Tag: librarything

All Shook Up

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White, Debra. All Shook Up: Vineleaves Press, 2024.

Reason read: I really like stories of triumph and was pleased to receive Debra White’s story as part of the Early Review program for LibraryThing.

If you are of a certain age, you might be able to imagine a certain toy called a Viewfinder. Look it up if you do not know what I am talking about. For those of you in the know, imagine All Shook Up is a viewfinder with three cards: her terrible accident, her lifelong volunteerism, and her journey to find faith. Each card holds slides or pictures of an important part of Debra White’s story. She has chosen each picture with care. It is obvious every single moment is important to her.
The first card holds the story of her accident. This section hit me the hardest because as a runner, I have worried about being struck by a distracted or drunk driver. [As an aside, an acquaintance of mine was mowed down by a truck just half a mile from her home; a route she had been running for over two decades.] White’s accident sets the stage for the rest of her memoir. The slides (still using the viewfinder metaphor) tell the story of how it happened, her debilitating injuries she is lucky to have survived, and her subsequent rehabilitation, slow recovery, and hesitant reentry into some semblance of a normal life.
Card number two covers the many different charities and volunteer work Debra dedicated her post-accident life to. Despite being disables and scooter-bound, Debra poured her heart and soul into every organization her helped. From animals to airplanes to children to refugees, she cared deeply for every single animal and person she met.
Card number three illustrates White’s views on religion and the God who saved her from her 1994 car-pedestrian accident. She felt she had a debt to pay. Her acceptance into the American Muslim Women’s Association was heartwarming.
White’s life may have been shattered by her horrific accident but she was able to rebuild that life, piece by piece, until it resembled something extraordinary. Her lesson to us all should be broken can be beautiful. Because of some of the repetitiveness I felt that some of the chapters were published separately as essays. Nevertheless I truly enjoyed her story.

As an aside, I need to tell my aunt about the plant and food sniffing Beagles from the Beagles Brigade. She loves those dogs!

Author fact: Debra has her own website here. It is simple but includes a wonderful picture of her with one of her beloved dogs.

Playlist: “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing”, “Jingle Bells”,

Saving Ellen

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Casey, Maura. Saving Ellen: a Memoir. Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., 2025

Reason read: I am a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing. From time to time I get the chance to review interesting books. This is one of them.

On the surface, Saving Ellen is an intimate and intense dive into kidney disease. As an adolescent, Maura’s sister Ellen lost function of her kidneys. What follows in Saving Ellen is a series of medical appointments, hospital stays, prescriptions and side effects, a transplant, the hope of recovery by a large and chaotic Irish family that never gave up hope. At the heart of Saving Ellen is Casey’s relationship with life and everything good and bad that came with it. All the heartbreaks and triumphs of childhood. From coming of age and dealing with relentless bullying to watching an alcoholic parent poison his entire family with infidelity and addiction, Casey’s story is one of addiction survival, family forgiveness, grief acceptance, and ultimate love.
Set in New York’s city of Buffalo, I saw Saving Ellen as also a memoir of place. Buffalo in the late 1960s and early 1970s is like another impoverished character; struggling to live and breathe and grow up.

Confessional: I wish Casey had opened her memoir with the 5th and 6ths sentences as the very first sentences to Saving Ellen. They really pack a punch.

Author fact: even though Casey has written a few other books, I am not reading any of them.

Book trivia: Saving Ellen has a really cool cover.

Setlist: “One Fine Day”, “What a Frozen Little Hand”, Tommy Makem and the Clancy Brothers, Bach, Jean Sibelius, “We shall Overcome”, the Beatles, The Coors, the Monkees, the Mamas and the Papas, Mozart, Beethoven, Aaron Copeland’s “Appalachian Spring”, Rachmaninoff, Barry Manilow, “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot”, and “A Parting Glass”.

Confessional: If I hadn’t discovered Dermot Kennedy’s music I would not have found “A Parting Glass” when I did. It is a beautiful song.

Jemez Mountains

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Swetnam, Thomas W. The Jemez Mountains: a Cultural and Natural History. University of New Mexico Press, 2025.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to review really cool books. This is one of them. I chose this book because I have long been fascinated with the Southwest. My sister has big dreams of settling in Taos, New Mexico. Me, I am not so sure.

There is a lot of love and respect in the pages of Jemez Mountains. It is abundantly clear that Swetnam cares deeply for the culture, history, and natural beauty of the region. He will take you to the hot springs that rival Saratoga’s. He will describe the first automobile in Jemez Springs. He will spend a lot of time at the Soda Dam. There are stories of bears, hippies, and abusive priests. He will give you a historical and scientific perspective of land use through the ages with photographs to illustrate each point. He has a serious concern about climate change and the damage it has already done to the region. There is a great deal of information packed in each essay so it was a relief when Swetnam explained that the essays of Jemez Mountains need not be read in sequential order.
As an aside, I felt a huge connection to Jemez Mountains not only because of my previously disclosed love of the Southwest, but because I uncovered other commonalities with the narrative. Swetnam matched photographs taken at the turn of the century with current ones. My hometown did something similar to illustrate how little it has changed in the last one hundred or so years. Swetnam refers to this matching of photographs as “then and now.” Inspired by the photography of my hometown, I put together an art show at my college with old photographs overlaid with current photographs and I called the project “Then and Now.”

Disclaimer: I make comments based on the assumption that special features to a book, like the same photographs, maps, or illustrations will be in the final published copy. That being said, the cover to Jemez Mountains is gorgeous. Swetnam has mentioned that there are more than one hundred photographs, maps, and drawings. My favorite photograph was of a Mack truck coming through one of the Guadalupe Box tunnels. It is impressive.

Book trivia: Jemez Mountains is set to be published in April 2025.

Author fact: Swetnam is a retired University of Arizona professor.

Small music: “O Fair New Mexico”

Their Cruel Lives

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Hart, Alastair MacDonald. Their Cruel Lives. Self Published Kindle Edition, 2024.

Reason read: Every month (or so) I get to review cool books from LibraryThing.

Confessional: in the early pages of Their Cruel Lives I had the feeling I was not supposed to like the protagonist of the story. From the onset I learned that Archibald Hennessy is supposed to be charmless, friendless, and a veritable loner. He is out of work, but not knowing his story, this made me highly suspicious of Hennessy’s intentions. I had no idea know why. I think that is the sign of an accomplished writer. Hart had the ability to make me feel something for the main character almost immediately even though it was not a positive reaction.
But. Back to the plot. Archibald Hennessy lands an overnight janitorial job at a World War I veterans home. His main responsibility is to clean up after the patients. On his very first night he befriends Herbert, a man destined to be a man of God until his father convinced him to go to war. He enjoys talking to Herbert and learning about his life. From there, Archibald meets Arthur, a man with childhood ambitions of being an Olympic athlete until the war took his legs and Norman, a simple farm boy who left home to be a sailor. Each man moved Archibald to consider what would have happened to these men had they not been gravely injured in World War I. He felt it was a travesty that all the men of the Excelsior Institute listlessly sat around without conversation or companionship; they ate barely decent food and didn’t have worthwhile entertainment beyond television. Even though Archibald was not injured in a war or had a limb amputated, he connected with the lost souls of the Excelsior Institute. It became his life’s mission to fix the broken system that did not respect its veterans.
Building upon my previous confessional: I would have loved it if Hart could have had Archibald interview Nurse Jocelyn, the antagonist of the story. Who was she? Why had she worked at the Excelsior Institute for so long and what did she think when it started to decline? I would have thought it would be a great plot twist if Archibald had been able to emotionally connect with Jocelyn and get her to have a change of heart. She could have been the heroine of the story. Also, Hart could have told us more about Archibald Hennessy. Who was he? Where did he come from? What was his story? I think I would have celebrated his successes more if I had connected with him from the beginning.

Please note: I usually love to quote authors when I think they have written something especially brilliant or moving or profound. I will not be sharing anything from Their Cruel Lives due to copyright constraints.

Author fact: Hart has written a bunch of books. None of them are on my Challenge list.

Book trivia: My downloaded version of Their Cruel Lives did not include any cover design.

Playlist: “All Creatures Great and Small”.

Nine Year Cycle

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Jones, Trevor. Nine Year Cycle: a Memoir. Self Published, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing, I get to review amazing books. This is one such book.

If I had to give Nine-Year Cycle a one word review it would be Grace with a capital G. Grace and civility, if I were to add another word to the mix. Trevor Jones writes about a theme everyone can relate to: love or rather the desire to be loved. At face value, Nine-Year Cycle is about Trevor Jones and his two great love affairs, each lasting nine years. Digging deeper, Nine-Year Cycle is a commentary on what it meant to be a gay man at the very start of the AIDS epidemic and later, the unpredictability of online dating. These are two very dangerous ventures for homosexuals.
Jones lost his first great love to AIDS. He handled the tragedy with a considerable about of grace. Thirteen years went by before he tried to find love a second time, this time on the internet. His second relationship was far more complicated, involving immigration and religion. I don’t think it is a spoiler alert to say I was nervous for him when he first met “Angelo”. The entire time I was worried it would be a scam; that Angelo had an ulterior motive. [As an aside, I watched a documentary on a serial killer who preyed on gay men by posing as a potential lover on internet dating sites. Scary stuff.]
Readers who want a happy ending will have to make their own judgement about Nine Year Cycle. Jones is far more forgiving than I could ever be.

Author fact: Jones is known for his theater work, but he has also done movies and television appearances.

Book trivia: because I had the e-book version that I was reading on my phone, I could not see the cover design.

Playlist: Jose Carreras, the Beatles, Duran Duran, Spandeau Ballet, George Michael, Mozart’s Alleluia from Exsultate Jubilate, and Stacey Kent’s “I’m Putting All My Eggs In One Basket”.

Case Closed

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Morgan, Paul. Case Closed: Ian Bailey and the Murder of Sophie Toscan du Plantier. Self-published, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing I often review advance reader copies of interesting books. I wish I could say I liked this book more than I actually did.

Paul Morgan wrote Case Closed as a way to bring justice to Sophie Toscan du Plantier. He joins a long line of individuals who have written or speculated about the case. There is even a documentary on Netflix about the murder (which I have yet to see).
This is a murder case chock full of circumstantial evidence most of which pointed directly to Ian Bailey as the guilty party. Here is what we know: it is well documented that Bailey was a very violent man. It is on record that he put his partner in the hospital on more than one occasion. He lived very close to the victim but his whereabouts on the night of the murder cannot be positively confirmed as Bailey told too many versions of his activities on the night in question. Case Closed spends a great deal of time repeatedly sorting out the mountain of lies Bailey told. Morgan calls attention to these lies over 300 times (more than once every page).
By the end of the book readers know not much more than when they started. They know that the timeline of the murder does not make sense. We are told over and over again that the facts and circumstances do not add up. That much is true. The other truth to Case Closed is that it is obvious Morgan is a seething author. For whatever reason, this case is personal for him. He writes with barely contained sarcasm that is borderline unprofessional. He does not take an unbiased look at the facts, but instead repeats his speculations over and over again ad nauseum. The narrative is disorganized and clearly fueled by rage. Case in point, the questions he wants to ask Bailey’s lover. Morgan’s questions start unbiased then dissolve into accusatory and shaming. In all honesty, I would have enjoyed Case Closed if Morgan’s facts were laid out in an organized and unbiased fashion with less repetition.

As an aside, Ian Bailey was found guilty of Sophie’s murder by a French court (in absentia) in 2019. Because he could not be extradited, he never ended up serving time for the crime.
I have to admit, this book gave me pause. Were the people who were investigating this murder crooked? How did it become such a botched case? How does a bloody gate goes missing from evidence? Why were the claims of witness intimidation or evidence tampering not investigated?

Trekking in Shangri-la

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Seward, Daniel K. Trekking in Shangri-la: the Manaslu Circuit. Amazon, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I get to review interesting books. This is one such book.

A mere 90+ pages (including a few full-page color photographs), Trekking in Shangri-La is way too short. Seward could have gone on for a least a few more chapters about his adventures while trekking with his sister and brother in Nepal. Seward writes in such a humorous and honest way I was able to read the entire book in one sitting, but be forewarned – he does not delve too deeply into what he sees or hears along the trek. If you are looking for a serious travel book to learn more about Nepal culture, environment, or people this is definitely not the book for you. The photographs describe more than the narrative. Think of it as the private journal of a well off American experiencing the Himalayas for the first time with his siblings.
Confessional: I would like to know what beer Seward is drinking. 6% abv is nothing when it comes to craft beer! As an aside, I found Seward to be a bit immature. The feeling was strongest when he went looking to see if there would be a territorial squabble between the French and Germans over seats in the dining room, (and was disappointed when there wasn’t). The feeling grew when he was looking for people to bad mouth the French and bonding with them when they did. The entire group was like spoiled brats when they couldn’t get the ice cream that they wanted.

Author fact: Seward used to be a teacher.

Book trivia: Trekking in Shangri-La has some big, beautiful, colorful photographs. I would have liked to see more.

Setlist: Hank Williams’ “Hey, Good Lookin'”, Rihanna, and “Purple Haze” by Jimi Hendrix (confessional: I cringed when I saw Seward’s spelling of the genius’s name: Jimmy Hendricks. Obviously not a fan.).

Hunters in High Heels

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Rodriguez-Lopez, Omar. Hunters in High Heels. Akashic, 2025.

Reason read: This is a very overdue Early Review from LibraryThing. I think I was supposed to receive it in December or January. Nevertheless, it is here and I am glad I got to review it.

When it comes to photography books without narrative, I try not to dwell on the mystery. I am not one for trying to figure out what each picture means. I like to study the photography briefly and gauge my acceptance of them without thinking too much about the message (if there even is one). I can’t read the photographer’s mind, but after enjoying Hunters in High Heels, I came away with an understanding that Rodriguez-Lopez, as well as his subject matter, is complicated. Contrasts abound everywhere. The photography is at once obscured and detailed. Intimate and anonymous. Violent and gentle. Gritty and polished. Visions of chaotic and exhausting travel interspersed with brief moments of stolen stillness and respite. Boredom amidst busywork. Hurry up and wait. Timeless yet specifically incapsulated. The life and relationships of a touring rock band.
My favorite pictures were the ones that revealed the creative process at work. The mixing board, guitar pedals, mixed tapes, tools of the trade strewn across the floor in utter organized chaos. Drums in the shower!

Author fact: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is a member of the band, Mars Volta.

Book trivia: Steph Celaya wrote the introduction.

Cremation Vacation

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Wiseman, Todd Alan. Cremation Vacation. Self Published, 2023.

Reason read: it is a long story why I read this story. Here is the whole thing from engine to caboose. My friend passed away a year ago October. Her daughter, who is also a really good friend (another long story), had her remains cremated. The daughter has yet to do anything with the ashes. Her initial thought was to honor her mother’s wishes and have her remains scattered somewhere on the Maine property that has been in the family for ages and ages. However, there are people renting the house on said property. You can’t exactly ask them to vacate the house for a few hours in order to have a memorial in the front yard. So, the ashes currently sit in Colorado. They have been there for over a year. On a recent call with the daughter I suggested spreading her mother’s ashes far and wide. Mom was a fearless traveler. She was a model in France, a part-time citizen of Mexico. She loved adventure. Why not make a vacation out of spreading her ashes? Go to Paris and Cozumel. Spend time in San Francisco and Washington D.C. Why the hell not? I had no idea Wiseman wrote a book about this exact same idea until a coworker presented me with the book. It was an Early Review for LibraryThing – one I did not request.

The premise of Cremation Vacation is clever if not a little predictable. In a nutshell: the brother of a scam artist passes away. The deceased leaved the scammer his business. However, to collect the rights to this business, he must spread his brother’s ashes across the world. Over the course of time the scammer learns to be a more sensitive human being. The end.
Confessional: I wish that Wiseman had partnered with someone to read the dialogue. Like reading a script, he could have seen how awkward some of the conversations turned out. For example, Trish. She repeats words frequently (died three times in a row, requirements three times in a row, trip six times in a row). She sounded robotic and fake.

Playlist: Billy Joel, “Phantom Three Oh Nine”, Amy Winehouse, Bee Gees’ “Staying Alive”, “Car Wash”, Lionel Ritchie’s “Truly”, Elvis Presley, Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”, Miranda Lambert’s “Mama’s Broken Heart”, and Dean Martin’s “Aint That a Kick in the Head”.

Twice the Family

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McGue, Julie Ryan. Twice the Family: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood. She Writes Press, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to read really interesting books. This is one I couldn’t put down.

Twice the Family is a narrative nonfiction about what it is like to grow up enduring circumstances, both unique and challenging. McGue tackles the emotional and psychological toll of what it means to be adopted in the 1950s. In those days, adoptions had their pros and cons. One good practice was keeping siblings together as much as possible. One mediocre practice was the well meaning but naïve practice of insisting adoptive parents match the orphan’s race and religion to eliminate too many questions later in life. One bad practice was to seal adoption records. A closed adoption meant people like McGue would never know the names of their birth parents or the circumstances surrounding their abandonment, for better or worse. In keeping with these practices, McGue was placed with a family with similar heritage, coloring, and religion. Her sister would go with her to this family but the twins couldn’t know anything about their birth parents. [In this day and age, with the progression of science and genealogy using DNA, McGue could probably get answers to her adoption questions, if she hasn’t already.]
McGue also delves into the mysteriously deep connection of twins, starting with what it must have been like to experience their birth. From their first breath together, McGue and her sister, Jenny, were inseparable. However, McGue doesn’t delve too deeply into the emotional repercussions of detaching herself from her twin despite their intrinsic bond. They even went to the same college and lived on the same dorm floor for a while. Only after they pledged different sororities did the twins begin to live unique lives.
While I thought Twice the Family was a highly entertaining story, I was distracted by McGue’s writing tic of ending chapters with ominous cliffhangers. After a while they reminded me of season finales of daytime television dramas. I know it is a play to keep the pages turning, but I was invested in her story without the dramatic teasers.

Author fact: McGue is also a columnist for the Beacher Newspapers.

Setlist: “All Are Welcome All Belong”, Neil Diamond’s “September Morn”, Pachelbel’s Canon, “Ave Maria”, “Happy Birthday”, “Frankie Valli’s “Love Will Keep Us Together”” and “You Are My Sunshine”.

Ultimate Guide to Rapport

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Ernsund, Stig. The Ultimate Guide to Rapport: How to Enhance Your Communications and Relationships with Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere. Self Published, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing I get to review all sorts of interesting books.

Whole books have been written on the subject of the evolutionary importance of human connection. It has been proven that newborn babies thrive when held and talked to while neglected or ignored children become sickly and even perish. The foundation for the saying, “it takes a village to raise a child” is bonding which enables the community to work together.
The Ultimate Guide to Rapport is a concise twenty-nine pages of how to build a connection when it is “extra useful” or necessary. It promises to deliver the following: a definition of rapport, the theories, neuroscience and psychology of rapport, methods for building forms or levels of rapport, the value of rapport, an strong argument for rapport supported by theories and explanations and examples of added value of rapport. While I do not necessarily think it is the “ultimate” guide to rapport, it is packed with useful information.

Author fact: Stig Ernsund is a Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Master Practitioner.

Book trivia: Ernsund’s introduction ends with a gentle sales pitch on life coaching and communication counseling.

Would You Rather?

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Tooker, Michelle. Would You Rather?: True Crime Edition. Michelle Tooker, 2024.

Reason read: every now and again I get to review interesting books as part of LibraryThing’s Early Review program. This is one such book.

Would You Rather? True Crime Edition boasts of “1,000 thought-provoking questions and conversation starters on serial killers, mysteries, crimes, supernatural activities and more” and is the “ultimate true crime gift.” All that is true…for the right audience. Tooker knows a great deal about serial killers, unsolved crimes, and unexplained mysteries. Like more than the average person. There were many people (both criminals and victims) I had never heard of before. Some of the Would You Rather questions I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know the case. Thanks to Tooker, I am going to do down a rabbit hole of television shows, documentaries, and true-crime nonfiction to bring myself up to speed!

Book trivia: the illustrations are interesting, a ski mask, dead body…

One Year Without Sugar

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Hamn, Matthew. One Year Without Sugar: Unlocking the Secrets to Weight Loss. Self Published, 2024.

Reason read: as a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I review interesting books.

I have to be honest. I don’t know if I would buy this book if I discovered it and happen to flip through it in a bookstore. The photographs and daily diet journal are somewhat repetitious. I couldn’t identify some of the foods and a couple of the photographs were blurry. If you are not familiar with the wild fit program you will not lose the overall context, but the knowledge would be a nice frame of reference.
Confessional: I am still not finished reading One Year Without Sugar. So far my favorite parts are when Hamn includes interesting facts about himself. In this way he connects with his readers very well. For example, he is sheep herder who goes into the mountains for two to three days at a time and he gained a bit of weight after giving up cigarettes. (That makes total sense because smoking is such an oral activity! As a hand to mouth activity putting food in one’s mouth is a natural substitution for smoking.) I appreciate his personal narrative and his motivation more than the journal of what he ate. His journey is an inspiration! Confessional: I did learn a little bit. For example, the fifty-six different names for sugar. If I ever want to cut out even twenty-five percent of the sugar I consume I now know what to look for in the list of ingredients.

Diane: True Survivor

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Lassoe, Ward V.B. Diane: True Survivor. Koehlerbooks, 2024.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review Program for LibraryThing, I see out interesting books to review. This definitely caught my eye.

Diane might seem like every other uneducated, down-on-her-luck woman who used sex in her early years to get ahead. True, she continuously lashes out, made poor choices in men, and had several abortions as a teenager, but instead of her misguided beginnings, we should see Diane as a determined, courageous, and spiritual woman who tried to do the right thing as she got older. Despite suffering sexual and physical abuse, abandonment, and financial hardships, she is like all of us. All she ever wanted was to be loved and respected. It took her some time to realize that self-worth comes from self-love. Respect will come from within when you truly love yourself. Her strength and capacity for sincere forgiveness was amazing.
It is important to remember that Diane: True Survivor started as an interview with a classmate and friend. Lassoe’s style of writing is not a style at all, but rather the words of Diane echoing back through Lassoe’s writing. Lassoe accomplishes the allusion of a conversation between Diane and the reader because Diane is the one doing all the remembering and Lassoe has kept the narrative honest. Diane’s pain is apparent in every sentence she utters, starting with her early years in foster care and ending with the death of her mother.

Author fact: Lassoe started as a classmate of Diane but in the end could call himself a friend.

Book trivia: Diane: True Survivor includes photographs.

Music: Cliff Richards’ “Congratulations”, “God Save the Queen”, “My Country Tis of Thee”, Isaac Hayes’ “Chocolate Chip”, “Ave Maria” and Tom Jones.

Denver

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Cordova, Kimberly Burk. Denver Dossier: Themed Adventures for Every Traveler.

Reason read: As a member of the Early Review program for LibraryThing I review books from time to time. This is my second time receiving an audio book.

Cordova calls this a comprehensive guide to Denver. I cannot completely agree. While each chapter holds a beautifully descriptive (wordy!) essay about each landmark, the audio version is not a useful guide. There is nothing visual to serve as reference, like a map. I would have to write down specific landmarks if I wanted to remember them for my next trip to Denver. Luckily, I have friends and family who live near the mile-high city and my partner travels there for work 4-5 times a year, so I know where the public bathrooms are located. I know how to navigate public transportation. I know the different seasons and how to dress for an altitude city.
Repetition. There is a great deal of repetition in Denver Dossier. Cordova may use different words and phrases but really she is saying the same thing eight different ways. She uses words like diversity, heritage, and culture over and over again. Maybe it’s an AI thing or maybe it’s a quirk of the author…but here are the phrases I noticed that were used over and over and over and over again: “Fill-in-the-blank is a testament to fill-in-this-other blank.” The testament statement was used over thirty times. Even more repetitive than testament was “fill-in-the-blank is not just a fill-in-this-other blank,” or “blank is more than just a blank…” That similar phrasing was used over one hundred and ten times. The more repetitive the words or phrases, the more I became aware of them.

Aside from the verbosity of the narrative, Cordova lists an impressive number of sights to see. She does not provide hard facts like admission fees, location addresses, or contact information for museums or parks. In the restaurant section she does mention very specific dishes that may or may not be still on the menu when you visit; and she gets little fanciful when she suggests you engage with a mural. There is nothing about banking, bathrooms, hospitals, or cheap places to stay.
Here are a bunch of places mentioned in Denver:

  • Colorado State Capital
  • Molly Brown House
  • Five Points
  • Capital Hill
  • Larimer Square
  • Union Station (several times in different chapters)
  • Red Rocks (several times in different chapters)
  • Confluence Park
  • Hiking Trails
  • Bicycle rental stores and locations
  • Botanical Gardens
  • Denver Zoo
  • Children’s Museum
  • Elitch Park
  • Denver Aquarium
  • Dinosaur Ridge
  • Denver Nature and Science Museum
  • Denver Art Museum (a few times)
  • Butterfly Pavillion
  • Denver Public Library
  • Denver Escape Room
  • History of Colorado Museum
  • Cherry Creek
  • An impressive list of breweries and distilleries
  • Music venues, both popular and obscure
  • Sports arenas and stadiums
  • Specific foods local to Denver/Colorado

As an aside, I am also reviewing Cordova’s book about Santa Fe. The two travel books cannot be any different.

Playlist: Billy Holliday, Duke Ellington, John Denver, U2, Church Fire, Beethoven, and Belvederes.