{"schema_version":"bf_book_companion_v1","release_id":"20260414T102527Z","book":{"amazon_purchase_url":"https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735216096?tag=bookfrontier-20","asin":"0735216096","authors":["David Owen"],"book_id":"9780735216099","canonical_url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780735216099","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780735216099.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","description":"“Wonderfully written…Mr. Owen writes about water, but in these polarized times the lessons he shares spill into other arenas. The world of water rights and wrongs along the Colorado River offers hope for other problems.” — Wall Street Journal An eye-opening account of where our water comes from and where it all goes. The Colorado River is an essential resource for a surprisingly large part of the United States, and every gallon that flows down it is owned or claimed by someone. David Owen traces all that water from the Colorado’s headwaters to its parched terminus, once a verdant wetland but now a million-acre desert. He takes readers on an adventure downriver, along a labyrinth of waterways, reservoirs, power plants, farms, fracking sites, ghost towns, and RV parks, to the spot near the U.S.–Mexico border where the river runs dry. Water problems in the western United States can seem tantalizingly easy to solve: just turn off the fountains at the Bellagio, stop selling hay to China, ban golf, cut down the almond trees, and kill all the lawyers. But a closer look reveals a vast man-made ecosystem that is far more complex and more interesting than the headlines let on. The story Owen tells in Where the Water Goes is crucial to our future: how a patchwork of engineering marvels, byzantine legal agreements, aging infrastructure, and neighborly cooperation enables life to flourish in the desert—and the disastrous consequences we face when any part of this tenuous system fails.","forthcoming":false,"isbn13":"9780735216099","publication_date":"20180410","publisher":"Penguin Publishing Group","slug":"where-the-water-goes","subtitle":"Life and Death Along the Colorado River","title":"Where the Water Goes"},"discovery":{"categories":{"all":[{"bisac_code":"TEC010030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Water Supply","score":0.762,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036140","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.7362,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036130","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southwest U.S. History","score":0.7343,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"hint":[{"bisac_code":"TEC010030","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Water Supply","score":0.762,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036140","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.7362,"source":"bisac_hint_model"},{"bisac_code":"HIS036130","confidence_band":"medium","label":"Southwest U.S. History","score":0.7343,"source":"bisac_hint_model"}],"publisher":[{"bisac_code":"SCI081000","confidence_band":"high","label":"Hydrology","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TEC010030","confidence_band":"high","label":"Water Supply","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"},{"bisac_code":"TRV025110","confidence_band":"high","label":"Western US Travel","score":1,"source":"onix_publisher_code"}]},"genres":[{"label":"Water Supply","score":0.762,"slug":"water-supply"},{"label":"Western U.S. History","score":0.7362,"slug":"western-u-s-history"},{"label":"Southwest U.S. History","score":0.7343,"slug":"southwest-u-s-history"}],"reader_fit":["Good for readers who enjoy Water Supply","Good for readers interested in book club","Good for readers who enjoy Water Supply and Western U.S. History."],"related_lists":[],"series":null,"similar_books":[{"authors":["Amy Gamerman"],"book_id":"9781982158163","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781982158163.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":13.5607,"title":"The Crazies","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781982158163"},{"authors":["Mark Arax"],"book_id":"9781101910191","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781101910191.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":11.7331,"title":"The Dreamt Land","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781101910191"},{"authors":["Ted Conover","Random House Audio"],"book_id":"9780525563280","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780525563280.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":11.5764,"title":"Cheap Land Colorado","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780525563280"},{"authors":["John Branch"],"book_id":"9780393356991","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780393356991.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":11.2013,"title":"The Last Cowboys","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780393356991"},{"authors":["Craig Childs"],"book_id":"9780316067546","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780316067546.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":11.198,"title":"House of Rain","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780316067546"},{"authors":["Michael Hiltzik"],"book_id":"9780358539346","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780358539346.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":11.1034,"title":"Golden State","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780358539346"},{"authors":["Eric Rutkow"],"book_id":"9781501103919","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9781501103919.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":11.0959,"title":"The Longest Line on the Map","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9781501103919"},{"authors":["Peter Stark"],"book_id":"9780062218308","cover_image_url":"https://img.bookfrontier.com/9780062218308.jpg?v=20260414T102527Z%3A2026-04-14T10%3A25%3A27Z","score":11.0371,"title":"Astoria","url":"https://bookfrontier.com/books/9780062218308"}],"topics":[{"evidence_refs":["keyword:travel narrative"],"label":"Travel","score":0.0972,"slug":"travel"},{"evidence_refs":["phrase_map_match"],"label":"Book Club","score":0.0914,"slug":"book-club"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:water management"],"label":"Management","score":0.0688,"slug":"management"},{"evidence_refs":["keyword:nature"],"label":"Nature","score":0.0537,"slug":"nature"}],"what_you_get":["Themes: Travel, Book Club, Management.","Reading lane: Water Supply and Western U.s. 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