Category Archives: Book Reviews

Many of us in the rural West are used to dark skies and bright stars, but in urban areas around the world, night is not as black as it once was.  Paul Bogard has compiled twenty nine essays by environmental … Continue reading →

Twenty-five years after Mount St. Helens’ 1980 eruption, Oregon State University sponsored a four-day trip into the blast zone.  They invited relevant scientists, nature writers, other artists and academics from around the country to camp seven miles from the crater … Continue reading →

Desert Gothic.  By Don Waters Iowa City, Iowa: University of Iowa Press, 2007. 152 pages, $16.00. Reviewed by Andrea Clark Mason Washington State University, Pullman _______________________________________________________________ Waters’ collection shows the breadth and depth of characters who populate the contemporary American … Continue reading →

New York: Scribner, 2007. 305 pages, $25/$14 Reviewed by Andrea Clark Mason Washington State University   Aryn Kyle’s debut novel, The God of Animals, is a rarity: a first novel that doesn’t read like one.  Kyle takes us into a … Continue reading →

The memoir The Enders Hotel chronicles a childhood and coming of age in Soda Springs, Idaho amidst hard-working grandparents, the beauty of the high desert, and the rampant alcoholism of a Western “company” town.  After stints in Idaho and Washington, … Continue reading →