Book Club: Walking the High Desert by Ellen Waterston

Madison Books hosts an in-person Book Club meeting every month at 6:30 p.m., usually but not always on the last Thursday. Drop in to chat with your neighbors about some of the best books of this or any moment. All readers are welcome--you don't need to sign up in advance, but registering here will help us plan for the right number of attendees. Meetings are held at Parlour Wines, around the corner from the bookstore and across the street from the Madison Park tennis courts.

While most book clubs focus on the hottest current releases, we're doing something a little different this year by reaching into the past. We'll be exploring narratives of the Northwest, both contemporary and historical, fictional and nonfictional, by women writers. Some you'll certainly have heard of, maybe even already read and loved, but others may be serendipitous discoveries. We have a list we're pretty excited about, and we hope you will be, too!

Our September selection is by Ellen Waterston.

Former high desert rancher Ellen Waterston writes of a wild, essentially roadless, starkly beautiful part of the American West. Following the recently created 750-mile Oregon Desert Trail, she embarks on a creative and inquisitive exploration, introducing readers to a "trusting, naïve, earnest, stubbly, grumpy old man of a desert" that is grappling with issues at the forefront of national, if not global, concern: public land use, grazing rights for livestock, protection of sacred Indigenous ground, water rights, and protection of habitat for endangered species.

Blending travel writing with memoir and history, Waterston profiles a wide range of people who call the high desert home and offers fresh perspectives on nationally reported regional conflicts such as the Malheur Wildlife Refuge occupation. Walking the High Desert invites readers--wherever they may be--to consider their own beliefs, identities, and surroundings through the optic of the high desert of southeastern Oregon.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Parlour Wines, 1803 42nd Ave E Ground, Seattle, United States