My Land

Notable Utah-related books published in 2019

By Amy Brunvand
  • 40 Years with Bagley, Pat Bagley, Salt Lake Tribune. Can you believe that Bagley has been making fun of Utah politics since 1979?
  • Best Friends, Shannon Hale & LeUyen Pham, MacMillan. A graphic-novel sequel to Real Friends (2017) about growing up in Salt Lake City.
  • Capitol Reef Reader, Stephen Trimble, editor. University of Utah Press. Take this along on your next visit to Capitol Reef National Park!
  • Confluence: Navigating the Personal & Political on Rivers of the New West, Zac Podmore, Torrey House Press. Desert rivers inspire philosophical thoughts.
  • A Diné History of Navajoland, Klara Kelly and Harris Francis, University of Arizona Press. The Navajo

Nation from prehistoric times to the present.

  • Downriver: Into the Future of Water in the West, Heather Hansman, University of Chicago Press. Follow the Green River from Wyoming to the Colorado River confluence.
  • Erosion: Essays of Undoing, Terry Tempest Williams, Sarah Crichton Books. On the erosion of desert lands, democracy, science and

society.

  • Escalante’s Dream: On the Trail of the Spanish Discovery of the Southwest, David Roberts, WW. Norton. A modern-day journey traces the route of the 1776 Dominguez-Escalante expedition.
  • Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences, Gregory A. Prince, University of Utah Press. Everything you want to know

and more.

  • The Man Behind the Maps: Legendary Ski Artist James Niehues, James Niehues (artist), Ben Farrow, Jason Blevins & Todd Bennett, Open Road Ski Company. The art of hand-painted ski resort maps.
  • Mine Tailings, David Lee, 5 Sisters Press. Utah’s first poet laureate has a new book!
  • Nightingale, Paisley Rekdal, Copper Canyon Press. A new collection of poetry from Utah’s current Poet Laureate.
  • Seasons: Desert Sketches, Ellen Meloy, Torrey House Press. Essays originally read on KUER public radio.
  • Shaped by Snow: Defending the Future of Winter, Ayja Bounous, Torrey House Press. A granddaughter of the legendary Junior Bounous writes about the Wasatch Mountains.
  • The Nevada Test Site, Emmet Gowin, Princeton University Press. Photographs of the Nevada nuclear test site, upwind from Utah.
  • Science be Dammed: How Ignoring Inconvenient Science Drained the Colorado River, Eric Kuhn & John Fleck, University of Arizona Press. What if Colorado River water management were based on science?
  • Standing on the Walls of Time, Kevin T. Jones & Layne Miller (photographer), University of Utah Press. Utah’s former state archeologist writes about Utah’s official state works of art.
  • This Land: How Cowboys, Capitalism, and Corruption Are Ruining the American West, Christopher Ketcham, Viking. What we lose if we fail to safeguard America’s public lands.
  • Utah Politics, the Elephant in the Room, Rod Decker, Signature Books. Journalist Rod Decker explains Utah politics.
  • Wayward: Poems, Katharine Coles, Red Hen Press. New poems from Utah’s third Poet Laureate.
  • Wilderness of Hope: Fly Fishing and Public Lands in the American West, Quinn Grover, University of Nebraska Press. Trout, public lands and growing up in Utah.

Amy Brunvand has written CATALYST’s EnviroNews column for several decades.

This article was originally published on December 30, 2019.