Poor Richard’s Books suggests titles that help understand nature

Each week, SunLit—the Sun’s literary section—features recommendations from staff at bookstores across Colorado. This week, the staff at Poor Richard’s Books in Colorado Springs recommends books about natural wonders, growing hemp in Colorado, and the Green River.

World of Wonders

By Aimee Nezhukumatathil (Author), Fumi Nakamura (Illustrator)
Milkweed Editions
$20
April 2024
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From the publisher: As a child, Nezhukumatathil was at home in many places: on the grounds of a mental institution in Kansas, where her Filipino mother was a doctor; in the open skies and high mountains of Arizona, where she hiked with her Native American father; and in the cooler climes of western New York and Ohio. Yet no matter where she was transplanted—no matter how unfavorable the location or how inhospitable the landscape—she could turn to the wild and fun creatures of our world for guidance.

“The peacock,” she tells us, “reminds you of a home you will spend your life running away from and returning to.” The axolotl teaches us to smile even in the face of unkindness; the plant that won’t touch us shows us how to fend off unwanted advances; the narwhal shows us how to survive in hostile environments. Even in the strange and ugly, Nezhukumatathil finds beauty and connection.

From Jeffery Payne, Deputy Retail Manager: A treasure trove of memoir and nature studies, World of Wonder immediately captivates us with its calm serenity as the author shows us her wonder at nature while giving us little reminders of her life. The clear chapter on the Touch-Me-Not, a shy little plant that collapses when something brushes against it, brought me back to The moment when my dad showed the delicate, lanky plant to my 6-year-old self. It was a strange kind of magic to watch the fronds bend.

Nezhikumatathil’s writings open our senses to this strange magic and give us the opportunity to share her admiration and awe of nature.

Rocky Mountain High: A story of boom and bust in the new Wild West

By Finn Murphy
WW Norton & Co.
17,99 €
June 2024
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From the publisher: After decades as a truck driver, Finn Murphy left the road and settled in Boulder County, Colorado. He soon noticed that many of his neighbors were intrigued by the prospect of huge wealth in the “hemp room.” When hemp was legalized, Colorado became the center of a hemp growing and processing boom after 80 years in federal exile. Murphy figured he could cash in on some of that easy money and bought a 13-acre farm. What could go wrong? Well, pretty much anything…

From Jeffery Payne, Deputy Retail Manager: Finn Murphy’s business acumen, entrepreneurial spirit and dry humor make “Rocky Mountain High” a very entertaining read. With dollar signs in his eyes, the author plunges into the newly opened hemp fields in Colorado. The author’s spontaneous observations about laws, land and the various people he meets along the way put a smile on the reader’s face and make them nod knowingly.

We get a fun introduction to starting a farming business in Boulder County during the hemp farming boom. I envision this book as a handbook for anyone with a dream or idea to “make it big,” regardless of the industry.

Downstream

By Heather Hansman
University of Chicago Press
19,99 €
March 2019
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From the publisher: The Green River, the Colorado River’s most significant tributary, flows 730 miles from the glaciers of Wyoming to the desert canyons of Utah. Along the way, it winds through ranches, cities, national parks, endangered fish habitat, and some of the nation’s most important natural gas fields, providing water to 33 million people. Plugged by dams, drained by irrigation, and parched by cities, the Green River is now more vital than ever, overused, and at risk.

The battle over the river’s water and its future is far from over, and it’s only getting worse as the West gets warmer and drier, and more people depend on the river each year. As a former raft guide and environmental reporter, Heather Hansman knew these battles existed, but she wanted to look at them from a different perspective – the perspective of the river itself. So she set out in a one-person inflatable raft to travel the river from source to mouth and see what she could learn from the experience.

From Jeffery Payne, Deputy Retail Manager: It’s hard to escape the reality of what water means to us as we live, work and play here in Colorado and the West at large. In short, without water, we’re lost (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Heather Hansman’s Downriver delves into the very complicated, convoluted history of rivers in the West and our never-ending need to dam, tame and take what is “rightfully” ours.

We follow the author, an experienced raft guide, as she launches her raft into the headwaters of Wyoming’s Green River to learn more about the river itself and its importance to the region. Her interactions not only with the river, but with the people, land and industry that surround the Green River illustrate how the precarious balance between need, neglect and overuse is sadly catching up with us all.

Hansman’s friendly report shows us that there are no easy answers to the countless confusing and unclear questions about water in the West.

As part of the Literature Section – SunLit – we feature our staff’s recommendations from bookstores across the state. Read more.