Books

Wyoming Public Radio’s Grady Kirkpatrick recently moderated the Laramie County Library Foundation’s forum of Wyoming Authors. We present you with an inside look of the event.

The board voted 3-2 to revise the job requirements for the library director position and further distance itself from the American Library Association.

The 4-1 vote was held at a special meeting on July 28. Despite no official reason being given, board chair Charles Butler and member Sage Bear had asked for Lesley’s resignation a day earlier due to her refusal to remove or relocate various titles.

The 3-2 vote revised the policy to include language proposed by the Liberty Council, a Florida-based nonprofit that advocates and litigates for evangelical Christian values. It also removed mention and content provided by the American Library Association (ALA) and the Wyoming Library Association, with whom ties were formally severed in October 2022.

Baseball has been played in communities large and small since its inception in the 19th century. Wyoming Public Radio’s Hugh Cook spoke with Tim Hagerty, a minor league baseball broadcaster who once called games in the state. Hagerty recently released a book of his stories and memories called "Tales from the Dugout: 1001 Humorous, Inspirational & Wild Anecdotes from Minor League Baseball."

My Powerful Hair, a new book by author Carole Lindstrom and illustrator Steph Littlebird, conveys the importance of hair in Native American culture despite the enduring traumas of the federal boarding school era.

Fantasy author Lucas Zellers has partnered with the Center for Biological Diversity to make a manual for Dungeons & Dragons players that features real-life extinct species as fantasized monsters.

The board has attracted both praise and criticism from members of the community over the past 15 months due to the library including books on sex education and LGBTQ topics in their collection aimed at children and teens. They also voted to cut ties with the Wyoming Library Association, amend the library's mission statement to include language on reflecting community values, and continue with plans on forming a commission to vet books for children and teens for content.

Bob Budd has held a lot of jobs in Wyoming. He’s a former director of the Wyoming Stockgrowers Association, he was the manager of the Red Canyon Ranch, and the Director of Land Management for the Nature Conservancy. He’s currently the Director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust where he works to improve wildlife habitat. He’s also very funny and a great writer. He’s written a book about Wyoming, its people, and its habitat called “Otters Dance: A Rancher's Journey to Enlightenment and Stewardship”. It’s available on October 4th through Amazon and all the usual places. He joins Bob Beck.

Mark Miller is a former Wyoming state archaeologist and author of a new book, "Big Nose George and His Troublesome Trail." Grady Kirkpatrick recently spoke with Mr. Miller about his book and the notorious Wyoming outlaw.