Book Reviews

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings, hailed as “‘The Grapes of Wrath’ for our times,” was Oprah's Book Club selection in January. By March there was so much controversy the book tour was canceled.

Chapter one: “One of the very first bullets comes in from the open window above the toilet where Luca is standing. He doesn't understand immediately that it is a bullet at all, and it's only luck it doesn't strike him between the eyes.”

 The One Book One Community selection this year is “Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country,” which recently won the Reading the West Advocacy Award. Author Pam Houston, once a resident of Park City, will hold a virtual talk with locals in September about her latest book. 

“Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country” is author Pam Houston's first memoir. It's an obvious love letter to the natural world in general and her ranch specifically. 

A new novel is a heartfelt inquiry into Viet Nam’s complex and brutal past. It follows one family’s heartache and healing that spans decades. Dan Compton has this month’s book review of The Mountains Sing.

One of the lesser known migrations in modern history was that of refugees from the Spanish Civil War to Chile in 1939.  South American author Isabel Allende tells an engrossing tale of two refugees who make the trip halfway around the world, only to become embroiled in Chile’s own internal upheaval.  Amy Mills reviews Allende’s latest book, A Long Petal of the Sea.

Do you love the delicious satisfaction of reading a book in one sitting? Ann Patchett’s domestic drama The Dutch House may be just what you’re looking for. Summit County Librarian, Kirsten Nilsson has this month’s book review.

Just how well do you remember the house you grew up in? My bedroom had flowered wallpaper on the ceiling, and avocado green countertops in the kitchen, and a wall mounted phone with a really long twisted cord that had been stretched too many times around the corner for some privacy.

Betrayal in Berlin: The True Story of the Cold War's Most Audacious Espionage Operation, by Steve Vogel, is a "Spy vs. Spy" story that is set in the 1950s Berlin, Germany--a city divided between the Allied Powers of France, England, Russia and the United States. Jerry Hubbell has this month’s KPCW book review.

Steve Vogel is a veteran journalist who has written extensively for The Washington Post about military affairs and the treatment of veterans from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

In an era of ‘fake news,’ #MeToo, and growing international tensions, how do we understand the truth?  How do we learn the reality of both the Police and the Black Lives Matter cohort?  These are the ideas explored in Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell reviewed this month by Cathy Lanigan.

Fans of author Erin Morgenstern who fell in love with her debut novel The Night Circus in 2011, have been eagerly awaiting a second novel. The Starless Sea was published in November 2019. Here, with a plug for both, is Barb Bretz with this month’s book review.

Is it possible for a global industry to undermine democracies and trigger earthquakes? MSNBC political analyst and commentator Rachel Maddow turns her discerning eye toward the oil and gas industry in this compelling expose.

Esi Edugyan’s new novel mashes up two unlikely story lines—it’s part Jules Verne adventure and part heart-breaking escaped slave narrative. The heart of the story is devoted friendship and the complicated meaning of freedom. This month’s book review is Washington Black.

Face to face encounters with the wild are an everyday occurrence in Wasatch and Summit counties. How we think about those encounters is at the heart of the new book Reimagining a Place for the Wild edited by Leslie Miller.

Walking the trash cans out to the curb last week, I was dive-bombed by a hawk. This creature left no doubt that she was on the attack and that I was her target. Terrified, I jumped under a tree while she hovered above. This was a stunningly beautiful, immense bird, and I had to acknowledge that in that moment, she was in control.