Terry Tempest Williams’ latest book, The Hour of Land, was seeded in the red rock splendor and expansive salt flats of Utah, where her family’s roots stretch back five generations. The renowned environmental writer, activist, and teacher’s deep affection for the national parks and monuments of her home state prompted her self-described “love letter” in celebration of the National Park Service’s 2016 centennial. In The Hour of Land, Tempest Williams chronicles, through varied narrative forms, the past and present, personal experience of twelve national parks with reverence and a vivid clarity. Tempest Williams says the book’s ultimate scope surprised her: “What I thought I was writing was about our national parks and our public commons. What I think I ended up writing was a history of America and falling deeply in love with the country we call home.”