by Mark Spragg
Published by Random House/Knopf

In this gripping story, along with harsh truths and difficult consolation come moments of hilarity and surprise and beauty. No one writes more compellingly about the modern West than Mark Spragg, and in BONE FIRE he is at the very height of his powers.

Ishawooa, Wyoming, is far from bucolic nowadays. The sheriff, Crane Carlson, needs no reminder of this but gets one anyway when he finds a kid not yet twenty murdered in a meth lab. His other troubles include a wife who’s going off the rails with bourbon and pot, and his own symptoms of the disease that killed his grandfather.

Einar Gilkyson, taking stock at eighty, counts among his dead a lifelong friend, a wife and—far too young—their only child; and his long-absent sister has lately returned home from Chicago after watching her soul mate die. His granddaughter, Griff, has dropped out of college to look after him, though Einar would rather she continue with her studies and her boyfriend, Paul. Completing this extended family are Barnum McEban and his ward, Kenneth, a ten-year-old whose mother—Paul’s sister—is off marketing spiritual enlightenment.

What these characters have to contend with on a daily basis is bracing enough, involving car accidents, runaway children, strokes and Lou Gehrig’s disease, not to mention the motorcycle rallies and rodeos that flood the tiny local jail. But as their lives become even more strained, hardship foments exceptional compassion and generosity, and those caught in their own sorrow alleviate the same in others, changing themselves as they do so.

Mark Spragg is the author of WHERE RIVERS CHANGE DIRECTION, a memoir that won the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers award, and the novels THE FRUIT OF STONE and AN UNFINISHED LIFE, which was chosen by the Rocky Mountain News as the Best Book of 2004. All three were top-ten Book Sense selections and have been translated into fifteen languages. He lives with his wife, Virginia, in Wyoming.

by Laura Bell
Published by Random House/Knopf

Quietly profound and moving, astonishing in its honesty, in its deep familiarity with country rarely seen so clearly, and in beauties all its own, CLAIMING GROUND is a truly singular memoir.

In 1977, Laura Bell, at loose ends after graduating from college, leaves her family home in Kentucky for a wild and unexpected adventure: herding sheep in Wyoming’s Big Horn Basin. Inexorably drawn to this life of solitude and physical toil, a young woman in a man’s world, she is perhaps the strangest member of this beguiling community of drunks and eccentrics. So begins her unabating search for a place to belong and for the raw materials with which to create a home and family of her own. Yet only through time and distance does she acquire the wisdom that allows her to see the love she lived through and sometimes left behind.

By turns cattle rancher, forest ranger, outfitter, masseuse, wife and mother, Bell vividly recounts her struggle to find solid earth in which to put down roots. Brimming with careful insight and written in a spare, radiant prose, her story is a heart-wrenching ode to the rough, enormous beauty of the Western landscape and the peculiar sweetness of hard labor, to finding oneself even in isolation, to a life formed by nature, and to the redemption of love, whether given or received.

Laura Bell’s work has been published in several collections, and from the Wyoming Arts Council she has received two literature fellowships as well as the Neltje Blanchan Memorial Award and the Frank Nelson Doubleday Memorial Award. She lives in Cody, Wyoming, and since 2000 has worked there for the Nature Conservancy.

by Carol L. Malnor and Sandy F. Fuller; illustrated by Louise Schroeder
Published by Dawn Publications

This book, the first in a series, is not just an imaginative travelogue – it’s also a young person’s primer to birdwatching!

“Birding is the best!” says Eggbert, the Super Birder. “The BLUES are the best!” chirps Sammi. Follow the travels of Eggbert, Sammi, and all the BLUES as they discover an amazing variety of birds across America – from the eagle in Alaska, to the woodpecker in Michigan, to the mockingbird in Georgia. Read their fascinating journals and Eggbert’s birding tips. Originally inspired by Louise Schroeder's drawings combining realistic birds with caricature birds, the BLUES offer a delightful way to introduce young children to birds and birding.

Sandy Ferguson Fuller is a picture book author, illustrator, and literary agent. She has worn many hats during her career in children’s book publishing, which began 35 years ago as a student of Maurice Sendak. Among her other picture books are MOON LOON and MY CAT, COON CAT.

Carol L. Malnor is an enthusiastic birder, as well as an author and educator. Carol and her husband Bruce co-authored EARTH HEROES: Champions of the Wilderness. The BLUES GO BIRDING ACROSS AMERICA gave Carol the unique opportunity to combine her passion for birds with her talents as a teacher and writer.

Louise Schroder's art depicts animated little blue birds who travel far and wide visiting lifelike birds in their natural habitat, and provides a fun, colorful and educational experience for all ages.