Leisure reading

'DeVoto's West'

Edited by Edward K. Muller

Swallow Press, $18.95.

Bernard DeVoto was a famed but underappreciated novelist and historian who grew up in Ogden and wrote several essays about what he considered the lack of Western — and especially Utah — culture.

DeVoto, a brilliant writer and teacher, moved to Boston as an adult and wrote award-winning histories under his own name and novels under the pseudonym John August. He also taught writing at Harvard and became the regular essayist for Harper's.

But DeVoto was also a devoted conservationist, as this book, subtitled "History, Conservation and the Public Good," makes clear. In 1946, he and his family took an automobile tour through the national parks, where he observed and heard tales of land exploitation, overgrazing, erosion, flooding and clear-cut logging.

Edward K. Muller has selected 22 of DeVoto's better essays about conservation and natural resources — and the gifted writing is a pleasure to read. — Dennis Lythgoe

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'A Slight Trick of the Mind'

By Mitch Cullin

Nan A. Talese, $23.95.

Mitch Cullin, a multitalented writer, has written a unique treatment of literature's best-known detective, Sherlock Holmes.

Cullin reimagines the classic character, watching him react to the natural changes brought on by age. It is 1947 and Holmes is 93 years old, long retired and living in a Sussex farmhouse. It is here that his memories and intellect show signs of decay.

Although he continues to write in his journals and to exercise his intellectual curiosity, Holmes notices his mind is losing its acuity, and it bothers him. Out of this milieu comes an infatuation Holmes carried for a woman he never acknowledged, a Mrs. Keller. The son of Holmes' housekeeper discovers this unacknowledged relationship.

This is unusual in the sense that it shows Holmes facing not only his own mortality but the fact that he genuinely sees the world in a different light. — Dennis Lythgoe

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'No Mountain High Enough'

By Linda Armstrong Kelly

with Joni Rodgers

Broadway, $24.95.

From the mother of cyclist Lance Armstrong (winner of six straight Tour de France championships) comes the poignant story of raising a champion — and raising herself.

Because Kelly found her way out of a dysfunctional family in the Dallas projects as a struggling teen, became pregnant with Lance at 17 but still became a telecommunications executive and a powerful role model for athletes, hers is a voice that speaks with conviction.

The overriding message in this book is that willpower can still stretch the career of anyone who applies his or her best talents in spite of disappointments and pitfalls. — Dennis Lythgoe