Fresh Perspectives with Paige Dungan

These eclectic picks from bookstore owner Paige Duncan will entertain, enlighten, and inspire.

SPRING IN DENVER means longer days, open trails, and that particular restlessness that makes you want to do everything at once—including read. At Little Blue Pigeon, we believe the right book at the right moment can change everything. This season’s list has something for every kind of reader: a noir literary sensation from Japan, an urgent work of history, a lush reimagining of a classic, and a gripping Colorado survival story that hits close to home. Pull up a chair. The season’s best reads are here.

SISTERS IN YELLOW

By Mieko Kawakami

From the acclaimed author of “Breasts and Eggs” comes a gripping noir set in 1990s Tokyo. 15-year-old Hana has nothing—until a mysterious older woman pulls her into a world of found family, fast money, and danger. Haunting and propulsive, this is Kawakami at her best.

CHAIN OF IDEAS: THE ORIGINS OF OUR AUTHORITARIAN AGE

By Ibram X. Kendi

The National Book Award-winning author of “Stamped from the Beginning” traces how the Great Replacement Theory moved from the fringes to the center of global politics. Essential, urgent, and impossible to ignore.

MRS. WILSON’S AFFAIR: A GREAT GATSBY RETELLING

By Allyson Reedy

Denver’s own Allyson Reedy gives voice to one of literature’s most overlooked women: Myrtle Wilson. This luminous debut reimagines “The Great Gatsby” from the inside out, restoring Myrtle’s desires, dreams, and full humanity. A triumph for Denver’s literary community.

THE WAY OUT: A TRUE STORY OF SURVIVAL IN THE HEART OF THE ROCKIES

By Devon O’Neil

Colorado journalist Devon O’Neil reconstructs a harrowing 2017 backcountry ski accident near Salida. Part survival story, part meditation on grief, community, and the real cost of adventure. Essential Colorado reading.

Paige Duncan is a Denver-based book publicist with 18 years of experience and a lifelong love of great stories. She opened Little Blue Pigeon, an independent bookstore on Denver’s historic Larimer Square, on April 1, 2026.

See the magazine aricle here.