenlooper when he was mayor, is coming back this year; the choice will be announced by the Denver Public Library next week. (With any luck, the library will even pick a work by a Colorado author this time, rather than the pap that had turned the program into the literary equivalent of a Happy Meal before then- mayor Michael Hancock killed it altogether.) After ownership changes, the Bookies and Tattered Cover are starting new chapters that look promising; Lighthouse Writers Workshop keeps illuminating the interest Colorado residents have in the written word. And Colorado Humanities just an- nounced the impressive winners of this year’s Colorado Book Awards, although the future of that project, as well as other Colorado Humanities efforts, is in doubt after major federal cuts this spring. The America 250 - Colorado 150 commis- sion established by the Colorado Legislature back in 2022 could go a long way to start a new literary chapter for this state; after all, one of its charges was “the promotion of scholarship and research that illuminates the history of the American West and Colorado within the larger story of the United States.” While the election of Donald Trump has changed much of the larger story of the United States and how its history is regarded (if it’s regarded at all), Colorado can still stay the course. And Governor Polis, who’d planned on using $8.5 million in public funds on that bridge, could now use some of that money to write a few wrongs. ■ Book It continued from page 7 FULCRUM PUBLISHING Looking for a starter set of must-read books about Colorado? Don’t miss The Colorado Book and Reading Colorado. Now keep reading (what else?) for fi fteen more suggestions (thanks to Alan Prendergast, Teague Bohlen, Habitat Library and a host of others for their ideas): Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner While Leadville is only one of several loca- tions that this sprawling Pulitzer-winning novel covers, the trip across the history of the West is more than worth the time. The novel follows wheelchair-bound historian and aca- demic Lyman Ward, who has lost connection with his son and living family and decides to write about his frontier-era grandparents. Such remains the reputation of Stegner’s novel that the Modern Library ranked at 82 on its 1998 list of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century. Butcher’s Crossing John Williams For decades, John Williams taught at the University of Denver. And while he was in- fl uencing young minds, he was working on a more “realistic” kind of Western novel. “The subject of the West has undergone a process of mindless stereotyping,” he said after this 1960 novel, Butcher’s Crossing, was released. It follows Harvard student Will Andrews on a buffalo hunt and into the violent world of Butcher’s Crossing, Kansas, in the 1870s. Centennial James Michener Does James Michener play a little fast and loose with the facts in this doorstop-sized classic? Sure — it’s historical fi ction, not a textbook, which he created to mark the state’s centennial. But the sprawling epic portrays some of Colorado’s most dramatic history (the Sand Creek Massacre, for example) while telling the story of the fi ctional titular city in Weld County from the late 1700s all the way through the 1970s. And if the sheer length of the novel seems a little daunting, a gorgeously over-dramatic and star-studded mini-series of it was made in 1978. Both the book and the mini-series are worth experiencing, for very different reasons. The Dog Stars Peter Heller Peter Heller has written a handful of novels, most of which have some Colorado connec- tion — but none so direct as The Dog Stars, his debut, a post-apocalyptic story set in our state following a (yikes) worldwide viral di- saster. It’s an enthralling and suspense-fi lled yarn that Playboy praised as “one of the most powerful reads in years.” Eclipse Dalton Trumbo Later-to-be-blacklisted Dalton Trumbo wrote Eclipse in 1935 about the Colorado town of Shale City, based on Grand Junction, where he was raised. The thinly veiled satire of life there wasn’t all that well received lo- cally at the time, but the years have been kind to Trumbo, re-creating him into a favorite son of sorts. This book is a great place to start understanding why — and to get a good sense of one of the twentieth century’s most interesting writers. A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains Isabella Bird One of the seminal travel memoirs about Colo- rado — and the fi rst authored by a woman — is A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, detailing British explorer Isabella Bird’s 1873 trip to the Rocky Mountains. It’s delivered in epistolary form, a compilation of letters that Bird wrote to her sister about her travels through Estes Park and elsewhere in and around what was then the Colorado Territory. The instant success of the book led to Bird becoming the fi rst woman to be a member of the Royal Geographical Society in 1892. The Meadow James Galvin Booksellers often are confused whether The Meadow should be shelved in nature or fi ction. Either way, it’s a wonderful look at people, nature and land on the Colorado/ Wyoming border, focusing on a particular meadow on a particular ranch. On the Road Jack Kerouac If you haven’t read Jack Kerouac’s seminal work since you were a kid, you owe it to yourself to give it another shot. Like the Beat Generation that it helped defi ne, the book is barely restrained chaos, but at the same time, it’s poetic and affecting and memorable. (So much so that we keep writ- ing about it.) The book may not take place altogether in Colorado, but its roots are here, courtesy of Neal Cassady, Five Points, My Brother’s Bar and the wandering spirit common at a mile high. Plainsong Kent Haruf Kent Haruf’s Eastern Plains town of Holt, Colorado, may be solely fictional, but it manages to capture the spirit of an entire landscape not in (or in the shadows of) the mountains for which the state is usually known. Told from multiple perspectives, the book reveals much about the small-town life and population of the prairie lands that begin to the east of Denver and just keep going throughout the Midwest. Haruf went on to write several more books, but this remains our favorite. The Song of the Lark Willa Cather Willa Cather’s third novel is set in the fi c- tional mountain town of Moonstone, Colo- rado, and tells the story of a talented vocal artist who comes of age against the back- drop of the burgeoning American West. The main character eventually leaves Colorado for Chicago, where she fi nds success; it’s a quintessential “great American novel” with very deep Colorado roots. The Stand Stephen King You could argue until (ahem) the end of the world about which Colorado-connected book by Uncle Stevie is best: The Shining would be the clear choice of Estes Park and the Stanley Hotel, and number-one fans of Misery will undoubtedly protest. But The Stand is Stephen King’s magnum opus — or one of them, at least — and much of it is set right here in Colorado…even if it’s still a little nerve-racking to talk about the Project Blue pandemic in the wake of COVID. Tallgrass Sandra Dallas Sandra Dallas’s career is long and storied, and for good reason. From her nonfi ction to her 1991 debut novel, Buster Midnight’s Cafe, to 2025’s Tough Love, Dallas has delighted readers who love historical situations and vibrant characterization. Her 2007 novel, Tallgrass, set at Amache, the Japanese intern- ment camp outside Granada, Colorado, is both fascinating and of supreme importance, especially in today’s world, where the “other- ing” of our fellow human beings is tragically once again front and center. The Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland Robert Michael Pyle This is one of the best books on “nature and the city” that you’ll fi nd, but it’s also an in- credible chronicle of the changes in Denver and Aurora, especially, over the course of the 1950s. You’ll be able to read an excerpt in the updated The Colorado Book. Sabrina & Corina Kali Fajardo-Anstine A 2019 fi nalist for the National Book Award, Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s collection of short fi ction tells the stories of women in Denver, Latina culture, family and culture and place. Fajardo-Anstine is a local whose family has deep roots in the Mile High City — and this book is proof of that connection, that un- derstanding, that fi erce love. She followed it with Woman of Light, another stunner that takes you deeper into Colorado’s Chi- cano history. The Worst Hard Time Timothy Egan Think Colorado’s economy is tough now? In his immaculately researched 2006 book, Timothy Egan takes you back to the Dust Bowl, when much of Colorado actually blew away, and blizzards of black dust made the horrors of the Depression that much worse. Although Colorado wasn’t the only state hit by this catastrophe — the book details how unscientifi c farming practices put agricul- ture on a collision course with nature — The Worst Hard Time is more terrifying than any Stephen King novel. Happy birthday, Colorado! That’s a book for every decade so far, and we had to skip Ted Conover, John Fante, Gene Fowler, Pam Houston, Alan Prendergast (forgive us for the confl ict, but his Gangbusters is a must-read if you want to understand Denver a century ago, which was nothing to celebrate) and so many authors worthy of your time and attention. What did we miss? Write us (of course) at [email protected]. ■ Fifteen Books About Colorado to Read Now
