A lovely and well-written collection of short stories focusing on the American West and the environment. As someone who lived out west studying the environment this was spot-on for me. Overall, short story collections rarely blow me away and this is no exception.

This collection of short stories focuses on women in the American West, namely Colorado, who are concerned with environmental degradation while also slogging through the mundanity of their lives. They are daughters, mothers, sisters, nuns, and activists who, amid caregiving and working and praying, take powerful yet subtle risks to protect the nature world they hold dear. I recommend this book for readers who enjoy Terry Tempest Williams.

A Lovely collection of short stories. This author has terrific sense of how to quickly pull a reader into a situation, a problem to be solved, the lives of her characters. I found myself engaged in each story and enjoyed immensely
the rhythm of the writing.
The stories themselves all feel as if they truly belong in this volume, which is not always the case with a short story collection. For anyone who enjoys short fiction this work should not be missed.

Author Claire Boyles has almost a reporter’s sense of accuracy in her descriptions of place in SITE FIDELITY: STORIES, a series of short stories that explore the human condition of bonding to a place. In this instance, the place is the American West, both geographically and spiritually. Yet her stories are also lyrical journeys into hard lives, defined by lonely choices. Each short story is memorable for the specificity and universality of the human emotions revealed. Boyles is an author worth following. I received my copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

I loved these stories. Many of the stories are interconnected, which is a favorite element of short stories for me, which I thought was done quite well in this collection. I also loved the thematic explorations of the environment and protecting the environment, particularly how environmental activism can relate to familial or even spiritual connections. The emotional depth of these stories also was a favorite element for me. If you like short stories that center the environment/environmental change, I can't recommend this collection enough!

Thank you to W. W. Norton and Claire Boyles for providing me with an early copy of this work through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Site Fidelity comes out on June 15.

I’m judging the L.A. Times 2020 and 2021 fiction contest. It’d be generous to call what I’m doing upon my first cursory glance—reading. I also don’t take this task lightly. As a fellow writer and lover of words and books, I took this position—in hopes of being a good literary citizen. My heart aches for all the writers who have a debut at this time. What I can share now is the thing that held my attention and got this book from the perspective pile into the read further pile.

“Pop’s stroke stole a lot of things from him that I miss too, some more precious than his ability to manage cattle—verbs, for example, and with them, anything resembling sentences. Also the use of his entire right side and all our savings in medical bills, though that last resolved just fine when we sold the ranch. The worst is that he can’t say my name, Norah. Instead, Pop calls me Vera. I’ve stopped bothering to correct him. Vera, my mother, died in a puddle of her own blood and placenta the day I was born, waiting for the ambulance that turned down County Road 68 instead of County Road 68 ½.”

I'm not sure if you will relate to these stories as much as I did if you haven't lived or visited the American West but there are global warming concerns that dominate everyone's lives and are universal. I will say this is book contained the first short stories I've ever read about Gabbs and Berlin, NV -- two places I visit every year. All that said, these were well written but I preferred the earlier stories rather than the later ones in the book.

Site Fidelity comes out soon on June 15, 2021 and you can purchase HERE. Definitely pick this up if you are a fan of short stories! For more excellent stories about the American West, I recommend Christopher McCormick or Claire Vaye Watkins.

My heart sank a little. Not all ranchers are Pop's kind of rancher. Some find these birds obnoxious. Some refuse to pay grazing fees out of some misguided idea about their frontier heritage, about what the nation owes them. Some have organized, call themselves "sagebrush rebels." They've threatened BLM agents at gunpoint. They've invaded National Wildlife Refuges. They've elected sheriffs all over the West who believe the Constitution gives them full rights to ignore federal and state laws.

Overall, I felt kinda meh about this book. Not necessarily bad, but not particularly memorable either. Giving it 2.5/5 Stars.

This short story collection is so real and raw! Boyles perfectly captures the wildness (and loneliness) of the West through her stories of strong women facing tough challenges. As someone who has lived in a small mountain town in Montana doing environmental work like she described, these stories really resonate.

The underlying theme of each story is a strong attachment to "home," which is captured perfectly with the title of this collection. From protecting sage grouse and cutthroat trout to hiding illegal chicken flocks, these stories may seem "out there," but they are quite accurate! The people in these stories feel like those I have encountered in middle-of-nowhere America. This collection is definitely worth a read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Norton for the early ebook. This is such a vivid book of short stories set in and around Colorado. This is a place where the terrain is always important and where characters are concerned with endangered birds, fish suddenly coming up dead on the banks of the local river and even chickens that need to be hidden from the authorities. But the characters are really the charm of the book. There are a few stories about men who have lost their way in life, but most stories are about women who have lost their man and they certainly don’t miss him. There’s also a fun set of linked stories that show us the lives of three sisters through the decades. These are all great glimpses into a rugged world not always portrayed so lovingly in fiction.

"If we are to survive, even the next several decades, we need to feminize the myth of the American West…Claire Boyle’s stories do just that, the tenacious, unsinkable women who inhabit them no longer content to sit back and let powerful men of industry make us all extinct. For anyone who loves and grieves the West, who isn’t afraid to open their eyes and see her distress, these beautifully forged stories are as essential as water." So says Pam Houston, one of my favorite novelists and herself an eloquent advocate for earth and it's children. The short stories here span the beginning of an epoch - 1970s through near future - sometimes dubbed the anthropocene or the age of man vs earth. They are gracefully written, linked at times and not polemical but descriptive. Read, weep and enjoy these unforgettable, resilient characters,

3.5 stars
My love affair with short stories continues!
These were stories of strong women living in the American west.
It discussed a lot of environmental issues that we as a planet have been dealing with for some time.
It mostly focused on women who were tackling the difficulties of terrain and relationships. I loved getting to watch them find their voices and independence.
I really liked how a lot of these stories connected, so even though each story had a new “main” character, we got to see the main characters from other stories continue to live. Short story collections that do this tend to be my favorite.
I also loved the inclusion of Colorado. Love my state!