THE WAVE Niche genres have always attracted my reading attention. Recently, I’ve been drawn to books that cross investigative journalism with a healthy dose of
WILD BLUEBERRIES It has been a long time since a memoir has brought me such laughter and warmth. Peter Damm, now a resident of Berkeley,
MAGIC OF THE WORLD’S LONELIEST HORSE RACE The Mongol Derby featured in Rough Magic is a one-thousand-kilometer (just over 621 miles) endurance race across the
MICHAEL WALLIS AND BERNARD DEVOTO ENLIVEN THE DONNER PARTY AND MANIFEST DESTINY In The Best Land Under Heaven, Wallis recounts the history of the Donner
RIN TIN TIN – America’s favorite German Shepherd Not long ago, I reviewed Susan Orlean’s latest, The Library Book. Because I liked it so much,
THE LIBRARY BOOK If I still worked in a bookstore, and should you ask for a good read I would grab a copy of Susan
ADA BYRON LOVELACE AND THE THINKING MACHINE Do you have a daughter or granddaughter, niece or neighbor girl in love with numbers? Laurie Wallmark’s debut
DEEP CREEK When I first read Pam Houston’s acerbic collection of short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness, I recognized a writer who would have a
BECAUSE THE LIGHT WILL NOT FORGIVE ME Shaun T. Griffin, inductee into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, is known as much for his activism
THE BIG NECESSITY AND NINE PINTS Both of these books merit independent reviews, but since they were written by the same author and both investigate
THE LIBRARY BOOK Susan Orlean’s The Library Book couples a moving meditation on the author’s part with the solid research she has conducted in archives
BIBLIOPHILE, AN ILLUSTRATED MISCELLANY I was just about finished with a book review for the ClaytonPioneer when I went through hip replacement and my daughter,
THE BONANZA KING: JOHN MACKAY AND THE BATTLE OVER THE GREATEST RICHES IN THE AMERICAN WEST Gregory Couch’s The Bonanza King: John Mackay and the
TRAVELS WITH MYSELF AND ANOTHER — LOVE AND RUIN What fun to read simultaneously two books about the same person, one a memoir published in
WHAT THE EYES DON’T SEE The contributions of immigrants to the articulation of and striving towards the “American Dream” are unassailable. Those contributions are still
EDUCATED, A MEMOIR In 2014 at age twenty-seven, Idaho-born Tara Westover received a Ph.D. in history from Cambridge University, UK. Remarkable? Yes. Made more remarkable
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