#7–Braided Creek–2021 Best Reads

If you’ve followed this Best Reads exercise before you know that a 2021 Best Read doesn’t have to have been a book published in 2021, although more recent books do get more weight in the discernment process. So far we’ve had three great 2021 books, but this one from 2003 had to make the list.

Braided Creek: A Conversation in Poetry by Ted Kooser and Jim Harrison is as much fun as an evening with two wry, old Westerners should be. The poems are short (3-4 lines) and the format, which has the two trading aphorisms via correspondence (with no final attribution), is engaging.

The world seemed larger at the end. I’d recommend it for everyone, but those with a little age on them will appreciate it the most. You can read my full review here.

#8 — Saint Agnostica by Anya Krugovoy Silver

#9 — Across the Airless Wilds by Earl Swift

#10 — On Juneteenth by Annette Gordon-Reed