‘Rocky Mountain High’, ‘Crow Mary’ and more

Rocky Mountain High: A Tale of Boom and Bust in the New Wild West

by Finn Murphy

c.2023, W.W. Norton & Company $27.95 220 pages

The dirt that’s in your garden is like a bed in a fairy tale: not too hard, not too soft, just right.

Yep, now’s a good time to put that dirt to use by setting plants in the ground – but planting isn’t the only part of a successful harvest. There’ll be ongoing maintenance to do. As in the new book “Rocky Mountain High” by Finn Murphy, you’ll also need to be weed-ing.

Fifteen years after ending his gig as a long-haul mover, Finn Murphy was living in Colorado and thinking about something exciting: growing hemp was newly legal there, supported by research and the Colorado Department of Agriculture. By just knowing this, he had a very good chance of “making some serious dough.”

Even better: land was relatively cheap and he had funds available.

“Hemp,” says Murphy, “is Mother Earth’s superplant...” with what experts say has 25,000 different uses. One in particular is legal in some states and offers reduced levels of THC. It’s used as medicinal “smokable flower” and CBD.

That kind of crop, he says, was the plan. Alas, though the government seemed eager to offer support, paperwork delays made him miss the planting deadline in his very first year.

This made Murphy angry but not too much; an entrepreneur from way back, he knew that in any boom, there are other opportunities. While he waited to spot one, he spent time learning about “the Hemp Space”– and that was when he saw it: hemp farmers were anticipating high yields in the fall, but they had no way to process the harvest.

Seizing the moment, Murphy had to find somewhere to construct three gigantic hoop buildings, find certain kinds of workers, and purchase the equipment to do the harvesting. He hired his godson as foreman and a fellow gig-worker to act as supervisor. Then he watched his bank account leak money, as the work increased and time ran out.

The payout: possibly “almost $2 million” for “weedwhackers.”

For Murphy, quite a different number...

Well, another day, another dollar. That kind of shrug comes through plainly inside “Rocky Mountain High,” and that makes this a highly unusual book.

Let’s say you’ve (ahem) done hemp farmer on a small scale. If you’re thinking about buying land and trying to legally go big, there’s lots to learn and author Finn Murphy tells it plain. He shares his experience here, some process, some pitfalls, problems, prices, and the big picture in detail. Often, despite the number$, that comes with a wink and an aura of eyebrow-raising calm that wavers only sometimes.

Readers might be a little surprised that this book on hemp farming can feel like it belongs on a business shelf. It’s filled with workplace advice, and Murphy’s philosophy on hiring and second chances is worth a read for anyone in a supervisory position. Even if you’ve never smoked in your life, even if you don’t inhale, even if you have a brown thumb, that makes “Rocky Mountain High” a winner. You’ll really dig it.

Crow Mary

by Kathleen Grissom

c.2023, Atria $28.99 368 pages

The wagon is packed plumb to the top. It’s so full, the horses strain to pull it but nothing can be left behind. Blankets, hides, supplies, guns, a lodge, they’ll all be needed at the new homestead. It’s been said that the land where you’re going is unforgiving and dangerous but a new life is the only choice.

Thankfully, in the new novel, “Crow Mary” by Kathleen Grissom, a part of the old life will follow.

Though Red Fox said it wasn’t her fault, Goes First always remembered what happened in her seventh summer. When Sioux, Arapaho, and Cheyenne warriors attacked her grandmother’s camp, Goes First called to Grandmother, who stood up and was killed in the chaos.

Goes First blamed herself for a long time.

But Red Fox said that truth-telling was brave, and he liked the little girl who called him Grandfather. He passed stories and knowledge to her, how to ride a galloping horse, how to shoot a gun, and how to hunt. Soon, Goes First could do these things almost better than any Crow warrior.

That served her well when, in her sixteenth summer, a Yellow Eye trader named Farwell came through their camp, and he asked permission to marry Goes First. She did not know him, nor was she sure she trusted him. Like all Crow women, she had the option to say “no.” When Farwell brought her a special gift, though, she knew it was a sign, a message from the Other Side Camp and she had to go with him.

Leaving her family was the hardest part, but learning the ways of the Yellow Eyes was not easy, either. She didn’t like that they renamed her “Mary,” but “Crow Mary” suited her. She didn’t like going to

Canada, so far from her family and friends. She hated that Farwell sold alcohol to the tribes there, and she didn’t like Farwell’s friends.

She especially didn’t like the man called Stiller, who looked at Mary in ways that made her squirm. Stiller, who would upend her life again and again...

If you merely looked at “Crow Mary” with the thought that it’s just a female-driven Western, you’d still like this novel a lot. It’s got everything you want in an Old West tale, after all, but think of it as only another Western, and you miss the best part.

In her back-of-book notes, author Kathleen Grissom explains how she stumbled upon the tale of Crow Mary in a small museum, how it captivated her, and why it led her to research and write this “fiction based on fact.” Indeed, Grissom’s deep journey adds meaning, making it a pleasure for readers to forget here that they’re not in 1870s Montana and there’s no hoss in the garage.

That turns a good Western saga into a great (and mostly-true) account that lets novel lovers dip their toes into real life, and gives nonfiction readers an absorbing tale with highly appealing authenticity. You’ll both agree that “Crow Mary” is packed with a grand story.

Chasing Shadows: My Life Tracking the Great White Shark

by Greg Skomal with Ret Talbot c.2023, William Morrow $29.99 354 pages

The waves have already destroyed your sand castle. They’ve brought fresh grit for the kids to bury you under, and that’ll make a good base for your beach umbrella, too. Now you’re kicking your feet, slapping your hands on the ocean’s surface, getting everybody wet and it’s okay. Everyone’s having fun but in the new book, “Chasing Shadows” by Greg Skomal, you’re not the only one enjoying the water.

Even though he was just a kid, Greg Skomal knew from the first moments of a 1968 Jacques Cousteau TV special that he wanted to work with sharks. It wasn’t just an interest, it was a passion. With an eye toward the ocean, he attended college, then looked for a job.

He was lucky, he says, to have landed work with a series of mentors who were giants in the field. The “sharkophile” learned a lot from them.

In the early 1900s, science knew very little about sharks; sharks were just another tournament fish but by the 1950s, Florida’s “Shark Lady,” Eugenie Clark, had begun positing that sharks “had gotten a bad rap.” Encouraged by this, other scientists, often spurred by shark attacks, began studying the creatures with fresh eyes – while at the same time, weary locals sometimes called for total annihilation of all sharks, period.

A certain 1975 movie about a shark didn’t help the creatures’ reputation.

Still, marine biologists and researchers – who still have holes in their knowledge of sharks –strove to change how people perceived a creature that’s built for chomping. Tournaments urged tagging, not killing. Laws sprang up to protect the sharks. Knowing more about sharks often meant seeing them in their own turf, which Skomal thought was “so cool.” Saving sharks was about wanting “to figure out how to conserve them. It wasn’t about shark attacks.”

And yet, it is: says Skomal, “My perspective has changed, as I’ve seen what white sharks can do to people. It’s very rare, but it happens.

I’m no longer the scientist that says it doesn’t happen.”

There’s a towel in your beach bag, and some sunscreen. You brought snacks and sunglasses. Now toss “Chasing Shadows” in there, and you’re all set.

This book is really the perfect summer getaway book: it’ll thrill you, teach you, scare you, and charm you – possibly all on the same page. Author Greg Skomal (with Ret Talbot) brings the most appealing, wide-eyed Gee-Whiz to his story and his factualness makes you want to spend time with him, mostly because he doesn’t talk down to readers. He obviously wants you to be as excited and respectful of sharks as he is; it helps that between Skomal’s personal story are tales of shark encounters and some of them didn’t turn out well. How can you resist?

This is a great book for anyone who wishes they’d become a marine biologist, or for someone who might anyhow someday. It’s absolutely for beachreading, and for abundant watchfulness in this summer of shark bites. If you think you might skip “Chasing Shadows,” you’re all wet.

Strip Tees: A Memoir of Millennial Los Angeles

by Kate Flannery

c.2023, Henry Holt $27.99 240 pages

It was supposed to be the job you always wanted, the job of your dreams.

The work was interesting, with an easy learning curve. The hours perfectly fit your lifestyle and goals and you could work remotely, if you wanted. The pay was more than you imagined. Yep, it was a dream job but, as in the new business memoir “Strip Tees” by Kate Flannery, what if it became a nightmare?

It was 2004 and, almost-straight out of Bryn Mawr, Kate Flannery was struggling.

A year before, she landed a job in Pennsylvania that she thought she wanted but she hated it almost immediately. Undaunted, she stuck it out, saving her salary enough to afford a move to Los Angeles, where she didn’t know a soul and she didn’t have a job.

And then she met Ivy, who shrewdly asked Flannery if she was looking for work. She handed Flannery a card and invited her to be a modelentrepreneur at an up-and-coming new store, and when Flannery hesitantly said she was a feminist, Ivy said that was okay. Women supported women at their workplace, she said.

Days later, Flannery was an American Apparel “girl.”

At first, the job was mostly retail but Flannery knew that she could work herself up the ladder if she proved herself to everyone. That including the CEO of the company, a charismatic man named Dov whom many of the other employees idolized and some slept with. Flannery’s inner feminist was outraged at this, but when she kept quiet about one of his not-very-well-hidden dalliances, she found herself instantly promoted.

Traveling from city to city, hiring employees who fit the mold, opening stores and making decisions, the job was perfect. Eventually, though, Flannery began to see American Apparel in a light she didn’t like. But how to extricate herself? The company owned her apartment, her car, her schedule, her wardrobe. The company owned her...

Before you tackle “Strip Tees,” there’s something to know: this business memoir is just that – a memoir – which means that it’s saucy, profane, and irreverent in addition to containing a personal account of a corporate scandal that you may remember. If you can’t handle four-letter words or dressing-room sex, don’t read it.

Just know that if you don’t, you’ll miss a rompy, edgy, uneasy tale that wouldn’t be out-of-place on a must-read list for any young college grad. Author Kate Flannery perfectly captures that youthful, universal optimism that arrives upon graduation, the refusal to lose face with parents, and the belief that you’re ten feet tall and bullet-proof. Then she wraps those things up inside a meme that says her eyes are open and she’s tired of everybody’s mess, and how could you resist that?

This is an unusual kind of business book that will offer solace to a Millennial or Gen-Z’er who are job hunting in the current economy, and that will serve as a cautionary tale for CEOs and managers. Remember the caveats, and “Strip Tees” could be the memoir you’ve really wanted..