About Reading the West

The Reading the West Book Awards are sponsored and promoted by independent booksellers across twelve western and mid-western states. The awards honor the best fiction, non-fiction, and illustrated books for adults and children set in one of the states, or created by an author or artist living or working in the region. The awards, given to books published in the previous calendar year, celebrate the spirit of the west and the rich variety of writing in and about this region, and reflect the extraordinary diversity of the reading public.

Vote HERE if you have read any of the books on the 2020 shortlist.

Below are listed the 2020 Reading the West shortlist picks.
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ADULT FICTION
Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do by Pete Fromm
Trinity Sight by Jennifer Givhan
The River by Peter Heller
Cherokee America by Margaret Verble
Lot by Bryan Washington

ADULT NARRATIVE NONFICTION
Down From the Mountain by Bryce Andrews
Lakota America by Pekka Hämälainen
Big Wonderful Thing by Stephen Harrigan
Shadowlands by Anthony McCann
The Rise of Wolf 8 by Rick McIntyre
Aloha Rodeo by David Wolman and Julian Smith

ADULT PHOTOGRAPHY, ART, ILLUSTRATED NONFICTION
America’s Holy Ground by Brad Lyons and Bruce Barkhauer
Fire Ghosts by Philip Metcalf and Patricia Galagan
The Warrior’s Tools by Eric Smith
In a Rugged Land by James Swensen
National Geographic: Atlas of the National Parks by Jon Waterman

YOUNG ADULT
Red Dove, Listen to the Wind by Sonia Antaki, illustrated by Andrew Bosley
A Song for the Road by Rayne Lacko
There’s Something About Sweetie by Sandhya Menon
The Great Unknowable End by Kathryn Ormsbee
The Field Guide to the North American Teenager by Ben Philippe

YOUNG READERS
Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
What I Saw in Rocky Mountain by Julie Gillum Lue, photographs by Christopher Cauble
Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis with Traci Sorrell
Dear Sweet Pea by Julie Murphy
Howl: Another Look at the Big Bad Wolf by Ted Rechlin

PICTURE BOOK
What Riley Wore by Elana K. Arnold, illustrated by Linda Davick
Just Like Rube Goldberg by Sarah Aronson, illustrated by Robert Neubecker
The Day Punctuation Came to Town by Kimberlee Gard, illustrated by Sandie Sonke
The Little Snowplow Wishes For Snow by Lora Koehler, illustrated by Jake Parker
Unicorn Day by Diana Murray, illustrated by Luke Flowers

EATING THE WEST
The Pioneer Woman Cooks: The New Frontier by Ree Drummond
Ama by Betty Hallock and Josef Centeno
Centennial Celebrations: A Colorado Cookbook by the Junior League of Denver
The Peached Tortilla by Eric Silverstein
The Prairie Homestead Cookbook by Jill Winger

ADVOCACY AWARD
Migrating to Prison by César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández
Deep Creek by Pam Houston
Headed Into the Wind by Jack Loeffler
Grinnell by John Taliaferro
Mni Wiconi: Water is Life by John Willis