Wow – this is a really big country! There are so many great states, and it’s great to see a book from each state. We are admiring each state in the order I drove to visit them in 2019, and enjoying a book from each state. (It’s not “the” book to represent an entire state – just one that will let you do some armchair travel while you plan out your own fun trips!
This week’s four states are Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Montana. And it is in this corner of the country that things become mind-blowingly beautiful!! Yes, every state has nice parts – even the ones I blew through pretty fast; but these states are VERY beautiful!!! (For Minnesotans: it’s like being on the North Shore, but throw in some mountains and glaciers to make the scenery even better. Great, taken a step upward!)
On my first trip to this area, my brain exploded from trying to describe it; so I started just referring to everything as “real nice.” At some point, words just fail you. I spent a couple of weeks admiring scenery while my husband biked from the Pacific to Glacier National Park, trudging through the Cascades. But it was starting to get a little familiar, and less thrilling. I met up with him one afternoon and (possibly) whined a bit that I didn’t have anything to do. We were standing on the side of a mountain, in brain-bending beauty, and – I swear this is entirely 100% true – he looked at me, held out his arms to encompass all of the mountainous beauty as far as the eye could see, and A BALD EAGLE FLEW RIGHT PAST HIM. Literally, Hollywood’s best writers could not have scripted it better. “Well, yeah,” I said “I guess there is all of this.” And I went back to enjoying it, while listening to my Overdrive books.
If you have not been to the Pacific Northwest, I suggest you start planning now to throw a tent in your trunk, grab a sleeping bag, and head out there this summer!! You will NOT be sorry!
(As always, the links below take you to Amazon.com for more book information. If you buy anything while you are there, Amazon will give us a small percentage of their profits. Thanks, in advance! We could use the money more than Jeff Bezos can!)
Idaho
Reamde, by Neal Stephenson.
It’s not set entirely in Idaho, but a lot of the good parts are. I listened to this on my first trip to Idaho, driving around on all kinds of back roads. This book convinced me I was going to be murdered everywhere I went – but it was great!
“In 1972, Richard Forthrast, the black sheep of an Iowa farming clan, fled to the mountains of British Columbia to avoid the draft. A skilled hunting guide, he eventually amassed a fortune by smuggling marijuana across the border between Canada and Idaho. As the years passed, Richard went straight and returned to the States after the U.S. government granted amnesty to draft dodgers. He parlayed his wealth into an empire and developed a remote resort in which he lives. He also created T’Rain, a multibillion-dollar, massively multiplayer online role-playing game with millions of fans around the world.
But T’Rain’s success has also made it a target. Hackers have struck gold by unleashing REAMDE, a virus that encrypts all of a player’s electronic files and holds them for ransom. They have also unwittingly triggered a deadly war beyond the boundaries of the game’s virtual universe – and Richard is at ground zero.
Racing around the globe from the Pacific Northwest to China to the wilds of northern Idaho and points in between, Reamde is a swift-paced thriller that traverses worlds virtual and real. Filled with unexpected twists and turns in which unforgettable villains and unlikely heroes face off in a battle for survival, it is a brilliant refraction of the 21st century, from the global war on terror to social media, computer hackers to mobsters, entrepreneurs to religious fundamentalists. Above all, Reamde is an enthralling human story – an entertaining and epic pause-resister from the extraordinary Neal Stephenson.”
Oregon
Beezus and Ramona, by Beverly Cleary
These are such fun books! They are older books, but the stories are timeless.
“Having a little sister like four-year-old Ramona isn’t always easy for Beezus Quimby. With a wild imagination, disregard for order, and an appetite for chaos, Ramona makes it hard for Beezus to be the responsible older sister she knows she ought to be…especially when Ramona threatens to ruin Beezus’s birthday party. Will Beezus find the patience to handle her little sister before Ramona turns her big day into a complete disaster? “
Washington
Moon Called (Mercy Thompson, Book 1), by Patricia Briggs
I absolutely love these books! I was beside myself with excitement listening to a later book on the series, driving on a bridge that was being referenced in the book. They are all set in the Eastern part of the state – the side with the deserts, not the lush green side.
“Mercy Thompson is a shapeshifter, and while she was raised by werewolves, she can never be one of them, especially after the pack ran her off for having a forbidden love affair. So she’s turned her talent for fixing cars into a business and now runs a one-woman mechanic shop in the Tri-Cities area of Washington State.
But Mercy’s two worlds are colliding. A half-starved teenage boy arrives at her shop looking for work, only to reveal that he’s a newly changed werewolf—on the run and desperately trying to control his animal instincts. Mercy asks her neighbor Adam Hauptman, the Alpha of the local werewolf pack, for assistance.
But Mercy’s act of kindness has unexpected consequences that leave her no choice but to seek help from those she once considered family—the werewolves who abandoned her… “
Montana
Blood Lure (Anna Pigeon #9)
In this series, National Park Service ranger Anna Pigeon is stationed at a new park in each book; so there are so many great places to discover!
“Straddling the border between Montana and Canada lies the Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park—Anna’s home away from home when she is sent on a cross-training assignment to study grizzly bears. Along with bear researcher Joan Rand and a volatile, unpredictable teenage boy, Anna hikes the back country, seeking signs of bear. But the tables are turned on their second night out, when one of the beasts comes looking for them. Daybreak finds the boy missing, a camper mutilated, and Anna caught in a grip of fear, painfully aware that her lifelong bond with nature has inexplicably snapped… “
There are so many great places to visit, and so many great books to read! Do some road tripping yourself, and get ready for it by doing some armchair traveling with good books!!