"A man who does not think for himself does not think at all."
-Oscar Wilde
Tim is NOT the valiant, dashing, handsome prince. Tim is a peasant, “and being a peasant stinks.” Tim has one shot at becoming something other than a peasant by joining the local prince in saving a princess. But, nothing is what it seems and nothing works out like it’s supposed to. This hilarious adventure will have you laughing on every page … and maybe learning a thing or two, like the definition of the word “Brobdingnagian” when the group runs afoul of some Brobdingnagian bees!
For all of you who enjoyed The Book of Joy, Douglas Abrams now brings us reason for Hope. Even before the specific trials and challenges that have faced all of us since the beginning of 2020, the modern world has been a very trying place. Whether it is climate change, global or domestic politics, connection and disconnection in the digital age, or a whole host of other challenges, it is very easy to despair. But none other than THE Jane Goodall sees plenty of reason for hope. Presented as a conversation between Goodall and Abrams, this book provides a reasoned and cogent argument that even in these times, we are making great strides as a species and all is far from lost.
If you ask visitors to our county what Vail is known for, I’m sure most will say world-class skiing. But, those of us who live here year-round know there’s a rich history in our valley and so much more to see. If you’ve never taken a walk around the beautiful Betty Ford Alpine Gardens, you simply must. Once you do, you should pick up a copy of On the Roof of the Rocky Mountains. In it, you will find beautiful photography, valley history, and world-class botany and horticulture on par with our world-class skiing.
I imagine most of us who live in, play in, and love the mountains have imagined what it would be like to
walk off and leave the world behind and try to survive in the wild. Evison tells the story of a man trying
to do just that. Dave is a veteran struggling with PTSD and the loss of his wife, for whom human society
has become too much. Evison renders his characters and the natural world beautifully, counter-
balancing their emotional journey with that of a mother and child surviving the last ice age. Weird and
wonderful in the way only Jonathan Evison can pull off.
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The best summary for this book is to use the title of one of Rovelli’s other books, Reality Is Not What It Seems. It never was. Classical physics managed to get so much right that much of the last century has been about making things fit into that framework. But, the world of the very, very small has so much going on that makes no sense until you completely pull apart your understanding of the very underpinnings of the universe. Helgoland is science mixed with humanity as Rovelli explores the messy process of discovery and the even messier process of bringing those discoveries to the public. We like to think of science as the solidification of objective truth. Rovelli reveals the history and founders of quantum physics for the subjective creatures they are. Ironically, quantum physics itself seems to indicate that subjectivity is justified … if you’re an electron.
Is there a concept more central to the American identity than freedom? Using the framework of a backpacking trip with friends, Junger explores this core value in our own nation’s history and beyond. For him, there is a constant tension between the desire to exist free of constraints and the advantages and necessities of living in groups. Freedom is a thoughtful and non-partisan work. It is more a work of philosophy than politics. In this way, it serves as an excellent point of departure to consider the very framework of our society and our place in it as individuals.
Vlautin is a master of the every-day tragedy, telling stories of the nameless masses living paycheck to
paycheck. Here, as in Don’t Skip Out on Me, we have a character scrapping and clawing for a piece of the
American dream against odds stacked very much against her. It’s a world where all the options are bad
and morality might just be a luxury. Yet, hope is the only thing that can’t be bought, sold, or stolen.
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The whiskers growing on his face or a mouse discovering his kitchen like Columbus discovering America (because it was already there), Collins uses deceptively simple imagery and straightforward language which are enjoyable to read the first time and packed with much greater depth upon rereading. I had the pleasure of meeting the poet during his tenure as Poet Laureate of the U.S. (2001-2003). It changed my perception of what modern poetry could do. Best enjoyed one poem at a time in a deliberate pause of your otherwise harried day.
Nearing his 40th birthday and sensing a kind of ending, Cognetti and friends embark on a trek through one of the last regions of the world where the modern Western culture has not taken root, the Dolpo region of Nepal. As so many of us who are drawn to the mountains do, Cognetti seeks a deeper personal truth, an inner truth experienced because of the outer world. In simple but beautiful prose, Cognetti reveals the majesty of the mountains, the human connections, the awe, the pain, and the humor of the experience.
We assume that people generally tell the truth. We assume that we can tell when they're not. We assume that we can read someone's intentions beyond their words. We assume that emotions look the same in Cleveland, Ohio as they do in Accra, Ghana. Gladwell explores how these and other assumptions function as perfectly rational even necessary aspects of society, yet can have potentially disastrous consequences in the wrong circumstances. A compelling consideration of communication, social interaction, and the absolute necessity of developing an awareness of our blind spots.
The perfect gift for the armchair scientist in your life. From the creator of xkcd comes a collection of the strangest questions ever posed, then answered with actual physics and cartoons of course. Why don't we use rubber skis on a concrete hill? How can you land the International Space Station as answered by a real astronaut? Can Serena Williams knock a drone out of the sky with a tennis ball? Functioning as a physics miscellany, you can pick it up and put it down as you have time. But, you'll likely read it cover to cover just for laughs. Audio read by Wil Wheaton, who is perfect.
"Be anyone with Anyone." In the present, a young researcher seeks a cure for Alzheimer's, inadvertently creating a technology capable of moving a person's consciousness from one body to another, attempting to hide this fact from her investor, keeping the tech from developing into her worst fears. In the near future, Anyone at Global Inc. controls "the flash." With it, virtually everyone in the world can be anywhere in moments, for work or vacation, to experience what it's like to live as someone else. It's a little harder to hate when you've actually literally walked a mile in someone else's shoes. But, not everyone is playing by the rules.
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When the captain of the Glory retires, the passengers decide to make one of their own the new captain. This new captain has no experience as a sailor, has seen very little of the ship, knows nothing about the mechanical operations. But, his fresh perspective will be exciting ... right? Firing all of the knowledgeable sailors, swerving the ship violently from side to side, allowing the ship to be boarded and raided, and hiding as disaster looms, the new captain is clearly out of his depth. Satire at its finest.
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At the intersection of coming of age and adventure, This Tender Land recounts a river voyage in the Summer of 1936 of a group of children who become the "found family" that their birth families never were. You will fall in love with these children as they deal with adversity and tragedy with indomitable hope.
What if the traditional hero of the piece is incapacitated at the outset of the adventure? The background characters come to the foreground in this twisted fairytale. If you only read one book this year with a talking goat that poops in fear, let this be the one. If you need a book that appeals to your inner 10 year-old, but with very adult humor, likewise this is the one.
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The Martin Chronicles is the new This Boy's Life (Wolff). Martin grows up in 1980s Manhattan. Along the way, he experiences the first pangs of love, cruelty from peers, and a constantly vacillating hot and cold relationship with his cousin Evie, on her own mysterious journey. Classic coming of age, well-written and moving.
Sometimes it's hard to imagine life in Colorado before interstates, tunnels, and ski resorts. But, of course there were people here for centuries before European settlement. Who were they? How did they live? I find myself wondering these things while backpacking, standing in the mountains, trying to imagine surviving the harsh Winter. Your American History class probably never covered these incredible original mountain people.
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The Martin Chronicles is the new This Boy's Life (Wolff). Martin grows up in 1980s Manhattan. Along the way, he experiences the first pangs of love, cruelty from peers, and a constantly vacillating hot and cold relationship with his cousin Evie, on her own mysterious journey. Classic coming of age, well-written and moving.
Ask Maddox about perseverance (p. 128). Ask Dylan about courage (p. 189). Ask Sam about resilience (p. 115) and Owen about brownie batter and basketball (p. 59). The Heart of a Boy explores what it is to be a boy through passions, fears,and humor. Combining beautiful photography with the boys' own words, this book says so much in the simplest way.
"Polar Bears are patient beasts." Sea Bear is the remarkable story of a polar bear swimming across the Arctic as Summer sets in and the ice begins to break apart, hunting, and encountering other creatures of the North. Beautiful artwork combines with insightful text to glimpse the life of a bear living in an environment very different from ours.
The grass is always scarier on the other side, the monster in the closet, the first day of class, the ogre on the other side of the wall. At least it always seems scarier ... until you face it. A young knight imagines all the terrifying things on the other side of his wall only to find a new friend and a new adventure.
Who can survive on the very fringes of society? One very smart, capable young girl named Kya. Owens uses alternating chapters to explore Kya's life and survival along with an investigation into a mysterious death some years after Kya's childhood. The connection will keep the reader guessing. This book is a mystery but, so, so much more. It is a story of vulnerability and exploitation. It is a meditation on the importance of community, friendship, the family found when the family one is born to is absent.
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No one has the whole story...ever. We're all heroes and villains. Ohio explores the endless ways in which the lives of former high school classmates intersect, how they shaped, how they built, how they destroyed each other. Each of them also holds a piece of a larger, darker story. Ohio is an incredible character study, compelling, and very well-crafted.
In a neighborhood where all the houses are exactly the same, differences slowly creep in. At first, no one knows who left the light on. But, by the end the neighborhood has embraced the many ways to be. A deceptively simple look at diversity and self-expression.
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This book is for EVERYONE, not just Shakespeare fans. In the opening chapter, Greenblatt describes how Shakespeare used historical and fantastic episodes to explore current events. Greenblatt goes on to do the same by using Shakespeare's opus to explore the motives, rise, public face vs private life, and inevitable downfall of the tyrant. Relevant today as it was 400 years ago.
For the armchair physicist, for fans of Neil Degrasse Tyson. Rovelli is a theoretical physicist working at the very frontier of human knowledge. What is the stuff that is time? How do we perceive time and why? What does it mean to say "now"? What is the smallest unit of time and why do we experience it as a smooth flow from one event to the next? Rovelli explores this thing we take for granted, breaks down our understanding, and builds it back up. Fascinating!
Around the Round Table, Arthur's knights boast of how many dragons they have slain ... even though secretely no one has ever seen one. To teach them a lesson, Merlin sends them on a quest that pits them against the next best thing. Adventure, bravery, and a silent Black Knight who is more than meets the eye! Adults will also hear echoes of Monty Python, "RUN AWAY!!!"
Victor is a boy with a mission. His friend and mentor, Mr. Spiro, has just passed away and Victor is supposed to spread his ashes at the mouth of the Mississippi. Victor also works at a newspaper, loves words, but has a hard time with them due to his stutter. Copyboy explores adversity, friendship, family, and duty against the backdrop of the late '60s.
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Colorado's own Peter Heller returns with his third novel. Fans of The Dog Stars and The Painter will find the same beautiful language, rounded and unique characters, and passages dripping with the ambiance of the modern West. Celine is the story of an aging private eye (based on Heller's own mother) who just can't seem to retire. She's made reuniting families her life's work and when the beautiful and tragic Gabriela contacts her out of the blue, she can't resist taking the case. The story interlaces the mystery of the disappearance of Gabriela's father with scenes from Celine's childhood. Celine is a story of how inconvenient people can still simply disappear into the woods. It's a story of loss, acceptance, and family.
Norse Mythology is, as the name implies, a modern interpretation on classic tales of Odin, Thor, and the gang. Don't know what Ragnarok is? Find out. Is Fenrir about to eat the moon? Maybe. When the gods are about to have a party and need a bottomless cauldron of beer, can they make that happen? Not without hijinks. Gaiman uses traditional source material (the Eddas) while writing with firmly modern sensibilities and humor. More a collection of short stories than a continuous narrative, it moves quite quickly and remains entertaining to the very end.
History, art, and of course religion all aim to place humanity in context. Who are we? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do we live in this world? Can we live beyond this world? The Meaning of Human Existence proposes that the existing models to analyze ourselves are lacking. For Wilson, our species is a product of our evolution. We are as we are because the natural world, pressures, and shear chance molded us. As humanity takes ever greater control of our biological destiny by changing our environment, changing the pressures to which we are subject, and even changing our genetic code, Wilson believes it is imperative that we understand the humans we are creating. An engaging and though provoking set of essays poised at a tipping point in human history.
What if Van Gogh's death wasn't a suicide? Friends of Van Gogh and Impressionist painters Lucien Lessard and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec take on the role of amateur detectives unravelling the mystery connecting the deaths of several painters, a mysterious woman who may have been a model for all of them, a pushy paint salesman, and the color blue. Hysterical and historical, Moore layers his humor with an incredible attention to detail and exhaustive research. A must-read for art fans who need a laugh.
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Dark Eden is like no other science fiction I have read. Although it takes place in the future after 5 humans crash land on a distant planet lit only by bioluminescent plants and animals, the action is 5 generations removed from them and follows their descendants who live a hunter-gatherer existence while waiting for rescue and return to Earth. They have an oral tradition to keep the stories and values of Earth alive. Their chief commandment is to stay in the valley of the original crash. However, food is getting scarce. One young man dares to question the wisdom of their deepest held beliefs, insisting that their ancestors would want them to survive and spread beyond the mountain known only as the Snowy Dark. Dark Eden explores the foundations of society, the strength and pitfall of deeply held beliefs, and what it takes to break free from them. Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and well-deserved.
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Christopher says: Pop-culture has gone zombie crazy! What do zombies and addicts have in common? An irrepressible need to satisfy a hunger. Stenson hops on the zombie bandwagon with a cast of characters who are very much off the wagon, heroin addicts. Chase and his buddy Typewriter wake up after a bender to a world of zombies. You get all the running, screaming, zombie-killing action mixed with the pressure to get that next hit. Maybe the apocalypse is the pressure Chase needs to get clean or maybe he’ll climb further down the rabbit hole. The world of drugs is as foreign to me as Neptune, yet I enjoyed this book as a glimpse into the world of addiction and the altered sense of reality, priorities, and ethics … all rolled into an action-packed nail-biter.
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Christopher says: Wow! I don’t use exclamations lightly. But, this book deserves it. Jansma has taken patches of vignettes and pieced them together into a beautiful quilt. Imagine being told the same story over and over, but with an ever-changing set of circumstances, details, and even characters. Yet, the ultimate truth of the story is revealed as much by the differences as by the similarities. It very nearly defies explanation, much better experienced. The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards is an exploration of the mania of writing, friendship, love, the lies we tell others, the lies we tell ourselves and the greater truths hidden in our lies.
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Staycey Williams returns to the family farm on the Eastern Plains to bury his cat. But, his quick trip from Denver turns into an unexpected move when he discovers his father is sliding deeper into senility. The small-town life Stacey had escaped comes rushing back as he reconnects with high school chums, battles the crooked banker, and realizes just how little he knows about farming. Poignant and funny, Hill’s debut is perfect for every father, every son, and anyone who has lived through the role reversals that can happen in a family as child becomes care-giver.
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Christopher says: Jaqueline has lost everything, absolutely everything. She’s lost her family, her home, even her country. A Liberian refugee turned homeless drifter on the island of Santorini, she must try to eke out the most basic existence, while haunted by a past which is slowly revealed to the reader. The books is a glimpse into a wholly unfamiliar world on so many levels, yet stripped down to the basics connecting each and every one of us.
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Christopher says: Smythe has streamlined his science fiction to the barest of elements. No aliens, no war, no impending ecological disaster. Society is plugging along as functionally (or not) as it is today. Instead, the story follows a group of astronauts selected for the first mission into deep space, exploration for exploration’s sake. But things go horribly wrong and the crew begins dying off one by one. The last survivor is Cormac, the journalist selected to record the mission. It becomes the story of his unraveling as he faces his own demise. Smythe also adds a new twist to the idea that your life flashes before your eyes right before you die. Putting the “science” in science fiction, it explores causality, destiny versus self-determination, and asks what sacrifices we are willing to make to keep science moving forward.
Christopher says: I picked it up for the provocative cover. I stayed for the story of a woman I desperately wanted to like, but whose life is a train-wreck of bad choices. Anna is an intelligent, accomplished, forty-something woman and doting mother haunted by a disastrous marriage, a divorce that propelled her to another hemisphere, and a history of alcoholism that she only seems to have under control. But, a party at her friend and neighbor’s leads to meeting Jack, the boy, a 20-year-old college drop-out and eldest son of her neighbor. Jack pursues Anna relentlessly, despite her objections, and the egg-shell of control Anna has cracks. Not even all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can put her life back together again.
Christopher says: In a world of privilege, Jaguars, Renoirs, and competitive sailing, Jason Prosper has already lost what money can’t buy; a best friend and lover. At Bellingham Academy, a last shot boarding school for those on their third strike, Jason must learn to rebuild his life and navigate the stormy seas of friendship and love. But, the Eastern upper crust is a small community, by turns fiercely loyal and hopelessly unforgiving, where escape from the past is a near impossibility. Dermont recreates the pain and promise of youth with beautiful clarity. She peoples her world with young adults doing their level best to assume the adult roles their world demands, complete with flaws, fears, and insecurities masked by false bravado.
If Dan Brown married a librarian, this would be their child. Clay Jannon needs a job, any job. He finds one in a most unusual bookstore. Oh sure, this store carries a few classics, even a few popular books. But, the bulk of the store is devoted to the “Waybacklist,” a strange collection that nobody buys, only borrows. The customers for the Waybacklist are also a very different breed, mostly older, usually frantic, definitely quirky, and definitely a part of something outside the box. A centuries-old and irresistible mystery begins to unfold and Clay finds himself front and center in the plot to unravel it. Once upon a time, books were the height of technology, as revolutionary as Facebook and Twitter. But, in an age when you can Google almost anything, how do you Google information only contained in a 500 year old book? How can you interface the old with the new? Unlike the protagonist of a Dan Brown novel, Clay Jannon understands the absurdity of his quest. A fun and creative debut and a must for bibliophiles and technophiles alike.
Christopher says: I came to this book expecting something much more in the vein of Christopher Moore’s Lamb, with bawdy, slapstick humor and playful irreverence on every page. What I found was a much more sincere what-if story … with just a touch of dark sarcasm. Little is written about the three wise men of the nativity. Grahame-Smith poses a very unusual what-if. What if the wise men were not kings, but thieves on the run who get themselves tangled up in bigger events than they ever imagined possible? Graphic violence is tempered by heroism in unlikely characters. An engaging read from a best-selling author.
Christopher says: Collins continues in his fine tradition of taking the simplest of daily occurrences and packing them with profound meaning. The narrator of the title poem uses the act of reading horoscopes as way to imagine things that the departed are unable to do. Accessible and engaging, Collins is perfect for the casual reader and the serious student of poetry.
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Christopher says: Mindfulness, a core concept in Buddhism, is a deliberate and acute awareness. Moore examines this concept through a collection of quotations from writers, artists, and philosophers on the writer’s process, life, and mental approach to the world. Written in short entries, it’s less a cover-to-cover read and more a collection of daily meditations. Although it’s written from a Buddhist framework, it is accessible and relevant to anyone who has ever faced the terror of looking at a blank page and knowing you have to fill it.
Christopher says: At first glance, Strange Flesh would seem to be a novel with finite niche appeal. It is an erotic, techno-thriller set in the near future, drawing on the works of the Marquis de Sade for inspiration. Lines are blurred as online worlds become frighteningly real. Perhaps the most important question it asks is whether technology frees us to try and experience things we would otherwise never dare or does it create an increasingly inauthentic simulation. Strange Flesh is well-paced and provoking.
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Christopher says: It’s been more than 30 years since publication of The Official Preppy Handbook. But, with upturned collars coming back, the preppy way is still going strong and True Prep gives us a modern guide to that domestically foreign way of life. From family to manners, from clothes to where we summer, and even a section on what we don’t talk about, True Prep provides the essential tongue-in-cheek truth.
Christopher says: In Under the Banner of Heaven, Krakauer traces the development of a religion from founding to ideological splintering and carrying forward into modern times, showing how in short order people using the same underpinnings arrive at very different expressions of faith. While the book centers on the Mormon faith and its various incarnations, it has much broader implications for the nature of faith, its uses and abuses, and how by minor twists of logic one justifies radical and even anti-social behavior.
Christopher says: People who don’t like fantasy should try Outlander. In reality, it’s a “fish out of water” story when a woman from the 1950’s finds herself transported for unknown reasons to 1700’s Scotland. Rich in historical detail and at times intensely erotic, Outlander will have you riveted and begging for more.
Christopher says: School is war for “Ender,” literally, training children to fight alien invaders. The more promise Ender shows as a leader, the more difficult the challenges become. How much can a child take before breaking? Thought provoking and emotional, a must-read for adolescents on the verge of adulthood.
Christopher says: Before The Hunger Games, there was Lord of the Flies. A plane crash leaves a group of school boys stranded on an island with no adults. Golding explores humanity’s true nature through the absolutism of childhood. Are humans basically good or basically evil? Does “might make right”?
Christopher says: A thoroughly engrossing character study, Lolita has stood the test of time as one of the most important treatises on the nature of obsession. Nobokov puts the reader squarely and uncomfortably in the head of a grown man obsessed with a teenage girl.
