Southwest Books of the Year
Complete List
A comprehensive listing of books published in the 2002 calendar year that bear totally or in part on some aspect of the Southwest. They include fiction and non-fiction and material that is academic and special as well as general and popular. We define the Southwest as Arizona, New Mexico, southern California (excluding Los Angeles, simply because that is a whole genre by itself), southern Nevada, Utah and Colorado, West Texas, northern Mexico from Chihuahua west to the Gulf of California.
* = A Best Pick
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(Fiction) #4 by Mike Danforth. IUniverse, 231 pp., $16.95. A novel from a former Texan who now lives in Washington state and writes about cowboys real and imagined.
31 by Lawrence Clayton edited by Lou Rodenberger. McWhiney Foundation Press, 303 pp., $29.95. A collection of the published pieces of this popular Texas writer-many of which first appeared in academic journals and are difficult to find.
110-degrees. 116 E. Congress, Tucson 85701. $10. Tucson teenaged journalists have started a publication to look at their community, concentrating on minorities, but not overlooking such good copy as longtime retailer Cele Peterson.
52 Great Weekend Escapes in Arizona by Ray Bangs and Chris Becker. Northland Publishing, 217 pp., including coupons, $19.95. Rated from easy to hard with the best seasons to visit added, these are short trips for every skill level, budget, age and degree of adventurousness from staffers at Arizona Explorer Magazine.
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Abriendo Puertas/Opening Doors: Sharing to Learn by Maria del Carmen Arredondo, Rita Romo, Edith Granillo, Imelda Parra, Maria del Carmen Cota, Maria Jesus Monarrez. Pro Neighborhoods, Pima County Family Literacy Project, $10. By recording their personal biographies, a group of Mexican-American women are encouraged to recall their roots. The project was funded by Pro Neighborhoods and the booklet is available at the Rose Family Resource & Wellness Center in Tucson.
*Adventures with ED: A Portrait of Abbey by Jack Loeffler. University of New Mexico Press, 298 pp., $24.95.
The Afterlife Experiments: Breakthrough Scientific Evidence of Life After Death by Gary E. Schwartz with William L. Simon. Pocket Books, 364 pp, $25. The director of the University of Arizona Human Energy Systems Laboratory working with screenwriter Simon details his experiments with the deceased.
Ambos Nogales: Intimate Portraits of the U.S.-Mexico Border, photographs by Maeve Hickey, text by Lawrence Taylor. School of American Research Press, 138 pp., $17.95. Absorbing and entertaining but the photos, however excellent, seem staged.
The American Cowboy: A Photographic History edited by Richard Collins, introduction by Bob Edgar. Globe Pequot Press, 10 1/2 by 11 1/4-inches format, 128 pp., $24.95. All of the marvelous photographs in this handsome coffee table volume would qualify as archival. Some are more than 100 years old. The reproduction is remarkable.
(Fiction) Angel Fire by Lisa Miscione. St. Martin's Minotaur, 278 pp., $23.95. Set in Santa Fe, the amateur sleuth in this debut crime series is a reclusive crime writer and the victims are four isolated loners.
Annie's Guests: Tales From a Frontier Hotel by Barbara Marriott. Catymatt Productions, 188 pp., $14. In Oracle, Ariz., the Mountain View Hotel was a popular summer resort. Built in 1895 by William Curly Neal, a prosperous Tucson businessman, it closed finally in the 1950s. Marriott is a conscientious researcher and this is a useful record of a bit of southern Arizona history.
Another Country: Encounters With the Red Rock Desert by John A. Murray. Johnson Books, 260 pp., $17.50. A series of essays about the red rock country in Utah and Arizona.
Another Place: An Ecocritical Study of Selected Western American Poets by Andrew Elkins. Texas Christian University, 345 pp., $17.95. A former dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Peru State University in Peru, Nebraska, Elkins includes Peggy Pond Church and a passel of southwestern cowboy poets in this critical analysis.
Apaches de Navajo: Seventeenth Century Navajos in the Chama Valley of New Mexico by Curtis F. Schaafsma. University of Utah Press, 329 pp., $55. Comprehensive and technical, primarily for students of Native American migration patterns.
(Fiction) Ariel's Crossing by Bradford Morrow. Viking Press, 390 pp., $25.95. A daughter's search for her "lost" father winds up in northern New Mexico. Her story is interwoven with the lives of three New Mexico families. Morrow teaches at Bard College in New York and this is a sequel to his prize-winning Trinity Fields.
Arizona Politicians: The Noble and The Notorious by James W. Johnson, illustrations by David "Fitz" Fitzsimmons. University of Arizona Press, 215 pp., $29.95, cloth; $15.95 paper. A cute idea nicely done - all the characters (21 total) you expect to find are there plus a few, like Henry Fountain Ashurst and Lorna Lockwood, you may not have known about - and should.
Arizona Reflections: A Travel Journal by Linda Kranz, photography by Klaus Kranz. Northland Publishing, unpaginated, $16.95. Not a library book but a gift book with pages allotted to personal journal notes.
Arizona Roadside Discoveries: A Guidebook to the Natural and Human History of Arizona's Roadways by Terry Hutchins. Gem Guides Book Company, 191 pp., $12.95. A guide tailored to the tastes of auto travelers. Aerial photos of eight routes and information about fauna, geology, history and great view places to stop.
*Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum: A Scrapbook by Peggy Pickering Larson. Arizona Sonora-Desert Museum Press, 103 pp., 10 1/2 by 9 1/2-inch format, $24.95; with slipcase, $35.
Arizona's Best Wildflower Hikes: The Desert, text and photographs by Christine Maxa. Westcliffe Publishers, 232 pp., $22.95. The author has done her homework. Trails are evaluated for difficulty, length and elevation. When possible, she gives the name of someone to call to see if the flowers are blooming. A handy book for the very tricky hobby of wildflower watching.
The Art and Architecture of the Texas Missions by Jacinto Quirarte. University of Texas Press, 8 1/2-inches by 11-inches, 261 pp., 11 color and 108 black and white illustrations, $60. Essential in its field, this is a comprehensive reconstruction and description of the original art and architecture of the six remaining Texas missions. Quirarte is a professor emeritus of art history and criticism at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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Backcountry Pilot: Flying Adventures With Ike Russell edited by Thomas Bowen. University of Arizona Press, 202 pp., $29.95. Friends, family and clients of Ike Russell's 30 years of flying them into Mexico and around the world recall their intrepid airborne chauffeur's skill, resilience and humor.
(Fiction) Bad Advice: A Novel by Karin Goodwin. Chronicle Books, 271 pp., $22.95. An improbable, contemporary tale of love and romance bouncing between Tombstone, Flagstaff and Boston.
(Fiction) The Baron War by Jory Sherman. Forge, a Tom Doherty Associates Book. 318 pp., $25.95. A conflict between two powerful Texas ranching empires takes place before the outbreak of the Civil War. At stake are many similar issues as Spur Award winner Sherman writes of deep hatreds that bring about sweeping changes.
(Fiction) Best Little Stories From the Wild West by C. Brian Kelly with "Fascinating Women of the West" by Ingrid Smyer. Cumberland House, 400 pp., $16.95. Intended to startle with unknown snippets of historical information-such as the fact that infamous Black Bart never actually shot anyone. It doesn't include many southwesterners.
Best Trails In and Around Kartchner Caverns State Park: A Guide for Hikers, Bicyclists and Esquestrians by Kelly Tighe. Best Trails Publishing, Bisbee, Az., 127 pp. $15.95. All of these trails are in southern Arizona. There are lots of maps to help the novice find his way around.
Beyond Chaco: Great Kiva Communities on the Mogollon Rim Frontier by Sarah A. Herr. Anthropolgical Papers of the University of Arizona, Number 66. University of Arizona Press, 135 pp., $16.95 paper. Herr's research indicates that the Mogollon Rim residents of the 11th & 12th centuries were newcomers and like members of most frontier societies they had to make their own rules.
(Fiction) The Big Gamble: A Kevin Kerney Novel by Michael McGarrity. Dutton, 273pp., $23.95. Two corpses in a burned-out, abandoned fruit stand in northern New Mexico unite Kevin Kerney, now the police chief of Santa Fe, and his estranged son, a Lincoln County deputy sheriff, in a caper that is as much soap opera as mystery.
*Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows by Will Bagley. University of Oklahoma Press, 458 pp., $39.95.
*Blues For Cannibals: The Notes From Underground by Charles Bowden. North Point Press, 293 pp., $24.
*Bonelight: ruin and grace in the new southwest by Mary Sojourner. Environmental Arts & Humanities Series, University of Nevada Press, 184 pp., $21.95. National Public Radio's Sojourner's first collection of essays in which she reveals her loves, angers and flaws: "I wrestle, almost on a daily basis, with my compulsion to gamble, my deep affection for everything connected with it, the sleazy glamour, the hard-working casino employees, my fellow suckers."
(Fiction) Border Dogs by Karen Palmer. Soho Press, 305 pp., $24. The gritty second novel from the author of the acclaimed, All Saints. Protagonist James Reese, a member of the U.S. Border Patrol, working east of San Diego, is having trouble not only on the job but in his love life.
(Fiction) Borderline by Tambra Knipp Vertrees. Infinity Publishing, 192 pp., $14.95. Billed as a "romantic thriller," Vertrees, a school nurse, takes Douglas, Ariz., as her locale and works in illegal aliens, smugglers and drugs.
Bound For Santa Fe: The Road to New Mexico and the American Conquest, 1806-1848 by Stephen G. Hyslop. University of Oklahoma Press, 514 pp., $34.95. Travelers' accounts of their often perilous and always difficult journeys over the Santa Fe Trail-from St. Louis to Chihuahua City-are told in detail and sometimes with humor. An excellent book for a leisurely read. Could use more maps.
Brown Tide Rising: Metaphors of Latinos in Contemporary Public Discourse by Otto Santa Ana. University of Texas Press, 432 pp., $24.95 paper. Metaphors of Latinos in contemporary American public discourse-such as "brown tide"-Santa Ana argues, produce negative reactions. Not restricted to the Southwest.
Butterflies of West Texas Parks and Preserves by Roland H. Wauer. Texas Tech University Press, 78 pp., $29.95. The former chief naturalist at Big Bend National Park offers an introduction to the butterflies in his area. He writes that he hopes to make identification easier and to promote increased interest.
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Cacti: Biology and Uses edited by Park S. Nobel. University of California Press, 178 pp., 8 1/2 by 11 1/2-inch format, $65. An outstanding book and a wonderful reference for anyone interested in cacti of the entire world.
Cacti of the Desert Southwest by Meg Quinn. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 88 pp., $9.95. An easy-to-read introduction to cacti with a good map, a short glossary and colorful photos.
*Captives & Cousins: Slavery, Kinship and Community in the Southwest Borderlands by James F. Brooks. University of North Carolina Press, 432 pp., $55 cloth; $22.50 paper.
Casas Grandes Pre-Columbian Pottery Decoded: Of Gods and Myths by Ernest H. Christman, M.D. The Tutorial Press, Inc., P.O. Box 11123, Albuquerque, N.M. 87192, 208 pp., 8 1/2 by 11-inch format, 1,000 color photographs, $85 hardcover. Christman, a retired physician, has studied pottery from the largest pre-Columbian civilization in northern Mexico with extension into Arizona and New Mexico. The pottery should be appreciated for its beauty as well as its symbols.
(Fiction) Cat in a Midnight Choir: A Midnight Louie Mystery by Carole Nelson Douglas. Forge. 350 pp.. $24.95. We have here "20 plus pounds of alley cat," who, working with his human colleague, Temple Barr, takes on a murderous organization of renegade magicians in Las Vegas, Nevada, in what is now his 14th outing -pretty much in alphabetical order.
The Chaco Handbook: An Encyclopedic Guide by R. Gwinn Vivian and Bruce Hilpert. University of Utah Press, 292 pp., $55 cloth; $17.95, paper. Reviewed as a clear, authentic and detailed look at prehistory and the Anasazi/Chaco world.
(Fiction) Changing Woman: An Ella Clah Mystery by Aimee & David Thurlo. Forge, A Tom Doherty Associates book, 384 pp., $24.95. The Thurlo husband and wife writing team have a hard-nose view of modern Navajos. To the Thurlos the reservation is not kindly or exotic. It is fraught with real problems for a frequently divided people. The big issue here is gambling and who is pushing it.
(Fiction) The Chili Queen by Sandra Dallas. St. Martin's Press, 292 pp., $22.95. A light and clever period piece filled with cons that don't become apparent until the second half of the book.
(Fiction) Cities of Gold by William Hartmann. Forge, A Tom Doherty Associates book, 542 pp., $25.95. A fictional account based on strong research of the explorations of Fray Marcos De Niza. This story line is mixed with a contemporary account of the Southwest and its land development.
Citizen McCain by Elizabeth Drew. Simon & Schuster, 181 pp., $23. If it is a book about Arizona Senator John McCain it has to be Southwest, but there is little here beyond the Washington D.C. beltway.
Collective Willeto: The Visionary Carvings of a Navajo Artist. Contributions by Shonto Begay, Walter Hopps, Greg LaChapelle, Lee Kogan and John and Stephanie Smither. Photography by Bruce Hucko. Museum of New Mexico Press, 115 pp., 8 1/2 x 10 1/2-inch format. $29.95. Charlie Willeto (1897-1964) was a Navajo medicine man who carved frequently in defiance of Navajo traditions. This is a tribute to a fine folk artist.
Columnar Cacti and Their Mutualists: Evolution, Ecology and Conservation edited by Theodore H. Fleming and Alfonso Valiente-Banuet. University of Arizona Press, 400 pp., $65. A superb but special look at the anatomy, physiology, ecology and conservation of this large cactus group which includes the distinctive saguaro and organ pipe plants.
(Fiction) Confidence Woman: A Claire Reynier Mystery by Judith Van Gieson. University of New Mexico Press, 225 pp., $23.95. Also available from Signet Books, $5.99, paper. The doughty librarian is forced into solving the mystery of her dead acquaintance and sorority sister when she herself is accused of the deed.
Conquest and Catastrophe: Changing Rio Grande Pueblo Settlement Patterns in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries by Elinore M. Barrett. University of New Mexico Press, 180 pp., $39.95. This study begins with the years of the Spanish exploration (1540-1598), continues through the period of early settlement (1598-1680) and concludes with the period of the Pueblo Revolt and the Spanish reconquest and subsequent Pueblo resettlement.
Contending for the Faith: Southern Baptists in New Mexico, 1938-1995 by Daniel R. Carnett. University of New Mexico Press, 224 pp., $29.95. How the Southern Baptists succeeded in putting down roots in Roman Catholic New Mexico-they are the second largest religious group in the state-and the effect this had on them.
Cormac McCarthy: New Directions edited by James D. Lilley. University of New Mexico Press, 350 pp., $29.95. Heavily academic, this will appeal mostly to diehard McCarthy fans.
(Fiction) Country Music: Western Stories by Jane Candia Coleman. Five Star, 190 pp., $25.95. An inauspicious outing by a fine, award-winning writer.
Cowboy Spur Maker: The Story of Ed Blanchard by Jane Pattie and Tom Kelly. Texas A & M University Press, 160 pp., 64 black & white photos. $24.95. A cowboy craftsman, Ed Blanchard, who died in 1982, was a master maker of spurs. Though still worn by many, his spurs today are just as often found in museums. Kelly is not only his admirer but a cousin, so this is a knowledgeable look.
The Cowboy's Dream: The Mythic Life and Art of Lon Megargee by Betsy Fahlman. Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Wickenburg, AZ., 134 pp., $27.50, paper; $45 hardcover. This is a must volume for anyone who remembers either Megargee's wide-ranging , accomplished work-but especially his popular A-1 Beer posters-or the high-flying, larger-than-life artist himself.
(Fiction) Crack Shot: A Trade Ellis Mystery by Sinclair Browning. Bantam Books, 371pp., $5.99. Southern Arizona cattle rancher and P.I., Trade Ellis, sets out to find the grandson of a friend in this steadily improving series.
Crossing Arizona edited by Leland J. Hanchette Jr., illustrated by Marcia Jeglum. Pine Rim Publishing, P.O. Box 1927, Cave Creek, Ariz. 853527-1927. 448 pp., 8 1/2 by 11 inches format, $50. An anthology of diaries and journals written by travelers crossing Arizona in the 400 years encompassed by the 16th through the 19th centuries.
Crossing Arizona: A Solo Hike Through the Sky Islands and Deserts of the Arizona Trail by Chris Townsend. The Countryman Press, 256 pp., $17.95. Townsend spent two months traversing the 800 miles of the still-evolving Arizona Trail which goes from just east of Nogales to a few miles west of Lake Powell. A great trip to read about!
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(Fiction) Dancing With Ice by Thornton Edwards. Arizona House of Graphix/Thornton Enterprises, 190 W. Continental Road, Suite 220-235a, Green Valley, Az. 85614, 291 pp., $18.95. A former Tucson police officer, now retired on medical disability, sets many of his experiences on the Tucson police force in fiction form and graphic detail. Very probably should be required reading for anyone contemplating a life in law enforcement.
(Fiction) Death Assemblage by Susan Cummins Miller. Texas Tech University Press, 200 pp., $23.95. Frankie McFarlane is having a tough time in Pair-a-Dice, Nevada trying to get the last geologic data together to complete her dissertation. Corpses keep cropping up in this debut mystery by field geologist Miller.
Death on the Gallows: The Story of Legal Hangings in New Mexico,1847-1923 by West Gilbreath. High-Lonesome Books, P.O. Box 878, Silver City, N.M. 88062. 222 pp., $14.95. In the 76 years between 1847 and 1923, death by hanging was the only way to carry out a death penalty. This fascinating book details biographies of the 62 men and one woman who found this out the hard way.
A Desert Calling: Life in a Forbidding Landscape by Michael A. Mares. Harvard University Press, 318 pp., $29.95. Only two Southwest deserts included among the many listed.
*The Desert Cries: A Season of Flash Floods in a Dry Land by Craig Childs. Arizona Highways, 140 pp., $14.95. The Desert Home by Tamara Hawkinson, photographs by Terrence Moore. Northland Publishing, 176 pp. $40. A coffee table book filled with gorgeous photographs of distinctive houses.
(Fiction) Desert Wives: Polygamy Can Be Murder, a Lena Jones Mystery by Betty Webb. Poisoned Pen Press, 302 pp. $24.95. The second Lena Jones mystery (the first was Desert Noir) concerns murder and secrets in an isolated community on the Arizona Utah border which still practices polygamy.
(Fiction) Devil's Hawk by Ray Sipherd. St. Martin's Minotaur, 224 pp., $23.95. An artist-ornithologist in Tucson to visit friends becomes embroiled in immigrant smuggling and murder.
(Fiction) The Devil's Workshop: Poems by Demetria Martinez. University of Arizona Press, 108 pp., $24.95, cloth; $14.95, paper. Talented Hispanic writer Martinez incorporates contemporary life into her poetry-that includes grant writing, the Border Patrol, class action, romantic disappointments and love of the land.
*Diné: A History of the Navajos by Peter Iverson, photography by Monty Roessel. University of New Mexico Press., 383 pp., $21.95.
Disaster at the Colorado: Beale's Wagon Road and the First Emigrant Party by Charles W. Baley. Utah State University Press, 216 pp., $19.95. An excellent and thoroughly researched study of a little known event in Arizona history.
(Fiction) Doohickey by Pete Hautman. Simon & Schuster, 278 pp., $24. Witty Minnesotan Hautman has had better efforts. But it all takes place right there in southern Arizona and involves cashing in on an ingenious kitchen utensil designed by a man presumed dead.
*Down by the River: Drugs, Money, Murder, and Family by Charles Bowden. Simon & Schuster, 417 pp., $27.
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(Fiction) Elegies in Blue: Poems by Benjamin Alire Saenz. Cinco Puntos Press, 120 pp., $13.95. Very accessible poetry. Saenz writes about politics, literary heroes and growing up Chicano in the Catholic world of the Mexican border country.
Eliseo Rodriguez: El Sexto Pintor by Carmello Padilla. Museum of New Mexico Press, 7 1/2-inches x 7 1/2 inches format. 48 pp., $20. Taos, N.M. has its 10 famous early 20th century artists. Santa Fe has five spanning a somewhat later period best known of which is probably Fremont Ellis. Rodriguez, a Santa Fe native, has become an honorary member of the group.
The Environmental Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics and Pedagogy edited by Joni Adamson, Mei Mei Evans and Rachel Stein. University of Arizona Press, 385 pp., $45, cloth; $21.95, paper. Though it contains very limited material on the Southwest, this volume deals with issues vital to the area.
Eyewitness to the Old West: Firsthand Accounts of Exploration, Adventure and Peril edited by Richard Scott. Roberts Rhinehart Publishers, 480 pp., 30 illustrations, $29.95. Geronimo is the southwest entry.
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Fire, Native Peoples, and the Natural Landscape edited by Thomas R. Vale. Island Press, 315 pp., $45 cloth; $19.95, paper. The writers examine the possibility that Native Americans before the arrival of European settlers did not live in simple awe of nature, but attempted to manage their environment by the judicious use of fire. Two sections on the Southwest.
(Fiction) Flash Flood by Susan Slater. Poisoned Pen Press, 308 pp., $24.95. Slater, author of the Ben Pecos series, introduces her new sleuth, Chicago-based, insurance investigator Dan Mahoney, who is sent to northern New Mexico to check on a large claim for a dead bull.
Foods of the Southwest Indian Nations: Traditional and Contemporary Native American Recipes by Lois Ellen Frank. Ten Speed Press, 160 pp., $35. As a member of the faculty of the Santa Fe Cooking School and an anthropologist, Frank combines two areas of expertise in this fine completely revised edition of her cookbook.
For Our Navajo People: Diné Letters, Speeches and Petitions, 1900-1960, edited by Peter Iverson; photo editor, Monty Roessel. University of New Mexico Press, 275 pp, $19.95. An important document in the history of the Navajo.
The Forgotten Founders: Rethinking the History of the Old West by Stewart L. Udall. A Shearwater Book/Island Press, 224 pp., $25. Former Arizona Congressman and Secretary of the Interior Udall, who lives now in New Mexico, has researched many unsung pioneers, many of whom are members of his numerous Mormon family.
(Fiction) Free Bird by Greg Garrett. Kensington Publishing Co., 242 pp., $23. Baylor University creative writing teacher Garrett describes his first novel as "a comic road novel." His hero, a depressed former corporate lawyer, sets out on a cross-country journey to Santa Fe to find his long lost father. Publishers Weekly called it "very enjoyable ..."
Friends: Cowboys, Cattle, Horses, Dogs, Cats and 'Coons by John R. Erickson. University of North Texas Press, 165 pp., $14.95. How can you go wrong with the creator of Hank, the Cowdog? But these chapters contain accounts of real people Erickson has met in the High Plains Country of the Texas Panhandle.
(Fiction) Frontera Dreams: A Hector Belascoaran Shayne Detective Novel by Paco Ignacio Taibo II, translated by Bill Verner. Cinco Puntos Press, 120 pp., $13.95. Taibo is enormously popular in Mexico and he has a lot of fun – one of his characters is named "Smith-Corona." But in this English translation, you keep feeling you're missing something.
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(Fiction) Ghost Towns by Betsy Thornton. Thomas Dunne Books, 272 pp., $23.95. Bisbee, Arizona mystery writer's serial heroine, victim advocate Chloe Newcomb, investigates the neuroses-ridden family of a local judge who has been killed in the ruins of an Arizona ghost town.
(Fiction) Ghost Warrior by Lucia St. Clair Robson. Forge, 493 pp., $27.95. Although actually little is known about the Apache Lozen, Kirkus calls this the story of "an immense moral tragedy, all sung with full lungs."
GhostWest: Reflections Past and Present by Ann Ronald. University of Oklahoma Press, 246 pp., $29.95. Ronald, an English professor at the University of Nevada includes 17 sites in her compendium of sharp observations. Most of them are outside the Southwest, but Utah, New Mexico and Arizona have chapters.
God's Country or Devil's Playground: The Best Nature Writing from the Big Bend of Texas edited by Barney Nelson. University of Texas Press, 321 pp., $22.95, paper, $60 hard cover. Antonio de Espejo checks in in 1583, but most of the rest of these 58 pieces are observations from the 20th century. The contributors include Mary Austin, Edward Abbey and Aldo Leopold. Nelson teaches English at Sul Ross State in Alpine, Texas.
God's Wilds: John Muir's Vision of Nature by Dennis C. Williams. Environmental History Series No. 18, Texas A & M University Press, 246 pp., $ 39.95. The pioneering naturalist, whose efforts established Yosemite and Sequoia national parks, is shown to have deep philosophical roots in the Disciples of Christ, a denomination in which Muir's father was a lay minister.
Growing Up to Cowboy: A Memoir of the American West by Bob Knox. Sunstone Press, 387 pp., $18.95. A book that began as a record for his grandchildren has turned into a readable, affectionate account of a working cowboy's life.
A Guide to Tucson Architecture by Anne M. Nequette and R. Brooks Jeffery. University of Arizona Press, 328 pp., 125 halftones, 4 line illustrations, 14 maps. $22.95. Carefully researched. Should be in every history-conscious Tucsonan's library although the small photos are a disappointment.
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(Fiction) A Handful of Tears by Consuelo Jones (Gene Curley). For information on availability write Ms. Curley at Colonia Miramonte, 5434 E. Lincoln Drive, Paradise Valley, AZ. 85253. This story of Tucson begins in the years before Arizona statehood. It is a lavish look at the mores and customs, foods and activities of an emerging 20th century community. The author is a living descendant of the principal family. Also, a beautiful job of book production.
(Fiction) Heir Apparent: A Pinnacle Peak Mystery by Twist Phelan. Sands Publishing, P.O. Box 92, Alpine, Ca. 91903, 226 pp., $14.99. Attorney, ranch woman, triathlete Phelan writes of skullduggery amongst the possible, hopeful heirs of a departed Scottsdale resident.
Here, Now, and Always: Voices of the First Peoples of the Southwest compiled and edited by Joan K. O'Donnell. Museum of New Mexico Press, 87 pp., $24.95. A representation of Native American scholars, artists and writers speaking to the themes of origin, cycles, community and survival.
High and Dry: The Texas-New Mexico Struggle for the Pecos River by G. Emlen Hall. University of New Mexico Press, 303 pp., $39.95. A University of New Mexico law professor's summary of legal and scientific parts of this complicated story of water rights.
Hiking Arizona: Urban Trails, Easy Paths and Overnight Treks. Arizona Highways Books, 160 pp, 7 1/2 by 10-inches format, $16.95. Another attractive book in this busy field.
A Homeland in the West: Utah Jews Remember by Eileen Hallet Stone. University of Utah Press, 448 pp, $39.95.The stories and voices of immigrants, explorers, artists, merchants, senators and soldiers who made their way and earned their living in an unpredictable and frequently unwelcoming culture.
Homol'ovi: An Ancient Hopi Settlement Cluster by E. Charles Adams. University of Arizona Press, 304 pp., $50. The Homol'ovi villages built along the Little Colorado River in the general vicinity of Winslow, Ariz. were trade centers and possibly the originators of the Hopi Katsina religion. Adams began his studies for the Arizona State Museum in 1985.
Hopi Tales of Destruction, collected, translated and edited by Ekkehart Malotki. University of Nebraska Press, 230 pp., $29.95. Another collection of well-documented data on the Hopi from one of their most attentive researchers.
(Fiction) Horseshoes, Cowsocks & Duckfeet: More Commentary by NPR's Cowboy Poet & Former Large Animal Veterinarian by Baxter Black. Crown Publishers. 262 pp., $23.95. Black, a humorous veterinarian and a staple on the agribusiness banquet circuit, is making a lot more money working outside large animals than he ever made from doctoring their insides.
(Fiction) Hot Biscuits: Eighteen Stories by Women and Men of the Ranching West edited by Max Evans and Candy Moulton. University of New Mexico Press, 248 pp., $24.95. Only a few of the 18 stories in this nicely put-together collection concern the Southwest.
Hummingbirds of the American West by Lynn Hassler Kaufman. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 76 pp., $9.95. A neat, tidy introduction to this increasingly popular hobbyists' field.
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The Idiot Girls' Action Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life by Laurie Notaro. Villard, 225 pp, $12.95. The Arizona Republic in Phoenix has made room in its expanding pages for accounts from a 30-ish observer of her determinedly, dissolute life.
Images of America: Green Valley, Arizona by Philip Goorian. Arcadia, 128 pp., $19.99. Told almost entirely in entertaining photo captions, this is a good start on a history of the growing, 43-year-old retirement community south of Tucson.
Immortal Summer: A Victorian Woman's Travels in the Southwest by Mary J. Straw Cook. Museum of New Mexico Press, 162pp., cloth, $45; paper, $24.95. At the turn of the century there were more Victorian ladies poking around the West than you might have thought. In 1897, Amelia Hollenback, originally of Brooklyn, N.Y., took in the Grand Canyon and several Indian pueblos. Found almost a century later, this is her careful, delightful account of the trip.
*Invasive Exotic Species in the Sonoran Region edited by Barbara Tellman. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Studies in Natural History, University of Arizona Press, 424 pp., $75.
(Fiction) The Iron Horse by Phyllis de la Garza. Silk Lable Books, 252 pp., $9.99. Another of Willcox author de la Garza's lively romances set in turn of the century Arizona Territory where the men are men and women are unpaid laborers.
It Is Not Our Fault edited by Guadalupe Castillo and Margo Cowan, photography by Jeffry Scott. Tohono O'odham Nation, 92 pp. Available by writing to the Tohono O'odham Nation Executive Branch, P.O. Box 837, Sells, AZ. 85634. A handsome volume whose subtitle explains its purpose: "The case for amending present nationality law to make all members of the Tohono O'odham Nation United States Citizens, now and forever." The tribe printed 3,000 copies most of which have been distributed to members of Congress.
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The Jepson Desert Manual: Vascular Plants of Southeastern California edited by Bruce G. Baldwin, Steve Boyd, Barbara J. Ertter, Robert W. Patterson, Thomas J. Rosatti and Dieter H. Wilkin. Margriet Weatherwax, managing editor. University of California Press, 624 pp., $35. Superb reference work for the area it covers.
Jesse Goddard: One of Arizona's Last Old-time Cowboys by Margaret Goddard Myhr. Privately printed by Margaret Goddard Myhr, Wooddale Village, 18616 N. 99th Ave. No. 2078. Sun City, AZ., 85373, 127 pp., $17.50. A loving biography of her husband written and published by the author.
Jesse Monongya: Opal Bears and Lapis Skies by Lois Sherr Dubin, Kiyoshi Togashi, photographer. Hudson Hills Press, 186 pp., $60. Navajo/Hopi jeweler Monongya's innovative stone inlays have earned him a place in the American Indian Master Jeweler Series.
Jim Cook's Arizona Liar's Journal illustrated by Jim Willoughby, edited by Janice Coggin. Cowboy Miner Productions, Wickenburg Institute for Factual Diversity, P.O. Box 1024, Wickenburg, AZ., 85358, 221 pp., $14.95. "We try to explore alternate truths," Cook writes in an essay on the Tooth Fairy, "so the world does not hobble itself with mere facts." Cook, who is identified as the "Official State Liar of Arizona," has the crisp, easy style of a good journalist, which he was for more than 30 years at The Arizona Republic.
John H. Behan: Sacrificed Sheriff by Bob Alexander. High-Lonesome Books, P.O. Box 878, Silver City, N.M., 306 pp., $14.95. Clumsily written but fascinating.
John Wayne: There Rode a Legend: A Western Tribute, foreword by Maureen O'Hara, text by Jane Pattie. A production of Wilma Russell's Western Classics, 275 pp., $75. Lavishly illustrated tribute to the late movie star and mogul. Contains a lot of little known information about Wayne the agribusinessman.
Justice Betrayed: A Double Killing in Old Santa Fe by Ralph Melnick. University of New Mexico Press, 224 pp, $22.95. It is never too late to right a wrong. In this true crime account, Massachusetts librarian Melnick has researched a 1931 murder of a prominent, 18-year-old Santa Fe girl. He believes the conviction and execution of an African American with a criminal record was racially motivated.
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*Lalo: My Life and Music by Lalo Guerrero and Sherilyn Meece Mentes. University of Arizona Press, 216 pp., $29.95 hard cover, $17.95 paper.
Land, Wind, and Hard Words: A Story of Navajo Activism by John W. Sherry. University of New Mexico Press, 245pp., $29.95. The story of the community-based activists of a Navajo environmental organization, Dine CARE, from its birth through its maturation as told by a non-Navajo who lived with the Dine and reports their triumphs and failures.
*Landscape of the Spirits: Hohokam Rock Art at South Mountain Park by Todd W. Bostwick; photographs by Peter Krocek, illustrations by Todd W. Bostwick and Peter Krocek. University of Arizona Press, 252 pp., $60 hardcover, $27.95 paper.
Language Shift Among the Navajos: Identity Politics and Continuity by Deborah House, University of Arizona Press, 122 pp., $35. Good but thoroughly academic, so it's not an easy read.
(Fiction) The Last Chance Cafe by Linda Lael Miller. Atria Books/Simon & Schuster, 292 pp. $24. A sweet romance detailing the struggles of a young married couple to stay on the straight and narrow in an 1880's small Texas town.
Last of the Old-Time Outlaws: The George West Musgrave Story by Karen Holliday Tanner and John D. Tanner, Jr. University of Oklahoma Press, 374 pp., $39.95. All the detail you could ask for on a party to Arizona's first bank robbery who wound up in South America as the "Gringo Rustler. Dates: 1877-1947.
Latino Images in Film: Stereotypes, Subversion, and Resistance by Charles Ramirez Berg. University of Texas Press, 318 pp., $24.95. Another look at ethnic minorities in film. Berg also examines how successful Latinos such as Jose Ferrer, Raul Julia and Gilbert Roland dealt with it.
*Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest by Sandra Day O'Connor and H. Alan Day. Random House, 318pp., $24.95. Random House Audio, available in both cassettes and CDs ($29.95), abridged. Read by Sandra Day O'Connor.
*The Lessening Stream: An Environmental History of the Santa Cruz River by Michael Logan. University of Arizona Press, 311 pp., $35.
(Fiction) Let Their Spirits Dance: A Novel by Stella Pope Duarte. HarperCollins/Rayo, 312 pp., $24.95. Beautifully written story of a Phoenix family's journey to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D.C. and how members heal in the process.
Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers by Robert Utley. Oxford University Press, 370 pp., $30. Acclaimed historian Utley has embarked on an ambitious project here and accords it his usual precision.
Loretto: The Sisters and Their Santa Fe Chapel by Mary J. Straw Cook. Museum of New Mexico Press, 118 pp., 7 by 10-inch format, $22.50. A reprint of the story of Santa Fe's famous chapel and staircase but with a good deal of new material added including the author's educated guess as to who the mysterious builder of the staircase was.
The Lost Itinerary of Frank Hamilton Cushing edited by Curtis M. Hinsley and David Wilcox. University of Arizona Press, 450 pp., $50. In pioneering work started in 1886 in the Southwest, underwritten by a Boston philanthropist, focusing on the living Zuni in northern Arizona and the departed Hohokam in the Salt River Valley, anthropologist Frank Hamilton Cushing recorded results that have gone unheeded for more than 100 years. This is volume two in an ongoing project about the Hemenway Southwestern Archaeological Expedition, 1886-1889.
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*Madam Millie: Bordellos from Silver City to Ketchikan by Max Evans. University of New Mexico Press, 315 pp., $23.95. Madame Ambassador: The Shoemaker's Daughter by Mari-Luci Jaramillo. Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingue, 178 pp., $15. A real success story of how a determined New Mexico girl from a dysfunctional family in an area of rural poverty became U.S. Ambassador to Honduras.
The Magic Curtain: The Mexican-American Border in Fiction, Film, and Song by Thomas Torrans. Texas Christian University Press, 235 pp., $29.95. From the author of Forging the Tortilla Curtain, a retired journalist, who has done a lot of research on material that he describes as running a fairly uneven gamut from tragic to comic.
Magnificent Failure: A Portrait of the Western Homestead Era by John Martin Campbell. Stanford University Press, 183 pp., 10 1/2 by 8 1/2-inch format, $29.95, paper; $60, cloth. Life and times of the Western Homestead Era beginning around 1885. A deadly combination of natural and economic causes caused many thousands to fail within a few years. Seventy black and white photographs offer a stark testimonial.
(Fiction) Man Walks Into a Room by Nicole Krauss. Doubleday/Nan Talese , 248 pp., $23.95. Memory loss in Nevada from a novelist to watch but not necessarily to buy this time.
Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest by Arnold Berke, photographs by Alexander Vertikoff. Princeton Architectural Press 320 pp., $24.95. Colter (1869-1958) was employed by the Harvey Co. from 1910-1948. During that time she designed some of the best-known buildings on the south rim of the Grand Canyon including the Lookout Tower, Hopi House and Bright Angel Lodge. Her use of native materials earned her style the description of National Park Service Rustic. This book is long on Colter's work, less ample on details of her life.
Mestizo Democracy: The Politics of Crossing Borders by John Francis Burke. Texas A & M University Press, 320 pp., $39.25. Though not exclusively focused on the Southwest, Burke develops a "mestizo theory of democracy."
Mexican Americans & the U.S. Economy: Quest For Buenos Dias (The Mexican American Experience) by Arturo Gonzalez. University of Arizona Press, 147 pp., $14.95. Gonzalez covers immigration, income, poverty, education, labor market outcomes, and explores the extent to which Mexican-Americans are assimilating into the U.S. economy. The quest for Buenos Dias, he finds, may yet succeed. A part of the UA Press's Mexican American Experience series.
Mimbres Classic Mysteries: Reconstructing a Lost Culture Through Its Pottery by Tom Steinbach, Jr. Museum of New Mexico Press, 184 pp., 80 color digital drawings, 8 by 9-inch format, $45, cloth; $29.95, paper. Appealing illustrations of classic Mimbres pottery.
(Fiction) Miracles of Sainted Earth by Victoria Edwards Tester. Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series, 1. University of New Mexico Press, 155 pp., $16.95. Poetry rooted in New Mexico history from an award-winning poet who lives in Silver City, N.M. An inaugural book in a new poetry series.
(Fiction) La Mordida by Jim Sanderson. University of New Mexico Press, 254 pp., $22.95. A gritty crime tale set in the Big Bend Country of West Texas.
More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Texas Women by Greta Anderson. TwoDot , an imprint of the Globe Pequot Press, 117 pp., $10.95. Fun and informative.
(Fiction) Motorcycle Ride on the Sea of Tranquility, A Novel by Patricia Santana. University of New Mexico Press, 270 pp., $19.95. Set in San Diego in the late 1960s, Santana portrays a traditional, loving Mexican-American family trying to cope with and understand children who have stresses of their own to deal with, not the least of which is the Vietnam War.
Moving From the Margins: A Chicana Voice on Public Policy by Adela de la Torre. University of Arizona Press, 141 pp., $14.95. Primarily a compilation of spirited Hispanic activist de la Torre's columns in the L.A. Times. She heads Chicano/Chicana Studies at the University of California at Davis.
(Fiction) A Multitude of Sins: Stories by Richard Ford. Alfred Knopf, 286 pp., $25. Only one story in this collection concerns Arizona, "The Abyss." But it is a lulu. Two trysting, adulterous easterners, rapidly falling out of love with one another, journey together to the Grand Canyon.
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Native American Saddlery and Trappings: A History in Paper Dolls by James K. Oliver. Texas Tech University Press, 32 pp., $10.95. Not circulating library material but a novel teaching tool.
Native Waters: Contemporary Indian Water Settlements and the Second Treaty Era by Daniel McCool. University of Arizona Press, 260 pp., $45. McCool, director of the American West Center at the University of Utah, examines the history of conflict between Indians and non-Indians over water.
Navajo Land, Navajo Culture: The Utah Experience in the Twentieth Century by Robert S. McPherson. University of Oklahoma Press, 301 pp., $34.95. An intimate history of the Navajo living in southeastern Utah.
Navajo Saddle Blankets: Textiles To Ride in the American West edited by Lane Coulter. Museum of New Mexico Press, 144 pp., 85 color photographs, 30 black and white photographs, 9 by 11-inches, $50, cloth; $29.95, paper. Woven for use and not museums, this category of Navajo weavings is coming into its own in this handsome book.
Nevada Military Place Names of the Indian Wars and Civil War by Daniel C.B. Rathbun. Yucca Tree Press, 218 pp., $13. One of those enormously useful specialty books.
(Fiction) Never Fade Away: A Novel by William Hart. Fithian Press/Daniel & Daniel Publishers, 202 pp., $12.95. Two journals read together corroborate a case of discrimination against minority students in a California high school.
New Mexican Lives: Profiles and Historical Stories edited by Richard W. Etulain. University of New Mexico Press, 334 pp., $21.95. Etulain, a professor emeritus of history at the University of New Mexico, has chosen profiles of 10 New Mexicans, from Pope (architect of the Pueblo Uprising) to Tony Hillerman, to serve as profiles of their subjects and the state.
(Fiction) Nine Sons, Collected Mysteries by Wendy Hornsby. Crippen & Landru Publishers, 171 pp., cloth, $42; paper, $16. Well-written noir stories about a fairly unpleasant group of culprits. Booklist called it, "edgy, menacing, masterful." (One non-fiction essay is included.)
No Boundaries: Spirit of Adventure, Forward by Ed Viesturs and introduction by Page Stegner. Northword Press, Tehabi Books and the Ford Motor Company, 176 pp, 10 1/2 by 11 1/2-inch format, $34.95.Full color images capture the thrill of exploring the Southwest.
Nuevomexicano Cultural Legacy: Forms, Agencies and Discourse edited by Francisco A. Lomeli, Victor A. Sorell and Genaro M. Padilla. University of New Mexico Press, 296 pp., $35. An academic, wide range of essays-14 in all-dealing with topics such as Spanish language newspapers at the turn of the 20th century, the importance of mutual aid societies in Mexican American culture, magical realism in literature, Penitente imagery.
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One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church by Richard Abanes. Four Walls Eight Windows, 652 pp., $32. Another hefty, well-researched, fervently presented tome on the Mormon Church from the director of the Religious Information Center in Southern California, who identifies himself as a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Library Journal calls it "an unvarnished history."
(Fiction) On Treacherous Ground: Secret Stories of the West by Earl Murray. Forge, 384 pp., $24.95. The West "in all its grim splendor," comes from this former botany and natural resource manager, but the mention of Tombstone is only a tease.
*Operation Gatekeeper: The Rise of the "Illegal Alien" and the Making of the U.S.-Mexico Boundary by Joseph Nevins. Routledge, 286 pp., $17.95.
*The Other Face of America: Chronicles of Immigrants Shaping Our Future by Jorge Ramos, translated by Patricia J. Duncan. HarperCollins/Rayo, 252pp., $24.95. Popular Univision newsman Ramos who arrived in the US. from Mexico in 1983, tells his own story and includes short essays about his travels, people he has met along the way and friends.
(Fiction) Out There Somewhere by Simon J. Ortiz. University of Arizona Press, 158 pp., $35 cloth; $16.95, paper. Ortiz' poetry combines, "Native American history, personal confession and social critique," according to Publishers Weekly.
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(Fiction) Partner in Crime by J.A. Jance. William Morrow Publishers, 384 pp., cloth, $24.95; paper, $7.99. Jance combines the sleuths in her two popular mystery series, Joanna Brady of Cochise County and J.P. Beaumont of Seattle. They work together to solve the murders of members of the Bisbee art community. Peaceful Canyon Golden River: A Photographic Journey Through Fabled Grand Canyon by David Gaskill and Gudy Gaskill. Colorado Mountain Club Press, 112 pp., $14.95. There is a back pocket which contains a CD treasure of color plates and songs.
A Place to Be Navajo: Rough Rock and the Struggle for Self-Determination in Indigenous Schooling by Teresa McCarty, photographs by Fred Bia. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 192 pp., $49.95, hardcover; $24.95 paper. Rough Rock is a school for Navajo children on the Navajo Reservation.
Playa Works: The Myth of the Empty by William L. Fox. University of Nevada Press, 220 pp., $24.95. Guggenheim Fellow Fox tours the dry lakes of California, Nevada and Utah to study how we perceive the "intimidating blank pages of the desert and inscribe our culture upon them."
(Fiction) Pilgrim: A Sarah Farling Mystery by Jenny Kilb. Booklocker.com, 235 pp., $17.75. Murder in New Mexico at a ghost town turned art colony.
(Fiction) Poems of the American West edited by Robert Mezey. Knopf, Everyman's Library Pocket Poets, 246 pp., $12.50. Several Southwest entries including work from local Tucson poets.
The Politics of Western Water: The Congressional Career of Wayne Aspinall by Stephen C. Sturgeon. University of Arizona Press, 275 pp., $45. Aspinall was a U.S. Representative from Colorado from 1949-1973 who played an important role in creating the Central Arizona Project.
*Prehistoric Culture Change on the Colorado Plateau: Ten Thousand Years on Black Mesa edited by Shirley Powell and Francis E. Smiley. University of Arizona Press, 221pp., 8 1/2 inches by 11-inches format, $50.
Print the Legend: Photography of the American West by Martha A. Sandweiss. Yale University Press, 402 pp., 8 by 10-inch format, index, $39.95. Photo archivist Sandweiss examines and researches many "lost" photographs of the 19th century West.
*Pueblos of the Rio Grande: A Visitor's Guide by Daniel Gibson. Rio Nuevo Publishers, $15.95. Pure Waters: Frank Waters and the Quest for the Cosmic edited by Barbara Waters. University of Ohio Press/Swallow Press, 194 pp., cloth, $39.95; paper, $19.95. Edited by his widow, Barbara, this is a collection drawn from editorials, speeches and essays exploring Waters' lifelong philosophical and visionary themes.
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Racial Borders: Black Soldiers Along the Rio Grande (South Texas Regional Studies) by James N. Leiker. Texas A & M University Press, 256 pp., $34.95. An examination of the social and cultural interaction of black military and the established ethnic groups.
(Fiction) Radio Elvis and Other Stories by John H. Irsfeld. Texas Chrisitian University Press, 197 pp., $22.50. The Southwest entries are centered around Las Vegas.
Ranching, Endangered Species, and Urbanization in the Southwest: Species of Capital by Nathan Sayre. University of Arizona Press, 320 pp., $48. An examination of how conflicts between ranchers and environmentalists can render land management and species restoration efforts ineffectual. The focus is on the Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona.
*Ranching West of the 100th Meridian: Culture, Ecology and Economics edited by Richard L. Knight, Wendell C. Gilgert and Ed Marston. Island Press, 259 pp., $25. A search for the strengths and weaknesses in ranching by a diverse group of academics, ranchers, environmentalists and economic developers hoping for a healthy western range.
Recipes of a Pitchfork Ranch Hostess: the Culinary Legacy of Mamie Burns edited by Cathryn Buesseler and L.E. Anderson. Texas Tech University Press, 82 pp., spiral binding, $14.95. An appetizing collection from a woman whose kitchen was famous but, she admits, never her favorite place to be.
*(Fiction) Red Water: A Novel by Judith Freeman. Pantheon Books, 336 pp., $24.
Relation of "Bonito" Paleo-Channels and Base-Level Variations to Anasazi Occupation, Chaco Canyon, New Mexico by Eric R. Force, R. Gwinn Vivian, Thomas C. Windes, and Jeffrey Dean. Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 194, 8 1/2-11 inch format, 49 pp., $11.95. The authors —a geologist, two archaeologists and a paleoenvironmentalist—reevaluate the prehistoric evolution of Chaco Wash and its relationship to various stages of Anasazi occupation.
(Fiction) The Republic of East L.A.: Stories by Luis J. Rodriguez. HarperCollins/Rayo imprint, 239 pp., $23.95. A sympathetic picture of a hardworking Hispanic community from the author of Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A.
Rick Joy: Desert Works by Rick Joy, introduction by Juhani Pallasmaa, foreword by Stephen Holl. Princeton Architectural Press, 176 pp, $40. Nine examples of Tucson, AZ., architect Rick Joy's work are discussed and photographed-six homes and three studio/offices-in this "New Voices in Architecture" monograph.
(Fiction) The River Is Mine: John Wesley Powell's 1869 Exploration of the Green and Colorado Rivers and the Grand Canyon, a Novel by Ardian Gill. Local Color Press, 526 W. 26th St. Suite 506, New York, N.Y. 10001. 301 pp., $12.95. John Wesley Powell's 1869 ordeal and triumph on the Colorado River rendered in fiction.
(Fiction) Rivers of Stone: A Novel by Robert Pruitt. Sunstone Press, 161 pp., $16.95. Pruitt, a mining attorney and former geologist, spins his debut tale on the "what if" there are diamonds in southeast Utah.
A Road of Her Own: Women's Journeys in the West edited by Marlene Blessing. Fulcrum Publishing, 203 pp. $24.95. Everyone will probably feel a little left out as these pleasant essays bounce around the Far West, the Northwest and Midwest. But the shortest shrift of all is left to the Southwest-very little about us.
(Fiction) The Road to Santa Fe by Norman Zollinger. Forge/Tor Books, 363pp., $25.95. A novel of contemporary New Mexico politics from a knowledgeable source.
Route 66. Gerd Kittel, photographer; Alexander Bloom and Freddy Langer, copywriters. Dimensions, 176 pp., 11 1/4 by 9 1/4 inches format, $29.95. An expert presentation of photographs accompanied by lackluster prose.
Route 66 Across Arizona: A Comprehensive Two-Way Guide For Touring Route 66 by Richard and Sherry Mangum. Hexagon Press, 8 1/2 by 11-inch format, 112 pp., $21.95. The Mangums restrict their examination of Route 66 to Arizona and do a fine job of telling you what to look for now and what was there when.
Route 66: The Romance of the West by Thomas Arthur Repp. Mock Turtle Press, 8 1/2 by 11-inches format, 214 pp., $34.95. Repp spent years interviewing surviving business owners (and/or their survivors) to provide details about this great tacky, storied trail across the country to the sea.
(Fiction) Running Scared by Elizabeth Howell. William Morrow, 388 pp., $24.95. A tough broad protagonist, priceless Celtic artifacts in modern Las Vegas.
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*Saguaro: The Desert Giant by Anna Humphreys and Susan Lowell. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 9-inches by 12-inches format, 59 pp., $10.95.
Salado Archaeology of the Upper Gila, New Mexico by Stephen H. Lekson, contributions by Timothy C. Klinger and William B. Gillespie. Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona No. 67. University of Arizona Press, 101 pp., $16.95. Well done though interest may be limited to specialists.
(Fiction) A Santo in the Image of Cristobal Garcia: A Novel by Rick Collignon. Blue Hen Books, a division of Penguin Putnam, 336 pp., $24.95. An elegantly written novel filled with Northern New Mexico folklore. It completes the trilogy begun with Perdido and The Journal of Antonio Montoya.
(Fiction) Scavengers: A Posadas County Mystery by Steve Havill. St. Martin's Minotaur, 352 pp., $24.95. Posadas undersheriff Bill Gastner has turned his badge over to protege Estelle Reyes-Guzman. As Estelle sets out to bring some vicious killers to justice, fans hear more about her wonderful husband, two adorable children, lovely, aging mother, etc. etc., than the case at hand.
Schemers and Dreamers: Filibustering in Mexico, 1848-1921 by Joseph A. Stout, Jr. Texas Christian University Press, 148 pp., $27.95. Stout revises and expands his own classic, The Liberators: Filibustering Expeditions Into Mexico 1848-1862 , published by Westernlore Press in 1973. The 50 years he adds are relatively uneventful.
Science in the American Southwest: A Topical History by George E. Webb. University of Arizona Press, 271 pp., $48. A history professor at Tennessee Tech, Webb shows how the Southwest became a self-sustaining scientific community.
Scorpion Rain by David Cole. Avon Books, 304 pp. $6.50. A mystery set in Tucson.
(Fiction) Search for Last Chance by A.L. McWilliams. Five Star. 219 pp., $29.95. Audio version, $39.95. Another one of those 19th century western romances that Five Star does so well.
Searching for Steinbeck's Sea of Cortez: A Makeshift Expedition Along Baja's Desert Coast by Andromeda Romano-Lax. Sasquatch Books, 253pp., $16.95. Alaskan author Romano-Lax, an excellent writer, depends heavily on John Steinbeck's The Log From the Sea of Cortez. With two small children, this might have been too much of a shoestring venture as the harrowing scorpion bite which ends it prematurely seems to demonstrate.
(Fiction) Sin City by Harold Robbins. Forge, 383 pp., $25.95. Just a trashy fun read from the estate of the late Harold Robbins. The city is Las Vegas, Nevada
.(Fiction) Six Kinds of Sky: A Collection of Short Fiction by Luis Alberto Urrea. Cinco Puntos Press, 160 pp., $12.95.From Mazatlan to South Dakota-but not too often in the geographical Southwest-Urrea brings his graceful prose and compassionate insight to bear on the characters in these six short stories.
*(Fiction) Small Rocks Rising: A Novel by Susan Lang. Western Literature Series. University of Nevada Press, 235 pp., $18.
Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver. HarperCollins. 265 pp. $23.95. Graceful contemporary essays on nature, family and community.
*(Fiction) The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body by Alberto Alvaro Rios. Copper Canyon Press, 103 pp., $14.
*The Sonoran Desert Tortoise: Natural History, Biology and Conservation edited by Thomas R. Van Devender. The University of Arizona Press, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Studies in Natural History. 390 pp., $70 cloth.
*Sonoran Desert Wildflowers by Richard Spellenberg. Falcon Books, 256 pp., $24.95.
Soul of Nowhere: Traversing Grace in a Rugged Land by Craig Childs. Sasquatch Books, 232 pp., $22.95. In these personal journeys, river guide, naturalist and adventurer Childs takes his readers into isolated territories in northern Mexico and the American Southwest. It is however a disappointing effort from the talented author of The Secret Knowledge of Water.
*(Fiction) The Sound of the Trees by Robert Gatewood. Henry Holt, 289 pp., $25.
Southwest Textiles: Weavings of the Navajo & Pueblo by Kathleen Whitaker. University of Washington Press with the Southwest Museum of Los Angeles, 432pp., $75. You have to applaud the effort here, but several different kinds of weavings are not included and the photos are uneven.
Southwestern Homelands by William Kittredge. National Geographic/Directions, 176 pp., $20. Montana resident Kittredge is a frequent winter visitor to the Southwest and in this collection of essays, which are really not up to his high standard, he sings its praises.
Sowing the Seeds, una cosecha de recuerdos: Sembrando las Semillas, a Harvest of Memories, edited by Elena Diaz Bjorkquist and Rosi Andrade. Writers Club Press, 212 pp., $14.95. A group of Mexican American women (one exception) drawn together by an intense desire to write, recall in Spanish and English, prose and poetry, their special memories of people and events in their lives.
*Spain in the Southwest: A Narrative History of Colonial New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and California by John L. Kessell. University of Oklahoma Press, 100 black and white illustrations, 10 maps, 462 pp., $45.
(Fiction) The Spinning Game: A Sedona Story spun by Sunday Kristine Larson. DJ & Mumm, 407 pp., $23.95. A novel, the first in a projected "A Wild Woman's Trilogy," it is described by its author as "a modern-day fairytale about a wild woman who could not be tamed." Utah-born Larson is a great granddaughter of a buddy of outlaw Johnny Ringo.
Spirit of the American Southwest: Geology, Ancient Eras and Prehistoric People, Hiking Through Time by Tom Prisciantelli. Sunstone Press, 219pp., index, 8 1/2 by 11 inch format, $22.95. Prisciantelli has spent most of his working life in the computer field. Though an easterner, he has also maintained a lifelong interest in the Southwest and in geological and archaeological material accessible via hiking trails. All of that is combined into this attractive book.
Square Peg: Confessions of a Citizen Senator by Orrin Grant Hatch. Basic Books, 249 pp., $25. Elected to the U.S. Senate in 1976, Hatch, a Republican, and a Mormon, discusses his stand on various national issues.
Stagecoach: Wells Fargo and the American West by Philip L. Fradkin, foreword by J.S. Holliday. Simon & Schuster, 250 pp., $27.50. Veteran chronicler of the West, Fradkin, writes of Wells Fargo's 150 years of struggle and survival. With its headquarters in San Francisco, the early years barely touched on the Southwest.
Still the Wild River Runs: Congress, the Sierra Club, and the Fight to Save the Grand Canyon by Byron Pearson. University of Arizona Press, 250 pp., $45. An assistant professor of history at Texas A&M, Pearson, researches the history of hydroelectric dams on the Colorado and declares they were deleted because of political expediency rather than Sierra Club grassroots activism-as the club maintains.
(Fiction) Suicide's Girlfriend: A Novella & Short Stories by Elizabeth Evans. Harper Perrennial, 180 pp., $11.95. University of Arizona English professor Evans is a talented writer and the initial story, "Ransom," is absolutely stunning, but only the eponymous novella is set in the Southwest-Tucson.
(Fiction) Sun City: A Novel by Joseph Di Prisco. MacAdam/Cage, 258 pp., $23. Another trip to Las Vegas, Nevada and none of them really inspirational, but DiPrisco's, by design, is probably this year's grittiest.
Swept Under the Rug: A Hidden History of Navajo Weaving by Kathy M'Closkey. University of New Mexico Press, 322 pp., $32.95. A longtime weaver and an adjunct assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, M'Closkey is deconstructing the perceived wisdom about the history of Navajo weavings.
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Texas Natural History: A Century of Change by David J. Schmidly. Texas Tech University Press, 534 pp., $50. A photographic depiction of our changing modern landscape. This is a graphic, monumental work.
Texas Rangeland, photographs by Burton Pritzker, text by Renee Walker Pritzker. University of Texas Press, 141 pp., 11 3/4-10 1/4 inch format, $39.95. This coffee table book takes a loving look at cows, parts of cows, kinds of cows and offers thoughts about cows.
This Gloryland by Drew Signor. Vantage Press, 164 pp., $18.95. A songwriter and singer who has performed around the Southwest and once hoped for a Nashville career has turned his hand to poetry, essays and short pieces on backcountry exploration.
This Stubborn Self: Texas Autobiographies by Bert Almon. Texas Christian University Press, 419 pp., $39.95. From J. Frank Dobie to Mary Karr, native Texan Almon, who has taught modern literature at the University of Alberta since 1968, really has never left home, as these essays clearly show.
(Fiction) Thread of the Spider: A Mystery by Val Davis. Dunne Books, 256 pp., $23.95. Searching for Anasazi sites in Utah, Nicolette "Nick" Scott finds an unusual artifact which sets a chain of violence in motion. Fifth in the series.
(Fiction) Trail of the Wolf: A Novel by W. Richard Trimble. Clear Stream Communications, 293 pp., $11.95. Rustic western fiction set in 1878 in New Mexico. A duo of good guys hold off a passel of bad ones.
Traditions, Transitions & Technologies: Themes in Southwestern Archaeology: Proceedings of the 2000 Southwest Symposium by Sarah Schlanger. University Press of Colorado, 408 pp., $45. Schlanger is a specialist in Anasazi material. She also published on Mesa Verde.
Translating Southwestern Landscapes: The Making of an Anglo Literary Region by Audrey Goodman. University of Arizona Press, 224 pp., $40. An academic treatment of major elements that have shaped our literary traditions in the Southwest which in turn distorted the area into "an Anglo cultural fantasy."
*(Fiction) The Truth About Alicia and Other Stories by Ana Consuelo Matiella. University of Arizona Press, 150 pp., $24.95, cloth; $14.95 paper.
Turn Left At the Sleeping Dog: Scripting the Santa Fe Legend, 1920-1955 by John Pen LaFarge. University of New Mexico Press, 396 pp., $29.95. A member of the famous La Farge family recalls old-timers – famous and eccentric-in the City Different when he was growing up.
Turquoise Unearthed: An Illustrated Guide by Joe Dan Lowry and Joe P.Lowry. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 74 pp. $12.95. Owners of the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque, N.M., provide a history of this quintessentially southwestern gemstone plus stunning examples of items made from it.
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*The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape by Ray Gonzalez. University of Arizona Press, 184 pp., $17.95 paper; $35, cloth.
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*(Fiction) The Wailing Wind by Tony Hillerman. HarperCollins, 232pp., $25.95.
Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America's Fresh Waters by Robert Jerome Glennon. Island Press, 300 pp., $25. A readable and persuasive (even frightening)-though not completely new-survey of our current use and misuse of water resources.
Weather in the Southwest by Jim Woodmency. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, 32pp., $8.95. With charts and drawings, Woodmency explains our weather. It looks simple but it isn't.
Welfare Ranching: the Subsidized Destruction of the American West edited by George Wuerthner and Mollie Matteson. Island Press. 11 3/4 by 13 1/3=inches, 368 pp. 185 color photos, 3 maps, hard cover, $75; paperback, $45. This formidably-sized tome which brings a new dimension to "coffee table books," presents a compelling argument for legislative reform.
Western Pueblo Identities: Regional Interaction, Migration and Transformation by Andrew I. Duff. University of Arizona Press, 233 pp., $48. Duff, an anthropologist at Washington State and a research associate at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center in Cortez, Colorado, challenges traditional measurements of group identity among southwestern Indian tribes.
When In Doubt Go Higher: Mountain Gazette Anthology edited by M. John Fayee. Mountain sports Press, 355 pp., $18.95. Since 1972, Mountain Gazette magazine has been surprising and offending readers with flippant features on any subject even remotely connected with mountains. This is a sampling from such contributors as Edward Abbey, Charles Bowden and John Nichols.
When Rain Gods Reigned: From Curios to Art at Tesuque Pueblo by Duane Anderson. Museum of New Mexico Press, 156 pp., 9 by 12-inch format, 70 color photographs, 21 black and white photographs, cloth, $45; paper, $29.95. Anderson, a director of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, traces the history of figurines that began as "tourist art," and ascended to the respected level of "traditional art."
(Fiction) White Shell Woman: A Charlie Moon Mystery by James Doss. William Morrow, 292 pp., $23.95. Anasazi ruins, feuding academia, grave robbery and murder occupy center stage in the 7th of this series.
Willa Cather and the American Southwest edited by John Swift and Joseph Urgo. University of Nebraska Press, 172 pp., $40. A book that will appeal mostly to scholars, although, as one writes, Cather's writing, "can accommodate-or withstand – whatever critics and scholars subject it to."
The Winds Erase Your Footprints by Shiyowin Miller. Naturegraph Press. 335 pp., $16.95. This diamond in the rough is a "secondhand memoir," written by Miller about Juanita Standly, an Oklahoma bookkeeper, who in 1930, married Luciano Platero, a Navajo silversmith, in Hollywood and went to live with him at Canoncito on the Navajo Reservation. Platero died in 1936. A quiet, unpretentious story that rings with authenticity.
The Word Rides Again: Rereading the Frontier in American Fiction by J.David Stevens. Ohio University Press, 236 pp., $49.95. Well-written but deals mostly with the Great Plains.
The Words of Cesar Chavez edited by Richard J. Jensen and John C. Hammerback. Texas A & M University Press, 232 pp., six black and white photos, $19.95 paper; $42.95 cloth. Good for the record. Chavez towers in southwestern history and these are some of his ideas as expressed in his words.
(Fiction) A World of Thieves: A Novel by James Carlos Blake. William Morrow, 295 pp., $25.95. A family of bank robbers who start out in Louisiana and wind up in West Texas provide one of today's best fiction writers with a story you shouldn't miss.
Reprints/Revised Editions
Arizona Then & Now by Allen Dutton. Westcliffe Publishers, 168 pp. $50. A revised edition: originally published by Ag2 Press in 1981.
Comadres: Hispanic Women of the Rio Puerco Valley collected and edited by Nasario Garcia. Western Edge Press, 243 pp, $17.95. Originally published in 1997 by University of New Mexico Press.
Coyotes and Town Dogs, Earth First! and the Environmental Movement by Susan Zakin. University of Arizona Press, 482 pp., $17.95. Originally published 1993.
Enduring Seeds: Native American Agriculture and Wild Plant Conservation by Gary Paul Nabhan, foreword by Wendell Berry and Miguel Altieri. University of Arizona Press, 225 pp., $19.95. Originally published in 1989 by North Point Press.
Everett Reuss: Vagabond for Beauty & Wilderness Journals, edited by W.L. Rusho. Gibbs Smith, 422 pp., $29.95. A combination edition of 2 titles previously published in 1983 and 1998.
The Ex-Rangers: South of the Border by Jim Miller. Pocket Books Western, 213pp., $4.99. Originally published in 1993.
Four Leagues of Pecos: A Legal History of the Pecos Grant, 1800-1933 by G. Emlen Hall. University of New Mexico Press. 393 pp. $45. First released in 1983.
Georgia O'Keeffe: Works on Paper. Museum of New Mexico, 9 x 12-inch Format, 102 pp., $29.95. Originally published 1985.
Honor At Daybreak by Elmer Kelton, afterword by Joyce Gibson Roach. Texas Christian University, 397 pp., $25. Originally published in 1991.
Journey of the Grey Fox People by Harold Courlander. University of New Mexico Press, 246 pp., $16. Originally published in 1977 as the Mesa of Flowers by Crown Publishers.
Navajo Weapon: The Navajo Code Talkers by Sally McClain. Rio Nuevo Publishers, 300 pp., $16.95. Plants for Dry Climates: How To Select, Grow and Enjoy by Mary Rose Duffield and Warren Jones. Perseus Publishing Group. 226 pp. $25.
Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes. Canongate, 208 pp., $12. Originally published in 1946. Roadside Geology of Colorado, second edition, by Halka Chronic and Felicie Williams. Mountain Press Publishing Co., 398 pp., $20.
Sagebrush State: Nevada's History, Government and Politics by Michael W. Bowers. University of Nevada Press, 240 pp., $16.95. Second edition.
Spirit of the West: Cooking from the Ranch House and Range by Beverly Cox and Martin Jacobs. Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 224pp., $40. Originally published in 1996.
Tertiary History of the Grand Canyon District by Clarence E. Dutton, introduction by Stephen J. Pyne. University of Arizona Press, 368 pp., $75. Originally published in 1882. Another reprint carries an introduction by Wallace Stegner. (A mint copy of the original can cost $4,000!)
Uranium Frenzy: Saga of the Nuclear West by Raye C. Ringholz. Revised and Expanded Edition. Utah State University Press, 344 pp., $19.95.