Jan Reid’s Rio Grande is a beautiful book loaded with excerpts, essays and photographs from a wide variety of authors and photographers. The book itself is printed on heavyweight semi-coated stock and the photographs are mostly 6×6, black and white negative. The essays are varied and cover topics that skirt the river’s path from its birthplace in the mountains of Colorado to its final resting place in Mexico. The river is described as a source of sustenance and conflict for 15,000 years. “The liquid lifeline of an arid land.” On a personal note, I’ve waded across this river to have a beer on the Mexican side. I also swam across during high water times and I’ve photographed along its shores, on both sides. Over the past month I made two trips north to the confluence, the gorge and a few other remote stretches. The river, and this book, makes us ponder. Take the time and look around. Notice, take notes and understand the relationship that forms when your fingers curl through the current. Get it, read it.