A new book, “100 Things To Do in Bentonville/Rogers Before You Die,” offers a comprehensive overview of the arts, dining, entertainment and shopping scenes in the two cities.

The book is perfect for out-of-towners, but even longtime locals are likely to learn at least a few things (like the fact that The Meteor has a wine club).

The book was written by Connie Fugedy Cottingham, a garden and travel writer. She’s a Northwest Arkansas native who spent time living in New Orleans and Georgia before moving back to the area a couple of years ago.

Part of her writing process involved breaking out of usual routines and visiting places she knew of but had never visited. 

“The research was making myself walk out the door and just discover,” she said. 

She visited a local cigar bar, which was a bit outside of her comfort zone, but she was pleasantly surprised by the experience.  

“My brother had a whiskey and cigar, and the rest of us were having wine, and they have good air filtration,” she said. “I was surprised at what a great time we had, and the people were charming.”

More details of her experience can be found in entry 26.

Another notable entry is “Keep Up With What’s New In Our Area,” which includes several suggestions. Among them is The Bentonville Bulletin, described as an “e-newsletter that includes current stories and events.”

In addition to a traditional table of contents, the back of the book includes entries organized by season and alphabetically for easy reference.

Readers may wonder: Why Bentonville and Rogers in one book? 

To Cottingham, doing a guide for all of Northwest Arkansas felt too broad (plus another writer was already working on a similar guide for Fayetteville, which was published late last year). 

“It really needs to be Bentonville and Rogers. Rogers has the lake. Rogers has a lot of shopping. Rogers has a bigger population, and they join seamlessly,” she said.

For outsiders, Cottingham said she hopes her book might inspire them to visit or challenge their preconceived notions of Northwest Arkansas.

For locals, she suggested playing into the bucket-list theme of the title: “Just write on it as you go to places,” she said.

Or, play a game of roulette. 

“I’ve heard a lot of people say, open to one page and go there,” she said. “I like the idea of opening three and then deciding which of the three. One page seems a bit, like, really, the cigar bars?”

The book is available locally at Two Friends Books, Bentonville Provisions, Big on Bentonville, Meteor Guitar Gallery, Museum of Native American History, and the Northwest Medical Center gift shop. A list of upcoming book signing events can be found here.