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OutWest Scout

#1 RENDEZVOUS WITH A WRITER OUTWEST

February 03, 2021

Behind The Mask Book Cover
Welcome to this week's Rendezvous With A Writer OutWest featured book round-up. The books featured here were shared on our OutWest Shop Facebook daily post January 24 - January 30, 2021. Find these books, and many more like them, on our separate book website - Bookshop.org/shop/OutWestShop.com. We've curated book lists representing the complicated, compelling, and engaging culture, history and diversity of the American West. 
                           They Saw The Elephant Book Cover
JANUARY 24 - EUREKA! ON THIS DAY in 1848 gold was discovered at Sutter’s Mill - was it real? At her suggestion Elizabeth (Jennie) Bays Wimmer, camp cook and laundress, tested the nugget in her soap pot. “At the bottom of the pot was a double handful of potash, which I lifted in my two hands, and there was my gold as bright as could be.”
Women were part of the California Gold Rush from the beginning. THEY SAW THE ELEPHANT introduces the reader to a wide range of women who took part in the adventure. As author JoAnn Levy writes, “Some women were as gold hungry as men. Most women worked, not just at housekeeping but for money, and they worked hard.”
If you enjoy this fascinating look into the past, there are books about the Gold Rush and much more on these lists:
"There's GOLD in these pages!"
---Post by Book Guide Wendy

                             Exploring The Elements: A Complete Guide To The Periodic Table
JANUARY 25 - WHAT DO Au, Ag, Cu, Pb, and Zn HAVE IN COMMON? Yes, they are all METALS - and they were mined in the American West. EXPLORING THE ELEMENTS: A COMPLETE GUIDE TO THE PERIODIC TABLE, a visually stunning new book, provides a fascinating look at these (gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc) and the rest of the universe’s basic building blocks.
Author Isabel Thomas promises in her introduction that “You’ll find out what makes every element unique, their roles in the world, and the ingenious uses that we have found for them . . . Once you learn that it takes more elements to build a smartphone than it does to make a human, you’ll never look at the things around you in the same way again!”
Although aimed at students ages 8-14, this is a great book for anyone curious about the world. The book jacket itself unfolds to become a poster of the periodic table.
Our Children’s Nonfiction List is chock full books on science, history, animals, food, folklore, and more.
----Post by Book Guide Wendy

                       Oak Flat Book Cover
JANUARY 26 ... “COPPER IS PRODUCED IN MASSIVE STARS and flung out into space as those stars explode.” Reading this opening sentence and looking at the remarkable illustrations, I took a deep breath. OAK FLAT: A FIGHT FOR SACRED LAND IN THE AMERICAN WEST promised to be unlike any nonfiction book I had ever read. I was right. Here’s what one reviewer wrote.
“In OAK FLAT, Lauren Redniss has produced a supernova: a dazzling blend of deep reporting, sublime illustration, haunting dialogue, and descriptive writing that has the crystalline precision of a prose poem. In conveying the story of the ongoing clash over a patch of southeastern Arizona - site of priceless copper deposits, but also sacred Apache land - Redniss weaves together physics, history, geology, legislative chicanery, intimate portraiture, and tribal custom and culture into a vivid, searing, indelible act of witness.” 
----Patricia Radden Keefe, author of SAY NOTHING

Find other books by Lauren Redniss on the Top of Our Book Stacks list. 
----Post by Book Guide Wendy

                      American Cake Book Cover
JANUARY 27...YUM! CHOCOLATE CAKE WITH FUDGE FROSTING - the cake rich and dark, the icing a slab of sweetness. It was our family favorite, lovingly baked by our mom, who found the recipe in THE WOMAN’S HOME COMPANION COOK BOOK, originally published in 1942.
As noted in our family reunion cookbook, “This is the finest chocolate cake ever tasted. The frosting really makes it. In fact, the only way to eat this moist yummy cake is to...flip it over on your plate so the frosting is on the bottom. Then eat the cake carefully, leaving the frosting on the plate like a piece of fudge to be savored slowly.”
Celebrate NATIONAL CHOCOLATE CAKE DAY with AMERICAN CAKE. Anne Byrn, author of the popular CAKE MIX DOCTOR books, presents a history of cakes from 1650 to the 2000s with recipes, stories, and mouthwatering photographs. Pound cake to Dutch oven cowboy cake, layer cakes to bundt cakes, and, yes, chocolate cakes; all have been adapted to the modern kitchen and ingredients for baking success. #ChocolateCakeDay
Have fun! Let's eat cake!
----Post by Book Guide Wendy
Find More Cookbooks on our Cooking, Grilling and Baking Book List 
365 Things To Do With Logo Bricks  Build It! Wild West Book Cover  How To Build Brick TV & Movie Cars  Lego A Love Story Book Cover
JANUARY 28 - ON THIS DAY IN 1958 the modern LEGO brick design was patented. Today enthusiasts young and old celebrate INTERNATIONAL LEGO DAY. What can you do with the 90 billion bricks and 700 million rubber tires the company makes every year? Just about anything!

The entire family will enjoy 365 THINGS TO DO WITH LEGO BRICKS! Animals, puzzles, games, creepy things, tricks and pranks - even a family tree - there’s a project for every day of the year. I wish I had a bucket of bricks! 

Jennifer Kenmeter’s BUILD IT! series is aimed at children ages 5 and up. WILD WEST includes a stage coach, covered wagon, animals, and more with clear, photographic instructions. 

HOW TO BUILD BRICK TV & MOVIE CARS provides challenging fun. 15 models from beginner to advanced levels include KITT and the Bullitt Ford Mustang. 

In LEGO: A LOVE STORY Jonathan Bender rediscovers the joys of LEGO as an adult, even as he builds a family.
Do you have a LEGO story? Please share it!
---Post by Book Guide Wendy

Old Anger Book Cover  Phillip Thompson  Outside The Law Book Cover

JANUARY 28, 2021 THE WRITER'S BLOCK RADIO SHOW
SHOW #291 A CONVERSATION WITH PHILLIP THOMPSON
About the author PHILLIP THOMPSON from his website:
I grew up in rural East Mississippi, where I spent a huge portion of my childhood reading comic books (Batman), pulp fiction novels, history, and stories from Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines, courtesy of an aunt. The public library was the best building in town.

Phillip Thompson combines the visceral verbal skills of Craig Johnson with the white knuckle tension of Stephen Hunter. OLD ANGER will leave you soaked in sweat and gasping for air. –S.A. Cosby, author of Blacktop Wasteland

Host Jim Christina and co-host Bobbi Jean read Phillip's latest book OLD ANGER, the third crime novel featuring Mississippi sheriff Colt Harper, and enter an engaging conversation with this talented  author! Listen to the podcast
The Writer's Block Radio Show airs on LA Talk Radio. Airs live every Thursday on LA Talk Radio: 6pm (PST), 7pm (MT), 8pm (CST), 9pm (EST).
---Post by Writer's Block Co-Host and Book Guide Bobbi Jean

50 Ways to Wear A Scarf Book Cover

  Soul Searching Scarf  Campfire Girls Scarf  Western Icons Scarf
JANUARY 29...Are you a "secret" scarf collector? When shopping, their bright colors and gorgeous drape catch your eye and imagination and they just have to come home with you? Clueless on how to wear them, they live in your drawers waiting to see daylight? No worries! Get these works of art out! Jauntily tie around your neck or to a handbag, tuck in a pocket, toss across the back of a chair, frame and hang as wall art...the options are endless!
Take the mystery out of scarf styling with this book:
50 WAYS TO WEAR A SCARF - From the "Audrey" to the "Paris," the "Top Down," or the "Easy Breezy," there are 50 scarf styles in this book for any occasion or mood.
 
I've chosen three of my favorite designs with you in mind! Add these silk scarves (also known as wild rags) from our HERO Collection, to your collection AND raise funds for the Mustang Heritage Foundation! Based on the art of Donna Howell-Sickles, the colors go with everything in your wardrobe.
No more excuses!! Wear a scarf everyday - it'll put a bounce in your step! Click here for more scarf styles from OutWest Shop Ladies' Accessories 
----Post by OutWest Shop Scarf Maven and Book Guide Bobbi Jean

                   Behind The Mask Book Cover
JANUARY 30-31 - HI-YO, SILVER! At the end of January in 1933, while the Great Depression gripped America, listeners to WXYZ in Detroit were introduced to the LONE RANGER. Soon the radio show was broadcast coast to coast. It was a phenomenon. Books, movies, comics, and a TV show followed.
BEHIND THE MASK opens with the story of the radio origins of this character who has captured our imagination for nearly a hundred years. Ed Hulse, popular culture historian, then documents Republic Pictures’ movie serials based on his extensive research and personal interviews. Dozens of illustrations add to the book’s appeal.
“I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one. That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.” - - from the Code of the Lone Ranger
 
Browse our Film & Television & Radio List for more Lone Ranger titles.
----Post by Book Guide Wendy
                            Rendezvous With A Writer OutWest Logo
Who are we to be your guides? We are two sisters who grew up in a family that valued reading and encouraged an interest in history and the arts. Wendy spent her career with books. She worked as a children's librarian and as the buyer and manager of the children's department of an independent bookstore. A college major in literature introduced her to the classics of the American West.

Bobbi Jean and her husband, Jim, own OutWest Shop. She was the manager and buyer for a museum store before they started their own business. Bobbi Jean co-hosts The Writer's Block on LA Talk Radio, where she interviews authors of all types. The three other radio shows she hosts involve Western music and horses. Find podcasts of all her shows at OutWest Live!

We love sharing our book knowledge. You are not limited to the titles you find on our lists, though. Use the search box to rustle up any books that you want, and put them in your OutWest Book Shop cart!

Disclosure: OutWest Shop is an affiliate of Bookshop.org and earns a commission if you click through and make a purchase.

Happy Reading! Remember, it's always a Great Day OutWest!

     Book Quote



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