HPPR Radio Readers Book Club

I’m Matt Kliewer, once from Cimarron, Kansas, now from Austin, Texas, coming to you from San Diego, California. In Nick Hunt’s introduction to Lyall Watson’s Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind, Hunt argues that in this book “[a]ll the winds of the world are inside. If you open it, you will be blown to places you never expected.”

I’m Martin Fulmer from Goodwell, Oklahoma, here for the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club’s 2026 Fall Read. When I picked up Heaven’s Breath: A Natural History of the Wind, I remember wondering how anyone could write an entire book about the wind. It seemed like an impossible subject.

The Kansas Association of Broadcasters has awarded the HPPR Radio Readers Book Club second place in the Editorial/Commentary category, Medium Market division, for the piece — produced as part of this year's Spring Read, "Route 66: 100 Years on the Mother Road."

Hello Radio Readers! This is Marit Ehmke coming to you from west-central Kansas in Lane County. If there’s one thing you can count on living in this part of the world, it’s the wind. Whether it be a gentle breeze or, more often than not, strong gusts bending what trees we have, the wind is a constant companion.

We rarely stop to think about the wind. We feel it on our faces, watch it ripple through wheat fields, hear it rustle the trees, yet it remains one of nature's most familiar—and most mysterious—forces. Invisible but ever present, the wind has shaped landscapes, influenced history, inspired artists and scientists, and quietly touched our lives every day.

If I close my eyes, I can still hear my dad. It was the 1950s, and every evening our family gathered around the dinner table. There were six of us—Mom and Dad, three girls, and one brother. We were not a quiet family. Suppertime was noisy, full of stories about school, chores, neighbors, and whatever had happened that day.

The HPPR Radio Readers Book Club's 2026 Fall Read, Wind & Weather, explores our enduring relationship with the natural world through four remarkable books that move us through the seasons—and through the power of the atmosphere itself.

Hi, Radio Readers! Linzi Garcia from Emporia, Kansas, here. I work as poetry editor and publicist for Meadowlark Press, a small, regional press specializing in Midwest voices. I also serve as the director of the Diverse Voices Literacy Program through House of Morrow, a local arts organization. House of Morrow and Meadowlark Press combined forces to bring you a really special project.

This Saturday, Colorado turns 150 — and thousands of Coloradans plan to mark the occasion by heading straight for the top of the state.

I’m Megan Hope, a native Southwest Kansan (currently living in the Missouri Ozarks) and proud supporter of HPPR. A book I think will resonate with many High Plains listeners is All the Living, by C.E. Morgan, published in 2009 by Picador and widely available at libraries and booksellers.