Books & Reading
Southwest Books of the Year
Steven Phillips's Picks
Since 1994, Steven Phillips has been publications manager at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. He has owned and operated a publishing company in Denver, Colorado, and worked as an archaeologist for the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service's Branch of Historic Preservation. He is an author, editor and designer.
Saguaro: The Desert Giant
by Anna Humphreys and Susan Lowell
Just like the plant it so colorfully describes, this book is indeed impressive. Well-researched and immensely readable, Saguaro: The Desert Giant is that rare breed of natural history book - informative, understandable, comprehensive, scientifically accurate, and just a lot of fun to read. How saguaro fruit is harvested and processed, its life history (including a disarmingly simple and succinct description of the saguaro's special brand of photosynthesis known as the CAM process- crassulacean acid metabolism), myths surrounding the saguaro, the plant's impact on popular culture ... it seems to be all here. Well-chosen photographs and illustrations, as well as quotes by important Southwest scientists and authors, such as John Van Dyke, Ruth Underhill and Forrest Shreve, add color and texture to a book already brimming with life.
adventures With ED
by Jack Loeffler
Written by one of Abbey's best friends, this biographical memoir provides a fascinating look into the life of one of the Southwest's most irreverent and influential writers. Loeffler and Abbey spent many hours together, exploring the rugged Western landscape, and sharing an unabiding love of nature and a disdain for growth, bureaucracy and the industrial, military complex. While lacking the breadth and subtle nuances found in James Cahalan's Edward Abbey: A Life, this volume provides a much more intimate, and forgiving, look at the author. "Abbey," writes the author, "is almost impossible to define." Adventurer (in ideas and deeds), loner, naturalist (although he detested the epithet), gifted writer, anarchist, lover of women (married five times with dozens of paramours), shy and often melancholy, Abbey was above all else a man who placed paramount importance on friendship. And in the final analysis this is a book about friendship, about two compadres sharing the same trail.
Pueblos of the Rio Grande
by Daniel Gibson
This book, written by the managing editor of Native Peoples magazine, serves as an attractive primer to the nineteen New Mexico pueblos. Each chapter covers a separate pueblo where the history, contemporary life, arts and crafts and culture are discussed. How and when to visit each pueblo is included, along with information on where to dine and stay, recreational possibilities, and artists and galleries that can be visited. The book also has a useful calendar of pueblo events. Although there are some noticeable gaps in the photo selection (missing are Zuni's Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe and Zia's Nuestra Senor de la Asuncion, both discussed in the text) this richly illustrated volume will be a useful guide for travelers whose itinerary includes at least one New Mexico pueblo.
Prehistoric Culture Change on the Colorado Plateau
Edited by Shirley Powell and Francis E. Smiley
Anyone with an active interest in southwestern archaeology is familiar with the Black Mesa Archaeological Project. Conducted between 1967 and 1983 in extreme northeastern Arizona, this "Big Archaeology" project identified over 2,700 sites spanning nearly 10,000 years of occupation. Based on the monumental size and scientific nature of this project, one might expect this "final report" to be beyond the reach of the non-scientist. Happily this is not the case. Editors Powell and Smiley, along with their seven contributors, have organized the mountains of data into concise, accessible prose, and ultimately presenting the reader with a coherent view of Black Mesa prehistory. For many readers, however, the volume may have an unintended bonus, namely a rare opportunity to learn about the special challenges and opportunities presented by a multi-year, large-scale archaeological project.
Top Ten Picks:
- The Desert Cries: A Season of Flash Floods in a Dry Land By Craig Childs
- Saguaro: The Desert Giant by Anna Humphreys and Susan Lowell
- Landscape of the Spirits: Hohokam Rock Art at South Mountain Park by Todd W. Bostwick
- Madam Millie: Bordellos from Silver City to Ketchikan by Max Evans
- adventures With ED: A Portrait of Abbey by Jack Loeffler
- Pueblos of the Rio Grande: A Visitor's Guide by Daniel Gibson
- Prehistoric Culture Change on the Colorado Plateau: Ten Thousand Years on Black Mesa edited by Shirley Powell and Francis E. Smiley
- The Underground Heart: A Return to a Hidden Landscape by Ray Gonzalez
- Lalo: My Life and Music by Lalo Guerrero and Sherilyn Meece Mentes
- Sonoran Desert Wildflowers by Richard Spellenberg