Books can do double-duty this holiday season: they can provide you with a quiet respite during a busy time and they can be perfect gifts for family and friends who love to read. Each year at this time, we ask the people most in the know – booksellers – to offer recommendations for books about the West or by authors with links to the region. This year, we reached out to Jean Alger, one of the owners of the cooperative bookstore Narrow Gauge Books in Alamosa. Here are Alger’s recommendations:
A novel about a community hit by wildfire:
“Playing with Wildfire” is a novel by author Laura Pritchett, who lives in northern Colorado near where the Cameron Peak fire broke out in 2020. The book, published in 2024, follows a community during a wildfire and the COVID pandemic.
“It feels like a short story collection more than a novel because you get so many different characters, so many different perspectives.”
A collection of poetry:
“Bitter Creek: An Epic Poem,” by Colorado author Teow Lim Goh, recounts the 1885 Rock Springs Massacre in what is present day Wyoming. The book came out in May, 1995.
“I had never read anything like it…It's an epic poem, but it's based on historical research.”
A coming-of-age novel:
“Go as a River” is a 2023 novel about a young woman who lives in Colorado’s High Country. The book follows 17-year-old Victoria Nash, who lives on a farm and witnesses the destruction of her small town.
“It's a historical look at the community right as the town was being destroyed by the building of the…dam near Blue Mesa in the Gunnison area.”
A non-fiction memoir:
“Without Exception: Reclaiming Abortion, Personhood, and Freedom,” by Colorado author Pam Houston, combines the author’s experiences with research and analysis about reproductive choice and abortion. The book was published in 2024.
“If you've read Pam Houston, you might be familiar [with the fact] that she just has this really wonderful way of being vulnerable and just really sharing experiences in an unflinching way. She doesn't shy away from talking about what's uncomfortable.”
A young adult novel:
“Rez Ball,” by Ojibwe writer and Denver resident Byron Graves, is about a young man, Tre Brun, in the wake of the death of his brother, who was a star player on the high school basketball team on his Indian reservation. Tre plays for the team, which makes it to the state championship. The novel came out in 2024.
“It just really gets into the importance of basketball on the reservation, the importance of sports, just like it might be in any other rural community, but there's the added element of cultural pride because they experience racism from the…all-white schools, and they're not expected to be as good.”
A children’s book:
“Good Night Colorado Animals,” by Adam Gamble, is a board book about the different kinds of animals that can be found in Colorado. It just came out in October.
“This is just a really precious board book that has animals…like a bear and a moose, and different birds and things that are native to Colorado. And we're saying goodnight to each of them on the page. So just a really sweet little bedtime book.”
