Pages & Paws

Writing, Reading, and Rural Life With a Border Collie


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Resilience, Romance, and the Raw Beauty of Big Sky Country Revealed in Montana Memoir

Trail Creek: A North Fork Saga

By Daniel G. Block (Indie author/North Air Entertainment, 2025)

Genre: Non-fiction – Memoir

Pages (print): 334

Via: Author request

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.

Other note: Trail Creek wasOriginally written by the late Dr. Daniel G. Block, professor of Biology at the University of Montana, Western and carefully edited and prepared for publication by his grandson, Zach Block with the assistance of the North Fork Landowners Association.”

“Some day we will return – and cry together.”

Throw another log on the fire and grab a hot cuppa for this highly readable and imminently engaging memoir by the late Daniel G. Block, educator, biologist, and natural storyteller.  As bright as a summer sun and as big as a Montana sky, this true story of love, life, and adventure on “the last true frontier” pulls at the heartstrings as it whispers of memories of early, unforgettable years on the North Fork of the Flathead River in Montana and the “tonic of the wilderness.” Set largely in the post-WWII years of 1946 through the early 1950s, Trail Creek: A North  Fork Saga is Walden-esque and Walton-esque in both style and substance.

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DOUBLE the Fun With These 2 Thrillers

Two thriller/suspense novels set in The Great Outdoors. By two different authors. One’s set in the Cowboy State. The other, Big Sky Country. One is by an outdoor/Western author we know well. The author is by someone we’ve heard of before. Both pack a wallop. Here’s why:

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‘What Happens in Montana’: Pass the Excedrin

What Happens in Montana

By Kim McCollum (Black Rose Writing, 2024)

Genre: Women’s Fiction/Murder Mystery/Historical Fiction

Pages: 323

Via: Blog Tour

Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Four middle-aged women go on a “girls reunion” to a rundown “holistic” yoga center thingy in Butte, Montana. Brooke, Krista, Quinn and Tracy first met at a Mommy and Me group when their kids were little. A long time ago. Now the quartet is headed to Big Sky Country and a retreat for body, soul, and mind.

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Friday 56: Dive into ‘Home Waters’

TGIF! Time for a Two-fer!

On this last day of June, which also happens to be a Friday, we’re hosting both a Friday 56 and a Book Beginnings as well as highlighting a great outdoors-ish read as we close out our celebration of Great Outdoors Mont!.

Wait. That may have been a three-fer. But who’s counting? Anyway, let’s go!

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