This winter, we’ll dive into Bob Budd’s “Otters Dance” together. Find your copy, cozy in, and get ready to connect with your grassland friends.
SAVE THE DATES:
We’ll offer two virtual discussions at 7 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 29 and Thursday Feb. 5, culminating at the 2026 Winter All-Alliance in-person Gathering Feb. 12-13 at the Younes Conference Center in Kearney, featuring author Bob Budd as our special guest speaker! Each session will focus on a particular number of essays in the book.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
“Otters Dance: A Rancher’s Journey to Enlightenment and Stewardship,” by Bob Budd, is a collection of essays about life, land, and conservation in the American West, told from a rancher’s perspective. The book explores themes of stewardship, history, and the culture of the rural West through personal stories and lessons learned from diverse people, advocating for a deeper connection to and care for the natural world.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Read at your own pace! Don’t feel rushed or stuck to a schedule, but we’ll roughly break our discussions on the book into three parts —
Thursday, Jan. 29: pages 1 – 90
Thursday, Feb. 5: pages 91 – 169
Thursday, Feb. 12 (in-person, in Kearney at All-Alliance Gathering): pages 170 – 260.
FRAME THE CONVERSATION:
Each book club session will be casual, fun, easy conversation. Cozy up with a cup of tea or bring your evening nightcap to enjoy the conversation. While the virtual Book Club discussion will be open and free-flowing, each will be grounded in three primary discussion questions:
- What did you read in this section of the book that stuck with you? Share one particular idea, passage, quote, insight, ah-ha moment, etc …
- What did you read in this section that perhaps challenged your existing ideas or understanding of the world? Did it make you curious to learn more or clarify a new way of thinking?
- What is one idea you garnered from this reading or this evening’s discussion that you want to put to use in your own life in the foreseeable future?
