Southwest Books of the Year
Complete List
* An asterisk indicates that this title is featured on a panel member's list of Top Choices and is reviewed there.
+ This is a new category and indicates a book that. for whatever reason - maybe its target audience is too special - is not on any Top Choices list but is singled out for attention.
F indicates fiction.
T is another new category: "Tangential." It means that the book touches only lightly on the geographical Southwest or, though set in the Southwest, has little regional feeling.
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F T Abandon: A Romance by Pico Iyer. Alfred Knopf. 353 pp. $24. While studying Sufi in California, an Englishman falls in love with an elusive and mystical woman. Their affair includes a brief encounter in a New Mexico monastery.
* An Accidental Cowboy: A Memoir by Jameson Parker. St. Martin's/Thomas Dunne Books. 277 pp. $24.95. Jameson Parker traded a stage career for life on a Southern California ranch. He joined his neighbors driving cattle over rugged landscapes, an operation often taking several days and requiring hard, never-ending physical labor. The author writes with such clarity the reader can't help but join the routine of driving, branding, castrating, vaccinating and birthing—dirty, smelly and often dangerous work. These experiences help him cope with a period of depression which he experienced following a near fatal shooting.
African American Women Confront the West, 1600-2000 by Quintard Taylor, Shirley Ann Wilson Moore (editors). University of Oklahoma Press. 389 pp. $34.95. Sixteen contributors explore life experiences of African American women showing that they played active roles in many areas, thus disproving their stereotypical image as marginal in society.
After the Boom in Tombstone and Jerome, Arizona: Decline in Western Resource Towns by Eric L. Clements. University of Nevada Press. 389 pp. $29.95. Eric Clements, Southeast Missouri State University faculty member, studies the process of bust and regeneration through two western towns that were reinvented as tourist attractions.
Alex and Hobo: A Chicano Life and Story by Jose Inez Taylor, James M. Taggart. University of Texas Press. 206 pp. $19.95 paper, 40 hardcover. Though a fictional story, Alex and the Hobo is written out of the life experiences of its author, Jose Inez (Joe) Taylor, and it realistically portrays a boy's coming-of-age as a Spanish-speaking man carving out a place for himself in a class-stratified and Anglo-dominated society. His co-author, James Taggart, is the Lewis Audenreid Professor of History and Archaeology at Franklin and Marshall College.
F T Along Came Mary: A Bad Girl Creek Novel by Jo-Ann Mapson. Simon & Schuster. 354 pp. $24. The primary locale of this well-written story about a farm run by women is Northern California.
Alternative Futures for Changing Landscapes: The Upper San Pedro River Basin in Arizona and Sonora by Carl Steinitz, Hector Arias, Scott Bassett, Michael Flaxman, Tomas Goode, Thomas Maddock III, David Mouat, Richard Peiser and Allan Shearer. Island Press. 195 pp. $30. This interesting and scholarly book has a focus that may be too narrow for the average reader.
Amado and Friends: A Tribute to the Art of Amado M. Pena, Jr. by . Kiva Publishing. 96 pp. $25. As the Pena Gallery describes, "For more than thirty years, Amado M. Pe-a, Jr. has enchanted art lovers and given of his time and energy to children, education and the arts. In tribute to his remarkable career, his friends from the arts, the media and public life contribute their own special version of his creative vision. Proceeds from the sale of this book will benefit the programs of the Amado and J.B. Pe-a Art Has Heart Foundation."
Amarillo Slim, In a World of Fat People: The Memoirs of the Greatest Gambler Who Ever Lived by Amarillo Slim Preston with Greg Dinkin. Harper Collins. 270 pp. $24.95. A self-congratulatory memoir by a sometime winner of the Las Vegas World Series of Poker. For a more accurate, better written view of this world, try Positively Fifth Street by James McManus.
T American Indians in U.S. History by Roger L. Nichols. University of Oklahoma Press. 288 pp. $29.95. Nichols' ambitious volume attempts to cover Indians from colonial days to present times.
* American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows, September 1857 by Sally Denton. Alfred Knopf. 306 pp. $26.95. Although a book about the Mountain Meadows Massacre, Blood of the Prophets by Will Bagley, made last year's list, Denton's is by no means redundant. Where some might find the former daunting, they will discover the latter entirely accessible. A well-written, easily readable version, it is still not easy to understand the justification for the disturbing events that took place at Mountain Meadows. An excellent companion piece, Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith, leads to the "extremes of religious belief within our own borders." Try intermingling the reading of both books for an interesting juxtaposition of related times and events.
The American West in 2000: Essays in Honor of Gerald D. Nash by Richard Etulain, Ference M. Szasz (editors). University of New Mexico Press. 208 pp. $29.95. Contributors provide a readable, eclectic collection of essays looking at the American West that mainly focus on the past and present rather than its future.
America's National Wildlife Refuges: A Complete Guide by Russell D. Butcher. Roberts Rinehart. 714 pp. $29.95. This monumental reference work is filled with detailed information on more than 530 locations. Good photos, though small. Some might quarrel with the evaluations of the work done at the Monuments but to have all the data between the covers of one book is immensely valuable.
Ancestral Hopi Migrations by Patrick D. Lyons. University of Arizona Press. 142 pp. $16.95. Anthropological papers of the University of Arizona. As you might imagine, the book is scholarly and technical, but it integrates a lot of previous research.
T The Anguish of Snails: Native American Folklore in the West by Barre Toelken. Utah State University Press. 204 pp. $22.95. Although the author has an adopted Navajo family, most of the book pertains to residents of the Pacific Northwest.
* An Architectural Guidebook to the National Parks: Southwest: Arizona-New Mexico-Texas by Harvey Kaiser. Gibbs Smith Publisher. 288 pp. $16.95. Looking for summer vacation ideas? The author selected 21 National Park Service units in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas that exhibit architectural significance and illustrate how diverse cultures responded to the harsh southwestern environment. Why do these sites appear where they do? Who built them? How were they built? What characters and events shaped their history? You'll learn where to find the largest collection of Pueblo Revival architecture in the National Park system, where to find the oldest, most intact 17th century Spanish missions in the U.S., where the successful but short-lived U.S. Camel Corps was based, where to explore Hohokam, Anasazi and Sinagua prehistory, and much more. Maps, informative sidebars and photographs round out this great little guidebook.
Arizona Goes To War: The Home Front and the Front Lines During World War II by Brad Melton & Dean Smith A foreword by Arizona Senator John McCain and an introduction by Marshall Trimble. University of Arizona Press. 233, index. pp. $ 24.95 paper, 39.95 hard cover. A nice book to look at. Easy to read. Good popular history written by some pros in the field.
Arizona Pioneer Stockman Ranch Histories, Volume XXI by Arizona National Livestock Show, Inc. and Doris French. Arizona Cowbelles. 161 pp. $25. Eighteen hardy Arizonans contributed to this volume. Many have written their own stories, others are dictated. All are fairly circumspect. Nevertheless the value is real. It could use an index and more photos with better reproduction.
Arizona Then and Now by Allen E. Dutton. Westcliffe Publishers. 156 pp. $39.95. This handsome, coffee-table book masks the enormous amount of research that makes it possible—finding just the right spot to rephotograph. It is a valuable tool for further work as well as a delightful way to spend a few browsing hours.
Arizona's Hispanic Flyboys 1941-1945 by Rudolph C. Villareal. iUniverse. 248 pp. $14.95. Basically, this is a list and a useful one, but it may not be complete.
+ Arizona's Sanctuaries, Retreats, and Sacred Places by Kelly Ettenborough. Westcliffe Publishers. 256 pp. $22.95. Here is a handsome little book providing excellent research, good photos and useful information for travelers.
* Arizona's War Town: Flagstaff, Navajo Ordnance Depot, and World War II by John S. Westerlund. University of Arizona Press. 280 pp. $39.95. Westerlund wrote several Journal of Arizona History articles and his dissertation on the Navajo Ordnance Depot. However, here he expands those into much more than just a re-hash by documenting how "this linchpin in the war effort marked a turning point in Flagstaff's history, bringing considerable social, cultural, and economic change to the region." Northern Arizona readers, in particular, will find this helpful in understanding the evolution of "modern-day" Flagstaff.
Arrows, Bullets and Saddle Sores: A Collection of True Tales of Arizona's Old West by Charles Lauer. Golden West Publishers. 181 pp. $9.95. Lauer provides a pleasant introduction to the fact and fiction of Arizona's past.
Artists At Home: Inspired Ideas from the Homes of New Mexico Artists by Emily Drabanski. New Mexico Magazine. 104 pp. $24.95. The homes and life styles of successful, living people are always interesting. The selected subjects are not particularly well-known outside of their own circles.
Autobiography of a Fat Bride: True Tales of a Pretend Adulthood by Laurie Notaro. Villard. 257 pp. $12.95. Zits and all," one reviewer wrote, this book is filled with the "candor and outrageous humor that made Arizona Republic columnist Notaro's "Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club," an overnight cult phenomenon.
T Avedon at Work: In the American West by Laura Wilson, foreword by Larry McMurtry. University of Texas Press. 132 pp. $39.95. Most of these poignant faces photographed in the 1970s belong to working class people, grimy, gritty, down on their luck. They are a world removed from the powerful and elegant with whom Avedon is usually associated.
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F Bad Faith: A Sister Agatha Mystery by David and Aimee Thurlo. St. Martin's Minotaur. 290 pp. $23.95. Sister Agatha, a former investigative journalist, works out of Our Lady of Hope Monastery in the New Mexico desert. She has a nice sense of humor - her elderly car is "The Antichrysler." And she is also a deft hand at doping out mysteries when the monastery's chaplain suddenly dies.
A Bark in the Park! The 45 Best Places to Hike With Your Dog in the El Paso/Las Cruces Region by Jessica Powers. Cruden Bay Books. 144 pp. $12.95. Okay, so it's pretty special, but if this is the information you need, here's the place to get it.
* Battle Rock: The Struggle Over a One-Room School in America's Vanishing West by William Celis. Public Affairs Books. 256 pp. $25. Stephen Hanson, a well-traveled "ex-hippie" educator, took on the job of principal/teacher at a one-room school in Colorado's remote McElmo Canyon. It was more than he bargained for. The simple farming and ranching life in the canyon was being forever transformed by a steady stream of urban escapees who had values, attitudes, and intentions that were frequently at odds with those of long-time residents. As Hanson soon learned, the school often served as the battleground between these two groups. Author William Celis spent one academic year (1999-2000) immersing himself in the day-to-day activities of the school and in the lives of many of the canyon's residents. The result is a book that is both enlightening and entertaining. Thinking about escaping the city for the simple, harmonious life in small town America? Read this book before you pack.
Big Bend Pictures: A Definitive Look at the Landscape and the People by James Evans, foreword by Robert Draper. University of Texas Press. 176 pp. $39.95. Terrific photos the descriptions of which are a tad pedestrian. This is not about Big Bend National Park.
Biking the Arizona Trail by Andrea Lankford. Westcliffe Publishers. 192 pp. $14.95. This is a good seller in local bike shops. Biking trips are suggested in sections.
Biking the Grand Canyon Area by Andrea Lankford. Westcliffe Publishers. 144 pp. $12.95. For its specific audience, this is a useful book.
+ Birds of Arizona: Field Guide by Stan Tekiela. Adventure Publications, Inc. 345 pp. $14.95. A handy little book containing 145 species of Arizona birds. Tekiela , a nature columnist, takes his own photos which are reproduced large and crisp.
Birds of Prey in the American West by Richard L. Glinski, photographs by Tom Vezo. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 114 pp. $22.95. Good photos and Glinski is a knowledgeable guide although some of his facts might be challenged. The book works as an introduction to the field.
* Blanket Weaving in the Southwest by Joe Ben Wheat, edited by Ann Lane Hedlund. University of Arizona Press. 440 pp. $75. There are truly two lifetimes of study, assimilation, and integration in this, the late Joe Ben Wheat's magnum opus, for editor Hedlund is herself a world-renowned expert on southwestern Native American weaving, with numerous books and exhibit catalogs to her credit. Here the editing seems flawless, permitting Wheat's knowledge to show at its best. In addition to nearly 200 color plates with full technical descriptions, Wheat's texts are virtually mini-glossaries or mini-histories under such headings as Weaves or Design or Colors or Fibers and Yarns. Not intended nor appropriate for a beginning collector or reader with only a general interest, this is, nonetheless, one of the most important books on southwestern weaving published in recent decades.
F Blind Run by Patricia Lewin. Ballantine Books. 327 pp. $23.95. Here is a spy thriller set in New Mexico where a brooding, self-exiled, ex-operative is abruptly brought back into the picture. Assassins, symbols, retribution - they're all here.
Blood and Voice: Navajo Women Ceremonial Practitioners by Maureen Trudelle Schwarz. University of Arizona Press. 186 pp. $45. These symbols - blood and voice - designate the shift from child to adult in the Navajo world for Navajo women. Interviews with 29 female practitioners tell of conducting the ceremonies honoring the puberty tradition. A scholarly approach.
Border Oasis: Water and the Political Ecology of the Colorado River Delta, 1940-1975 by Evan R. Ward. University of Arizona Press. 208 pp. $45. The environmental history of the Colorado River delta and the Salton Sea during the last 100 years. Deserts have been transformed into agricultural oases at the cost of ecosystem collapse. Important data to have. Not an easy read.
Born to this Land by Rod Steagall, photographs by Skeeter Hagler. Texas Tech University Press. 112 pp. $34.95. Steagall is identified as "Texas best-loved cowboy poet," and Hagler is a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer of cowboy life. The value of horses, saddles, and friendships are praised in rhyme and pictured in stunning black and white.
The Boy and the Dog Are Sleeping by Nasdijj. Ballantine Books. 336 pp. $22.95. The story - filled with powerful emotion and the poetry of loss - is of a 13-year-old Navajo boy with AIDS. It is told by his adopted, non-Navajo father.
+ The Brave Ones: The Journals and Letters of the 1911-1912 Expedition Down the Green & Colorado Rivers by Ellsworth Kolb and Emery C. Kolb. Fretwater Press. 180 pp. $15.95. In 1911 Ellsworth and Emery C. Kolb, photographers and brothers, built two rowboats and without any rowing experience rowed them 1100 miles down the Green and Colorado Rivers. They made both still and stereo photographs and a movie of their experience which they would show and sell for the next 60 years. This book, important for its research, is a bit difficult to read. No maps. Includes the journal of Hubert R. Lauzon, transcribed and written by William C. Suran.
A Brief History of Telluride by Christian J. Buys. Western Reflections Publishing Company. 80 pp. $9.95. Historic events and fascinating characters fill this readable, slender volume. One of the characters was Butch Cassidy who stopped by to clean out the Miguel County Bank.
* F Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona by Ryan Harty. University of Iowa Press. 158 pp. $15.95. Harty creates a fictional Arizona quite unlike any other in this award-winning debut collection of short stories in which haunted characters search for scraps of happiness that seem to reside just beyond the next desert sunset or in the shadow of Bob's Big Boy. In the opening and closing pieces, a youngster wrestles with his relationship to his troubled older brother. In between, the memory of a Led Zeppelin concert serves as the yardstick for a man's life, a substitute teacher and a homeless teenager form an edgy relationship that dissolves when they return from San Francisco to Phoenix, a brother learns difficult lessons about himself as he cleans out his dead sister's Las Vegas apartment, a female comparative literature instructor and a gay Indian studies professor form a bond in an ASU neighborhood bar, parents deal with the mechanical meltdown of their robot son, and an ex-con experiences a moment of redemption on the highway between Tubac and Tumacacori. These sad tales, with their crystalline moments of revelation, offer unsettling glimpses into the heart of the suburban Southwest.
* F Brownsville: Stories by Oscar Casares. Back Bay Books (Little Brown & Co.). 192 pp. $13.95. In this auspicious debut collection of short stories set in the author's hometown, Casares explores with wit and imagination themes of friendship, loss, and identity played out in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. A boy learns a hard lesson about dignity and work, a borrowed hammer opens a chasm between neighbors, a monkey's head creates a rift between a young man and his parents, an old man wrestles with years of sorrow over a lost daughter, the theft of her cherry-red bowling ball transforms a widow's life. The locale is particular, but the themes are universal and the stories are honestly told. The winner of the James Michener Award and a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, Casares is a voice to be reckoned with in southwestern letters.
The Buffalo Soldier Tragedy of 1877 by Paul H. Carlson. Texas A & M University Press. 177 pp. $24.95. Fine for researchers, this heroic and tragic experience is looked at from several points of view. The 10th Cavalry, sent into West Texas and New Mexico to rid the area of Comanches, hooked up with traders, got lost and separated. Crazed from lack of food and water, some members deserted, some were killed. Eventually the balance returned to their home base, mission not accomplished.
Burn by Eric Cuestas-Thompson. Hats Off Books. 318 pp. $23.95. Set in Tucson with plenty of Tucson landmarks this dark, erotic novel deals with drugs, sexuality and sexual orientation. It is written by a Tucson psychotherapist.
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F Camelback Falls: A David Mapstone Mystery by Jon Talton. Thomas Dunne Books, an imprint of St. Martin's Press. 212 pp. $22.95. Phoenix business writer (Arizona Republic) is establishing himself as a mystery writer using a local setting. In this, his second, Talton's protagonist, a historian with the Maricopa County sheriff's office, must save the reputation of his longtime friend, the new sheriff. There are unfortunately some rogue elements in law enforcement. Good yarn, well written.
Captain John H. Rogers, Texas Ranger: Number One in the Frances B. Vick Series by Paul N. Spellman. University of North Texas Press. 270 pp. $29.95. An overdue biography of the least known of four legendary Texas Ranger captains.
F Careless Love, or the Land of Promise by Kate Horsley. University of New Mexico Press. 249 pp. $23.95. Horsley has many fans but this book, set in the 1880s, is a challenge. On a trip West to find his father, the protagonist meets interesting people. In this lukewarm response, it is important to include titles of Horsley's more successful books, Crazy Woman and A Killing in New Town.
+ Centuries of Decline during the Hohokam Classic Period at Pueblo Grande by David R. Abbott. University of Arizona Press. 281 pp. $47.50. The introduction alone makes this technical book worthwhile.
* The Changing Mile Revisited: An Ecological Study of Vegetation Change With Time in the Lower Mile of an Arid and Semi-Arid Region by Raymond M. Turner, Robert H. Webb, Janice E. Bowers, James Rodney Hastings. University of Arizona Press. 334 pp. $75. The original Changing Mile, published in 1965, set a standard for the use of repeat photography in the study of ecosystem change. This volume, which adds three decades of data to the former book, uses 295 photographs taken at 98 photo stations to show the effects of climate and cultural stresses on the landscape of southern Arizona, Mexico's Pinacate region, and the coast of the Gulf of California over the last century. Even readers with limited interest in the subject matter will enjoy perusing the hundreds of historic photographs and noting changes and patterns.
+ Chief Yellowhorse Lives On: And Other Stories of Arizona Places and People by Lisa Schnebly Heidinger. Arizona Highways. 248 pp. $16.95. Heidinger is a third generation Arizonan. Her great grandmother lent her name to Sedona, Ariz. She writes of touring around the state and finding bits of homegrown culture that non-Hispanic, non-Native American settlers are leaving behind.
* Child of the Fighting Tenth: On the Frontier with the Buffalo Soldiers by Forrestine C. Hooker. Oxford Press. 280 pp. $25.
Forrestine C. Hooker was the daughter-in-law of Willcox rancher Henry Clay Hooker and a best-selling novelist at the turn of the twentieth century. But most memorable in her eyes were her childhood years, when she was "Birdie" Cooper, the daughter of Captain Charles Cooper of the famed 10th Cavalry buffalo soldiers. Late in life, she recalled those exciting and romantic days of army life in Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. Remarkably, in her early sixties, she was able to recapture through a child's eyes the comradery of frontier soldiering and personal experiences with Nelson Miles, Quanah Parker, Geronimo, and other legendary southwesterners. Few memoirs of the period are as readable, or better convey the pride of frontier soldiering.
Chiricahua Mountains: Bridging the Borders of Wildness (Desert Places) by Ken Lamberton (preface), photography by Jeff Garton. University of Arizona Press. 100 pp. $13.95. Two buddies make a four-day hiking trip into the Chiricahuas searching for short-tailed hawks. Lamberton works in some ecological history of the Chiricahuas - flora and fauna. The hikers don't find the hawk but the trip is fun and the photographs are memorable.
Collecting Santa Fe Authors by T.N. Luther, illustrations by Marilyn Luther. Ancient City Press. 112 pp. $22. The author provides details on collecting 35 authors who have either lived in or written about Santa Fe. He runs the gamut from Fray Angelico Chavez to Martha Grimes.
La Comida del Barrio: Latin-American Cooking in the US by Aaron Sanchez. Clarkson Potter. 240 pp. $30. This handsomely illustrated book is wide-ranging - from Cuba to Brazil. Many of its recipes are so complicated, say the one for red chile mole, you will have no qualms at all in settling for the Victoria brand mole in a bottle at the supermercado. Sanchez is a television chef and has a following.
The Coronado Expedition: From the Distance of 460 Years by Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint. University of New Mexico Press. 338 pp. $39.95. More than a dozen scholars examine the documentary records from Francisco Vasquez de Coronado's 1540 reconnaissance into what is now New Mexico.
Cowboy Etiquette by Texas Bix Bender, art by Larry Bute. Gibbs Smith. 128 pp. $6.95. Not intended to be funny, this is a serious little book about how to behave. "Don't try to pass off your personal life as dinner conversation," is one bit of advice. "If a woman spills her drink, hand her a napkin and let her do the patting," is another.
F The Cowboy With the Tiffany Gun by Aaron Latham. Simon & Schuster. 372 pp. $26. A continuation of Code of the West. A picaresque re-enactment of the quest for the Holy Grail in West Texas.
F Coyote Cowgirl by Kim Antieau. Forge. 284 pp. $24.95. Heroine Jeanne Les Flambeaux is left in charge of some family heirlooms which promptly disappear forcing Jeanne to go chasing across the Southwest after them.
Crossing the Mountains and Plains by George W. Reaugh, edited by Gardner Smith and Verlena Bush. Moccasin Rock Press. 76 pp. $12. A rare southern route Gold Rush diary describing the overland trip by way of Independence, Mo., Santa Fe, Socorro and Guadalupe Pass, N.M. dipping into Mexico, across Arizona to California.
Cultural Corridors of Pima County Tucson-Pima Arts Council. pp. $17.95. A cute little book that accompanied a traveling exhibit. It's just a sampler, not intended to be comprehensive. Nice CD that samples southwestern and local music.
The Culture of Tourism, the Tourism of Culture: Selling the Past to the Present in the American Southwest by Hal K. Rothman. University of New Mexico Press. 250 pp. $34.95. Rothman, on the faculty of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, has included essays from 12 authors, including himself, which look at the tourist Southwest from various points of view and with a variety of writing styles. Rothman himself likes a little vulgar slang. William L. Bryan Jr. who runs a travel planning service gets right down to the financial nitty-gritty - although 200 a day for a guide in the Four Corners area sounds pricey.
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F Dark Alchemy: A Dr. Sylvia Strange Novel by Sarah Lovett. Simon & Schuster. pp. $24. The stripped-down prose in this thriller is not quite up to Lovett's best as she tracks a wily, super-intelligent killer laying waste to her scientific colleagues in New Mexico.
F Dead Soul: A Charlie Moon Mystery by James Doss. St. Martins Minotaur. 352 pp. $24.95. There is humor and romance in this 8th Charlie Moon mystery. Moon as sharp as ever, aided and abetted by his spooky, outspoken Aunt Daisy, is more a rancher now than lawman but he hasn't lost his edge.
Deadly Dozen: Twelve Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West by Robert K. DeArment. University of Oklahoma Press. 256 pp. $29.95. Depicted as not only forgotten but dangerous, accounts of the lives of these men incorporate social history and gunfighter culture. DeArment is a student of lawlessness in the West.
Delivering Doctor Amelia: The Story of a Gifted Young Obstetrician's Mistake and the Psychologist Who Helped Her by Dan Shapiro. Harmony Books. 254 pp. $24. A Tucson psychologist works with a disillusioned physician whose problems occasionally seem self-indulgent.
Desert Dreams: The Western Art of Don Crowley by Don Hedgpeth. Greenwich Workshop Press. 148 pp. $85. Don Crowley, born in California and a successful commercial artist in New York City beginning in the late 1950s, has perfected a technique of representational painting that has made him one of the most successful, contemporary artists painting Native Americans.
The Desert Pilgrim: En Route to Mysticism and Miracles by Mary Swander. Viking. 329 pp. $24.95. A teacher discusses how she found healing and faith with an Hispanic Russian Orthodox priest who is also a curandero.
Desert Sanctuaries: The Chinatis of the Big Bend by Wyman Meinzer. Texas Tech University Press. 79 pp. $ 32.50. Meinzer covers this clump of mountains northwest of Big Bend National Park. Fun to look at, lovely graphics.
Desert Style by Mary Whitesides, photographs by Matthew Reier. Gibbs Smith Publisher. 130 pp. $29.95. More than a fifth of the earth's surface is covered by desert landscape. Whitesides' goal is to show how desert materials and textures can be used to make desert homes beautiful and efficient.
F Desert Winter: A Claire Gray Mystery by Michael Craft. St. Martin's Minotaur. 288 pp. $23.95. A lot of sex and not much mystery in this pedestrian effort.
The Diaries of John Gregory Bourke, Volume One, November 20, 1872-July 28, 1876 by Charles M. Robinson III. University of North Texas Press. 518 pp. $49.95. Bourke was an aide to General George Crook during the post Civil War Apache Wars. This is Volume One of a projected five volume project. Together they will make an accessible, useful research tool.
A Dictionary of New Mexico & Southern Colorado Spanish, revised and expanded by Ruben Cobos. Museum of New Mexico Press. 255 pp. $39.95 cloth, 19.95 paper. At 92, Cobos is still working on this meticulous enterprise ferreting out thousands of words in which local meanings have been "superimposed on their original meanings, a shift of accent, or definite semantic variations" to make virtually new words.
Dining at the Lineman's Shack by John Weston. University of Arizona Press. 210 pp. $17.95, 36. A memoir, a little on the rambling side, by former University of Arizona English faculty member who grew up in Skull Valley, near Prescott, Ariz. His remarkably creative and resourceful mother could make memorable meals from scanty provisions.
F A Discount for Death: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill. St Martin"s Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books. 293 pp. $23.95. Estelle Reyes-Guzman, who now has Bill Gastner's old job of undersheriff of fictional New Mexico County, Posadas, has three big cases: insurance fraud, smuggling drugs from Mexico and reckless endangerment on the part of a young police officer. With Gastner backing her up, Reyes-Guzman is as clearheaded and surefooted as ever. The series keeps gathering fans. Most titles are available in reprint from Poisoned Pen Press.
F Dissonance: A Novel by Lisa Lenard-Cook. University of New Mexico Press. 186 pp. $21.95. Set in New Mexico, this is a reflection on the Holocaust and what it means to be Jewish.
+ Don't Get Eaten: The Dangers of Animals That Charge or Attack by Dave Smith. The Mountaineers Books. 93 pp. $6.95. An excellent little book whose only fault is that there isn't more of it.
Down and Dirty Justice by Gary T. Lowenthal. New Horizon Press. 296 pp. $25.95. In 1997, Arizona State University law professor Gary Lowenthal used his sabbatical to work in the Maricopa County Attorney's office. His major case, State V Schilling involving kidnap and assault, provided "a deeply disturbing revelation of American justice."
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* Ecological Restoration of Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests by Peter Friederici, foreword by Gary Paul Nabhan. Island Press. 561 pp. $30. Perhaps too specialized for general recommendation, this book will be required reading for anyone attempting to decipher the alternatives concerning management of our local ponderosa pine forests. The so-called "Flagstaff Model" is a possible "template for cooperative restoration efforts elsewhere"; the Greater Flagstaff Forests Partnership is this area's collaborative effort. Some of the contributors are associated with the Ecological Restoration Institute at Northern Arizona University, which conducts federally funded projects regarding restoration. Even though one of the reviewers was Kieran Suckling, Executive Director of the Center for Biological Diversity, readers should also consult other sources and organizations regarding this highly controversial topic. Twenty-four detailed chapters in four parts and an extensive reference list make this a must-have work for those living in the drought-ridden Southwest.
El Cerrito, New Mexico: Eight Generations in a Spanish Village by Richard L. Nostrand. University of Oklahoma Press. 288 pp. $39.95. El Cerrito is home to families many of whose members can trace their residency back to 1824 when this small isolated village in the upper Pecos Valley was established.
F + El Paso del Norte: Stories on the Border by Richard Yanez. University of Nevada Press. 138 pp. $16. A debut collection of eight short stories set in the border region of his youth—El Paso, Texas—by an emerging Chicano author currently living in Indiana.
Encyclopedia of Stagecoach Robbery: Arizona by R. Michael Wilson. Rama Press. 245 pp. $24.95. Compared with the rest of the West, stagecoach robbing in Arizona got a late start. Owing primarily to Apaches, Arizona stagecoaches carried little of value. But between 1875 and 1903 there were 134 stagecoaches "jumped" and in this attractive volume, Wilson lists them in chronological order.
* Every Rapid Speaks Plainly: The Salmon, Green and Colorado River Journals of Buzz Holmstrom, Including the 1938 Accounts of Amos Burg, Philip Lundstrom and Willis Johnson by Brad Dimock (editor). Fretwater Press. 252 pp. $15.95. Dimock previously co-authored a biography of legendary boatman Buzz Holmstrom, primarily known for being the first solo Grand Canyon river runner. Here, with introductory material, Dimock transcribes the river journals of Buzz and his boating buddies. Buzz's skills as a boat builder and boatman are becoming increasingly well-known, "[b]ut it is his soul, his vision, his sensitivity all expressed in his writings that draws Holmstrom into our hearts." This should put to rest the criticism of some river historians that Buzz couldn't write and that his poet mother "improved" his work with heavy editing.
F Everyone Dies: A Kevin Kerney Novel by Michael McGarrity. Dutton. 273 pp. $23.95. One of McGarrity's best in a while as Kerney and his very pregnant wife dodge a psycho out to kill them. The focus is tight. The action steady and there are a couple of explosive plot twists.
* F Exit Wounds by J.A. Jance. William Morrow. 368 pp. $24.95. When Carol Mossman's bullet-ridden body is discovered in a locked, airless trailer along with 17 dogs who expired with her, Cochise County Sheriff Joanna Brady is called in to solve the case. Complications set in with the discovery of the bodies of two women, who had been shot, bound, and left naked on a remote ranch. All three women had been killed with 86-year-old bullets of the same caliber. Is a serial killer on the loose? Who would do this and why? Sheriff Brady has her hands full pursuing a sadistic murderer as long-held secrets of a local family begin to emerge. To complicate the tale, the Sheriff is facing a brutal re-election campaign while suffering from a severe case of morning sickness. Yes, our favorite sheriff is pregnant.
The Eyes of His Soul: The Visual Legacy of Barry M. Goldwater, Master Photographer by Evelyn S. Cooper, photo editing by Michael P. Goldwater. Arizona Historical Foundation, Hayden Library, Arizona State University. 230 pp. $99.95. An admiring biography of Goldwater begins this handsome volume of photographs, most of them taken by the late Senator, many of them of his family members chronicling their lives together in Arizona. A must for fans.
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Faces of Faith/Rostros de Fe by Barbe Awalt, Thomas J. Steele. LPD Press. 68 pp. $15.95. Black and white photos of New Mexico carvers and collectors of santos each of which is identified as an artist and/or friend of Awalt. Jesuit priest Steele is an authority on devotional arts of Hispanic New Mexico.
* Fanny Dunbar Corbusier: Recollections of Her Army Life 1869-1908 by Patricia Y. Stallard. University of Oklahoma Press. 348 pp. $29.95. As a young bride in the 1870s, Fannie Dunbar Corbusier accompanied her army surgeon husband to Fort Verde and other isolated Arizona military posts. In the mid-1880s, she returned to the territory when her husband was stationed at forts Bowie and Grant. An uncommonly observant woman blessed with healthy curiosity, she paid careful attention to events large and small, which she later recorded for the benefit of her family. Through her eyes, readers gain a vivid sense of the hardships and joys of daily life and raising a family at remote outposts.
Fearless Dave Allison: Border Lawman, a Transitional Lawman on a Transitional Frontier by Bob Alexander. High-Lonesome Books. 285 pp. $30. A much respected cowboy, sheriff, cattle inspector who lived most of his life in West Texas and New Mexico, Allison, at 62, was shot and killed in a Seminole, Texas, hotel lobby by the cattle thieves he was bringing to justice. Alexander himself is a veteran lawman who knows what he is writing about.
Felix Longoria's Wake: Bereavement, Racism, and the Rise of Mexican-American Activism by Patrick J. Carroll, foreword by Jose E. Limon. University of Texas Press. 270 pp. $19.95 paperback, 45 hard cover. Private First Class Longoria, a decorated U.S. Serviceman who died in the Philippines during World War, II was originally denied a burial in his Texas hometown because the "whites would not like it." Before the dust settled, Texas Senator Lyndon Johnson was campaigning to correct the error.
Flagstaff Trails Map by Martin Ince. Emmitt Barks Cartography. pp. $10 (5.50 for orders of 11 or more). Twenty-nine trails are included in this up-to-date, waterproof, tear-resistant map for hikers, bikers and horseback riders in the 375 square mile area around Flagstaff. A portion of the purchase price goes for trails maintenance. There is a real market for a good book in this field, and everyone is hoping that this is the one.
F Flannery's Crossing by Robert Winship. Texas Review Press. 130 pp. $16.95. The owner of a hotel in a small west Texas town goes mano a mano with a large and powerful railroad company. Contemporary setting with romantic elements.
Flying Carpet: The Soul of an Airplane by Greg Brown, foreword by Stephen Coonts. Iowa State University Press. 319 pp. $29.99. Brown is a Salt River Valley flier who owns his own plane and travels the world. In November, Barnes & Noble named him their "Arizona Author of the Month."
Folk Art Journey: Florence D. Bartlett and the Museum of International Folk Art by Ree Mobley and Laurel Seth (editors). Museum of New Mexico Press. 115 pp. $27.50 paperback, 40 hard cover. This well produced catalog celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe. It also honors the founder and collector, Florence Dibell Bartlett, who believed that the language of art is universal, and that hand-made objects of folk art are the direct expression of that belief.
* Folk Saints of the Borderlands: Victims, Bandits, and Healers by James S. Griffith. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 175 pp. $14.95. As James Griffith makes clear in his text, the saints of the title should probably be put in quotes for none, with one possible exception, fits the Catholic Church's idea of sainthood. He gives us verbal pictures (and photos, too) of Juan Soldado, Teresita, Jesus Malverde, Pancho Villa (!), Don Pedrito and El Nino Fidencio, each with background, historical account; legends past and present; even questions and doubts. A concluding chapter notes a few potential folk saints-in-the-making and leaves us with the broad-minded notion that the definition of sainthood might be in need of a little expansion.
Forgotten Fortress: Fort Millard Fillmore and Antebellum New Mexico, 1851-1862 by Richard Wadsworth. Yucca Tree Press. 408 pp. $25. A thorough history of this pioneer, frontier fort.
Fuel For Growth: Water and Arizona's Urban Environment by Douglas Kup. University of Arizona Press. 294 pp. $39.95. As a resource on water issues, this is an important book. To some extent it is a textbook survey of municipal water system development.
The Future of the Southern Plains by Sherry L. Smith. University of Oklahoma Press. 288 pp. $29.95. West Texas, Oklahoma and eastern New Mexico are analyzed - everything from ground water to politics.
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F T The Gangster We Are All Looking For by Le Thi Diem Thuy. Alfred Knopf. 158 pp. $18. The Vietnamese experience in San Diego after the Vietnam War portrayed by a 12-year-old girl who arrives with her father and four other "boat people." Eventually they are joined by her mother. There is nothing southwestern here. The characters simply live fractured lives separated from their homeland and find no solace in balmy San Diego. The young author, however, wound up at Harvard.
Gary Ladd's Canyon Light: Lake Powell and the Grand Canyon, by Gary Ladd. Stephens Press. 160 pp. $34.95. The latest coffee table book of wonderful images from Page photographer Gary Ladd. Those of you who have seen his previous publications or slide shows, such as the recent event honoring legendary Canyon hiker George Steck, who did the Foreword, will know what we mean, and others will want to find out.
Gatekeeper to Los Alamos: Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin by Nancy Cook Steeper. Los Alamos Historical Society. 173 pp. $15. McKibbin was often the first person new arrivals to Los Alamos met. She provided identity passes and additional directions to life in the secret enclave on The Hill. She was also a confidant of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Southwest Book Views called this, "a readable biography about an important woman in New Mexico history."
* Gateway to Alta California: The Expedition to San Diego, 1769 by Harry W. Crosby. Sunbelt Publications. 230 pp. $39.95. Only Harry Crosby, the guru of Baja California, could have produced this book, a continuation of his masterful Antigua California, which covered the Jesuit period. Now, with the Jesuits gone, Crosby documents the arrival of the Franciscans, and aided by diaries and his own extensive knowledge of the Baja terrain, he has followed on foot and mapped the 1769 overland expeditions to San Diego, one led by Rivera y Moncada and the priest, Fr. Crespi, the other by Gaspar de Portola and Fr. Junipero Serra. In addition, he provides biographies of every member of the expeditions. The route is illustrated on full color topographic maps. A good example of Crosby's spectacular photographs can be viewed at http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/baja/crosby/index.html/
Geronimo! Stories of an American Legend by Sharon S. Magee. Arizona Highways Books, Volume 11, Wild West Collection. 139 pp. $7.95. This book is a part of the Arizona Highways magazine's Wild West Collection and winner of an Arizona Press Women's award. Easy to read for kids and tourists alike. Each short chapter is about an individual or an event in Geronimo's life.
* F Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks. Random House. 257 pp. $23.95. Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Parks stands the plot line of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying on its head in this sometimes touching and often hilarious story of a teenaged black woman and her outlandish family in 1960s West Texas. When Billy Beede discovers she is pregnant by a smooth-talking salesmen who has a wife and family in Oklahoma, she decides that salvation lies in digging up the jewelry that family legend says was buried with her mother on the site of a soon-to-be shopping mall in LaJunta, Arizona. While satirizing southern racial attitudes and poking good-natured fun at her protagonists, Parks produces an immensely entertaining and ultimately heartwarming exploration of the bonds of family and friendship.
Ghost Towns Alive: Trips to New Mexico's Past by Linda G. Harris, photographs by Pamela Porter. University of New Mexico Press. 242 pp. $19.95. Harris changes the definition of ghost town to include some that have reinvented themselves - they even have websites - and a goodly number of residents busily bringing them back to life. Altogether there are 70. The photos are excellent but their reproduction occasionally leaves something to be desired.
The Glen Canyon Reader by Mathew Barrett Gross. University of Arizona Press. 200 pp. $17.95. A good selection of the good and the bad with essays by a wide range of writers and experts including Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, Katie Lee, John McPhee and Zane Grey.
Going Places: Transportation Redefines the Twentieth-Century West by Carlos Arnaldo Schwantes. Indiana University Press. 419 pp. $39.95. A historic journey to show how the development of railroads, highways and air travel has changed over time to impact landscape and lives. A ponderous read but a great source for historic research.
F The Gold of San Xavier by Bruce Itule. Thunder Mountain Publishing Company. 293 pp. $23.95. Afraid the plot is a little thin here, but perhaps you'll accept a raging love affair between a newsman and a conservationist to fill in the gaps. A stash of gold is found by San Xavier Mission preservation workers and given to a priest at the mission for safekeeping. He is killed and the gold disappears. Itule is a retired Arizona State University journalism professor.
F Grace of the Clouds by Michelina Pagano. PublishAmerica. 145 pp. $19.95. A combination of Navajo mythology and New Age mysticism.
The Grand Canyon: Select Images by . Arizona Highways. 80 pp. $9.95. Award-winning Arizona Highways photographers have photographed this venerable triumph of nature from top to bottom . They have produced what Arizona Highways hopes will be "a beautiful affordable keepsake," for tourists who don't travel with cameras.
Grand Canyon Geology, Second Edition by Stanley S. Beus and Michael Morales (editors). Oxford University Press. 432 pp. $47.95. Presents the most recent discoveries and interpretations of the origin and history of the Grand Canyon and features two entirely new chapters on debris flows and Holocene deposits. Original chapters have been updated as needed and all photographs replaced or improved for better resolution.
F A Grave at Glorieta: A Harrison Raines Civil War Mystery by Michael Kilian. Berkley Prime Crime. 292 pp. $22.95. A fast-paced tale of Civil War Confederate espionage in New Mexico.
Great Murder Trials of the Old West by Johnny D. Boggs. Republic of Texas Press. 278 pp. $18.95. Only two of veteran popular historian Boggs' eight selected murder trials took place in the Southwest: the court martial at Fort Grant, Arizona, of three Apache scouts involved in the 1881 military engagement at Cibecue Creek and the trial in Hillsboro, N.M., of two prominent New Mexico ranchers accused of murdering Col. Albert Fountain, a lawyer for the New Mexico Stock Growers Association.
Greater Phoenix Regional Atlas: A Preview of the Region's 50-Year Future by . Arizona State University. pp. $20. Ambitious and useful project. Important for reference.
Gritos by Dagoberto Gilb. Grove Press. 247 pp. $23. The Hispanic working-man's view of the Southwest. Gilb is acquiring a wider readership with each new volume.
* The Guaymas Chronicles: La Mandaderas: El Guero on the Streets of Northwest by David E. Stuart. University of New Mexico Press. 389 pp. $24.95. In the 1980s, the author—an anthropology professor— took a writing class from Tony Hillerman at the University of New Mexico. We don't know the grade he received, but judging from this polished memoir of his adventures as a young graduate student in Guaymas, Mexico, we can assume he did all right. Drawing on his journals and recollections, Stuart describes in engaging detail the collapse of his relationship with a local girl and his subsequent life as El Güero ("Whitey") among the hustlers and street people in the Sonoran port during the late 1960s and early 1970s. His clear eye for detail and assured sense of pacing hold the reader attention as he chronicles his life as a contraband runner and as a facilitator for Americans in Mexico. The most affecting part of this unique story, however, revolves around Stuart's relationship with a feisty, street-smart shoeshine girl who becomes his messenger ("la mandadera") and, eventually, his surrogate daughter. Stuart's self-effacing memoir opens a fascinating window on a hidden, and now lost, Mexico that few Americans have had the opportunity to experience, much less record with so much empathy and insight.
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F Hasta Manana by Carolyn Wilkerson. Five Star. 244 pp. $25.95. Wilkerson uses the mystery format to explore a mother's quest for justice in a world where illegal immigrants pose a growing problem.
Hiking Arizona by Christine Maxa. Human Kinetics. 188 pp. $19.95. Good maps, helpful hints and solid instructions make this a useful volume.
* Hiking the Southwest's Geology: Four Corners Region by Ralph Lee Hopkins. The Mountaineers Books. 286 pp. $16.95. It is impossible to visit the Four Corners region without thinking about geology. It is a land of breathtaking beauty where the sparse vegetation does little to hide some of America's most remarkable geologic formations. Geology is everywhere on display and author/photographer Ralph Lee Hopkins acts as interpreter in this handsome new book. He begins with a brief geology primer, then moves on to the hikes. The 50 hikes he describes include some of the Southwest's most popular, but also somewhere it is possible to explore the geologic wonders in relative peace. Each entry includes information on length, elevation, difficulty, recommended maps and special precautions, then gives a detailed discussion of the landscape you'll be encountering. Stunning full-color photos and occasional maps and illustrations add visual interest and clarity to the volume. This is a book that no Four Corners sojourner should be without.
T Home Is Everything: The Latino Baseball Story by Marcos Breton, photographs by Jose Luis Villegas. Cinco Puntos Press. 143 pp. $25.95. Very little about Arizona's Cactus League spring baseball season is included, but these two California newspaper columnists offer a sympathetic look at struggling Latin-American rookies. The text is in Spanish and English.
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In Fire's Way: A Practical Guide to Life in the Wildfire Danger Zone by Tom Wolf. University of New Mexico Press. 168 pp. $16.95. The interest here is local. Certainly if you live in the area of the Jemez Mountains, this is a must.
T In the Hands of the Great Spirit: The 20,000-Year History of American Indians by Jake Page. Free Press. 480 pp. $30. Jake Page, who has both southwestern fiction and non-fiction books about the Hopis and the Navajos on his resume, includes coverage of those and other southwestern Native Americans in this general survey.
In the Shadow of the Strip: Las Vegas Stories by Richard Logsdon, Todd Moffett and Tina D. Eliopulos (editors). University of Nevada Press. 145 pp. $16. Most, but not all of the stories selected for this collection, portray the underbelly of Las Vegas: down and out gambling addicts, street people, etc., so Las Vegas-bashers should love it.
Incident at San Augustine Springs: A Hearing for Major Isaac Lynde by Richard Wadsworth. Yucca Tree Press. 375 pp. $25. Provocative, although a case could be made that it is a good magazine article stretched out into a book.
The Info Mesa: Science, Business, and New Age Alchemy on the Santa Fe Plateau by Ed Regis. Norton. 256 pp. $25.95. A description of Santa Fe's burgeoning software industry. Why Santa Fe? It's near Los Alamos, and while it has no industry base and terrible transportation facilities, programmers need only electricity and a pleasant place to plug into it.
The Invention of the Western Film: A Cultural History of the Genre's First Half-Century by Scott Simmon. Cambridge University Press. 393 pp. $23, 85. An in-depth look at the cultural and historical forces from literature, visual arts, social history, ideology and legend to analyze the birth of the Western movie and its popularity.
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Journal of the Dead: A Story of Friendship and Murder in the New Mexico Desert by Jason Kersten. Harper/Collins. 236 pp. $24.95. So much true crime is better than this account of a killing in New Mexico which seems padded to make this book.
The Journey of the Western Horse: From the Spanish Conquest to the Silver Screen by Les Sellnow. Eclipse Press. 136 pp. $24.95. A readable introduction to the working horse in America - actually all horses not raced as thoroughbreds, but including racing quarterhorses. There is even a nod to jumping and dressage, and the chapter on horses in the movies is fun. This is a good book for anyone thinking of buying a horse. Selinow knows his subject.
* Juan Bautista de Anza: Basque Explorer in the New World, 1693-1740 by Donald T. Garate. University of Nevada Press. 323 pp. $39.95. Although their names are scarcely remembered today, few men did more than Juan Bautista de Anza, father and son, to advance settlement in the present-day Southwest, including northern Sonora, southern Arizona, and southern California. National Park Service historian Garate, a self-confessed "anzaholic," goes a long way toward rectifying the oversight in this first volume of a projected trilogy chronicling the adventures and accomplishments of the Basque soldiers, ranchers, explorers, and colonizers. Drawing on personal experience and exhaustive documentary research, Garate paints a vivid portrait of the senior Anza as a capable, conscientious, hardworking servant of Cross and Crown, who defended royal interests in the New World—particularly in his oversight of the famous Arizonac silver discovery that gave its name to the future state—and planted the roots of livestock raising on New Spain's northern frontier. Along the way, he lifts the curtain on the substantial contributions of Basques in the spread of Spanish civilization. This beautifully rendered biography will stand the test of time.
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F T The King of Torts by John Grisham. Doubleday. 376 pp. $27.95. Believe it or not, a defining moment in the plot of this latest Grisham bestseller comes in a Flagstaff courtroom and one of the principal players is a Tucson personal injury lawyer, tall, rumpled and cowboy-booted whose office is a renovated Tucson train station. Not much local color, but Grisham does spare us the customary critique of teepee motels and dead animals on the highway.
Kit Carson & His Three Wives by Marc Simmons. University of New Mexico Press. 95 pp. $24.95. New Mexico Historian Laureate Simmons, in this volume, undertakes to show Kit Carson's struggle to become a settled family man and to debunk what he calls, "Kit's Monster Image," bestowed upon him by the deconstructionists of the New Western History who made Carson look like a racist and an Indian butcher.
Koh-Eet-Senko and A Man Called Hunter by Grant Gall. Shield Press. 212 pp. $12.99. A novella and a short story feature Kiowas and Apaches. Gall, a retired British public servant, lives in Essex, England, where he writes about and dreams of the American Southwest. His first novel was Apache: The Long Ride Home.
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F Land Grab by Jack Ballas. Berkley. 304 pp. $5.99. Mayhem and evil-doing in ranch lands along the New Mexico-Colorado border.
F Land of Burning Heat: A Claire Reynier Mystery by Judith Van Gieson. University of New Mexico Press. 252 pp. $ 24.95 hardcover, 5.99 Signet paperback. For Van Gieson's persistent archivist/detective, history and mystery mingle in this story of crypto-Jews in New Mexico.
Landscape of Desire: Identity and Nature in Utah's Canyon Country by Greg Gordon. Utah State University Press. 213 pp. $19.95. Gordon, who is identified as having "spent much of his life exploring southern Utah," discusses a wide range of issues including mining, grazing, dams, recreation, and wilderness and provides a history of the conflict between preservation and development.
+ The Legacy of Maria Poveka Martinez by Richard L. Spivey. Museum of New Mexico Press. 208 pp. $60. Books about "Maria the potter of San Ildefonso," sell out so quickly there is always room for one more. Some of this material was published in 1979, revised and expanded in 1989 by Spivey in a book titled simply, Maria. A lot of new material has been added for 2003.
F Lie Still: A Novel of Suspense by David Farris. William Morrow. 384 pp. $24.95. In Glory, Ariz., a young surgery resident, Malcolm Ishmail, working in the ER, appears to have made an unforgivable mistake that kills a patient. Telling the story seven years later, adding the provocative element of a love affair with a stunning brain surgeon, Ishmail comes to an epiphanic moment. Recommended by Scott Turow. The medical details overwhelm any southwestern atmosphere.
F The Life and Adventures of Lyle Cleme by John Rechy. . 324 pp. $24. From a groundbreaking gay novelist comes a starred review in Publishers Weekly describing it as, " a sweet and vicious satire of contemporary America." Involved are televangelists, pornographers, crooked bankers, and Lyle, of course born in small town Texas to an unwed mom.
F Light in Shadow by Jayne Ann Krentz. G.P. Putnam's Sons. 369 pp. $24.95. Krentz is a popular romance writer whose other pen names include Amanda Quick and Jayne Castle. Heroine Zoe Luce is an interior decorator with a psychic gift. She lives in Whispering Springs, Arizona. Her ally is a much-married private investigator. Hallmark of their collaboration is a lot of successful copulation.
Listening With Your Heart: Lessons from Native America by Wayne Peate,M.D. Rio Nuevo Publishers. Unpaginated pp. $9.95. Tucson physician Peate, whose Indian roots trace back to Mohawk and Onondaga, has accumulated a small book full of pithy sayings and observations such as, "Find peace, health, wholeness, connection and completion in small miracles." It is from an Onondaga healer.
F Little Rains by Bob Cherry. One Eyed Press. 274 pp. $26.95. Award-winning poet Cherry who ranches in Wyoming has written a gritty, angry novel about ranching in southwest Texas, the problems of recalcitrant weather, poor market prices, changing mores, encroaching civilization. Truman Pierce is a man living out of his time but not giving an inch. Roundup Magazine called it "a stunner of a book with characters you will remember."
Lone Star Literature: From the Red River to the Rio Grande by Don Graham. W.W. Norton & Company. 728 pp. $29.95. An eclectic collection of Texas literature one section of which is devoted to the U.S./Mexican border.
Look to the Mountains: An In-Depth Look into the Lives and Times of the People Who Shaped the History of the Catalina Mountains by Suzanne Hensel. Mt. Lemmon Woman's Club. 244 pp. $29.95. Since so much of what Hensel writes about was destroyed in the Aspen fire of 2003, this book was a collector's item the day it came out.
F Lost River by Jane Candia Coleman. Five Star. 210 pp. $25.95. Award-winning writer Coleman likes to combine research with imagination. In this turn-of-the-century novel her protagonist is a pioneer woman photographer. Documenting archeological finds, she gets cross-wise with a tyrannical local rancher.
Louis Carlos Bernal: Barrios by Ann Simmons-Myers. Pima Community College in association with the University of Arizona Library. 79 pp. $25. Not Bernal at his best.
F Lovers Crossing by James C. Mitchell. St. Martin's Minotaur. 304 pp. $23.95. With a Tucson locale and Tucson landmarks, this is a debut mystery by former newsman and attorney Mitchell. It deals with problems of rogue Border Patrol agents, Mexican adoption scams and the emotional toll of working in law enforcement.
F The Lucky by H. Lee Barnes. University of Nevada Press. 402 pp. $22. The story, set in Las Vegas, of two men, an orphan and his legal guardian. The guardian is a Nevada gambler, that Barnes writes has taken him "eight years of labor and stubborn infatuation," to write about. "A chronicle of the turbulent 1960s and 1970s - drugs, sex and Vietnam."
Lucky Shot: Favorite Stories of an Arizona Sportsman by Layne A. Brandt. Infinity Publishing. 205 pp. $14.95. Brandt, who manages a large pecan grove in southern Arizona, is an enthusiastic hunter of big local game such as mountain lions and bobcats.
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F Malinche's Children by Daniel Houston-Davila. University of Mississippi Press. 354 pp. $27.00. A novel about the inhabitants of the barrio of Carmelas, a Mexican-American village on a patch of difficult southern California farmland, from 1900 to the present.
Matchless: A Western Story by Jane Candia Coleman. Five Star Westerns. 240 pp. $25.95. Coleman presents in fictional form the life of Augusta Tabor the first wife of Colorado silver magnate Horace Tabor, whom he dumped for Baby Doe but who never stopped caring about him as her fortunes rose and his bottomed out.
F The Matchmaker by Lisa Plumley. Harlequin. 304 pp. $5.25. An enterprising and unconventional baker sets her cap for the little southwestern town of Morrow Creek's most eligible bachelor.
+ Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West, revised and expanded by Michael Moore. Museum of New Mexico Press. 51 pp. $24.95. A 35-year career as a teacher, merchant and alternative-medicine practitioner has gone into this extensive index of 129 medicinal plants which aim to provide relief or cure to hundreds of common ailments, conditions and non-acute diseases. Moore is founder and director of Southwest School of Botanical Medicine in Bisbee, AZ.
Mexican Details by Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr. Gibbs Smith Publisher. 90 pp. $21.95. The authors have done a lot of research. There are many artistic details worthy of their admiration, but this volume seems as though it could have been a part of a larger book.
Mining, the Environment, and Indigenous Development Conflicts by Saleem H. Ali. University of Arizona Press. 270 pp. $50. A detailed picture of how and when the concerns of industry, society and tribal governments may converge and when they conflict is undertaken here by an assistant professor of environmental studies at the University of Vermont who is also a research scholar at Brown University.
* Las Misiones Antiguas: The Spanish Missions of Baja California by Edward W. Vernon. University of New Mexico Press. 288 pp. $44.95. A splendid book! The photographic essay introduces Jesuit, Franciscan, and Dominican missions, some 34 of them, built with the Herculean efforts of the friars and the indigenous Natives between 1683 and 1834. The grandiose plans of the padres - to have churches surrounded by villages with productive fields - failed miserably, and by the late 1700s many missions were abandoned since hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, revolts, and disease contributed to a rapid decline of population. A detailed map on the inside cover identifies and locates the mission sites, ruins, and visitas, each of which was visited, photographed, and located by GPS. In addition, he includes sketches of ground plans. Because actual preservation of remaining sites is questionable, this book will be an invaluable resource for future scholars. Vernon concludes that "the effects on the Indians of the padres' efforts and the spiritual and cultural benefits of Baja, California's missionization are left to the reader to ponder."
Mogollon Mountain Man: Nat Straw, Grizzly Hunter & Trapper by Carolyn O'Bagy Davis. Sanpete Publications. 29 pp. $19.95. Davis has put many long hours into tracking down the facts in this colorful old-time trapper's life. Well-written, with useful photos although their reproduction occasionally leaves something to be desired. Nat Straw, 1856-1941, settled in New Mexico's Mogollon Mountains. He lived off the land, prospected and worked as a cowboy. He hunted bears and other predators for local ranchers to become "a living legend." Much of his renown can be attributed to writings by the well-known folklorist J. Frank Dobie.
More Than Petticoats: Remarkable Arizona Women by Wynne Brown. Two Dot, an imprint of Globe Pequot. 151 pp. $10.95. A potpourri of remarkable Arizona women born before 1900. They braved life in Arizona when it was considered the "Wild West." Robbers, craftswomen, educators, businesswomen, they are all here. This is part of a state-by-state series from Globe Pequot.
* The Mountains Know Arizona: Images of the Land and Stories of Its People by Rose Houk, photographs by Michael Collier. Arizona Highways Books. 272 pp. $39.95. About ten years ago, Rose Houk and Michael Collier combined talents to produce books about the Great Smoky Mountains and White Sands National Monument. Traveling 30,000 miles over two years, their collaborative focus this time is ten Arizona ranges, some of the geography and geology of the high areas of the state. Collier's photographs, including a few of his classic aerials that the editor allowed, either make you want to travel to their location or else serve as a fine substitute for not being able to. But it's not just the physical and biological aspects portrayed, for Houk's evocative narration takes you on their journey yet allows your imagination to tag along.
T Moving Target: A Memoir of Pursuit by Ron Arias. Bilingual Press/Editorial Bilingue. 379 pp. $16. Not too much about the Southwest here, although in his search for his father the author does touch base with his Arizona relatives.
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Naked Wanting by Margo Tamez. University of Arizona Press. 91 pp. $15.95. Although there are a great many images of sex and flesh and fury, Tamez' poetry mixes in images of the Southwest: "Distant lights of Phoenix/ like a delicate strand of gold beads/ against the dark throat of the city./ Dawn's ruby-violet lips/ spread and swallow/ the gel of night."
* Native Plants for High Elevation Western Gardens by Janice Busco and Nancy R. Morin. The Arboretum at Flagstaff. 352 pp. $29.95. "Plantings of native species can re-create the harmonious communities seen in nature," write the authors. "In a garden they create a sense of place. They are aesthetically pleasing because they look right together." If you are a high-elevation gardener in the western United States and you've yet to experience the joy of growing native plants, consider this book a must-read. In the early chapters, authors Busco and Morin (the latter the director of The Arboretum at Flagstaff) serve up the basics, including how to evaluate and prepare your site, how and where to find the plants you want, how to plant and how to nurture your native plants through their first critical season. The rest of the book contains 150 plant descriptions accompanied by dazzling full-color photographs. Each description includes the plant's characteristics, native range, blooming season, outstanding features, cultural requirements, landscape uses, what wildlife the plant attracts, and suggested plant groupings.
+ Navajo Beadwork: Architectures of Light by Ellen K. Moore. University of Arizona Press. 300 pp. $50. Moore is the curator of education at the Roswell Museum and Art Center. Colored glass beadwork - belts, hatbands, baskets and necklaces - was introduced to the Navajo by outsiders including other Indians, but, according to Moore, they have made it an art uniquely their own. No market and price information.
N'de (the People) by Ben Traywick. Red Marie's. 160 pp. $24.95. An eclectic collection of essays, newspaper stories and photographs about the Apache Indians. Their name for themselves, as Traywick explains in his introduction, was "The People." Apache probably originated in the Zuni word, "Apachu," which meant, "enemy." The most important thing about the photos is that they exist and where, in case readers want better copies.
+ Near Horizons: A Weekender's Guide to Easy Trips from Albuquerque by M. J. Cain. La Alameda Press, distributed by the University of New Mexico Press. 188 pp. $14. Excellent resource for day-trips to less-visited locations.
The New Hacienda by Karen Witynski and Joe P. Carr. Gibbs Smith. 159 pp. $19.95. The veteran, award-winning team of interior designers and Mexican antique specialists, Witynski and Carr, has divided this latest book into several categories, one of the most interesting of which is the "Working Hacienda." In "Hacienda Kitchen," they include recipes which sound authentic calling as they do for lard.
New Mexico Frontier Military Place Names by Daniel C. B. Rathbun & David V. Alexander. Barbed Wire Publications & Yucca Tree Press. 270 pp. $13. Researching place names has become increasingly popular. This is a good beginning.
* New Mexico Then & Now: Contemporary Rephotography by William Stone, Jerold Widdison. Westcliffe Publishers. 155 pp. $39.95. I am a sucker for re-photography books, those paired images that show us graphically how much (or, in some cases, how little) places have changed. Dividing his work into five geographical areas of the state, plus Albuquerque and Santa Fe, Stone pairs his contemporary, mostly color images with virtually identical ones that are 90 to 140 years old. If the cover pair of a tent city for workers on the Elephant Butte Dam (1911) faced by a shot of the modern Damsite Marina with dozens of boats and a 25-foot "bathtub ring" doesn't capture your imagination, check your pulse.
T The Next Better Place: A Father and Son on the Road by Michael C. Keith. Algonquin Books. 284 pp. $23.95. We call books like this "tangential," because only a part - usually a small one - bears on our Southwest. In this touching memoir-travelogue father and son spend some time in Las Vegas, Nev., where the father works at one of his many jobs. In this case, he shills for a casino.
+ Nicholas Herrera: Visiones de Mi Corazon, Visions of My Heart by Barbe Awalt and John T. Denne, photographs by Cathy L. Wright, essays by Chuck Rosenak and Charles Carrillo. LPD Press. 126 pp. $49.95. Herrera's contemporary santos honestly challenge the dogma of traditional carvings/sculptures.
Night Journey by Murad Kalam. Simon & Schuster. 309 pp. $23. A bizarre and jagged tale of life in the African American slums of Phoenix.
No Regrets by Lazlo Veres. The Patrice Press. 215 pp. $16.95. An autobiography by longtime Tucson musician - high school bands, Tucson Symphony, Tucson Pops and Arizona Symphonic Winds. Veres started out in Hungary in 1937.
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Oases of Culture: A History of Public and Academic Libraries in Nevada by James W. Hulse. University of Nevada Press. 155 pp. $24.95. Public libraries in the West had their beginnings less than a century and a half ago. Nevada, according to historian Hulse, with a poor and transient population, was even farther behind the line. But heroic efforts by dedicated people have had a dramatic impact.
On a Silver Desert: The Life of Ernest Haycox by Ernest Haycox Jr. University of Oklahoma Press. 352 pp. $39.95. Haycox covered the West from the building of the Union Pacific to the Arizona Apache wars. In this admiring but candid biography by his son, Haycox is shown as a writer who kept business hours, was absorbed by politics and bought large cars and loved it all.
100 Suns by Michael Light. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. $45. A Booklist starred review described it as, "Apocolyptic images of man-made suns captured on film at great risk by military photographers.."
Otto Mears and the San Juans by E.F. Tucker. Western Reflections Publishing Company. 13 pp. $12.95. A good, honest biography of an important man in post Civil War Colorado who left a legacy for good and ill.
+ Our Sonoran Desert by Bill Broyles. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 75 pp. $14.95. Broyles affection for the Sonoran Desert is profound and his respect pervasive. If you are thinking of taking a desert hike, this is the place to start.
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* F The Parrot Trainer by Swain Wolfe. St. Martin's Press. 288 pp. $24.95. This rollicking, screwball novel follows the adventures (and misadventures) of an odd assortment of characters, including a tough-as-nails former professional pot hunter who spends his retirement sculpting huge, melting mud men, a rakish, pompous French theorist who's a bit too fond of the bottle, a young archaeologist struggling with issues of ethics and love, and a beautiful spirit goddess that may be nothing more than a venom-induced hallucination - but then again, maybe not. Add in a hidden cache of priceless Mimbres artifacts, a 10,000-year-old frozen body in an Alaskan glacier, a troublesome independent film crew, and a couple of ruffians called Rat and Raw Bone and you have the ingredients for a first-class southwestern archaeological thriller.
Pedro Pino: Governor of Zuni Pueblo, 1830-1878 by E. Richard Hart. Utah State University Press. 200 pp. $17.95,36.95. Pino, captured as a young Zuni by Navajos, eventually sold to a wealthy Spaniard, became a seminal figure in post-Conquest Zuni political growth - and in Hart's biography almost a saint.
F Picacho Peak Mystery by Joseph A. Mootz. Living the Dream Publishing. 182 pp. $14.95. Another intrepid Arizonan joins the ranks of amateur sleuths, as Johnny Blue, a retired engineer working as a security guard for the CAP canal, makes his debut. He finds a young pair of climbers dead at Picacho Peak and has a tough time convincing regular law enforcement that something is amiss.
F A Piece of Heaven by Barbara Samuel. Ballantine Books. 322 pp. $23.95. Witty and heartfelt, Samuels' novel portrays family life among the free spirits of Taos a decade plus after their glory days. They now wear AA pins. The smoking they worry about is tobacco cigarettes as they try to gather their scattered families.
F Plant Them Deep by Aimee and David Thurlo. Forge. 33 pp. $24.95. Navajo tribal detective Ella Claw's mother, Rose Destea, as fans may remember, is a dedicated traditionalist. In this stand alone novel, Destea and her fellow traditionalists are putting up a fight to preserve their native medicinal plants. Or, as Destea considers plants, "plant people." The opposition is fairly complex. As usual, the Thurlos are short on style but long on purpose.
Poker Face: A Girlhood Among Gamblers by Katy Lederer. Crown Publishing Group. 209 pp. $23.95. A brutally, candid account of the author's distant father, alcoholic mother, lying/cheating/stealing brother and sister, both of whom are well-known professional poker players, and a lifetime spent trying to fit in. A really good book.
* Positively Fifth Street: Murders, Cheetahs and Binion's World Series of Poker by James McManus. Farrar, Straus, Giroux. 422 pp. $26. James McManus, an award-winning journalist and life-long poker player, talked Harper's into a $4,000 advance to go to Las Vegas to cover both Binion's World Series of Poker and the trial of Ted Binion's paramour and her lover for Binion's murder (he was the son of the founder of the tournament). Proceeding to turn his advance into the $10,000 needed to enter the poker tournament by winning "satellite" tournaments, McManus, who had never played in the WSP, made his way to the final table! Every serious poker player's dream. His surprisingly revealing account integrates the tournament and the trial along with wonderful glimpses of poker champions past and present. A book for poker players to savor.
* Pueblo Imagination: Landscape and Memory in the Photography of Lee Marmon by Leslie Marmo Silko, Joy Harjo and Simon Ortiz. Beacon Press. 156 pp. $35. Books of photography often fail to satisfy us (at least those of us of a certain age) because, for the most part, we have been there, seen that. This book is an exception for its combination of images and words, the latter coming from three of our stellar writers of the Southwest: all Native American and all able to capture in words this land and its people in ways that make us understand just a little bit better why we love it here. Many of Marmon's images are black and whites from the 1950s and 1960s, reminding us, accurately, of what it was like in those days of our youth.
* Puro Border: Dispatches, Snapshots & Graffiti from La Frontera by Luis Humberto Crosthwaite, John William Byrd and Bobby Byrd, editors. Cinco Puntos. 251 pp. $18.95. Puro Border is a diverse collection of writings and images about life along the U.S.-Mexico border. The Spanish word for "border," is "frontera." To some readers the book will be filled with shocking revelations; for others, its stories will be all too familiar; the dehumanizing effects of maquiladoras (factories), the violent world of the drug traffickers, racial profiling at border crossings, the unresolved deaths of 320 women in Juarez. But some of the most memorable essays are about more mundane topics, such as Luis Alberto Urrea's warm and entertaining recollection of childhood experiences in 1960 Tijuana, or Cecilia Balli's portrait of a used clothing maven, Jim Johnson. All in all, this rich assortment of essays, poems, illustrations and snapshots provides an important counterbalance to the often distorted picture of la frontera presented by our national media.
Pursuit by Rudy Apodaca. 1st Books Library. 488 pp. $21.95 paperback, 32.45 hardcover. Overworked, Albuquerque criminal lawyer John Garcia takes the case of a Vietnam vet accused of murder. A good legal thriller from a retired member of the New Mexico Court of Appeals.
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Reader of the Purple Sage: Essays on Western Writers and Environmental Literature by Ann Ronald. University of Nevada Press. 248 pp. $21.95. A critique of essays by major authors who write about human interaction with the land. Ronald, who developed the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment, includes among her authors Mary Austin and Idah Meacham Strobridge.
* Re-Creating the Word: Painted Ceramics of the Prehistoric Southwest, The Bill Schenck Collection by Barbara L. Moulard. Schenck Southwest Publishing. 227 pp. $85. This magnificent publication showcases 130 works of Southwestern ceramics dating from AD 750 to AD 1680. Hohokam, Mogollon, Kayenta, Chaco, Salado, Zuni, Hopi and Mimbres cultures are represented in chapters that include a brief history of each culture with corresponding examples of the ceramics, and the pottery styles that differentiate the various areas. In addition to describing the environment out of which the various cultures grew and were abandoned, the author illustrates how each culture may have subsequently adopted elements from the ones that went before.
Recuerdos: Memories of Life in the Barrios Unidos, Phoenix, Arizona by Barrios Unidos Oral History Project. Lucas Cabrera. pp. $Price unavailable. Neighborhood recollections are gathered into this useful if unsophisticated effort.
Red Earth: Poems of New Mexico by Alice Corbin,Lois Rudick and Ellen Zieselman. Museum of New Mexico Press. 112 pp. $16.95. Corbin, married to William Penhallow Henderson, one of New Mexico's important painters in the first half of the 20th century, was equally important in her own right in literary circles. She wrote using material specific to New Mexico. This stunning little book adds a biography of Corbin and selected artworks from the Museum of New Mexico's outstanding permanent collection of regional painters.
The Return of the Mexican Gray Wolf: Back to the Blue by Bobbie Holaday. University of Arizona Press. 220 pp. $18.95. Big chunks of documentary material are used to bolster this longtime activist's heartfelt support of the gray wolf's reintroduction to the American Southwest.
* The River In Winter: New and Selected Essays by Stanley Crawford. University of New Mexico Press. 170 pp. $21.95. This evocative collection of essays by author, gardener, philosopher Stanley Crawford captures the essence of life in northern New Mexico like few other books. He throws a wide net, examining everything from the beauty of dirt floors and flat stones to the constant battles over water rights. Crawford skillfully exposes both the bright and dark sides of living in a small community: cooperation, participation, shared power, and a sense of connection are counterbalanced by a passion for pettiness, gossiping, and feuding. He writes, "It is through our gossip, our telling of tales, through our collective village novel that we will finally establish that we live at the center of the universe—however insignificant this small place may seem to the great wide world."
Rivers of Rock, Stories from a Stone-Dry Land: Central Arizona Project Archaeology by Stephanie Whittlesey. SRI Press/University of Arizona Press. 380 pp. $35. Written for a general audience, this book is scholarly yet readable as it offers a balanced treatment of water-control issues through ages and cultures.
T Road Biking Colorado: The Statewide Guide by Michael Seeberg. Westcliffe Publishers. 104 pp. $24.95. Good caliber advice, although most of the book deals with areas outside the Southwest.
Rocky Mountain Wildflowers: Photos, Descriptions, and Early Explorer Insights text & photography by Jerry Pavia. Fulcrum. 219 pp. $19.95. The flowers are organized by color, excellent photos and individual maps of seven parks in the Rocky Mountains. Also included, glossary of plant terms, a bibliography and a good index.
F Rocky Point: Idylls of the Sea by A.J. Ciulla. iUniverse. 132 pp. $12.95. Poetry from the self-styled "in-house poet for The Rocky Point Times."
F A Rush of Hands by Juan Delgado. University of Arizona Press. 71 pp. $15.95. Degaldo's work offers a tremendous sense of place.
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Searching For a Mustard Seed: One Young Widow's Unconventional Story by Miriam Sagan. Quality Words In Print. 207 pp. $19. A Jewish/Buddhist household in New Mexico struggles with illness and death.
F Season Tickets: Poems and Stories by Dan Gilmore. Pima Press. 99 pp. $10. Gilmore is an Arizona poet who deals in the absorbing trivia of everyday life. Season Tickets, for example, is a special spin on 15 years in the same seats in the University of Arizona's McKale Center watching the UA Wildcat basketball team.
F Second Sunrise: A Lee Nez Novel by David and Aimee Thurlo. Forge. 336 pp. $24.95. This prolific husband and wife writing team now has an entry in the supernatural, vampire, mystic field as Navajo Lee Nez, killed in a firefight more than 60 years ago, has returned as a New Mexico cop.
T Seeing Colorado's Forests for the Trees by Steve Smith, photography by John Fielder. Westcliffe Publishers. 84 pp. $29.95. Once again, a fine book but deals mostly with areas outside southern Colorado.
The Sergeant's Lady by Miles Hood Swarthout. Forge, a Tom Doherty Associates Book. 304 pp. $25.95. Working from his father Glendon Swarthout's short story, "The Attack on the Mountain," originally published in The Saturday Evening Post, Miles Swarthout has produced an information-packed novel set in Arizona, 1885, at the end of the Apache Wars. Woven into the grim, daily details of ranching and soldiering, strategies and military tactics on both sides, is the story of a resourceful ranch woman and her determination to marry a valiant sergeant.
Shadow of the Sentinel: One Man's Quest to Find the Hidden Treasure of the Confederacy by Warren Getler and Bob Brewer. Simon & Schuster. 320 pp. $23. The western thread in this book of hidden treasure begins with Jesse James and includes the famous Lost Dutchman Mine near Phoenix, Arizona. Actually, the authors say the mine does not exist but is instead a cache of gold hidden by some nefarious Confederates. Basically a reworking of a story that has been around for quite a while.
F Shadow Warrior: A Novel of the Old West by J.C. Gotcher. The Lyons Press. 245 pp. $22.95. Doc, a young scout and hunter, gets separated from his wagon train. He encounters a band of Llanero Apache warriors, with fatal results for two young warriors. Seeking revenge, the Apaches begin to hunt for the white man known as "Shadow."
F Shapeshift by Sherwin Bitsui. Sun Tracks/University of Arizona Pres. 65 pp. $15.95. Bitsui is a Navajo poet who crafts such lines as these: "Fourteen-ninety-something./ something happened/ and no one can pick it out of the lineup.." He is a winner of the Individual Poet Grant from the Witter Bynner Foundation.
F Shotgun Bride by Linda Lael Miller. Pocket Star. 448 pp. $7.99. A passionate runaway, disguised as a nun, gives in to the handsome marshal.
+ The Sibley Field Guide to Birds of Western North America by David Allen Sibley. Alfred Knopf. 470 pp. $19.95. This monumental work is not for the beginner, but for the experienced birder it is invaluable.
F Silver Creek by A. H. Holt. Avalon. 194 pp. $19.95. An "Avalon Western," set in 19th century Arizona ranch country, tells the story of a son who returns home to clear his father's name and finds romance.
+ Silver Fox of the Rockies: Delphus E. Carpenter and Western Water Compacts by Daniel Tyler. University of Oklahoma Press. 393 pp. $34.95. Coloradoan Delph Carpenter's biography is important for the Southwest as he played a leading role in creating the Colorado River Compact of 1922. Carpenter was the first to apply the compact clause of the U. S. Constitution, which legitimized negotiation of interstate agreements, in defense of states' water rights on interstate streams.
+ The Sinister Pig by Tony Hillerman. HarperCollins. 250 pp. $25.95. Any Hillerman is welcome, but in this addition to the Chee/Leaphorn canon, our heroes have a fairly minor role to play
A Sketch in Time: A Young Girl's Diary of the 1920 Frank Reaugh Sketch Trip to the Grand Canyon by Virginia Goerner, Virginia Howard. Moccasin Rock Press. 68 pp. $12. Memoirs of a 1920 sketching trip made by two undauntable, young women driving a converted Model T Ford from Dallas to the Grand Canyon. Quite an adventure.
* F Sky Full of Sand by Rick DeMarinis. Dennis McMillan Publications. 271 pp. $30. If it weren't for Jim Crumley, DeMarinis would be indisputably the best underappreciated southwestern writer currently living in Missoula, Montana. The former El Pasoan has crafted a dark comic gem in this raunchy and raucous story of a down-on-his luck ex-body builder and former junior college remedial math instructor caught up in the sleazy and dangerous world of drug trafficking and money laundering at the Paso del Norte. A nifty plot, smart dialogue, and razor-sharp satire make for an engrossing read that lays bare the unsavory reality of urban life along the U.S.-Mexico border. As Crumley notes in his introduction to this handsomely designed Dennis McMillan production, DeMarinis "has always hung in there, nailing the heart of American humor to the gall bladder of American foolishness." If there is a shred of justice left in the world, Sky Full of Sand should attract the wide audience DeMarinis richly deserves.
T Smokechasing by Stephen J. Pyne. University of Arizona Press. 260 pp. $19.95 paperback, 37.50 hardcover. Touches briefly on Southwest topics as it surveys the adventures of forest fire fighters everywhere.
Spanglish: The Making of a New American Language by Ilan Stavans. Rayo/Harper Collins. 274 pp. $24.95. If you know a little Spanish, Spanglish is fun to read. Like Black English of a decade ago this is a take on a language from speakers who are not totally comfortable with it. But English is endlessly adaptive and will probably survive largely intact.
Surviving Conquest: A History of the Yavapai Peoples by Timothy Braatz. University of Nebraska Press. 301 pp. $55. Scholarly treatment written by an author whose premise is that the Yavapai got a bum deal from just about everybody.
Swanee's Silverton: A First hand Account of Silverton, Colorado from the 1930s to the Millennium with Master Storyteller Gerald Swanson by Kathryn Retzler. Western Reflections Publishing Co. 175 pp. $12.95. Longtime Silverton resident and master storyteller recalls the town's lively days beginning in The Great Depression and continuing through to the millennium. Good fun, even if you don't live in southern Colorado.
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F T Tales of the Conspiracy Cafe: Barcelona by Lee Shainen. Patrice Press. 102 pp. $9.95. A science fiction fantasy tale of a hapless mortician from New Jersey who becomes the bemused target of a feminism experiment to make men kinder and gentler. The location is the Southwest, but it could be anywhere.
* Talking Birds, Plumed Serpents and Painted Women: The Ceramics of Casas Grandes by Joanne Stuhr (editor). Tucson Museum of Art; distributed by the University of Arizona Press. 90 pp. $35. A bilingual catalog for a recent exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block, Talking Birds is a fantastic introduction for me to the magnificent ceramics of the Casas Grandes culture of Chihuahua, Mexico. The imaginative, creative, and humorous qualities of almost all of the exhibitions, approximately one hundred examples from private and public collections in the United States, have me in awe of their artistic ability. While some of the accompanying scholarly essays provide repetitious information and could use some sharper proofreading, the Van Pools' "Dichotomy and Duality: The Structure of the Casas Grandes Art" is superb.
* Tamales 101: A Beginner's Guide to Traditional Tamales by Alice Guadalupe Tapp. Ten Speed Press. 190 pp. $19.95. What is the Southwest without its distinctive food? And tamales are among the most recognizable culinary delights of what we call Latin America, regardless of their regional name variations, wrappings, and ingredients. Tapp supplies helpful tips to ease the transition from beginner to practitioner, but, in addition to being a cook, I am also a reader of cookbooks and I enjoyed the tamales history as well as the recipes. Additionally, the family owns a restaurant serving many types of tamales; so, when I'm in the Los Angeles area, I'll make it a point to sample the expert's.
Ten Turtles to Tucumcari: A Personal History of the Railway Express Agency by Klink Garrett with Toby Smith. University of New Mexico Press. 72 pp. $27.95. Just what the title implies, an absorbing account of a onetime ubiquitous transportation service that is no longer around. Garrett spent his working career with the company.
F Their Wildest Dreams by Peter Abrahams. Ballantine Books. 29 pp. $24.95. A romping good read, sordid but fun. Set in Tucson, the plot is incredibly convoluted.
Theme Town: A Geography of Landscape and Community in Flagstaff, Arizona by Thomas Wayne Paradis. iUnivers. 236 pp. $23.95. An index would help this academic look at Flagstaff and small town America.
Tombstone: Images of America by Jane Eppinga. Arcadia Publishing. 121 pp. $19.99. This recap of Tombstone's past is told primarily in photographs and their captions by veteran Tucson writer Eppinga. Incidentally, her publisher offers to donate books to radio stations for promotional giveaways and fundraisers. Contact skeller@arcadiapublishing.com.
F Tracking Bear: An Ellen Clah Novel by David and Aimee Thurlo. Forge. 82 pp. $24.95. The Thurlo husband and wife writing team take on the economic advantages and disadvantages of opening a health-threatening industry on the Navajo reservation. In this case, the industry is uranium mining.
Tracks in the Sand: Tales From Outside City Limits by Dexter K. Oliver. Bandit Press. 226 pp. $18. Reflections from an environmentalist who has been on the front lines and writes with an even-handed grasp of what, in his opinion, works and what doesn't.
Traditional Mexican Style Interiors: A Schiffer Design Book by Donna McMenamin, Richard Lopez. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. 190 pp. $39.95. Each of these books comes from an established publishers and writers, observers and photographers of decorating using contemporary Mexican furniture, furnishings and artifacts.
F Traggedy Ann by Sinclair Browning. Dell. 388 pp. $5.99. Sex cults, abused children, dysfunctional families, violence and murder - practiced by people high and low. Trade Ellis, Browning's cattlewoman-private investigator, is on the job.
Triumph and Tragedy: A History of Thomas Lyons and the Lcs by Ida Foster Campbell and Alice Foster Hill. Privately printed, distributed by High-Lonesome Book. 328 pp. $19.95. The history of an extraordinary, New Mexico cattle ranch and the man who built it.
Trophy Husband: A Survival Guide to Working at Home by Steve Brewer. University of New Mexico Press. 182 pp. $21.95. Brewer, a successful mystery story writer and Albuquerque Tribune columnist, has a humorous, practical take on househusbandry. It all takes place in Duke City, but there is really no special southwestern flavor steaming off the pages.
Two Voices: A Collection of Art and Poetry by Irene E. Pena, and Amado M. Pena Jr.. Kiva Publishing. 32pp pp. $10.00. This Texas artist, known for his images of Southwest Indians in their worlds, pairs up with his sister to present through pen and brush their viewpoints "celebrating the mysteries of family and landscape."
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The Ultimate Desert Handbook: A Manual for Desert Hikers, Campers, and Travelers by Mark Johnson. Ragged Mountain Press/ McGraw Hill. 296 pp. $16.95. This excellent handbook is just about what its title implies. There is little about camping and traveling in the desert that Johnson doesn't cover.
* Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer. Doubleday. 372 pp. $26. In a book that is at once spellbinding and profoundly unsettling, the author of the best-selling Eiger Dreams and Into Thin Air explores the nature of religious zealotry, using as his vehicle the 1984 murder of American Fork, Utah, housewife Brenda Lafferty and her infant child. As disturbing as the crime itself is the fact that the murderers were Brenda's brothers-in-law, Ron and Dan Lafferty, who to this date feel neither guilt nor remorse for their actions, claiming that they were acting under instructions from God. With the events of 9/11 haunting the background, Krakauer traces the growth of mainstream Mormonism and carefully explores the manifestations of Mormon fundamentalism, particularly among the polygamous residents of Colorado City on the Arizona Strip. The result is a chilling glimpse into the minds of these particular fanatics and a thoughtful rumination on "faith-based violence," which Krakauer describes as the "dark side to religious devotion." Although Krakauer has chosen to focus on an aberrant strain of Mormonism, the lessons he draws are universal.
+ Under the Palace Portal: Native American Artists in Santa Fe by Karl A. Hoerig. University of New Mexico Press. 261 pp. $29.95. A detailed and fascinating account of the development of that well-known commercial spot, the sidewalk outside the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe where Native Americans sell their handcrafts. Karl Hoerig, director of the White Mountain Apache Cultural Center and Museum in Fort Apache, Arizona, though his tone is genial, doesn't flinch from the controversy that plagued the early years and has produced today's fairly stable detente.
Utah Historians and the Reconstruction of Western History by Gary Topping. University of Oklahoma Press. 368 pp. $34.95. A comprehensive appraisal of the works of five eminent chroniclers of the West: Bernard De Voto, Dale Morgan, Juanita Brooks, Wallace Stegner and Fawn McKay Brodie.
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Vallecito Country by Dottie Warlick. Western Reflections Publishing Company. 208 pp. $14.95. Southwest Book Views calls this account of life in southwestern Colorado, "a gem for readers interested in regional history."
A Visit With the Tomboy Bride: Harriet Backus and Her Friends by Duane A. Smith. Western Reflections Publishing Co. 144 pp. $12.95. Written by a longtime admirer and acquaintance, this is a valuable companion publication to Backus' own "Tomboy Bride." More details about the perilous life in Colorado mining camps.
F Viva Las Vengeance: A Murder Mystery Featuring Elvis Presley by Daniel Klein. St. Martin's Minotaur. 64 pp. $23.95. Billed as "a murder mystery featuring Elvis Presley," this is a professional job of crime writing as tourists in Las Vegas become victims in what? A casino war? A wedding chapel shoot-out? And then there's this girl who dances with a panther.
Voices of the Buffalo Soldier: Records, Reports, and Recollections of Military Life and Service in the West by Frank N. Schubert. University of New Mexico Press. 281 pp. $24.95. One reviewer wrote, "The first work that presents the correspondence and primary documents pertaining to black soldiers' lives in the West."
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* We Came Naked and Barefoot: The Journey of Cabeza de Vaca Across North America by Alex D. Krieger, edited by Margery H. Krieger. University of Texas Press. 318 pp. $39.95. With courage, fearless determination, and a will to live, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca's eight-year trek in the 1500s is without equal. The book is based on Alex Krieger's 1955 dissertation, which his wife published posthumously. It is a clever presentation and, because of the organization, is easy to follow. There are two parts. First, the author traces Cabeza de Vaca's route from the Texas coast to Mexico City. Well-placed notes link the various segments to the translation of Cabeza de Vaca's own words in the second part. A reader can get full pleasure by moving back and forth between the chapters.
The Weaver's Way: Navajo Profiles by by Dodie Allen, photographs by Carter Allen. Self-published. 82 pp. $23. Another lovingly crafted book from the Allens ("Cowboys of Santa Cruz County") this time photographing and profiling 41 Navajo weavers. In an introduction, Tony Hillerman writes, "Those of you who have wondered why I have spent half my life writing about the Navajos can find the answers inside the covers ..."
+ West of Paradise: Exploring Southeastern Arizona by Carolyn Niethammer. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 74 pp. $12.95. The photographs alone should entice the traveler to pack up and head for the lesser-known spots in southeastern Arizona. In addition to brief historical vignettes of the towns and sites, the author tells us all we need to know for a safe and enjoyable trip. Some pages are hard on old eyes since the designer has chosen a very light typeface for added comments and photograph captions.
Western Places American Myths: How We Think About the West by Gary J. Hausladen. University of Nevada Press. 343 pp. $49.95. Observers of the American West from Finland to South Alabama have contributed essays to University of Nevada geography professor Hausladen's survey of fact and fiction and the results are very, very good. It is also loaded with footnotes and graphs and laden with a fairly academic vocabulary.
When We Arrive: A New Literary History of Mexican America by Jose F. Aranda, Jr.. University of Arizona Press. 256 pp. $40. A Rice University Chicano studies professor makes fairly heavy weather of following the development of a body of fiction written by Mexican Americans with examples beginning in the 19th century.
When We Were Young in the West: True Stories of Childhood by Richard Melzer. Sunstone Press. 345 pp. $16.95. Autobiographical sketches and memoirs of growing up in New Mexico over the last 50 years.
F Whispers in Dust and Bon by Andrew Geyer. Texas Tech University Press. 181 pp. $24.95. West Texan Geyer includes just two short stories set in West Texas in this debut collection of contemporary fiction.
William S. Hart: Projecting the American West by Ronald L. Davis. University of Oklahoma Press. 288 pp. $29.95. Southern Methodist University emeritus professor of history Davis has a solid reputation for covering Hollywood. He has written on John Ford and John Wayne.
F The Wives of Short Creek: A Novel of Polygamy and Prophecy by Gerald Grimmett. Limberlost Press Matrix Editions. 290 pp. $21.95. In his preface, the author explains that his novel , "is not meant as an apologia, nor an outright condemnation of polygamy...This novel was written with a light heart, and tongue firmly stuck in the cheek."
Women Artists of the American West by Susan R. Ressler. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. 397 pp. $75. An interpretive and interdisciplinary history along with a biographical dictionary of female artists living West of the Mississippi from the 19th century to the present. Honors mainly 20th century photographers but also includes painters, quilters, sculptors, textile, basketry and clay artists along with those in print and mixed media.
+ Writing on the Edge: A Borderlands Reader edited by Tom Miller. University of Arizona Press. 56 pp. $19.95. An anthology like this is hard to do. To include everyone you want means allotting short shrift to some worthies. And, not everyone is going to agree with the selections chosen from the works of their favorites. All that said, Miller has done a good job. This is a valuable collection.
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+ The Zen of Gardening in the High and Arid West by David Wann. Fulcrum. 220 pp. $17.95. Words of wisdom for anyone who has ever tried to grow tomatoes in Flagstaff.