Missoula faces national scrutiny
with the April 21 release of MISSOULA

Missoula, Mont., home of the University of Montana, is facing national scrutiny with the release this past Tuesday of Jon Krakauer's MISSOULA: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town (Doubleday). The Missoula Independent published a response to Krakauer's book in "Missoula: Hope and Progress in a University Town," a list of 12 positive aspects of life in Missoula, one of which is "because independent bookstores actually thrive here." The article cites Shakespeare & Co.:

"One of the most obvious indications of how strong Missoula's book culture has become can be found in Hip Strip mainstay Shakespeare & Co. Long a cramped store known for its idiosyncratically curated tables and shelves of books, Shakespeare & Co. is in the final stages of a substantial expansion, doubling the size of its physical shop. And owner Garth Whitson didn't stop there. He also single-handedly took a stab at deflating one of the greatest forces for corporatizing the world's literary landscape when he launched a modest web-ordering system known as Garthazon."

Fact and Fiction schedules a May 6
public forum with Jon Krakauer    

The article also notes the new sponsorship for and renaming of the Montana Book Festival, and plans by Barbara Theroux, owner of Missoula's Fact and Fiction Bookstore, to donate $2 from each sale of Missoula to First Step, a local sexual abuse/assault care unit, and to the University of Montana's Student Advocacy Resource Center.

Theroux has also organized a public forum on Wednesday, May 6, at 7 p.m., at which Krakauer will be interviewed by Larry Abramson, dean of the University of Montana School of Journalism, and will take questions. She told the Great Falls Tribune, "We want the conversation to be about how Missoula has been and is moving forward on rape and sex on [the] college campus and the community."

She added that MISSOULA has been "a very steady seller" since Tuesday.

-Shelf Awareness, April 23, 2015