The staff at Explore Booksellers in Aspen have recommended three titles focusing on themes of life, death, and community living. These selections include a new exploration of rivers' legal rights, a memoir of near-death experiences, and a classic novel about London's houseboat dwellers. The recommendations appear in The Colorado Sun's SunLit literature section.
Each week, The Colorado Sun's SunLit section features staff picks from Colorado bookstores. For the week of March 1, 2026, Explore Booksellers in Aspen highlighted books centered on the life of a river, 17 brushes with death, and a London houseboat community.
The first recommendation is "Is A River Alive?" by Robert Macfarlane, published by W. W. Norton & Company for $31.99 in May 2025. The publisher describes it as a work of travel writing, reportage, and natural history examining whether rivers should be recognized as living beings in imagination and law. Macfarlane recounts journeys to cloud-forests and streams in Ecuador, wounded creeks in India, and wild rivers in Canada threatened by mining, pollution, and dams. He also weaves in the story of a chalk stream near his home. Yana Kucher, a staff member, notes that following Macfarlane's award-winning "Underland," the book explores the Rights of Nature movement and questions legal rights for rivers. "This is no dry exploration of legal arguments — Macfarlane instead takes us on a thrilling journey to visit three very different rivers on three different continents," Kucher said, praising its vivid, poetic writing and fascinating characters.
Next is "I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death" by Maggie O’Farrell, from Vintage for $18 in March 2019. The publisher summarizes it as a memoir detailing 17 near-death experiences, from a childhood illness that left O’Farrell bedridden to an ongoing struggle to protect her daughter from vulnerabilities. Mo Kirk, another staffer, describes it as an excellent memoir by the author of "Hamnet," noting, "Somehow, she has had 17 brushes with death, and not only has she lived to tell the tale but has told it with extraordinary depth and reassurance."
The third pick is "Offshore" by Penelope Fitzgerald, published by Harper Paperbacks for $17.99 in October 2014. This Booker Prize-winning novel is set among the houseboat community on the Thames' Battersea Reach, featuring characters like Maurice, a male prostitute and receiver of stolen goods, and Nenna, an abandoned wife. Clare Pearson, book buyer and events coordinator, calls it a short novel with eccentric characters shaped by tidal forces. "Fitzgerald’s writing was both gentle and biting, with sharp turns of humor and insight," Pearson said.
Explore Booksellers, located at 221 E. Main St. in Aspen, has served the community for nearly 50 years, curating books that reflect Aspen's Body, Mind, and Spirit ethos.