I have just added The Legend of Colton H. Bryant by Alexandra Fuller to my Top Picks of 2009. The book, a biography set in Wyoming, is a must read mainly because I found Fuller's words to be thought stopping. Her very first sentence did just that. Stopped my thoughts: "This is the story of Colton H. Bryant and the land that grew him." The land that grew him. Hmmm. Not the land where he grew up, not the land he had come to know, not the land that he called home, not the land where he was born, but the land that grew him. In that one sentence she sets the pace and parameters of the story she will tell. We understand there is a partnership that will unfold between this land and that boy. We know that the author is comfortable with the vernacular. We know she will spin this tale as an old timer would, sparsely put, straight forward, and will be accepting of the idiosyncrasies of both land and boy. We suspect that we are in the hands of an expert. And as it turns out, we are.

Recommended by Joanne.