One Woman's Montana Wins Book Award 

One Woman's Montana by Kathe LeSage has been chosen an "honor book" for 2007 by the Montana Book Award. The annual award recognizes literary and/or artistic excellence in books that deal with Montana themes or issues, or are written, edited, or illustrated by a Montana author or artist.

One Woman's Montana is Riverbend's third title to be named an honor book. The others are Silence & Solitude: Yellowstone's Winter Wilderness and Crown of the Continent: The Last Great Wilderness of the Rocky Mountains.

SHERLOCK HOLMES: THE MONTANA CHRONICLES

Scares and frights and mysteries!

For the first time, here are the long-lost records of four intriguing mysteries solved by the famous English detective Sherlock Holmes when he traveled to Montana in the late 1800s. Using his inimitable eye for clues, his astounding deductive reasoning, and – when necessary – clever subterfuge, Holmes solves a very public murder at the famous Opera House, a supernatural theft of gold at a mine near Georgetown Lake, the disturbing threats to Copper King Marcus Daly’s most famous racehorse, and the sudden odd behavior of a miner’s wife.

            As usual, these cases were recorded by Dr. John H. Watson, Holmes’ affable companion and chronicler, but Watson’s accounts were lost for more than a century. They were recently discovered in an old safe in Anaconda’s Hearst Free Library by researcher John. S. Fitzpatrick, who edited the manuscripts for publication. Not only are the actual crimes unique and challenging, but the stories are filled with fascinating details of life in early-day Montana—details that amply illustrate Holmes’ superb powers of observation.

            This immensely entertaining book is certain to delight all fans of detective stories, mysteries, and Sherlock Holmes.

THE ULTIMATE YELLOWSTONE PARK ATLAS AND TRAVEL ENCYCLOPEDIA

It would require almost a dozen of the top guidebooks on each of these states and you still wouldn’t have all the information that is in the Ultimate Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia series! Even the most famous explorers relied on a knowledgeable guide.

WYOMING GHOST STORIES

by Debra D. Munn

Scares and frights and mysteries!

Haunted houses! Eerie voices! The walking dead!

Here are the ghosts of Wyoming, the strange but true tales of unnerving sights and sounds that have never been explained. Footsteps when no one is there. Things that move that shouldn’t move. Spectral bedside visitors and ghastly ghoulish sights.

These stories span the state wherever ghosts ramble and roam. There are stories from Cheyenne, Sheridan, Cody, Laramie, Casper, Rawlings, Green River, and lots of places in between. The subjects are star-crossed lovers, murderers and the murdered, miners and cowboys and Native Americans, all carefully researched and authenticated by interviews with the people who have witnessed the unknown and unexplained.

So find a comfortable chair and settle in for an entertaining read about the Cowboy State’s ghosts…and is that a ghostly wail you hear or just the Wyoming wind?

One Woman's Montana

by Kathe LeSage

As a lifelong Montanan, Kathe LeSage is keenly aware that Montana is blessed with beauty. But she sees Montana’s beauty a little differently than most of us, and she records what she sees with a unique photographic style. Working in color and in black and white, Kathe brings out deep textures, unusual light, and graceful patterns. Her subjects are varied. Her focus is broad. What Kathe sees and shows to the rest of us is astonishing. She invites inquiry and study, and inspires a deeper connection to what we are viewing. Her images ask that we take a closer look, to see beyond the obvious. Her images foster a desire to take this expanded way of seeing into our own Montana.

The Watershed Years

By Russell Rowland

This is the long-awaited sequel to Rowland’s highly aclaimed first novel, In Open Spaces. Follow the Arbuckle family through years of troubles, trials, and triumphs as they struggle to hold their Montana ranch - and their family - together. In this dramatic story, brothers and wives turn against each other as they struggle with greed, deceit, and murder.
In Open Spaces received excellent reviews (The Atlantic Monthly, Publishers Weekly, and more), made several best-book lists, and was praised by Ivan Doig, Guy Vanderhaeghe, and others. The Watershed Years may be even better. Long after finishing this book, readers will still be remembering its sharply drawn characters and their unexpected fates.

Haunted Montana

By Karen Stevens

Here’s your ghostly guide to spooks, spirits, and specters of Montana. From haunted hotels to eerie inns, this book will take you to all the spookiest spots in the state. Want to meet a phantom? Experience a poltergeist? Commune with the dearly departed? Let Haunted Montana lead the way to places you can stay to experience the other side.

Butte Trivia

By George Everett

Butte is unique among Montana cities—some say it is unique among cities anywhere—and now there is a book that proves it. Butte Trivia by longtime Butte resident George Everett is packed with 720 eye-opening questions and answers about the state’s most raucous and rollicking town. From Butte’s wide-open years to modern times, this book mines Butte’s richest veins of astounding facts and figures. Of course, Butte claims many Montana superlatives, including the state’s first millionaire, most expensive road, and deepest lake, and Butte may be the only city on the planet to boast ringing rocks, flying cowboys, and a memorial marker for a moose.

Wyoming Trivia

By Brian Day

What do Broken Nose McCall, Big Nose Parrot, Bad Hand MacKenzie, and Captain Kangaroo have in common? Where can you find ringing rocks, vanishing rivers, and cement trucks mixing up a batch of pancake batter? The answer is Wyoming-- and you can read all about it in Wyoming Trivia, a terrific collection of trivia about the wildest state in the Union. From Cattle Kate and Buffalo Bill Cody to Liver Eatin’ Johnson, all things wild, wooly, and wonderful about Wyoming are here!

Food of Gods and Starvelings

By Grace Stone Coates

With the publication of Food of Gods and Starvelings: The Selected Poems of Grace Stone Coates, Drumlummon Institute of Helena, Montana, brings back into print the poetic works of a leading 20th-century writer of the American West. Edited by Lee Rostad and Rick Newby, the substantial collection showcases more than 200 of Coates’ “irresistible, poignant and authentic” poems.

Caroline Patterson, editor of Montana Women Writers: A Geography of the Heart, says of Food of Gods and Starvelings, “Like a twentieth-century Emily Dickinson, [Grace Stone Coates] writes of the world around her from the small town of Martinsdale, Montana, and her poetry is at once as sweeping and as precise as the prairie she lived on. With startling imagery and philosophical acuity, she explores the emotional landscape between men and women, mothers and daughters, small-town neighbors, and between a lonely woman and the landscape she lives in. Her voice rings clear, her eye is sharp, and her music is unerring.”

During her lifetime, Grace Stone Coates (1881-1976) published two critically acclaimed collections of poems, Mead and Mangel-Wurzel, and Portulacas in the Wheat, and the novel, Black Cherries. Food of Gods and Starvelings contains the two collections Coates published during her lifetime, plus more than seventy uncollected poems drawn from literary journals and the poet’s notebooks.

The Ultimate Montana Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia

It would require almost a dozen of the top guidebooks on each of these states and you still wouldn’t have all the information that is in the Ultimate Atlas and Travel Encyclopedia series! Even the most famous explorers relied on a knowledgeable guide.

Yellowstone Bears in the Wild

By Dr. James C. Halfpenny

From claws to cubs, from fur to food, this book accurately describes the lives of grizzly and black bears in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Written by noted naturalist Dr. Jim Halfpenny (Yellowstone Wolves in the Wild) this book features cutting-edge discoveries about bear biology and ecology, skillfully enhanced with amazing personal stories and illustrated with the unforgettable photography of Michael Francis (Yellowstone Memories). There are explanations of “bear art,” a bear’s “personal space,” and bear “thinking.” Imprinted on the front and back covers are impressions of the front and back tracks of Bear # 264.

The Yellowstone National Park Cookbook

By Durrae Johanek

Great food, stories, and history make a memorable feast in this unique cookbook. More than a dozen park personalities share their favorite recipes while telling a little bit about their lives in the world’s first national park. We hear from such people as Suzanne Lewis, the park’s first female superintendent; Xanterra chef Jim Chapman from the kitchens in the park lodges; as well as botanists, photographers, tour guides and more. In all, this book dishes up 125 unforgettable recipes, each one flavored by the wonder of Yellowstone.

Montana Ghost Stories

By Debra Munn

This collection of stories span the state wherever ghosts ramble and roam. The subjects are star-crossed lovers, murderers and the murdered, miners and cowboys, and Native Americans, all carefully researched and authenticated by interviews with the people who have witnessed the unknown and unexplained. Originally published as Big Sky Ghosts Vol. 1 & 2 in the early 1990s, these long out-of-print stories deserve to be brought back from the dead.

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