132. One for the Blackbird, One for the Crow by Olivia Hawker

listened on Audible
narrated by Jackie Zebrowski
Unabridged audio (19:12)
2019
493 pgs.
Adult Historical Fiction
Finished 10/2/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.26 - 16,304 ratings
My rating: 3.5
Setting: 1876 Wyoming prairie

First line/s:  "I was leading the cows to the milking shed when my pa shot Mr. Webber."

What I posted on Goodreads:  3.5 Yes, beautiful, descriptive writing, but too much of it.  The story could have been told without 18 hours of listening to much of the same thing over and over.  Good story all in all, but I couldn't WAIT to finally get to then end....

Goodreads synopsis:  From the bestselling author of The Ragged Edge of Night comes a powerful and poetic novel of survival and sacrifice on the American frontier.

Wyoming, 1876. For as long as they have lived on the frontier, the Bemis and Webber families have relied on each other. With no other settlers for miles, it is a matter of survival. But when Ernest Bemis finds his wife, Cora, in a compromising situation with their neighbor, he doesn’t think of survival. In one impulsive moment, a man is dead, Ernest is off to prison, and the women left behind are divided by rage and remorse.

Losing her husband to Cora’s indiscretion is another hardship for stoic Nettie Mae. But as a brutal Wyoming winter bears down, Cora and Nettie Mae have no choice but to come together as one family - to share the duties of working the land and raising their children. There’s Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde - no longer a boy, but not yet a man - who must navigate the road to adulthood without a father to guide him, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah, who is as wild and untamable as her prairie home.

Bound by the uncommon threads in their lives and the challenges that lie ahead, Cora and Nettie Mae begin to forge an unexpected sisterhood. But when a love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, bonds are once again tested, and these two resilient women must finally decide whether they can learn to trust each other - or else risk losing everything they hold dear.

127. Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

listened on Audible

2015
352 pgs.
Adult Chick Lit/RomCom
Finished 8/31/2020
Goodreads rating: 4.09
My rating:  4.5
Setting: Contemporary Wyoming mountain wilderness

My comments: Didn't want this one to end a charming, fun story that you knew would end wonderfully and couldn't wait to see how you got there.  The two protagonists were incredibly lovable and believable and their survival/hiking part of the story was great to listen to.  I've got to read another by this author. A totally feel-good story, not without some sadness, but worth.  Great narrator, she nailed the different voices beautifully.

Goodreads synopsis:   A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

75. Open Season by C. J. Box

#1 Joe Pickett, Wyoming Game Warden
listened on Audible
2001, Putnam
278 pgs.
Adult Murder Mystery
Finished  8/7/18
Goodreads rating:  3.92 - 17,043 ratings
My rating:  4
Setting:  Contemporary Wyoming

First line/s:  "When a high-powered rifle bullet hits living flesh it makes a distinctive -pow-WHOP- sound that is unmistakable even at a tremendous distance."

My comments: Joe Pickett is a game warden in Wyoming, a "family man" with a wife and two kids.  He's a pretty ordinary guy, thoughtful and good at his job, although bad luck seems to follow him around.  This first in a series of 14 or 15 so far is about endangered species and the possibilities of what might happen to a huge hunting area if this sort of ecological/environmental dilemma enters the picture.  It's a little bit Mike Bowditch and a little bit Walt Longmire!

Goodreads synopsis:  The first novel in the thrilling series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett from #1 New York Times bestselling author C. J. Box. 
          Joe Pickett is the new game warden in Twelve Sleep, Wyoming, a town where nearly everyone hunts and the game warden—especially one like Joe who won't take bribes or look the other way—is far from popular. When he finds a local hunting outfitter dead, splayed out on the woodpile behind his state-owned home, he takes it personally. There had to be a reason that the outfitter, with whom he's had run-ins before, chose his backyard, his woodpile to die in. Even after the "outfitter murders," as they have been dubbed by the local press after the discovery of the two more bodies, are solved, Joe continues to investigate, uneasy with the easy explanation offered by the local police.
          As Joe digs deeper into the murders, he soon discovers that the outfitter brought more than death to his backdoor: he brought Joe an endangered species, thought to be extinct, which is now living in his woodpile. But if word of the existence of this endangered species gets out, it will destroy any chance of InterWest, a multi-national natural gas company, building an oil pipeline that would bring the company billions of dollars across Wyoming, through the mountains and forests of Twelve Sleep. The closer Joe comes to the truth behind the outfitter murders, the endangered species and InterWest, the closer he comes to losing everything he holds dear.

Postcards Received from Wyoming

736. Wyoming

A native of Wyoming, the Jackalope has never been captured alive.  It can only be hunted on June 31st between sunrise and sunset.  It mimics noises, especially the human voice and runs at lightning speed, therefore, the Jackalope is seldom seen.  Some folks drink Jackalope milk to cure eccentricities.  Best time to milk a Jackalope is after midnight as it sleeps i=on its back, belling shining in the moonlight.

 I hope this is a good addition to your collection

MOVIE - The Hateful Eight

R (2:47)

Wide release 12/30/2015

Viewed May 1, 2016 at Kolb cheapie

RT Critic: 75   Audience:  77
Critic's Consensus:  The Hateful Eight offers another well-aimed round from Quentin Tarantino's signature blend of action, humor, and over-the-top violence -- all while demonstrating an even stronger grip on his filmmaking craft.

Cag:  4 - I liked it a lot more than I should have...

Directed by Quentin Tarantino

The Weinstein Company

Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Walton Goggins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tim Roth, Bruce Dern, Channinng Tatum

RogerEbert.com review here.  2 stars

My comments:  Well, I'd heard this was excessively bloody and violent, so although I had been intrigued when I first heard of it, I decided not to go.  However, wanting to see a movie today and there being not many that I hadn't seen, I chose to go to this. It's been out for awhile and this'll probably be the last I could see it on "the big screen" Ha!  I'm so glad I did!  Yes, bloody and violent...but really funny.  Hey, it's a Quentin Taratino film, that should have tipped me off right away.  I am a peace lover.  Through and through.  But I really enjoyed this movie.  I looked at all the blood and guts as great makeup jobs and all the violence as ridiculous and  stupid and added almost as "gags."  So, with all the jokes and funny places, I didn't flinch once!  And it was a funny movie.  A little slow in places, I've got to admit.  And Jennifer Jason Leigh, who is definitely NOT one of my favorite actresses, was GREAT!

RT Summary: Wyoming in the 1870s. A stagecoach is heading towards the town of Red Rock with two passengers onboard. One is John "Hangman" Ruth (played by Kurt Russell), a celebrated bounty hunter. The other is Daisy Domergue (Jennifer Jason Leigh), his prisoner and wanted for murder. Along the way they pick up another bounty hunter, Major Marquis Warren (Samuel L Jackson), and Chris Mannix (Walton Goggins). Due to a blizzard they are forced to hole up in a store some way out of town with the occupants of another stagecoach. Suspicions commence and Civil War enmities are reawakened.