Note from Tucker

I really don’t know where my love for reading and books came from. There is a good chance my first library in the less-than-300-person-town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming had something to do with it. I spent the first part of my childhood here. This charming small place in northwestern Wyoming, on the footsteps of the Big Horn Mountains, is where I learned to read.

I have memories of walking in there after kindergarten and first grade. I found “I Spy” books, books about dinosaurs and whales. It always felt like a safe and quiet space. I walked there to find a pocket of stillness to discover adventures, universes, and a multitude of geographies and a consortium of imaginations that lived within these double doors in a small building across from the school.

This week I asked the Washakie County Library Director of Ten Sleep Branch to share some popular and loved Wyoming writers. (Fun fact: Karen used to babysit me all those years ago!)

Karen and her staff at Ten Sleep recently won a National Medal for Museum and Library Service. I was out there earlier this summer and had a great time visiting this branch, talking with Karen about days past. I brought my toddler here for the first time, too, on that trip, which made it feel extra special. This mighty library is thriving way beyond the time I was a regular.

Bookmarked (Links to good reads)

Here’s what Karen texted me on her book recommendations for Wyoming writers (either living in Wyoming or from Wyoming):

Craig Johnson and CJ Box are very popular fiction writers.

Tasha Alexander and her husband Andrew Grant (Andrew will be taking over for his brother, Lee Child)(This has happened to a degree with the Jack Reacher series).

Ron Franscell, who is a true crime writer. I do think he dabbled in fiction.

John W. Davis — a lawyer, who is local out of Worland [WY]. He wrote a local history such as “A vast amount of trouble — the story of the Spring Creek Raid.” “Wyoming Range War: the infamous invasion of Johnson County;“ “The trail of Tom Horn.”

Children book authors include Casey Rislov, Gene Gagliano, and Mary Fitchtner.

Another thing to look at is the list Wyoming Poet Laureates. Gene Gagliano is one!

“Women shaping the west: Stories from Wyoming.” Wyoming PBS did a feature of this book. Lindsay Linton Buk is the author.

“My Ranch Too: Wyoming memoir” by Mary Budd Flitner.

Leaning into the wind: women write from the heart of the west — true stories, essays, and poems from ranch women on the high plains by Linda M Hasselstrom [Nancy Curtis, and Gaydell Collier].

I do like the connection of these three books about women living in the west.

And of course there’s always Hemingway and Owen Wister who spent time in Wyoming. Wister wrote, “The Virginian.” There are many more, but Craig Johnson is my favorite fiction writer.

I’ll add a couple more: Gretel Ehrlich and Annie Proulx’s Close Range. Much thanks to Karen for the suggestions!

End Notes

• I’ve been thinking a lot about A.I. recently, especially around writing. Derek Thompson, the clear talker, good hearted, and super writer had an interesting conversation about A.I. writing recently. The tech can’t write a novel, but can write a sample of a writer; and what does it mean if a writer uses AI to help find typos? What is A.I. good for? He digs into this with the CEO of Pangram, a AI-detector (See minute 28 in their conversation.

• Fiction writer and 2015 Booker Prize Winner Marlon James is everywhere. The Strand, NPR, NYT, New Yorker, NY Mag, Ron Charles, Deez Links, Lit Hub, his own IG. He has new episodes on his podcast, too. It was a PR firestorm for a big new book THE DISAPPEARERS, clocking in at 640 pages and nominated for this year’s Booker Prize. The story opens in 1988 with eight men in Kingston, Jamaica who gather to rehearsh a play. The men are all gay, and because of this indefagiable fact, they are terribly beaten one night. The story shifts to a crime and survival story that thrills and comforts at the same time. Readers enter the vortex and reality of what it means to be queer during the 80s and 90s on the island nation as the story moves across the decades and beyond the shores of Jamaica. The book has been called the “book of the century” in NYT. And maybe it will be. I’ve bought all of James’s books — he can feel brutal to read, but there’s something in his ability to make a place and person with gritty and sensual sensory that I love. I also enjoy his candid interaction between characters. His settings and people feel real, to me. I can’t wait to dig into this.

• A new episode of Bookstuff will be out on Tuesday. Check it out then. Like and subscribe — get where ever you get your podcasts.

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