The Milagro Beanfield War by John Nichols

A group of teachers read this together because the Mayor chose it for One Book, One Denver. Quite honestly, if it had not been part of a book club that I was running, I would have abandoned it. It took me three running starts to even get into it and it was one of the slowest books I have ever read. If you enjoy colorful characters, this book is full of them, and Nichols has a gift for descriptive language and dialogue. But here’s the plot: a poor guy steals water to water his beanfield. A bunch of people in town talk about it. Some are mad. It’s your basic battle between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Favorite Quote: "'I'm afraid. I'm afraid of losing, afraid of winning, afraid of the fight. I've always been afraid. . . . I spent my whole life looking for the big rock-candy mountain. I can't stand the fact that there isn't Santa Claus. The people around here, if they ever saw Santa Claus in the neighborhood, they'd fall all over themselves scrambling for their .30-30s so they could put a little reindeer meat in their freezers.'"