BoCo Bookshelf: Spring 2022
26 Mar 2022
What locals are writing and we’re reading
By Lisa Truesdale
One day, on a long walk prompted by pandemic boredom, Karen Jacot spied a creatively pruned hedge in front of a Boulder home. Shaped like a racecar, darn near full size, it even had real tires and shiny hubcaps.
She snapped a photo and added it to the growing collection of images she’d been sharing on Instagram during quarantine. She was walking daily, capturing everything and anything that caught her attention, whether quirky, mysterious, heartwarming or simply just beautiful. She photographed unique architecture, yard art and large murals; cats, birds, flowers and landscapes; funny signs, clever mailboxes and flamingoes… lots and lots of pink flamingoes.
Wanting to see something different each day, Jacot never repeated a route. She soon realized that she could eventually hit every street in the city, so she started tracking her progress on the CityStrides app. Ten months after her first walk, she had covered all 955 streets in Boulder, taking multiple shots on every single one.
Now, what to do with all those photos? Not content to only share them on Instagram, Jacot decided to publish a book. She raised enough capital on Kickstarter for a first print run and published “Rabbits in Driveway: A Different Boulder Photo Book” just before Christmas. It’s a beautiful hardcover book with 400 full-color photographs, worthy of any coffee table.
With this book, which the longtime Boulder resident calls her “love letter” to the city, Jacot hopes to inspire others to view their surroundings through a different lens—whether that’s an actual lens or not. She borrows the words of a friend to explain: “It’s not people watching, it’s people imagining, because you don’t see the people, but you do see the marks they’ve left on our city.”
It’s not intended to be a guidebook; in fact, Jacot intentionally leaves out any directions for finding the locations. (Some, like the vintage wavy roofline at the Community Plaza Shopping Center on Broadway, are instantly recognizable.)
As for the meaning of the book’s title? The cover doesn’t give it away; you’ll have to flip through the book and solve that mystery for yourself. Or, perhaps figure it out during your own long walk
Learn more at karenjacot.com or on Instagram: @yeahkaren
More great local reads
The Bone Spindle
Leslie Vedder
Vedder’s debut YA novel is an enchanting, “gender-bent, Sleeping-Beauty-meets-Indiana-Jones” story for teens, complete with a bookish treasure hunter, a mysterious witch, and a prince under a sleeping curse who’s been waiting 100 years for a magic kiss.
The Twelve Monotasks:
Do One Thing at a Time to Do Everything Better
Thatcher Wine
Wine, the founder of Boulder’s Juniper Books, draws on research in psychology, neuroscience and mindfulness to present his innovative plan for doing everyday tasks with renewed focus. With “monotasking,” you’ll be more productive, less stressed and much happier.
You Better Be Lightning
Andrea Gibson
This celebrated Boulder poet’s latest book is “a queer, political and feminist collection guided by self-reflection,” covering everything from love and illness to space and climate change. Gibson began their successful career with a breakup poem they recited at an open-mic poetry night in Boulder in 1999.
