Old Firehouse Books brings great stories home to roost

Each week as part of SunLit — The Sun’s literature section — we feature staff recommendations from book stores across Colorado. This week, the staff from Old Firehouse Books in Fort Collins recommends an appreciation of chickens, a historical novel and a true Colorado tale of tragedy and survival.

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From the publisher: For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery — whose “The Soul of an Octopus” was a National Book Award finalist — has kept a flock of chickens in her backyard. Each chicken has an individual personality (outgoing or shy, loud or quiet, reckless or cautious) and connects with Sy in her own way.

In this short, delightful book, Sy takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make chickens such remarkable creatures: only hours after leaving the egg, they are able to walk, run, and peck; relationships are important to them and the average chicken can recognize more than one hundred other chickens; they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate specific information through at least 24 distinct calls. Visitors to her home are astonished by all this, but for Sy what’s more astonishing is how little most people know about chickens, especially considering there are about 20 percent more chickens on earth than people.

With a winning combination of personal narrative and science, What the Chicken Knows is exactly the kind of book that has made Sy Montgomery such a beloved and popular author.

From Zane, bookseller: Here’s the magic thing about chickens: When you reach that point in your life when you stop to really look at them (this of course happens at different times for everyone), you become hopelessly obsessed with them. While you’re on your new journey of galliformic discovery, I recommend making a stop by this delightful little ode to the delightful little animal.

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From the publisher: At 8 years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel Dutch family. When their brilliant and beautiful daughter Maria sees through Gerta’s ruse, she insists that Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, male-dominated art world.

While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry—and the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything.

A mesmerizing historical novel, “I Am You” is a meditation on gender, an ode to artistic creation, and an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned still life painter Maria van Oosterwijck during the Dutch Golden Age.

From Allison, book buyer: The best kind of historical fiction — imaginative, transgressive, and quite a bit messed up. And Redel’s prose is a real delight. This is for anyone who enjoyed Lauren Groff’s two most recent novels, Jo Harkin’s “The Pretender” or “The Glutton” by A.K. Blakemore.

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From the publisher: Cole Walters-Schaler, 15, and Brett Beasley, a longtime Forest Service ranger and expert outdoorsman in his mid-40s, had pushed off from their cabin, expecting to be gone for a half hour or so. But an unforgiving blizzard transformed their quick jaunt into a 30-hour ordeal that would end in tragedy, as the community raced to find them.

“The Way Out” is the story of those ensuing hours and their aftermath — an almost unbelievable event that shook a tight-knit mountain community and raised difficult questions about life and death, guilt and redemption, and the pursuit of adventure. Drawing on firsthand interviews with those closest to the tragedy, including the key eyewitness, and written with gripping intensity, O’Neil recreates that fateful day. “The Way Out” is a thoughtful investigation of the allure of the mountains and the aftermath of trauma, and an unforgettable look at life at its very edge.

From Revati, co-owner: I don’t read a lot of non-fiction but after listening to the author talk about this unbelievable story, I had to pick it up! Although a true tragic tale that takes place in a small Colorado town, “The Way Out” almost reads like a thriller. It’s “Into the Wild” meets “Touching the Void” and explores the risks of adventure and what effect secrets have in a small town.

Type of Story: Review

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