Readin' Vegans--"Cheap Land Colorado"

For our online book club on July 23, we'll discuss Cheap Land Colorado: Off-Gridders at America's Edge, by Ted Conover (Knopf, 2022). You need not have attended a previous discussion to join us for this one. We'll discuss the book until about 8:00, followed by open conversation. The Zoom link to the discussion is posted on the right, visible to those who RSVP. PLEASE NOTE: THIS LINK DISAPPEARS AT THE MEETUP START TIME, THAT IS, 7:00 PM. We'll be available from 6:50 on to help anyone who might need extra time to connect. If you can't get on, call us at 303-300-2368. We hope you can join us! If you'd like to read ahead: Aug. 27 -- This Is Vegan Propaganda, Ed Winters (aka Earthling Ed) Sept. 24 -- Doppelganger, Naomi Klein Oct. 22 -- Fast Food Genocide, Joel Fuhrman M.D. ----------------------------------- From Pulitzer Prize finalist and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Ted Conover, a passage through an America lived wild and off the grid. In May 2017, Ted Conover went to Colorado to explore firsthand a rural way of life that is about living cheaply, on your own land--and keeping clear of the mainstream. The failed subdivisions of the enormous San Luis Valley make this possible. Five-acre lots on the high prairie can be had for five thousand dollars, sometimes less. But along with independence and stunning views come fierce winds, neighbors with criminal pasts, and minimal government and medical services. Conover volunteered for a local group trying to prevent homelessness during the bitter winters. He encountered an unexpected diversity: veterans with PTSD, families homeschooling, addicts young and old, gay people, people of color, lovers of guns and marijuana, people with social anxiety--most of them spurning charity and aiming, and sometimes failing, to be self-sufficient. And more than a few predicting they'll be the last ones standing when society collapses. Conover bought his own five acres and immersed himself for parts of four years in the often contentious culture of the far margins. He found many who dislike the government but depend on its subsidies; who love their space but nevertheless find themselves in each other's business; who are generous but wary of thieves; who endure squalor but appreciate beauty. In their struggles to survive and get along, they tell us about an America riven by difference where the edges speak more and more loudly to the mainstream.