The 7 Books With Colorado And Western Connections You Should Read This Summer

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Photo: 2018 summer reading collage

Photo: 2018 summer reading collage

Every year Colorado Matters calls on two booksellers to share their top summer reading picks for books with Colorado ties or Western themes. Nicole Magistro is owner of The Bookworm of Edwards, while Abbey Paxton manages BookBar in Denver.

The Bookworm’s Nicole Magistro recommends:

  • "The Optimistic Decade" by Heather Abel
    • In Abel's debut novel, five characters ride the waves of Colorado's oil shale bust and real estate boom, as well as nationwide protests against Reagan and the Gulf War.
  • "Rough Beauty" by Karen Auvinen
    • ​This memoir follows Auvinen as she retreats to a remote cabin in the Rockies after a fire destroyed her home and most of her possessions.
  • "Wings of Her Dreams" by Ann Lewis Cooper
    • A biography of Kitty Banner, one of the few female glacier and bush pilots. She transported mountain climbing tourists on and off Alaskan glaciers and to the Denali base camp.
  • "Atlas of a Lost World" by Craig Childs
    • This prehistoric travelogue traces the steps the first people in North America took across land bridges to arrive here 20,000 years ago.

BookBar’s Abbey Paxton recommends:

Looking for more summer reading? Join the CPR News Book Club.