Yuck: The Birth & Death of the Weird & Wondrous Joshua Tree, Yucca brevifolia

Yuck is a prismatic collage, a poetic wandering, a compact history of the West as twisted and weird and ominous and beautiful as the plant it obsesses over. From divine providence to gaseous landfill to Instagram paradise, Yuck deftly traces the modern history of a small patch of desert to leave us with a big warning about America's demented relationship with the land. Baumgart's brief book will turn your Joshua Tree vacation into a terrifying revelation and so should be required reading at the gates of the national park.

-Joshua Wheeler, author of Acid West and The High Heaven