252 Main Street, Hamilton, MT 59840 | STORE HOURS: M-F 9am-6pm, Sat. 10am-5pm, Sun. 11am-3pm | 406-363-5220

Katrina's Staff Picks

Go as a River By Shelley Read Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781954118232
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Spiegel & Grau - February 28th, 2023

Solito: A Memoir By Javier Zamora Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9780593498064
Availability: Backordered.
Published: Hogarth - September 6th, 2022

We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland By Fintan O'Toole Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781324092872
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Liveright - February 7th, 2023

Staff Pick Badge
Life Ceremony: Stories By Sayaka Murata, Ginny Tapley Takemori (Translator) Cover Image
$25.00
ISBN: 9780802159588
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Grove Press - July 5th, 2022

Unnerving and mind bending, Murata’s stories encourage the reader to look inquisitively at the way we live.


Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses By Robin Wall Kimmerer Cover Image
$18.95
ISBN: 9780870714993
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Oregon State University Press - March 1st, 2003

Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants By Robin Wall Kimmerer Cover Image
$20.00
ISBN: 9781571313560
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Milkweed Editions - August 11th, 2015

Staff Pick Badge
August: A Novel By Callan Wink Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780812983906
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Random House Trade Paperbacks - October 19th, 2021

Callan Wink's latest novel, August, explores coming of age in a masculine and violent world as a young and impressionable man.  We follow August from a fledgling teen in Michigan to adulthood in Montana as he navigates predicaments all too common for males in today's society.  Set against the backdrop of Montana's Big Sky, Wink weaves a venerable tale written with simple honesty and the elegant prose of the likes of William Kittredge and David James Duncan.


Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid: The Fraught and Fascinating Biology of Climate Change By Thor Hanson Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781541672420
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Basic Books - September 28th, 2021

Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya By Jamaica Kincaid Cover Image
$19.00
ISBN: 9780374538101
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Picador - December 1st, 2020

Staff Pick Badge
Home Waters: A Chronicle of Family and a River By John N. Maclean Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9780062944603
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Mariner Books - June 14th, 2022

Even if you aren’t into fly fishing, Home Waters, is an enchanting exploration of Montana life in the 20th century.

 


Beautiful World, Where Are You: A Novel By Sally Rooney Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250859044
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Picador - June 7th, 2022

Book of the Little Axe By Lauren Francis-Sharma Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9780802158543
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Grove Press - May 18th, 2021

Staff Pick Badge
Calling for a Blanket Dance By Oscar Hokeah Cover Image
$27.00
ISBN: 9781643751474
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Algonquin Books - July 26th, 2022

A story of the importance of family and the power of forgiveness in helping the hurt heal and inspire change in even the most damaged souls.  Opening with an act of violence that leads to the unraveling of an already struggling family, Hokeah uses several family members to tell the story of a single member, Ever, and his redemption through their eyes. 


The Little Prairie Book of Berries: Recipes for Saskatoons, Sea Buckthorn, Haskap Berries and More By Sheryl Normandeau, Tree Abraham (Illustrator), Meryl Hulse (Illustrator) Cover Image
By Sheryl Normandeau, Tree Abraham (Illustrator), Meryl Hulse (Illustrator)
$22.00
ISBN: 9781771513425
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Touchwood Editions - November 2nd, 2021

How to Catch a Mole: Wisdom from a Life Lived in Nature By Marc Hamer Cover Image
$17.95
ISBN: 9781771649940
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Greystone Books - June 14th, 2022

The Willow Field (Vintage Contemporaries) By William Kittredge Cover Image
$16.00
ISBN: 9781400034123
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - October 9th, 2007

Botany in a Day: The Patterns Method of Plant Identification By Thomas J. Elpel Cover Image
$36.00
ISBN: 9781892784353
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: HOPS Press - May 15th, 2013

Staff Pick Badge
Perma Red By Debra Magpie Earling Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781571311467
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Milkweed Editions - August 23rd, 2022

With the prose of a poet, Debra Magpie Earling weaves a powerful tale of cursed love, lust and life on the Flathead Indian Reservation.  Rich with the language of place and studded with the wisdom and wit of a writer that belongs to the community she writes about, Perma Red wraps the reader in a fevered dream where reality is blurred with visions that pivot between hope and dread in a single sentence. 


The River Why By David James Duncan Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9780316261227
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Back Bay Books - March 29th, 2016

Staff Pick Badge
Before The Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe and What Lies Beyond By Laura Mersini-Houghton Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9781328557117
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Mariner Books - July 19th, 2022

I won’t claim this was a simple read or that I understood every theory of our universe’s creation, but Mersinini-Houghton unveils the universe and the universes that exist beyond with the skill of a patient teacher.  Her physics lessons are threaded with memories of her upbringing in Albania under a stifling dictatorship.


Staff Pick Badge
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy By Jenny Odell Cover Image
$18.99
ISBN: 9781612198552
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Melville House - December 29th, 2020

Through philosophy, art and ecology Jenny Odell provides a well researched argument for removing oneself from the demands of a technology driven world “to do nothing” so that ultimately we can “do something” with greater impact and purpose.  A call to wake up to the world around us by paying closer attention, so that we can more effectively advocate for ourselves, but also the sustainability of our local communities and global society.


Staff Pick Badge
Elsewhere: A Novel By Alexis Schaitkin Cover Image
$26.99
ISBN: 9781250219633
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Celadon Books - June 28th, 2022

Elsewhere is the unsettling tale of a town isolated both socially and geographically, giving the dynamics amongst inhabitants and outsiders a cultish air. In this town all seems enchanting, but for an unimaginable curse that steals mothers from their children.  A creative examination of motherhood and its boundless love, Schaitkin’s writing is captivating, eerie and filled with subtle clues that all is not as it seems leading the reader on an unforgettable journey.


Staff Pick Badge
Cassoulet Confessions: Food, France, Family and the Stew That Saved My Soul By Sylvie Bigar Cover Image
$24.99
ISBN: 9781743797969
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Hardie Grant - September 13th, 2022

Part food history, part memoir, part travalogue, this exploration of the origins of cassoulet leads author, Sylvie Bigar, down memory lane as she discovers things aren’t as they seem.  Though at times a little bougie, her writing is vivid, her story entertaining, heartbreaking but above all delicious.


Staff Pick Badge
The Book of Difficult Fruit: Arguments for the Tart, Tender, and Unruly (with recipes) By Kate Lebo Cover Image
$18.00
ISBN: 9781250829474
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Picador - April 12th, 2022

Home economics meets culture, history and a personal memoir.  Read this one like a winter orange, peel back the cover and savor, section by section.

 


Staff Pick Badge
Factory Girls By Michelle Gallen Cover Image
$17.99
ISBN: 9781643752457
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Algonquin Books - November 29th, 2022

Gallen does it again in this riotous tale of a community divided and the personal stories of those caught in the crossfire of religious and political conflict.  Those unfamiliar with the history of Northern Ireland might appreciate reading We Don’t Know Ourselves as well.


Staff Pick Badge
Nowhere Girl: A Memoir of a Fugitive Childhood By Cheryl Diamond Cover Image
$16.99
ISBN: 9781643752518
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Algonquin Books - June 14th, 2022

An unbelievable story of a childhood like no other.  Diamond humorously recalls her life on the run from Interpol as a child and teenager.  Educated meets Captain Fantastic.


Staff Pick Badge
The Year of Magical Thinking: National Book Award Winner (Vintage International) By Joan Didion Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9781400078431
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Vintage - February 13th, 2007

A personal story and well researched examination of the process of mourning.  Heart wrenching, but as any work by Joan Dideon, it’s worth it.

 


Staff Pick Badge
Ridgeline: A Novel By Michael Punke Cover Image
$27.99
ISBN: 9781250310460
Availability: Not in Store - Please contact Chapter One for ordering.
Published: Henry Holt and Co. - June 1st, 2021

Thoroughly researched and well written, Ridgeline is a work of fiction based on the true story of a pivotal moment in the opening of the West to white settlement and the clash of cultures that ensued.  It’s a page turner that will leave you wanting to know more about the characters that thread the story together.  Suggested next read: Lakota America and the Autobiography of Red Cloud.


Staff Pick Badge
Normal People: A Novel By Sally Rooney Cover Image
$28.00
ISBN: 9781984822178
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Hogarth - April 16th, 2019

Rooney’s formula for writing stories about the tragic and complicated lives of millenials just doesn’t get old.  In her second book, Normal People, Rooney leaves the reader cringing and cheering for her characters as they struggle to realize how lucky they really are in spite of the anxieties we all face.

 


Staff Pick Badge
Summer Kitchens: Recipes and Reminiscences from Every Corner of Ukraine By Olia Hercules Cover Image
$35.00
ISBN: 9781681885704
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: Weldon Owen - July 14th, 2020

Olia Hercules, Summer Kitchens, is more than a celebration of summer's bounty, it's a tribute to the collective culture of the diverse people that call Ukraine home.  Through Hercules's recipes and story telling, Ukraine is revealed as a country with an ecologically rich terrain and a history marked by overcoming hardship.  The recipes she shares are at times easily overlooked for their simplicity, such as fermented baked milk, turnip salad and beet tops, but the stories she shares about their history and symbolism in Ukraine's evolution as a nation make this collection of recipes particularly felicitous despite publication in 2020.  

 

Broken into sections including ferments, breakfasts, soups, breads, vegetables, meats and desserts, the reader is treated to a sampling of dishes to be served throughout the seasons and an education in traditional methods of preserving, baking and serving dishes.  I'll certainly be making tomato mulberry salad, fermented apples in pumpkin mash, borscht with duck and smoked pears and flourless poppyseed cake as the garden gives and the year unfolds.  This heartwarming tribute to a culture once again threatened, gives context and hope for the resilience of the Ukrainian people


Staff Pick Badge
The Guncle By Steven Rowley Cover Image
$17.00
ISBN: 9780525542308
Availability: On Our Shelves Now
Published: G.P. Putnam's Sons - April 5th, 2022

Sometimes you just need a good summer read.  Guncle, recently out in paperback, hits the mark with a storyline that is both humorous and emotionally engaging.  You'll chuckle through tears, as GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick) helps his young niece and nephew navigate the loss of their mother, Sarah, his best friend and brother's wife.  Filled with relatable moments of child rearing balanced with life lessons even adults struggle to learn, there is just enough seriousness in Rowley's story to make Guncle a worthy summer read any time of year.


Staff Pick Badge
New Naturalism: Designing and Planting a Resilient, Ecologically Vibrant Home Garden By Kelly D. Norris Cover Image
$30.00
ISBN: 9780760368190
Availability: Not in Store - Usually Ships in 1-5 days.
Published: Cool Springs Press - February 16th, 2021

I'm picky about garden books.  It's hard to find a resource that offers something new yet relevant to our erratic climate.  Kelly Norris's, The New Naturalism, hits the mark providing the reader with new perspectives on what a garden can be with sound advice on selecting plants and designing varied spaces for an aesthetically pleasing yet wild look pollinators will love.  While it might be more technical than some readers desire, you'll learn more looking up the plants' common names and gain a new appreciation for their ecological niches.  It's the book I wish I read before tearing up my lawn.  If nothing else the pictures are worthy of display on anyone's coffee table