The Solace of Open Spaces
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo first 3 months
Prime members: New to Audible?Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
The Solace of Open Spaces
Buy for $13.50
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Gretel Ehrlich
-
By:
-
Gretel Ehrlich
About this listen
A collection of transcendent, lyrical essays on life in the American West, the classic companion to Gretel Ehrlich’s new book, Unsolaced
“Wyoming has found its Whitman.” (Annie Dillard)
Poet and filmmaker Gretel Ehrlich went to Wyoming in 1975 to make the first in a series of documentaries when her partner died. Ehrlich stayed on and found she couldn’t leave. The Solace of Open Spaces is a chronicle of her first years on “the planet of Wyoming”, a personal journey into a place, a feeling, and a way of life.
Ehrlich captures both the otherworldly beauty and cruelty of the natural forces - the harsh wind, bitter cold, and swiftly changing seasons - in the remote reaches of the American West. She brings depth, tenderness, and humor to her portraits of the peculiar souls who also call it home: hermits and ranchers, rodeo cowboys and schoolteachers, dreamers and realists. Together, these essays form an evocative and vibrant tribute to the life Ehrlich chose and the geography she loves.
Originally written as journal entries addressed to a friend, The Solace of Open Spaces is raw, meditative, electrifying, and uncommonly wise. In prose “as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning” (Newsday), Ehrlich explores the magical interplay between our interior lives and the world around us.
©2020 Gretel Ehrlich (P)2020 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Unsolaced
- Along the Way to All That Is
- By: Gretel Ehrlich
- Narrated by: Gretel Ehrlich
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20
From the author of the enduring classic The Solace of Open Spaces, here is a wondrous meditation on how water, light, wind, mountain, bird, and horse have shaped her life and her understanding of a world besieged by a climate crisis. Amid species extinctions and disintegrating ice sheets, this stunning collection of memories, observations, and narratives is acute and lyrical, Whitmanesque in breadth, and as elegant as a Japanese teahouse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A journey worth taking
- By Jay on 10-30-23
By: Gretel Ehrlich
-
For Small Creatures Such as We
- Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
- By: Sasha Sagan
- Narrated by: Sasha Sagan
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 383
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 325
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 323
Part memoir, part guidebook, and part social history, For Small Creatures Such as We is the first book from the daughter of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan - a luminous exploration of Earth's marvels that require no faith in order to be believed. As Sagan shares these rituals, For Small Creatures Such as We becomes a moving tribute to a father, a newborn daughter, a marriage, and the natural world - a celebration of life itself, and the power of our families and beliefs to bring us together.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Candle in the Dark
- By Imran on 11-12-19
By: Sasha Sagan
-
Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World
- Essays
- By: Barry Lopez, Rebecca Solnit - introduction
- Narrated by: James Naughton, Rebecca Solnit
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
An ardent steward of the land, fearless traveler, and unrivaled observer of nature and culture, Barry Lopez died after a long illness on Christmas Day 2020. The previous summer, a wildfire had consumed much of what was dear to him in his home place and the community around it—a tragic reminder of the climate change of which he’d long warned.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Intense and beautifully personal
- By Karen West on 06-28-23
By: Barry Lopez, and others
-
A Sand County Almanac
- And Sketches Here and There
- By: Aldo Leopold, Barbara Kingsolver - introduction
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 552
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 475
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 469
First published in 1949 and praised in the New York Times Book Review as "full of beauty and vigor and bite", A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great in some ways; in others, wtf!
- By RG on 06-22-20
By: Aldo Leopold, and others
-
Sounds Wild and Broken
- Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction
- By: David George Haskell
- Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen, David George Haskell
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 22
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 18
We live on a planet alive with song, music, and speech. David Haskell explores how these wonders came to be. In rain forests shimmering with insect sound and swamps pulsing with frog calls we learn about evolution’s creative powers. From birds in the Rocky Mountains and on the streets of Paris, we discover how animals learn their songs and adapt to new environments. Below the waves, we hear our kinship to beings as different as snapping shrimp, toadfish, and whales.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A poet-philosopher-scientist-sage for the ages!
- By S. Kalita on 03-27-22
-
Arctic Dreams
- By: Barry Lopez
- Narrated by: James Naughton
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 326
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 269
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 270
This best-selling, groundbreaking exploration of the Far North is a classic of natural history, anthropology, and travel writing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Integration of arctic experience and wisdom
- By andrea Groves on 01-07-20
By: Barry Lopez
-
Unsolaced
- Along the Way to All That Is
- By: Gretel Ehrlich
- Narrated by: Gretel Ehrlich
- Length: 8 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 24
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 20
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 20
From the author of the enduring classic The Solace of Open Spaces, here is a wondrous meditation on how water, light, wind, mountain, bird, and horse have shaped her life and her understanding of a world besieged by a climate crisis. Amid species extinctions and disintegrating ice sheets, this stunning collection of memories, observations, and narratives is acute and lyrical, Whitmanesque in breadth, and as elegant as a Japanese teahouse.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A journey worth taking
- By Jay on 10-30-23
By: Gretel Ehrlich
-
For Small Creatures Such as We
- Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World
- By: Sasha Sagan
- Narrated by: Sasha Sagan
- Length: 6 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 383
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 325
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 323
Part memoir, part guidebook, and part social history, For Small Creatures Such as We is the first book from the daughter of Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan - a luminous exploration of Earth's marvels that require no faith in order to be believed. As Sagan shares these rituals, For Small Creatures Such as We becomes a moving tribute to a father, a newborn daughter, a marriage, and the natural world - a celebration of life itself, and the power of our families and beliefs to bring us together.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Candle in the Dark
- By Imran on 11-12-19
By: Sasha Sagan
-
Embrace Fearlessly the Burning World
- Essays
- By: Barry Lopez, Rebecca Solnit - introduction
- Narrated by: James Naughton, Rebecca Solnit
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 77
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 76
An ardent steward of the land, fearless traveler, and unrivaled observer of nature and culture, Barry Lopez died after a long illness on Christmas Day 2020. The previous summer, a wildfire had consumed much of what was dear to him in his home place and the community around it—a tragic reminder of the climate change of which he’d long warned.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Intense and beautifully personal
- By Karen West on 06-28-23
By: Barry Lopez, and others
-
A Sand County Almanac
- And Sketches Here and There
- By: Aldo Leopold, Barbara Kingsolver - introduction
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 4 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 552
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 475
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 469
First published in 1949 and praised in the New York Times Book Review as "full of beauty and vigor and bite", A Sand County Almanac combines some of the finest nature writing since Thoreau with an outspoken and highly ethical regard for America's relationship to the land.
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
Great in some ways; in others, wtf!
- By RG on 06-22-20
By: Aldo Leopold, and others
-
Sounds Wild and Broken
- Sonic Marvels, Evolution's Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction
- By: David George Haskell
- Narrated by: Steven Jay Cohen, David George Haskell
- Length: 15 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 22
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 18
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 18
We live on a planet alive with song, music, and speech. David Haskell explores how these wonders came to be. In rain forests shimmering with insect sound and swamps pulsing with frog calls we learn about evolution’s creative powers. From birds in the Rocky Mountains and on the streets of Paris, we discover how animals learn their songs and adapt to new environments. Below the waves, we hear our kinship to beings as different as snapping shrimp, toadfish, and whales.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A poet-philosopher-scientist-sage for the ages!
- By S. Kalita on 03-27-22
-
Arctic Dreams
- By: Barry Lopez
- Narrated by: James Naughton
- Length: 17 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 326
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 269
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 270
This best-selling, groundbreaking exploration of the Far North is a classic of natural history, anthropology, and travel writing.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Integration of arctic experience and wisdom
- By andrea Groves on 01-07-20
By: Barry Lopez
-
Writing Creative Nonfiction
- By: Tilar J J. Mazzeo, The Great Courses
- Narrated by: Tilar J J. Mazzeo
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 722
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 628
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 621
Bringing together the imaginative strategies of fiction storytelling and new ways of narrating true, real-life events, creative nonfiction is the fastest-growing part of the creative writing world. It's a cutting-edge genre that's reshaping how we write (and read) everything from biographies and memoirs to blogs and public speaking scripts to personal essays and magazine articles.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Not what I expected but useful
- By Nancy on 04-14-14
By: Tilar J J. Mazzeo, and others
-
Nowhere for Very Long
- The Unexpected Road to an Unconventional Life
- By: Brianna Madia
- Narrated by: Brianna Madia
- Length: 6 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,760
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 1,590
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,588
In this beautifully written, vividly detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures traveling across the deserts of the American West in an orange van named Bertha and reflects on an unconventional approach to life
-
3 out of 5 stars
-
not what I thought
- By J. Abrego on 04-16-22
By: Brianna Madia
-
The Zen of Therapy
- Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life
- By: Mark Epstein M.D.
- Narrated by: Mark Epstein M.D.
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 215
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 180
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 177
For much of his career, Dr. Mark Epstein kept his beliefs as a Buddhist separate from his work as a psychiatrist. But as he became more forthcoming with his patients about his personal spiritual leanings, he was surprised to find how many of them were eager to learn more. The divisions between the psychological, emotional, and the spiritual, he soon realized, were not as distinct as one might think.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Interlocking centers
- By Matthew Bond on 12-07-22
-
Unwell Women
- Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World
- By: Elinor Cleghorn
- Narrated by: Hanako Footman
- Length: 14 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 190
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 166
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 165
Elinor Cleghorn became an unwell woman 10 years ago. She was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease after a long period of being told her symptoms were anything from psychosomatic to a possible pregnancy. As Elinor learned to live with her unpredictable disease, she turned to history for answers, and found an enraging legacy of suffering, mystification, and misdiagnosis. In Unwell Women, Elinor Cleghorn traces the almost unbelievable history of how medicine has failed women by treating their bodies as alien and other, often to perilous effect.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Profound Read; A Sincere Stepping Stone to Understanding My Own Why
- By Nicole on 07-23-21
By: Elinor Cleghorn
-
The Treeline
- The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth
- By: Ben Rawlence
- Narrated by: Jamie Parker
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 56
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 53
For the last 50 years, the trees of the boreal forest have been moving north. The Treeline takes us along this critical frontier of our warming planet from Norway to Siberia, Alaska to Greenland, to meet the scientists, residents, and trees confronting huge geological changes.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A surprising find
- By BearheartRaven on 02-23-22
By: Ben Rawlence
-
Lazy B
- Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest
- By: Sandra Day O'Connor, H. Alan Day
- Narrated by: Sandra Day O'Connor
- Length: 5 hrs and 13 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 92
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 71
What was it in Sandra Day O'Connor's background and early life that helped make her the woman she is today - the first female justice of the US Supreme Court, and one of the most powerful women in America? In this beautiful, illuminating, and unusual book, Sandra Day O'Connor, with her brother, Alan, tells the story of the Day family and of growing up on the harsh yet beautiful land of the Lazy B Ranch in Arizona. Laced throughout these stories about three generations of the Day family, and everyday life on the Lazy B, are the lessons Sandra and Alan learned about the world.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
It's just like she said!
- By R. Strauss on 06-07-11
By: Sandra Day O'Connor, and others
-
Upstream
- Selected Essays
- By: Mary Oliver
- Narrated by: Hala Alyan, Joy Sullivan, Kate Baer
- Length: 4 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 15
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 13
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 13
“I had to go out into the world and see it and hear it and react to it, before I knew at all who I was, what I was, what I wanted to be.” So begins Upstream, a collection of essays in which revered poet Mary Oliver reflects on her willingness to lose herself within the beauty and mysteries of the natural world and the world of literature. Emphasizing the significance of her childhood “friend” Walt Whitman, who inspired her to vanish into the world of her own writing, Oliver meditates on the forces that allowed her to create a life for herself out of work and love.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful essays
- By jessica on 10-17-23
By: Mary Oliver
-
Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 642
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 554
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 552
On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
-
Salmon
- A Fish, the Earth, and the History of Their Common Fate
- By: Mark Kurlansky
- Narrated by: Mark Kurlansky
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 176
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 144
In what he says is the most important piece of environmental writing in his long and award-winning career, Mark Kurlansky, best-selling author of Salt and Cod, The Big Oyster, 1968, and Milk, among many others, employs his signature multi-century storytelling and compelling attention to detail to chronicle the harrowing yet awe-inspiring life cycle of salmon.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
More about people than salmon
- By BigJay on 02-10-21
By: Mark Kurlansky
-
Never Cry Wolf
- By: Farley Mowat
- Narrated by: Adam Sims
- Length: 4 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 549
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 476
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 472
More than half a century ago, the naturalist Farley Mowat accepted an assignment to investigate why wolves were killing Arctic caribou. Mowat’s account of the summer he lived in the frozen tundra alone – studying the wolf population and developing a deep affection for these wild creatures (who were no threat to caribou or man) – is today celebrated as a classic of nature writing, at once a tale of remarkable adventure and an indelible record of the myths and magic of wolves.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A noble failure and a wild success
- By Darwin8u on 10-04-13
By: Farley Mowat
-
The Sun Is a Compass
- A 4,000-Mile Journey into the Alaskan Wilds
- By: Caroline Van Hemert
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 9 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 922
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 818
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 818
This gripping true story follows a biologist's human-powered journey from the Pacific Northwest to the Arctic to rediscover her love of birds, nature, and adventure—perfect for fans of Cheryl Strayed.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The journey doesn’t get any better...
- By Philip Jacob Lee on 06-18-19
-
Half Broke Horses
- A True-Life Novel
- By: Jeannette Walls
- Narrated by: Jeannette Walls
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 3,195
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,425
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,416
Jeannette Walls's memoir The Glass Castle was "nothing short of spectacular" ( Entertainment Weekly). Now, in Half Broke Horses, she brings us the story of her grandmother, told in a first-person voice that is authentic, irresistible, and triumphant.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
A BETTER BOOK THAN "THE GLASS CASTLE"
- By Kathryn on 01-10-10
By: Jeannette Walls
Critic reviews
"Any one of [its 12 chapters] stands beautifully on its own.... She brings the long vistas into focus with the poise of an Ansel Adams." (The New York Times Book Review)
"A stunning rumination on life on Wyoming's High Plains.... Ehrlich's gorgeous prose is as expansive as a Wyoming vista, as charged as a bolt of prairie lightning." (Newsday)
"Ehrlich's best prose belongs in a league with Annie Dillard and even Thoreau. The Solace of Open Spaces releases the bracing air of the wilderness into the stuffy, heated confines of winter in civilization." (San Francisco Chronicle)
Related to this topic
-
The Meadow
- By: James Galvin
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
In short vignettes, Galvin gives us a deeply personal portrait of the people who lived in a mountain meadow along the Colorado-Wyoming border over its hundred-year history. His portraits illuminate the Western character and evolve a sense of place like no other.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Reading the Meadow is almost like reading a poem..
- By Shelby Stephens on 04-30-12
By: James Galvin
-
Claiming Ground
- By: Laura Bell
- Narrated by: Laurie Birmingham
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
A transcendent memoir from an author of rare talent, Laura Bell’s Claiming Ground recounts Bell’s time living mostly alone in the hills of Wyoming, where she herded sheep and cattle and battled isolation. A journey to the heart of self, Bell’s work sparkles with shimmering prose and remarkable insight.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful writing
- By Rand Hall on 11-01-16
By: Laura Bell
-
Reservation Restless
- By: Jim Kristofic
- Narrated by: Jim Kristofic
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
In the powerful and haunting lands of the Southwest, rainbows grow unexpectedly from the sky, mountain lions roam the desert, and summer storms roll over the Colorado River. As a park ranger, Kristofic explores the Ganado valley, traces the paths of the Anasazi, and finds mythic experiences on sacred mountains that explain the pain and loss promised for every person who decides to love. After reconnecting with his Navajo sister and brother, Kristofic must confront his own nightmares of the Anglo society and the future it has created.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
It is a gift to see the world through Jim's eyes
- By Josh Boyle on 06-23-21
By: Jim Kristofic
-
Big Bend
- A Homesteader's Story
- By: J.O. Langford
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 42
To the wild and fabulous country where the Rio Grande makes its big bend, J. O. Langford came in 1909 with his wife and daughter in search of health and a home. High on a bluff overlooking the spot where Tornillo Creek pours its waters into the turbulent Rio Grande, the Langfords built their home, a rude structure of adobe blocks in a land reputed to be inhabited only by bandits and rattlesnakes. Big Bend is the story of the Langfords' life in the rugged and spectacularly beautiful country which they came to call their own.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great historical read!!
- By chaoticangel38 on 06-03-19
By: J.O. Langford
-
Dalva
- A Novel
- By: Jim Harrison
- Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey, Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
From her home on the California coast, Dalva hears the broad silence of the Nebraska prairie where she was born, and longs for the son she gave up for adoption years before. Beautiful, fearless, tormented, at 45 she has lived a life of lovers and adventures. Now, Dalva begins a journey that will take her back to the bosom of her family, to the half-Sioux lover of her youth, and to a pioneering great-grandfather whose journals recount the bloody annihilation of the Plains Indians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Deeply Moving novel
- By Lynn Smith on 02-28-23
By: Jim Harrison
-
This House of Sky
- Landscapes of a Western Mind
- By: Ivan Doig
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 401
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 337
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 332
A nominee for the National Book Award, Ivan Doig's brilliant memoir shares the experiences and culture that shaped his early years and made him fall in love with the West. From his childhood in a family of homesteaders through the death of his mother and his move to Montana to herd sheep, Doig shows his intimate connection with the American West.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Early work by a favorite author
- By Doggy Bird on 09-06-14
By: Ivan Doig
-
The Meadow
- By: James Galvin
- Narrated by: Patrick Lawlor
- Length: 6 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 76
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 60
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 62
In short vignettes, Galvin gives us a deeply personal portrait of the people who lived in a mountain meadow along the Colorado-Wyoming border over its hundred-year history. His portraits illuminate the Western character and evolve a sense of place like no other.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Reading the Meadow is almost like reading a poem..
- By Shelby Stephens on 04-30-12
By: James Galvin
-
Claiming Ground
- By: Laura Bell
- Narrated by: Laurie Birmingham
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 37
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 31
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 29
A transcendent memoir from an author of rare talent, Laura Bell’s Claiming Ground recounts Bell’s time living mostly alone in the hills of Wyoming, where she herded sheep and cattle and battled isolation. A journey to the heart of self, Bell’s work sparkles with shimmering prose and remarkable insight.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Beautiful writing
- By Rand Hall on 11-01-16
By: Laura Bell
-
Reservation Restless
- By: Jim Kristofic
- Narrated by: Jim Kristofic
- Length: 9 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 36
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 34
In the powerful and haunting lands of the Southwest, rainbows grow unexpectedly from the sky, mountain lions roam the desert, and summer storms roll over the Colorado River. As a park ranger, Kristofic explores the Ganado valley, traces the paths of the Anasazi, and finds mythic experiences on sacred mountains that explain the pain and loss promised for every person who decides to love. After reconnecting with his Navajo sister and brother, Kristofic must confront his own nightmares of the Anglo society and the future it has created.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
It is a gift to see the world through Jim's eyes
- By Josh Boyle on 06-23-21
By: Jim Kristofic
-
Big Bend
- A Homesteader's Story
- By: J.O. Langford
- Narrated by: Peter Lerman
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 45
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 41
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 42
To the wild and fabulous country where the Rio Grande makes its big bend, J. O. Langford came in 1909 with his wife and daughter in search of health and a home. High on a bluff overlooking the spot where Tornillo Creek pours its waters into the turbulent Rio Grande, the Langfords built their home, a rude structure of adobe blocks in a land reputed to be inhabited only by bandits and rattlesnakes. Big Bend is the story of the Langfords' life in the rugged and spectacularly beautiful country which they came to call their own.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Great historical read!!
- By chaoticangel38 on 06-03-19
By: J.O. Langford
-
Dalva
- A Novel
- By: Jim Harrison
- Narrated by: Chris Henry Coffey, Stacey Glemboski
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 60
From her home on the California coast, Dalva hears the broad silence of the Nebraska prairie where she was born, and longs for the son she gave up for adoption years before. Beautiful, fearless, tormented, at 45 she has lived a life of lovers and adventures. Now, Dalva begins a journey that will take her back to the bosom of her family, to the half-Sioux lover of her youth, and to a pioneering great-grandfather whose journals recount the bloody annihilation of the Plains Indians.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Deeply Moving novel
- By Lynn Smith on 02-28-23
By: Jim Harrison
-
This House of Sky
- Landscapes of a Western Mind
- By: Ivan Doig
- Narrated by: Tom Stechschulte
- Length: 11 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 401
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 337
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 332
A nominee for the National Book Award, Ivan Doig's brilliant memoir shares the experiences and culture that shaped his early years and made him fall in love with the West. From his childhood in a family of homesteaders through the death of his mother and his move to Montana to herd sheep, Doig shows his intimate connection with the American West.
-
4 out of 5 stars
-
Early work by a favorite author
- By Doggy Bird on 09-06-14
By: Ivan Doig
-
A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains
- By: Isabella L. Bird
- Narrated by: Flo Gibson
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 55
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 55
These are the valiant and lyrically descriptive letters, written in 1873, by Isabella Bird, a courageous and spirited Englishwoman, telling her sister of her adventures on horseback over 800 miles of American wilderness.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
The Solution to the Indian Problem
- By Samar on 09-26-16
By: Isabella L. Bird
-
Goodbye to a River
- By: John Graves
- Narrated by: Henry Strozier
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 218
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 191
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 189
In this classic from the Lone Star State, John Graves learns that the river he knew and loved as a youth, the Brazos in north-central Texas, is slated to be dammed at multiple points - and he understands that things will never be the same. Goodbye to a River is a poignant narrative of one man's journey by canoe down the river of his memories. Along the way, he describes the colorful Texas landscape and recounts its rich history.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Undoubtedly a great piece of American literature
- By Chris on 04-04-13
By: John Graves
-
Ghost Warrior
- By: Lucia St. Clair Robson
- Narrated by: Kris Faulkner
- Length: 21 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 39
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 38
For more than a century, Apaches have kept alive the memory of their hero Lozen. This beautiful, valiant warrior and revered shaman fought alongside Geronimo, Cochise, and her own brother, Victorio, holding out against the armies of both the United States and Mexico. Lozen has known since childhood that the spirits have chosen her to defend Apache freedom. As the U.S. Army prepares to move her people to an Arizona reservation, Lozen forsakes marriage and motherhood to fight among the men.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Breathtaking and heartbreaking.
- By I. Zuno on 02-20-16
-
Deep Creek
- Finding Hope in the High Country
- By: Pam Houston
- Narrated by: Pam Houston
- Length: 10 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 642
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 554
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 552
On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the Earth, the ranch most of all.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The most beautiful book I’ve ever read
- By KFratt on 04-26-19
By: Pam Houston
-
The Hearts of Horses
- A Novel
- By: Molly Gloss
- Narrated by: Renée Raudman
- Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 252
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 196
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 195
The irresistible tale of 19-year-old Martha Lessen, a female horse whisperer trying to make a go of it in a man's world. It was thought that the only way to break a horse was to buck the wild out of it, and broken ribs and tough falls just went with the job. But over several long, hard winter months, many of the townsfolk in this remote county of eastern Oregon witness Martha's way of talking in low, sweet tones to horses believed beyond repair---and getting miraculous, almost immediate results.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Simple, Honest, Wonderful
- By Julie W. Capell on 11-08-09
By: Molly Gloss
-
Close Range
- Wyoming Stories (Selected Unabridged Stories)
- By: Annie Proulx
- Narrated by: Frances Fisher, Bruce Greenwood, Campbell Scott
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 206
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 119
Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in this collection of stories about loneliness, quick violence, and wrong kinds of love. In "The Mud Below", a rodeo rider's obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In "The Half-Skinned Steer", an elderly fool drives west to the ranch he grew up on for his brother's funeral, and dies a mile from home.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A Wonderfully Ironic and Surprising Read
- By Susan L. Stewart on 04-21-12
By: Annie Proulx
-
The Oregon Trail
- A New American Journey
- By: Rinker Buck
- Narrated by: Rinker Buck
- Length: 16 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 1,128
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 1,026
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 1,032
In the best-selling tradition of Bill Bryson and Tony Horwitz, Rinker Buck's The Oregon Trail is a major work of participatory history: an epic account of traveling the entire 2,000-mile length of the Oregon Trail the old-fashioned way, in a covered wagon with a team of mules - which hasn't been done in a century - that also tells the rich history of the trail, the people who made the migration, and its significance to the country.
-
1 out of 5 stars
-
An author does not a good narrator make
- By C. Davis on 07-03-15
By: Rinker Buck
-
Falling from Horses
- By: Molly Gloss
- Narrated by: David Aaron Baker
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 44
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 40
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 40
>In 1938, 19-year-old cowboy Bud Frazer sets his sights on becoming a stunt rider in the movies. Fantasizing about rubbing shoulders with the great screen cowboys of his youth, he leaves his home in Echol Creek, Oregon, and heads for Hollywood. On the long bus ride south, Bud meets a young woman who also harbors dreams of making it in the movies, though not as a starlet but as a writer, a real writer.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Good
- By MJ Strub on 10-26-23
By: Molly Gloss
-
Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands
- A Young Politician's Quest for Recovery in the American West
- By: Roger L. Di Silvestro
- Narrated by: Tristan Morris
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 70
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
Theodore Roosevelt in the Badlands chronicles the turbulent years Roosevelt spent as a rancher in the Badlands of Dakota Territory, following the sudden deaths on February 14, 1884, of his wife, two days after giving birth, and of his mother. Grief-stricken - and driven by doubts about his career after failed attempts as a reformer fighting political corruption -the young, Harvard-educated New York politician left his infant daughter in his sister's care and went to live on a Badlands ranch he had bought a year earlier.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Outstanding
- By Buyce Consulting on 04-26-15
-
Horse Crazy
- By: Sarah Maslin Nir
- Narrated by: Sarah Maslin Nir
- Length: 8 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 104
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 100
It may surprise you to learn that there are over seven million horses in America - even more than when they were the only means of transportation - and nearly two million horse owners. Acclaimed journalist and avid equestrian Sarah Maslin Nir is one of them; she began riding horses when she was just two years old and hasn’t stopped since. Horse Crazy is a fascinating, funny, and moving love letter to these graceful animals and the people who - like her - are obsessed with them.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
Return to riding at 71 years old!
- By Barbara on 09-24-20
By: Sarah Maslin Nir
-
Secrets of the Savanna
- Twenty-Three Years in the African Wilderness Unraveling the Mysteries of Elephants and People
- By: Mark Owens, Delia Owens
- Narrated by: Donna Postel, Sean Runnette
- Length: 7 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 274
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 231
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 230
In this riveting real-life adventure, Mark and Delia Owens tell the dramatic story of their last years in Africa, fighting to save elephants, villagers, and - in the end - themselves. The award-winning zoologists and pioneering conservationists describe their work in the remote and ruggedly beautiful Luangwa Valley, in northeastern Zambia. There they studied the mysteries of the elephant population’s recovery after poaching, discovering remarkable similarities between humans and elephants.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
A vivid view of the savanna in Africa, culture and wildlife!
- By Kd on 09-12-20
By: Mark Owens, and others
-
Miracle Country
- A Memoir
- By: Kendra Atleework
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 63
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 48
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 48
Kendra Atleework grew up in Swall Meadows, in the Owens Valley of the Eastern Sierra Nevada, where annual rainfall averages five inches and in drought years measures closer to zero. Kendra's family raised their children to thrive in this harsh landscape, forever at the mercy of wildfires, blizzards, and gale-force winds. Most of all, the Atleework children were raised on unconditional love and delight in the natural world. But it came at a price.
-
5 out of 5 stars
-
The best memoir I've read
- By Patricia on 08-15-20
By: Kendra Atleework