March 17, 2023, 7 PM, Back of Beyond Books and the Grand County Public Library present a reading and signing with Scott Graham and his new book: Saguaro Sanction

March 17, 2023

Saguaro Sanction

When Janelle Ortega’s cousin from Mexico is found brutally murdered at a remote petroglyph site in Saguaro National Park, she and her husband, archaeologist Chuck Bender, are drawn deep into a threatening web of hostility and deceit stretching south across the US-Mexico border and back in time a thousand years, to when the Hohokam people thrived in the Sonoran Desert.

Book 8 in Scott Graham’s National Park Mystery Series introduces readers to the landscapes and cultural histories of Saguaro National Park in southern Arizona, providing an inside look at the wonders of the wildly popular national park and its archaeological and cultural complexities.

In addition to discussing Saguaro Sanction we will also be looking at Scott’s earlier title, Canyonlands Carnage which is set near Moab in Cataract Canyon. Canyonlands Carnage was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award last year.

This event will be at the Grand County Public Library, 257 E. Center St. Moab, Ut. It is free and open to the public.

We’re always blown away by the colors and textures of local artist Serena Suplee 😍 Excited to say we have her 2024 calendars available on our website for sale, and in store as always with Serena’s cards, postcards, and prints! 

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Staff Pick this week contributed by Megan. If you’re looking for your next read, this one definitely should be a contender!

All of Us Together in the End
By Matthew Vollmer

“When I first picked this book up from the “Staff Picks” shelf of a Portland bookstore (you’ll never catch me turning down the opportunity to roam the shelves of an indie bookseller no matter how much time I spend in one on the clock) I wasn’t quite sure what genre to file it into in my brain. The synopsis starts with the death of the author’s mother, then the introduction of inexplicable flashing lights in the woods behind his grieving father’s home – suddenly I’m coercing mystery, religiosity, paranormalcy, even perhaps extraterrestrial contact into my expectations of what I might find in this book alongside grief, loss, and familial connection.

Entrancing from the start, Vollmer’s memoir brings all these ideas together in a compassionate exploration of things that we believe – or might believe, or stop believing – when faced with loss, tough questions, and unexplainable mysteries. The prose is lyrical yet unpretentious, allowing empathy and curiosity to guide father and son’s process of grieving, rebuilding, and truth finding.

“All of Us Together in the End” is a beautiful read and well-deserving of its spot on that Portland Staff Picks shelf, as well as, now, on my own here at Back of Beyond.”

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