Poor Richard’s Books delves into Colorado Springs history, falconry

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 Poor Richard’s Books in Colorado Springs recommends books featuring a day with Nicola Tesla, a Fountain Creek experience and a memoir of falconry.

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From the publisher: Nikola Tesla’s eight-month visit to Colorado Springs in 1899 is integral to his evolution as a genius inventor. Yet, for many, it still exudes an air of mystery and myth. Through a meandering poem and stunning historical photographs, walk along with Tesla one autumn day as he descends the front stairs of the Alta Vista Hotel on Cascade Avenue as he interacts with citizens in Acacia Park, on Tejon Street, and along Pikes Peak Avenue — as he arrives at his Experimental Station on Knob Hill and engages the thunderous might of his electrical marvels on the Eastern Plains, and as he ends the night in what will become Memorial Park.

Every person, place, and image we encounter is found among our city’s primary sources and historical artifacts. After the journey, we can explore detailed explanatory notes and period pictures that give authenticity to the tale. A period map guides us along Tesla’s path through town as we imagine Colorado Springs 125 years ago.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: Jimmy Sena brings a fresh perspective to Nikola Tesla’s history in this creative and imaginative stroll around town in a day of the life of Tesla. The book, written in prose, which lends so much to how the story is told, is a Longlist winner in this year’s Reading the West book awards in the Poetry category.

We follow Tesla, known for his eccentricities, in his interactions with people and places throughout the day. From waking up in the morning to meeting with city leaders at a prestigious private club then finally ending the day in a city wide blackout (was it his fault?), we are given insight into this man’s mind. Never have I read a story with so few words that feels completely told. The prose styling fits this narrative incredibly well. The nod from the Reading the West folks is well-deserved.

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From the publisher: Over the past 200 years, society has taken what was once a sacred relationship with water and morphed rivers into trashed, overused commodities. Now, the rivers humans depend on may no longer be up to the task. Now what?

Colorado’s Fountain Creek is a waterway that lived through the worst of human interaction. It has been dammed, diverted, poisoned, reduced, and much more and yet, it has endured. “Fountain Creek” looks both to the past and the future for guidance and asks humans to rethink the relationship with the brooks, streams, creeks, and rivers that give us life.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: It was the stink that hit me, sort of an overly ripened apple, vinegary. That was my first impression of Fountain Creek some 30-odd years ago when I first arrived in Colorado Springs. The odor still lingers on some days. Fountain Creek perplexed me. It slices through the western edge of Colorado Springs in Monument Valley Park, a major green space and linear park in this busy town. The creek could be a sparse trickling strip of water on a spring day or, after a summer monsoon storm, a raging river full of anger. 

Jim O’Donnell’s “Fountain Creek: Big Lessons from a Little River” gives us a timely history of the storied stream and delves into the struggle to keep the creek healthy and vital. With a wealth of research and a lot of personal reflections and experience, the book brings a “deeper respect and understanding of why (it) is a crucial vital resource which cannot and should not be discounted or ignored”. 

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From the publisher: When Sy Montgomery went to spend a day at falconer Nancy Cowan’s farm, home to a dozen magnificent birds of prey, it was the start of a deep love affair. Nancy allowed her to work with Jazz, a feisty, 4-year-old female Harris’s hawk with a wingspan of more than four feet. Not a pet, Jazz was a fierce predator with talons that could pierce skin and bone and yet, she was willing to work with a human to hunt. From the first moment Jazz swept down from a tree and landed on Sy’s leather gloved fist, Sy fell under the hawk’s magnetic spell. Over the next few years, Sy spent more time with these magnificent creatures, getting to know their extraordinary abilities and instincts.

From Jeffery Payne, assistant retail manager: And yes, before you ask, I am on a Sy Montgomery streak currently….this time the focus is on hawks or birds of prey in general. 

In “The Hawk’s Way,” we tiptoe into the mysterious and regal world of falconry where the winged ones are in control. We two-legged beasts are a mere lesser participant, pretty much just a limb (metaphorically  and physically) where the fine feathered beings deem an arm a roosting spot before launching off for their kill. We learn not to project human emotions and feelings onto such noble beings because we shall always be disappointed. And protect your eyes, especially with goshawks. 

In true Montgomery style, we willingly fall into the rabbit hole of raptors. (Fun fact: a hawk will not let go of a rabbit if it goes underground, it will die before letting go. That’s commitment.) She navigates training in becoming a falconer. Montgomery, a vegetarian, juggles those ethics against a fascination for the “hunt” and we are drawn into her obsession. We struggle with her as she makes the final decision whether to pursue the noble art. Another finely written blend of personal memoir and nature writing from the author. 

Type of Story: Review

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