Artsbeat: Robert A. Caro, Ben Fountain Among National Book Critics Circle Winners

“Gathering Mist,” by Margaret Mizushima (Crooked Lane) Gathering Mist, by Margaret Mizushima, Crooked Lane Books Deputy Mattie Wray and her K-9 partner, Robo, generally solve mysteries in her small Colorado mountain town. But in “Gathering Mist,” Mattie and Robo are called to Washington state to find the missing daughter of a celebrity, just a week before Mattie’s wedding. The search turns sinister after one of the rescue dogs is poisoned.  Then Mattie discovers the missing girl isn’t the only child who has disappeared in the area.

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer?

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer?

In Denver Art Museum’s “Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak,” one gets the sense of the author and illustrator as a whole person, from an oft-bedridden childhood gazing out his Brooklyn window to his global success and forays into stage and screen. That’s worth noting, since some exhibits promise a peek inside an artist’s brain, but just as often fail to provide a thoughtful push-back on the decades of myth-making that made them a household name. “Wild Things” resists tropes and plays with audience expectations while still offering the blockbuster imagery promised in the title.

Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer?

The customer at the counter of West Side Books in North Denver was trading thoughts with Terry, the ponytailed, bespectacled, thoughtful employee at the register. Which Jack Kerouac book should he start with? “On the Road,” Terry answered, then added, “It’s probably easiest.” Somehow that sounded like the kind of understatedly perfect advice one so often receives at an independent bookstore. Cheryl Strayed — author of “Wild” —  headlines Illumination’s Sept.