Last Best News (https://montana-mint.com/lastbestnews/category/culture/page/13/)
The Custer Conspiracy, by Dennis Koller, Pen Books, 2016. 340 pages, $14.99. I really wanted to like this book. The author, who lives in the Bay Area, wrote to us at Last Best News and said he had spent a lot of time at the Little Bighorn Battlefield planning this novel and he thought we might enjoy it. It sounded promising. Continue Reading →
Fans of historic preservation celebrated last week when the North Elevation Historic District became Billings’ first residential district to be accepted for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The distinction was a long time coming. Many other cities in Montana have at least one residential district on the national register, and some have several. (A statewide map showing all listings is available here.) (more…) Continue Reading →
Environmentalists: An Eyewitness Account from the Heart of America, by Steven D. Paulson, self-published, 2016. 347 pages, $16. I already know what you’re thinking: No way am I going to shell out 16 bucks for nearly 350 pages of self-indulgent whining about the environment, complete with tedious accounts of public meetings, lawsuits and environmental impact statements. (more…) Continue Reading →
Sentinels: Yellowstone National Cemetery, by Ed Saunders, self-published, 2016. 128 pages, $17.95. It is difficult not to be impressed with the enthusiasm Ed Saunders shows for his subject, the creation of the Yellowstone National Cemetery in Laurel. (more…) Continue Reading →
The Actor, by Beth Hunter McHugh, Riverbend Publishing, 2015. 228 pages, $22.95. About halfway through “The Actor,” I quit reading the novel for pleasure and started rooting for it. (more…) Continue Reading →
Fifty-Six Counties: A Montana Journey, by Russell Rowland, Bangtail Press, 2016. 416 pages, $22.95. Russell Rowland’s new work of nonfiction is an altogether beguiling book, but also a strange one that is impossible to pigeonhole. (more…) Continue Reading →
Smiling Dog Records owner Mike Ludlam was standing behind the counter of his Minnesota Avenue shop Wednesday afternoon, looking through a collection of records by musicians who died in 2016. He’d already mentioned Prince, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Sharon Jones, Merle Haggard, Leonard Cohen, Keith Emerson and Vanity, one of Prince’s proteges. (more…) Continue Reading →
As I drop down Interstate 90 into the river valley that holds the “Magic City,” I swear: I won’t ever live in Billings, Montana. The sun glints off a spawling refinery that dominates the city’s eastern entrance. A sickly sweet smell smacks my face, making my teeth ache and my stomach curl. And they’re processing sugar beets on the South Side. (more…) Continue Reading →
In annoucing the proposed expansion of the Art House Cinema & Pub during an event at the downtown business Monday night, Matt Blakeslee told about going to see “The Artist” back in 2011. The black-and-white silent movie, which would go on to win seven Oscars, including Best Film, had won high praise from critics and movie-goers for many months before Carmike Cinemas, which then owned every screen in town, finally brought the movie to Billings. (more…) Continue Reading →
A well-appointed studio on the seventh floor of the Wilma Building in downtown Missoula went under contract three days after it was listed, never mind the asking price of $368,000. The quick contract punctuates what the unit’s agent described as a hot downtown real estate market, one where the demand for residential units is high but the supply is limited. (more…) Continue Reading →
