Welcome to the Montana Way Book Club
The Montana Way is 1MT’s program that focuses on connecting our neighbors and our communities. This program elevates our collective responsibility to be good citizens and maintain Montana’s communities, land, and water resources.
The Montana Way Book Club highlights books that evoke Montana, our rich history, diverse culture, various traditions, and wide heritage. Soon we will provide an interactive platform to discuss books, ask questions, and offer suggestions. We’re also planning occasional webinars, book reviews, and readings by writers. Finally, we hope this forum provides and opportunity to learn and connect with new friends and neighbors.
As we get started, please provide suggestions and feedback. Just use the button below. We are happy to post appropriate ideas, reviews and quotes.
Book Review
New Recommendations
Last Green Valley, Mark Sullivan (MT Author)
Fool’s Crow, James Welch (anything by James Welch)
Full-Court Quest: The Girls from Fort Shaw Indian School, Basketball Champions of the World, Linda Peavy and Ursula Smith.
Eager: The Surprising, Secret Life of Beavers and Why They Matter, Ben Goldfarb
Fiction
Featured Book: Blind your Ponies, Stanley G West
Why we love this book: First it is set in Willow Creek, Montana, and features interesting characters who feel as real as relatives. Second, it is a story of grief, regret, humanity and bravery. It is small town Montana with long traditions and memories. It is uplifting and unexpected.
Bad Land, Jonathan Raban
Badluck Way: A Year on the Edge of the American West, Bryce Andrews
Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer
Cadence of Grass, Tom McGuane
Code of the West, Zane Grey
Dancing at the Rascal Fair, Ivan Doig
Hattie Big Sky, Kirby Larson
Lasso the Wind, Timothy Egan
Last Best Places, William Kittridge (Anthology)
Montana: An Uncommon Land, K. Ross Toole's
Tough Trip Through Paradise, Andrew Garcia
Letters From Yellowstone, Diane Smith
Lives of Rocks, Rick Bass
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
Mile High, Mile Deep, Richard O’Malley
Montana High, Wide and Handsome, Joseph Kinsey Howard
Of Wolves and Men, By Barry Lopez
River Runs Through it, Norman Maclean
The Big Sky, A.B. Guthrie
This House of Sky, Ivan Doig
Travels with Charlie, John Steinbeck
Wild Thoughts in Wild Places, David Quammen
Regarding Willingness: Chronicles of a Fraught Life, Tom Harpole
History & Biography
Featured Book: Grinnell, America’s Environmental Pioneer and His Restless Drive to Save the West, John Talioferro
Why we like it: George Bird Grinnell, the son of a New York merchant, saw a different future for our country and sparked America’s conservation movement. Yet today his name has largely been forgotten―an omission that John Taliaferro’s commanding biography now sets right with historical care and narrative flair.
Breaking Clean, Judy Blunt
Coyote America, Dan Flores
Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey, Russell Roland
Fine and Descent Lynching, The Montana Vigilantes, Frederick Allen
Immortal Irishman: The Irish Revolutionary Who Became an American Hero, Timothy Egan
Montana Memoir: The Hardscrabble Years, 1925-1942, William L McGee
The Bitterroot and Mr. Brandborg: Clearcutting and the Struggle for Sustainable Forestry in the Northern Rockies, Frederick H. Swanson
The Big Burn, Timothy Egan
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, David Treuer
The Hi-Line: Profiles of a Montana Land, Daniel N. Vichorek
Undaunted Courage, Stephen Ambrose
Young Men and Fire, Norman Maclean
Nature
American Serengetti, Dan Flores
Grassland, Richard Manning
Empire of Shadows, The Epic Story of Yellowstone, George Black
Knowing Yellowstone, Jerry Johnson
Saving Home Waters: The Story of Montana’s Rivers and Streams, Gordon Sullivan
Montana for Kids: The Story of Our State, Allen Morris Jones
Out of Montana: A Memoir, Gordon Noel
Rocky Mountain Ranger, William Marshall Rush
Yellowstone Scout, William Marshall Rush
Wild Pitch, A. B. Guthrie (The Sheriff Chick Charleston Mysteries Book 1)
The Cowboy President: The American West and the Making of Theodore Roosevelt, Michael Blake
Children & Youth
American Sportsmen and the Origins of Conservation, John F. Reiger
Beyond the Hundredth Meridian, Wallace Stegner
Beyond the Rangeland Conflict, Toward a West that Works, Dan Dagget
Cadillac Desert, Mark Reisner
Crossing the Next Meridian, Land, Water, and the Future of the West, C.F. Wilkinson
In Search of Nature, EO Wilson
Reclaiming the Native Home of Hope, R. Keiter
Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold
The Death of John Wayne and the Rebirth of a Code of the West, P. Decker
The Fight for Conservation, Giffird Pinchot
The Legacy of Conquest: the Unbroken Past of the American West, P.N. Limerick
The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America, D. Brinkley
Other
Pivotal
Reads
A River Runs Through it
Rancho Deluxe