Book News
Dallas honored with second Spur
Denver novelist Sandra Dallas has won her second Spur Award, given annually by the Western Writers of America. Historian Robert Utley also took home his second Spur.
Dallas won for best Western short novel for “Tallgrass.” She won a 2003 Spur Award for her novel, “The Chili Queen.”
Utley won in the nonfiction category this year for “Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers. He won his first Spur in 1993 for “The Lance and the Shield.”
Other winners this year included Mike Blakely, “The Last Wild Buffalo,” song; Johnny D. Boggs, “Doubtful Canon,” juvenile fiction; Aryn Kyle, “The God of Animals,” best long novel; Thomas Maltman, “The Night Birds,” best first novel; Max McCoy, “Hellfire Canyon,” best original mass-market paperback; Robert W. Larson, “Gall: Lakota War Chief,” best nonfiction-biography; Annette Atkins, “Creating Minnesota,” best nonfiction historical; Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini, “Crucifixion River,” best short fiction story; Joseph B. Herring, “Selling the Noble Savage Myth: George Catlin and the Iowa Indians in Europe, 1843-1845,” best short nonfiction; Nancy Plain, “Sagebrush and Paintbrush: The Story of Charlie Russell, The Cowboy Artist,” best juvenile nonfiction; Andrew Dominik, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford,” best drama; Jayne McKay and Daniel Dixon, “Maynard Dixon: Art and Spirit,” best documentary; and John Duncklee, “El Corrida De Antonio Beltran,” poetry.
Spur Awards are presented for works whose inspirations, images and literary excellence — in the eyes of the judges — best represent the reality and spirit of the American West. westernwriters.org
First Line
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
“Since Maria had decided to die her cat would have to fend for itself. She’d already cared for it far beyond the point where keeping a pet made any sense. Rats and mice had long since been trapped and eaten by the villagers. Domestic animals had disappeared shortly after that. All except for one, this cat, her companion which she kept hidden. Why hadn’t she killed it? She needed something to live for; something to protect and love — something to survive for. She’d made a promise to continue feeding it up until the day she could no longer feed herself. That day was today. She’d already cut her leather boots into thin strips, boiled them with nettles and beetroot seeds. She’d already dug for earthworms, sucked on bark. This morning in a feverish delirium she’d gnawed the leg of her kitchen stool, chewed and chewed until there were splinters jutting out of her gums. Upon seeing her cat had run away, hiding under the bed, refusing to show itself even as she knelt down, calling its name, trying to coax it out. That had been the moment Maria decided to die, with nothing to eat and nothing to love.”
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1. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne
2. Mistaken Identity, by Don and Susie Van Ryn
3. Beautiful Boy, by David Sheff
4. Stop Whining, Start Living, by Laura Schlesinger
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Publishers Weekly
