Southwest Books of the Year
Complete List
* An asterisk indicates a top choice, a title chosen by a panelist, or panelists, as one of the year's best. Their reviews are in separate articles identified as "Best Reading of the Year."
+ A plus indicates a book that for whatever reason-maybe its target audience is too special-is not on any Best Reading list but is singled out for attention as being noteworthy.
F indicates fiction.
T, which stands for tangential, means that the book contains only a marginal amount of material on the Southwest.
If there is no commentary after a title, it did not make the rounds of the panel-most likely because it arrived too late.
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110° Summer 2004: Artists At the Crossroads by 2004 Voices: Community Stories Past & Present. Arizona Daily Star. Tabloid format (newsprint). www.voices@azstarnet.com. 72 pp. A group of energetic and focused Tucson teenagers interview members of the Tucson arts community.
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* After the Fire by J.A. Jance. The University of Arizona Libraries. Distributed by the University of Arizona Press. 100 pp. $19.95.
The Alamo: The Illustrated Story of the Epic Film by Frank Thompson. A Newmarket Pictorial Moviebook. 160 pp. 9 1/2 by 11-inch format. $29.95. Modestly showy, this coffee table book contains the movie's screenplay as well as many colorful photographs.
* Alambrista and the U.S. - Mexico Border: Film, Music and Stories of Undocumented Immigrants edited by Nicholas J. Cull and David Carrasco. University of New Mexico Press. 225 pp. $34.95, paper; $49.95 cloth, includes a DVD "Director's Cut."
Along the High Road by Margaret Nava. Sunstone. 117 pp. $27. This guide to the 50-mile scenic route between Espanola and Taos offers a rich source of information on the distinctive lives, beliefs, and arts of pioneers and current residents.
Amalia's Special Mexican Dishes by Amalia Ruiz Clark. Revised edition. Gila River Design. 141 pp. Index. $10. If you didn't have an abuelita, this book of solid, traditional cooking recipes could come in very handy.
The American Indian Warrior Today: Native Americans in Modern U.S. Warfare by J. Boyd MorningStorm. Sunflower University Press. 144 pp. Index. $24.95. A former U.S. Marine has collected stories and biographies of seven "American Indian Warriors."
American Nomads: Travels With Lost Conquistadors, Mountain Men, Cowboys, Indians, Hoboes, Truckers and Bullriders by Richard Grant. Grove Press. 320 pp. $24. Only a part, but a substantial one, of American Nomads is devoted to contemporary travels in the American Southwest. Previously published in England, this British ex-pat now lives in Arizona. Starting slowly, Grant spends too much time on the Entrada, but picks up speed with contemporary nomads. The chapter on "Snowbirds," is exceptional.
Americana: Dispatches from the New Frontier by Hampton Sides. Anchor Books. 450 pp. $13.95. It's too bad that Santa Fe resident Sides doesn't spend more time in the Southwest. This funny, perceptive, occasionally off-beat collection of essays has only a handful that deal with our part of the country: the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, Chinle, Tucson and Santa Fe.
Amarillo in August: An Author's Life on the Road by Jonathan Miller. Cool Titles. 109 pp. $8.95. This should be read in conjunction with the author's novel, Crater County (listed below). It is a wry, occasionally even heart-wrenching, first-person story of an author's efforts to sell his fiction - and it comes across as a tough life. Miller is an Albuquerque criminal lawyer who would rather be a novelist.
Apache Leaders, Warriors, Renegades and Scouts by Toby Giese. Published by the author. 64 pp. $19.95.
Arizona, Heartland of the Southwest: Handbook of History Research Materials by Gilbert R. Cruz and James D. McBride. Eakin Press. 268 pp. $39.95. Each of the more than 30 sections of this research volume provides a narrative of a topic, such as Prehistoric Cultures or War Against Mexico, followed by a substantial bibliography of the subject. Historians Cruz and McBride point anyone, from high school up through college and beyond, toward the key resources for understanding our state's history. Especially good for beginners.
The Arizona Liar's Almanac by Jim Cook, Illustrations by Jim Willoughby. Globe Pequot Press. 167 pp. $12.95. A lot of fun, although it may baffle newcomers. Cook recounts an amazing number of Arizona legends and sets them straight.
* Assembling My Father: A Daughter's Detective Story by Anna Cypra Oliver. Houghton Mifflin. 355 pp. $25.
T Atomic Culture, How We Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb edited by Scott C. Zeman and Michael A. Amundson. The University Press of Colorado. 187 pp. Index. $22.95. A selection of several essays from eight authors who presented them in 1999 at "The 50s Turn Fifty," conference at the Western Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming and at the 2001 Atomic Culture section of the Southwest Popular Culture Association in Albuquerque. Investigated are comic books, post cards, board games and movies. Remember the Peter Sellers' movie, "Dr. Strangelove"? Despite this book' s bouncy title, there is nothing about nuclear fission that amuses the authors.
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* Bailing Wire & Gamuza: The True Story of a Family Ranch Near Ramah, New Mexico, 1905-1986 by Barbara Vogt Mallery. Foreword by John Nichols. New Mexico Magazine. 135 pp. $24.95.
* Bats of the Rocky Mountain West: Natural History, Ecology, and Conservation by Rick A. Adams, illustrations by Wendy Smith. University Press of Colorado 289 pp. Index. $55 cloth; $23.95, paper.
Battle for the BIA: G.E.E. Lindquist and the Missionary Crusade Against John Collier by David W. Daily. University of Arizona Press. 216 pp. Index. $39.95. The policies of John Collier, New Deal administrator of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, were opposed by many groups and the story has been told a number of times, but never before from the perspective of Gustavus Lindquist who fought zealously to maintain the Protestant missionary hold on the interactions between the Federal Government and the tribes. The story of a compelling conflict, well told.
* The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature by David Baron. W.W. Norton. 277 pp. $24.95.
* Beloved Land: An Oral History of Mexican Americans in Southern Arizona collected and edited by Patricia Preciado Martin with photographs by José Galvez. University of Arizona Press. 150 pp. $35, cloth; $17.95, paper.
F Bess: A Woman's Life in the Early 1900s by Carol Crawford McManus. Western Reflections Publishing. 247 pp. $14.95. Bess is Carol McManus' second historical novel. As with Ida, McManus' award-winning and best-selling first novel, Bess is based on the author's close observations of pioneer women living and working in western Colorado during the first part of the twentieth century. The population in those days was filled with determined women who tried to make a better life for themselves and their families.
* Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston. Atria. 352 pp. $26.
Birding the Southwestern National Parks (W.L. Moody, Jr. Natural History Series No. 36) by Roland H. Wauer. Drawings by Mimi Hoppe Wolf. Texas A&M University Press. 200 pp. Index. $35, cloth; $16.95, paper. The black and white artwork is nice. There is an interesting section of color photos. Most National Parks have their own birding lists so it is not clear who the customer is for this attractive paperback.
Bisbee by Ethel Jackson Price. Arcadia Publishing. 126 pp. $19.99. Another in Arcadia's Images of America series. Includes more than 200 photographs of Bisbee from private collections of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum and the Cochise County Historical Society.
F Black Canyon Mystery by Joseph A. Mootz. Living the Dream Publishing. 178 pp. $14.95. Mootz's first mystery revolved around Southern Arizona's picturesque diatreme, Picacho Peak. The same principal characters are now vacationing in Utah where they discover a little lost boy. Mootz is developing into a good mystery writer specializing in western locales.
The Black West: A Documentary and Pictorial History of the African American Role in the Westward Expansion of the United States by William Loren Katz. Broadway Books. Harlem Moon trade paperback imprint. 384 pp. $17.95. Historian Katz's 1971 classic (Anchor Books) is revised and expanded with new photographs and evaluations of the importance of important African American contributions to the building of the West. An eye-opening account of the Black experience in the Old West.
F Blue Skies by Robyn Carr. Mira Books. 384 pp. $6.50. A threesome that would seem to be worlds apart joins forces to found New Century Airlines based in Las Vegas, Nevada in this smoothly written romance for the Christian market.
* Books of the Colorado River & the Grand Canyon: A Selective Bibliography by Francis P. Farquhar. Five Quail Books in cooperation with Fretwater Press. $16.95 paper.
* The Books of the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, the Green River & the Colorado Plateau 1953-2003: A Selective Bibliography by Mike S. Ford. Fretwater Press. 177 pp. $16.95, paper.
Bootstraps and Blessings: Poverty to Success by P.David Seaman. Legend eXpress Publishing. www.legendexpress.biz/ 392 pp. $35. In a courageous autobiography, now retired David Seaman, a member of the Northern Arizona University faculty (where he was a specialist on American Indians and Greece), writes of an abusive father and living with 10 brothers and sisters in numerous foster homes in Appalachia. After a stint in the Armed Forces, he joined the ranks of academia. Appendices detail aspects of his career and personal life.
Border Confluences: Borderland Narratives: From the Mexican War to the Present by Rosemary A. King. University of Arizona Press. 170 pp. $39.95. Authors such as Helen Hunt Jackson, Carlos Fuentes, Cormac McCarthy, and Leslie Marmon Silko have not only created important literature; in so doing, they have also helped define the border. Border Confluences offers insight into the ways words and space combine and recombine over time to create representations of the borderlands as a site where places and cultures continue to generate powerful narrative.
F Broken Dishes by Earlene Fowler. Berkley Prime Crime. 271 pp. $23.95. A Booklist critic writes, "This satisfying series, in which the titles all come from quilt patterns, takes a different turn as Benni Harper spends a couple of weeks on a guest ranch in California," helping a young couple get started in their new business.
Brothels, Bordellos, & Bad Girls: Prostitution in Colorado 1860-1930 by Jan MacKell. University of New Mexico Press. 309 pp. Index. $24.95. In this tough, honest look at the "world's oldest profession," MacKell, an historian who is director of Historical Preservation in Victor, Colorado, looks at the problems created by brothels: the children, abortions, suicides, and community and family opprobrium, as well as explaining their principal impetus found in the 1860 Colorado Territory census where men outnumbered women by 20 to one.
Brother Bill's Bait Bites Back and Other Tales From the Raton by Ricardo L. Garcia. University of Nebraska Press. 118 pp. $14.95. Garcia recalls the tales he heard as a youth from Raton's coal miners.
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+ Cacti, Other Succulents, and Unusual Xerophytes of Southern Arizona by Matthew Brian Johnson. Boyce Thompson Southwestern Arboretum. 96 pp. Index. $9.95. This handy field guide is the perfect pocket companion for hikers and anyone else interested in the plants covered. Color photos throughout.
The Calamity Papers by Dale L. Walker. Forge. 304 pp. $24.95. Walker dives into some of the most enduring stories, or myths, if you will, of the Old West. Not many are set in the Southwest. Who actually killed Billy the Kid, however, is one.
* F ¡Caramba!: A Tale Told in Turns of the Card by Nina Marie Martinez. Knopf. 361pp. $25.95.
F Cat in an Orange Twist by Carole Nelson Douglas. Forge. 384pp. $24.95. Las Vegas public relations expert accepts the job of promoting opening events for a trendy new furniture showroom. Not too surprisingly, bodies begin to turn up.
* Cataract Canyon: A Human and Environmental History of the Rivers in Canyonlands by Robert H. Webb, Jayne Belnap, John S. Weisheit. University of Utah Press. 268 pp. Index. 8 1/2 by 10-inch format. $26.95, paper. $60, cloth.
Celebrating Guadalupe by Jacqueline Orsini Dunnington, photographs by Charles Mann. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 84 p. $15.95. There have been hundreds of manifestations of the Virgin of Guadalupe since 1531 when Juan Diego first reported her appearance in Mexico City. She has become the New World's version of the Virgin Mary. As one panelist expressed it, "This is a darling little book." (Not too academic but enticing.)
* Changing River: Time, Culture, and the Transformation of Landscape in the Grand Canyon: A Regional Research Design for the Study of Cultural Resources Along the Colorado River in Lower Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona by Helen C. Fairley. Technical Series 79, Statistical Research Inc. 179 pp. $25, paper.
F Chasing Rayna by Sylvia Nobel. Nite Owl Books. 225 pp. $13.95. Phoenix-area deputy prosecutor Rayna Manchester is assigned to a hit-and-run driver case in which she discovers the defendant is the son of an old beau.
Chicana/o Identity in a Changing U.S. Society: The Mexican American Experience by Aida Hurtado and Patricia Gurin. University of Arizona Press. 149 pp. Index. $15.95. Aimed at the supplementary text market, authors ask, "Quien soy? Quienes somos? "Who am I? Who are we? This is an important note sounded in the book.
+ F Chicano Sketches by Mario Suarez, edited by Francisco A. Lomeli, Cecilia Cota-Robles Suarez and Juan Jose Casillas-Nunez. University of Arizona Press. 186 pp. $17.95. A lifetime of observing, thinking and writing about the people around him fill this book with real people in real-life situations. "Sketches," is more accurate for this collection than "stories."
Chiefs and Generals: Nine Men Who Shaped the American West by Richard Etulain. Fulcrum Publishing. 241 pp. $17.95.
Chistes! Hispanic Humor of Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado edited and translated by Nasario Garcia. University of New Mexico Press. 167 pp. $29.95, cloth; $19.95, paper. The not-very-funny jokes in this little book will come as a surprise to anyone who has had experiences with funny, joke-loving Mexican and Mexican-American friends.
+ F Choke Point, a Brinker Mystery by James C. Mitchell. St. Martin's Minotaur. 260 pp. $23.95. In his second outing, after Lover's Crossing in 2003, Mitchell's series hero and Tucson private investigator looks into the murder of a Los Angeles journalist, who had tried to hire him to help her uncover an anonymous source in Sonora, Mexico. The informant had been killed during a post-game riot on Tucson's funky Fourth Avenue. Lots of Tucson and Mexican border atmosphere with a look at the maquiladora industry thrown in.
Clay Thompson's Valley 101: A Slightly Skewed Guide to Living in Arizona by Clay Thompson. Primer Publishers. 162 pp. $14.95. The hundred or so vignettes in Valley 101 provide quite a delightful read for those of us who call Arizona home. Thompson's light touch and good advice on a number of topics should put a newcomer at ease when living in a country of monsoons, scorpions and other creepy-crawlies and the ever-present Valley Fever. Thompson is an Arizona Republic (Phoenix) regular columnist.
Closing the Chart: A Dying Physician Examines Family, Faith, and Medicine by Steven D. Hsi. University of New Mexico Press. 214 pp. $23.95. Heartrending in both its premise and delivery, the late Dr. Hsi's book is Southwestern mainly because it takes place in Albuquerque. But his edited journal is a detailed, candid and emotionally disturbing look at the doctor/patient relationship.
* Clouds for Dessert: Sweet Treats from the Wild West by Susan Lowell, photographs by Robin Stancliff. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 120 pp. Index. $14.95.
F The Clovis Incident: A Mystery by Pari Noskin Taichert. University of New Mexico Press. 223 pp. $24.95. The verdict on this debut mystery was, "amusing but too many unresolved red herrings." The subject, of course, is east-central New Mexico's famous encounters with aliens from outer space. An out-of-work publicist tries to help a small town chamber of commerce get a handle on the alien encounter tourist trade.
+ T Coast of Dreams, California on the Edge, 1990-2003 by Kevin Starr. Knopf. 765 pp. Index. $35. Library Journal calls this book "essential for all collections on California and the West." Starr is University Professor of History at the University of Southern California. From 1994 to 2004, he was the state librarian of California. Starr puts readers in touch with events that would suggest a troubled state as it copes with gang violence, illegal aliens, court battles over affirmative action, an influx of diverse cultures, fires, earthquakes, prison riots, and celebrity murders.
The Colorado Plateau: Cultural, Biological, and Physical Research edited by Charles van Riper III and Kenneth L. Cole. University of Arizona Press. 280 pp. Index. $32.50. This volume presents 23 original articles drawn from more than 100 research projects presented at the Sixth Biennial Conference of Research on the Colorado Plateau (2001). This scientific gathering revolved around research, inventory, and monitoring of lands in the region. The book's contents cover management techniques for cultural, biological, and physical resources, representing collaborative efforts among federal, university, and private sector scientists and land managers.
The Colorado River by the Book: A Seldom Seen Confession by Earle E. Spamer. Fretwater Press. 8 pp. Illustrated. $21. This pamphlet honors the reprinting of Frances P. Farquar's bibliography, Books of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon, and Mike S. Ford's selective bibliography, Books of the Grand Canyon, Colorado River, Green River & the Colorado Plateau, 1935-2004.
Colorado River Origin and Evolution edited by Richard A. Young and Earle E. Spamer. Grand Canyon Association. 280 pp. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. Index. $25. The proceedings of a symposium on geology held at the Grand Canyon National Park in June 2000, this is an update of findings since a similar symposium held in 1964. Despite many insights and advances, there is still, "a frustrating lack of agreement over how the Colorado River became fully integrated across northern Arizona."
F Colors Insulting to Nature: A Novel by Cintra Wilson. Fourth Estate. 350 pp. $24.95. This lively novel and its heroine, Liza Normal, of the Normal Family Dinner Theater, was described by Publishers Weekly as a "spirited send-up of celebrity worship," and "laugh-out-loud funny." Library Journal called it, "a giddy and poignant crash course in growing up..."
Common Dragonflies of the Southwest: A Beginner's Pocket Guide by Kathy Biggs. Azalea Creek Publishing. 160 pp. $10.95.
Common Southwestern Native Plants, An Identification Guide by Jack L. Carter, Martha A. Carter and Donna J. Stevens. Johnson Books. 214 pp. Index. $20. No new ground broken here but good for beginners.
* Computation and Analysis of the Instantaneous-Discharge Record for the Colorado River at Lees Ferry: Arizona May 8, 1921 through September 30, 2000. U.S. Geological Survey. 118 pp. $17.
Confronting Race: Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1815-1915 by Glenda Riley. University of New Mexico Press. 326pp. Index. $39.95, cloth; $21.95, paper. This is a revised edition of the 1984 well-reviewed original.
Conserving Migratory Pollinators and Nectar Corridors in Western North America edited by Gary Paul Nabhan; technical editing by Richard C. Brusca and Louella Holter. University of Arizona Press and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. 190 pp. Index. $40.
Contested Policy: The Rise and Fall of Federal Bilingual Education in the United States 1960-2001 by Guadalupe San Miguel Jr. University of North Texas Press. Index. 168 pp. $21.95. University of Houston history professor San Miguel has produced a fairly dense book on his topic. Readers hoping for a simple explanation of what is at stake will be disappointed. His sympathies appear to lie with the pro-bilingual education groups.
F Convenient Disposal: A Posadas County Mystery by Steven F. Havill. St. Martin's Minotaur. 260 pp. $23.95.
The Corpse on Boomerang Road: Telluride's War on Labor 1899-1908 by Maryjo Martin. Western Reflections Publishing. 377 pp. Index. $29.95. In her preface, Martin writes, "By numerous accounts the Miner's Union men, particularly the officers, were degenerate, corrupt, menacing, frenetic, bomb-throwing felonious, godless, indefensible, illegitimate sons of soulless hags. These were my kind of lads." And from that spirited declaration of bias, she offers the results of her investigation of these allegations, charges of wrongdoing and even murder.
Country Sports: The Rabid Pursuits of a Redneck Environmentalist by M.H. "Dutch" Salmon. High-Lonesome Books. 280pp. $20. Many readers may know "Dutch" Salmon from his adventure narrative, Gila Descending, or from his novels such as Home Is the River. In this collection we see the essayist in more than 100 articles written for New Mexico newspapers. They often have hunting or fishing themes but usually have an eye toward protecting an outdoor lifestyle that does not involved bulldozers, dams and other man-made disasters.
The Cowboy Boot: History, Art, Culture, Function photography by David Stoecklein, text by Shirl Woodson. Stoecklin Publishing & Photography. 168 pp. $35.
Cowboy Corner Conversations by Red Steagall, edited by Loretta Fulton. State House Press. 165 pp. Index. $24.95. Texas' official Cowboy Poet, Red Steagall, offers this small book of radio talks and some favorite western characters and their observations. John Justin, for example, tells the secrets that made his name famous.
Cowboy Poetry: The Reunion edited with an introduction by Virginia Bennett. Gibbs Smith. 208 pp. $12.95. Another volume for the libraries of cowboy poetry lovers.
Coyotes by Lauray Yule. Rio Nuevo Publishers. New West Series. 6 1/4 by 6 1/2 inch format. 64 pp. $12.95. A quick, readable look at the basics of this ingenious survivor. Attractive photos.
F Coyote Morning by Lisa Lenard-Cook. University of New Mexico Press. 199 pp. $15.95. In Valle Bosque, an upscale suburb near Albuquerque, the battle between exterminating and encouraging coyotes rages. Coyote supporters and haters fight it out in the pages of the local newspaper. By the end of this slim novel there are few arguments left unexpressed.
F Crater County: A Legal Thriller of New Mexico by Jonathan Miller. Cool Titles. 275 pp. $12.95. This mildly entertaining mystery needs character development. Miller's efforts to get his fiction published are recounted in the brief memoir, Amarillo in August, listed above.
Crazy for Chipotle by Lynn Nusom. Northland Publishing. (www.northlandpub.com) 104pp. Index. $11.95. Crazy for chipotle? No traditional recipes here. Contemporary interpretations, while not nouveau cuisine, resulting in tasty, not complex, use of the smoky chipotle pepper. Nusom explains up front how to make chipotle powder, but the version of chipotle in adobo is buried in a chicken recipe as adobo sauce (thank goodness for the index).
Crime and Punishment in Early Arizona by R. Michael Wilson. Stagecoach Books. 273 pp. $17.95.
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F Dark Matters: A Novel by Paul M. Levitt. University of New Mexico Press. 302 pp. $24.95. A valiant effort at anti-McCarthyism.
F Day of the Dead: A Novel of Suspense by J.A. Jance. William Morrow. 370 pp. $23.95. If you have a strong aversion to dismembered corpses, sexploitation, serial killers and other evil, kinky developments, you might skip this. The drama plays out in Tucson with a long list of characters from Mexico, the Tohono O'odham reservation and society's elite. In spite of a complex plot, the story is fairly well crafted.
F Dead for the Winter: A Mystery by Betsy Thornton. St. Martin's Minotaur. 272 pp. $23.95. After a lonely spell, where only her work as a victims advocate in the small desert town of Old Dudley, Arizona (read Cochise County) keeps her busy, Chloe Newcombe meets Terry Barnett. He is the most attractive man she has known since she and her lover mutually parted, and she is enjoying his company. But when she finds out he is married, she writes him off and decides to forget about him. Then she goes out one night on assignment and wishes she had listened. Terry has been murdered.
F Dead Pawn by Richard E. Peck. University of New Mexico Press. 239 pp. $24.95. Richard Peck, a former president of the University of New Mexico, has adopted a new identity: a writer of suspense and mystery dealing with the lowest echelon of New Mexico society-cheats and swindlers, murderers, drug runners and more. A building contractor, wrongly incarcerated, sets out on a dangerous course to prove his innocence. Peck turns a good phrase. Describing a low-rider he writes, "an underpowered engine that growled and bubbled along like a coffee pot on steroids." Dead pawn, by the way, is jewelry that has been pawned but not reclaimed within the allotted time and thus becomes available for sale by the pawnbroker.
Death Valley ‘49er Trails: Pieces of the Puzzle Come Together by B.G. Olsen. Photophysics, 12051 Skyway Drive, Santa Ana, Calif. 92705. 184 pp. Photos, maps and bibliography. $50. For many years, noted historians and skilled researchers have tried their hand at retracing and locating the route William Manley and John Rogers took out of Death Valley. Now, Olsen has come up with what he claims is new information, mainly due to the fact that he used tools unavailable to previous historians-the global Positioning System (GPS) and digitized topo maps.
F Delivery by Ben Daitz. University of New Mexico Press. 259 pp. $21.95. Daitz, an M.D., has penned a dark tale of life among the mostly poor and working class residents of the fictional town of Mogote, New Mexico. This is his first published novel and he is at his best with gripping scenes in the emergency ward of Mogote Hospital.
Desert Patriarchy: Mormon and Mennonite Communities in the Chihuahua Valley by Janet Bennion. University of Arizona Press. 205 pp. Index. $45. Bennion, a professor of anthropology in Vermont with deep Mormon roots, along with two assistants, lays the groundwork for a more thorough investigation of one Mennonite and two Mormon communities south of Ciudad Juarez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The subjects of this dense, well-written book are members of religious groups who emigrated to Mexico to be relieved of 19th century U.S. religious pressure to conform to the mainstream. Bennion feels ecology shapes ideology, based on environment and gender.
F Desert Shadows: Publishing Can Be Murder: A Lena Jones Mystery by Betty Webb. Poisoned Pen Press. 280 pp. $24.95. Lena Jones, P.I., is tough and will go to any length to protect and save the lives of others. There is plenty of excitement while she tracks down the murder of a hated publisher. Intruding into the story is the psychoanalysis and personal history of Lena herself.
F Desire by Lindsay Ahl. Coffee House Press. 229 pp. $14. Petroglyph researcher Elena Monroe starts out in New Mexico but the essence of this novel is in the black market ivory trade in Africa.
F Detachment Fault by Susan Cummins Miller. Texas Tech University Press. 235 pp. $24.95. A holiday fishing trip to Puerto Penasco turns ugly when skipper Chuy Desierto finds his murdered brother floating on a weighted line near his favorite fishing spot. Frankie MacFarlane's getaway weekend from Tucson hits a snag. International money laundering, antiquities trading, and murders offer geologist MacFarlane's sleuthing skills a real challenge.
* The Devil's Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea. Little, Brown. 256 pp. $24.95.
Divorce Seekers: A Photo Memoir of a Nevada Dude Wrangler by William L. McGee, Sandra McGee. BMC Publications. 444 pp. $49.95. In 1947, Bill McGee, a Montana cowboy, took a job at a dude ranch south of Reno, Nevada that was popular with men and women from other parts of the country who, after six weeks, were Nevada residents and eligible for divorce. More than 500 photographs.
* F The Dog Fighter by Marc Bojanowski. William Morrow. 291 pp. $23.95.
* Don't Let the Sun Step Over You: A White Mountain Apache Family Life, 1860-1975 by Eva Tulene Watt with assistance from Keith H. Basso. University of Arizona Press. 340 pp. Index. $50, cloth; $24.95, paper.
F Double Homicide by Jonathan and Faye Kellerman. Warner Books. 304 pp. $23.95. Only one of these two novellas occurs in our geographical area. Titled simply, "Boston," and "Santa Fe," the Santa Fe story, identified by critics as the more successful of the two, involves the murder of a successful Canyon Road art dealer.
Draft Environmental Impact Statement Colorado River Management Plan, Vols. One , 215 pp. and Two, 600 pp. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service. Grand Canyon National Park, P.O. Box 129, Grand Canyon, AZ. 86023-0129. Free. This long-overdue Colorado River Management Plan update covers just about every aspect the National Park Service could think of pertaining to Grand Canyon river running. But it's not the easiest read, and even tough as a reference work, thus guaranteeing that input on it and its value are sure to generate another comment category. However, it is essential for those who are affected by this very important issue.
Dry Place: Landscape of Belonging and Exclusion by Patricia L. Price. University of Minnesota Press. Index. 222 pp. $59.95, cloth; $19.95, paper. Price uses theoretical insights with field-based inquiry, autobiography and creative writing to help us understand the Southwestern United States and Northern Mexico. Price is an associate professor of geography in the Department of International Relations at Florida International University in Miami.
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F An Echo Through Time by Jan Booth Frampton. Treble Heart Books. 471 pp. $15.95. Tombstone resident Frampton's account of the contemporary scene in Tombstone revolves around Tori Mayhew who has inherited her aunt's antique shop located in an historic former Tombstone theater. Through a form of self-hypnosis Tori learns how to transition herself back to the Tombstone of Wyatt Earp where she meets all the notables of the day.
+ Ernest W. McFarland: A Biography by James Elton McMillan, Jr. with a foreword by Bruce Babbitt and an introduction by Governor Janet Napolitano. Sharlot Hall Museum Press. 618 pp. Index. $27.95. Every Arizonan should be acquainted with the basics of the life and service to his country of Ernest McFarland. He was the quintessential public servant, serving Arizona as governor, as U.S. Senator and as chief justice of the state judicial system. As U.S. Senator, he sponsored the G.I. Bill of Rights, one of the outstanding pieces of legislation in the 20th century. Interestingly enough, as Justice in the Arizona Supreme Court, McFarland wrote the Miranda decision that was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court. (See: Miranda: The Story of America's Right to Remain Silent by Gary L. Stuart.)
Every Night Is Ladies' Night: Stories by Michael Jaime-Becerra. Rayo/Harper Collins. 290 pp. $23.95. A good read from Southern California's Latino community. The linked stories take place in the 1980s. Characters come to life and one gets easily carried into their stories.
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F Family Claims: A Pinnacle Peak Mystery by Twist Phelan. Poisoned Pen Press. 241 pp. $24.95. A combination mystery and romance finds protagonist Hannah Dain, who likes to bike around the Scottsdale desert, taking on a devastating challenge to her family law firm. Embarrassing family secrets have to emerge before the case is settled in this marginal mystery.
+ 50 Common Insects of the Southwest by Carl Olson. Western National Parks Association. 53 pp. Index. $7.95. (See below)
+ 50 Common Reptiles & Amphibians of the Southwest by Jonathan Hanson and Roseann Beggy Hanson. Western National Parks Association. 54 pp. $7.95. WNPA publications concentrate on simple prose and great photography. These fine little books are good to have around the house.
50 Hikes in Arizona by Martin Tessmer. The Countryman Press. Back Country Guides. 268 pp. Index. $16.95. This imprint from W.W. Norton describes its contents as "Walks, Hikes and Backpacks through Sky Islands and Deserts in the Grand Canyon State." It is undoubtedly good for distant travelers roughing out their vacation schedules, but there are better guides on hand at the specific destinations.
Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona edited by Clark Blake. Tucson Audubon Society. 329 pp. $24.95. This is the sixth book about bird-finding in southeastern Arizona published by the Society.
T Finding Fault in California: An Earthquake Tourist's Guide by Susan Elizabeth Hough. Mountain Press Publishing. 262 pp. Index. $18. paper. Only the portion of Hough's book on earthquakes that deals with desert California can rightfully be called southwestern. Good maps, however, detail the areas she writes about. Nice chatty writing style.
F Five O'clock Shadow by Susan Slater. Poisoned Pen Press. 265 pp. $24.95. Pauly (short for Pauline) Caton watches her husband (of six days) plummet to earth in a rented balloon in the Rio Grande Valley near Albuquerque followed by a sniper's bullets killing him and the pilot. A naked young boy leaps from the gondola and runs away! Eventually she decides that she must discover the killer on her own since the police seem to be stumped.
Flagstaff: Past & Present by Richard and Sherry Magnum. Northland Publishers. 109 pp. $11, paper; $18, cloth. The Magnums, wearing period costumes, conduct walking tours of downtown Flagstaff. Once again they have put together a fine album of historic Flagstaff images. While not really a re-photographing project, some "matching" photos of current locations are included with a brief commentary on more than 40 topics.
F Folly and Glory: A Novel (The Berrybender Narratives, book 4) by Larry McMurtry. Simon & Schuster. 225 pp. $25. After some new adventures in Santa Fe, Lord Berrybender, his family, and his entourage are escorted to Mexico City by their Mexican captors. Travel incidents reek with blood, gore and heartbreak. The characters are interesting, oddball and occasionally real, such as U.S. Army scout Kit Carson and painter George Catlin. But Folly and Glory is more like a series of episodes, the plot almost non-existent.
* Forever New Mexico: Heartfelt Images from the Land of Enchantment edited by Arnold Vigil. New Mexico Magazine. 128 pp. Index. 12 by 8 3/4-inch format. $29.95.
Forging a West that Works: An Invitation to the Radical Center edited by Barbara H. Johnson. The Quivira Coalition, 551 Cordova Road, #423, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505. $18.95. Articles from the Coalitions quarterly journal.
Four Corners by Debra Bloomfield. University of New Mexico Press. 11 by 11-inch format. 159 pp. $45.00. Bloomfield captures dramatic early morning light and the late evening sky in this elegant coffee-table sized book. There are no photographs of individuals. An annotated list gives the story behind each photograph.
Frontier Texas: History of a Borderland to 1880 by Robert F. Pace and Donald S. Frazier, Abilene, Texas: State House Press, 2004. $19.95. The book tells the epic story of Fort Worth to Caprock and Palo duro Canyon to the San Saba River.
* Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe by Hunter Drohojowska-Philp. W.W. Norton. 628 pp. Index. $35.
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Gambel's Quail by Lynn Hassler Kaufman. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 64 pp. $12.95. In the "Look West" series.
+ Gateways to the Southwest, The Story of Arizona State Parks by Jay M. Price. University of Arizona Press. 242 pp. Index. $45. Because of special interests such as real estate developers and cattle ranchers, the growth of a state parks system in Arizona was an uphill battle until the 1950s when tourism began to flourish. Price details this struggle to preserve natural and historic resources, and to create places for recreation or quiet solitude for residents and visitors. Read it and heave a huge sigh of appreciation.
Geronimo: Fine Dining in Santa Fe by Cliff Skoglund and Eric DiStefano with Judyth Hill. Ten Speed Press. 10 1/4 by 10 1/4-inch format. 232 pp. Index. $50. Details about the history of the building as well as the inclusion of recipes from this upscale Santa Fe restaurant make the book a cherished keepsake for those who know it. What you would expect by combining "fine dining" and "Santa Fe." Not for those easily intimidated in the kitchen nor those out of pocket.
Geronimo's Bones: A Memoir of My Brother and Me by Nasdijj. Ballantine Books. 320 pp. $24.95. In his third book, Nasdijj returns to his motherless childhood where his abusive father had many creative ways to torture him and his younger brother, Tso.
F The Ghost Ocean: A Novel by Richard Benke. University of New Mexico Press. 280 p. $24.95. The "ghost ocean" is the border area between southwestern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Will Mann, a Bureau of Land Management Ranger, searches for the murderer of a young girl in the Gila Wilderness. Benke is a good writer but his debut mystery is a murky mixture of complex sub-plots that are hard to follow.
F The Ghost Wore Polyester: A Tildy MacNamara Mystery by Gail Koger & S.J. Smith. Crossquarter Publishing Group. 185 pp. $12.95. Glendale Police Department senior dispatcher Gail Koger and Scottsdale resident Sally Smith met at a screenwriter's class. In their debut novel, they introduce Tildy McNamara, a Sedona bookstore owner with psychic powers. She meets up with the ghost of a long-dead journalist who needs to know who killed him so he can "pass over." The writers hope this is the beginning of a series.
Ghosts, Murder, Mayhem: A Chronicle of Santa Fe by Allan Pacheco. Sunstone Press. 227 pp. $19.95. Trivia buffs can settle down with this book for substantial reading pleasure; a ghost haunts a parking lot, a jailhouse that never was, a UFO mutilating cows - these and more await within.
Glen Canyon Dam by Timothy L. Parks. Arcadia 128 pp. $19.99. A volume in Arcadia's Images of America Series. Lots of good pictures very well reproduced presenting and honoring the enormous effort that went into the dam's building. When it was built, the Glen Canyon bridge was the longest and highest steel arched bridge.
F The Goddesses of Kitchen Avenue by Barbara Samuel. Ballantine Books. 324 pp. $23.95. A heartening story of what women, as widows, divorcees, and dreamers can do to help and support one another. The locale is a small town in contemporary southern Colorado. Samuel is a veteran writer with three RITA Awards from the Romance Writers of America.
Grace in the Desert: Awakening to the Gifts of Monastic Life by Dennis Patrick Slattery. Jossey-Bass. 152 pp. $22.95. Mostly about Slattery's personal spirituality and what one can gain by visiting retreat centers.
Grand Canyon: The Complete Guide edited by James Kaiser. Destination Press. 331 pp. $22.99.
The Grand Canyon Railway, Sixty Years in Color by Al Richmond and Marc Pearsall. Published by the authors. 112 pp. 11 by 8 1/2-inch format. $30. Post-World War II color photography, with a few exceptions, preceded Grand Canyon railroad color by almost a decade. Documenting from the 1940s to the present, old-hand Richmond, author of several Grand Canyon railroad books, and Pearsall comment on many unique images. Includes a very interesting section on "The Dormant Years: 1974-1989."
Grand Canyon Wild, a Photographic Journey by John Annerino. Countryman Press. 143 pp. 11 by 9-inch format. $29.95. Another photo book without much text about our photographic Grand Canyon, although Annerino moves off the Colorado Plateau.
Grand Canyon Women: Lives Shaped by Landscape by Betty Leavengood. Grand Canyon Association. Revised second edition. 297 pp. $18.95. Leavengood has enlarged her original volume. Fourteen of the 15 women from the first edition remain, with the addition of nine new features, mostly much-missed Native Americans.
Great Sand Dunes National Park: Between Light and Shadow photography and essays by John B Weller. Westcliffe Publishers. 128pp. $19.95. A comprehensive look at America's newest national park and its supremely fragile eco-system. In the park, Weller finds elk, birds and coyotes, all especially adapted to survive the harsh climate. His photographs are breathtaking. He writes that his heart soars at the sight of a midnight meteor shower (and sinks at the distant sound of an illegal ATV).
+ Greetings From Tucson: A Postcard History of the Old Pueblo edited and published by Michelle Graye ($16.95). A delightful photographic excursion into Tucson's 20th Century past. Graye also provides snippets of history.
Guide to Colorado River in the Grand Canyon, Lees Ferry to South Cove by Tom Martin and Duwain Whitis. Vishnu Temple Press. Unpaginated. 8 1/2 by 14-inch format. $24.95. The good topographic maps make this guide especially well-suited for hikers.
+ Guide to Hopi Katsina Carvings by Rose Houk. Western National Parks Association. 48 pp. $4.95. Rose Houk has packed this little volume with just about all the information a neophyte needs to know about these popular Hopi carvings. A concise history accompanied by 21 color illustrations, gives some idea of the diversity of these katsina dolls and their importance to the every day life of the Hopi. It is a part of WNPA's Indian Arts Series.
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The Handbook of Texas Music edited by Roy R. Barkley, Douglas E. Barnett, Cathy Brigham, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, David Oliphant and George B. Ward. Texas State Historical Association. 393 pp. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. $45, cloth; $24.95, paper. From gospel music promoter Elmer Adkins, to educator and classical musician Samuel Peters Ziegler, this book includes the biography of just about every Texan who makes music. There are also lists of schools, organizations and a history of many songs. An excellent index and a bibliography accompanies each alphabetical entry.
* Hard Line: Life and Death on the U.S. - Mexico Border by Ken Ellingwood. Pantheon Books. 256 pp. Index. $25.
Hijacking a River: A Political History of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon by Jeff Ingram. Vishnu Temple Press. 479 pp. Index. $17.95. Good information is in this book by a former southwest coordinator of the Sierra Club.
Hiking the Grand Canyon's Geology by Lon Abbott & Terri Cook. Mountaineers Books. 301 pp. Index. $16.95 Valuable and useful but a hard book to read.
Historic Prescott: An Illustrated History of Prescott & Yavapai County by Agnes Franz. Historical Publishing Network. 104 pp. $44.95.
F Hoax by Robert Tannenbaum. Atria. 490 pp. $25.95. The disappearances of children in New York City and Taos seem to be connected. N.Y. district attorney Butch Karp and Taos sheriff John Jojola look for a connection in a Taos retreat for priests run by the Catholic Church. Right out of the headlines of yesterday's paper!
Hohokam Palettes by Devin Alan White. Arizona State Museum Archaeological Series 196. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. 99 pp. Includes CD: Palette Data & Drawings. $17.95. An in-depth archeological study of Hohokam palettes, one of the hallmark artifacts from the Pre-Classic period. A companion CD includes palette data and drawings.
Holy Faith of Santa Fe, 1863-2000 by Stanford Lehmberg. LPD Press. 219 pp. Index. $25.95. A history of one of the oldest Protestant churches in New Mexico is written by its current director of music. Some of the buildings for this Episcopal church were designed by longtime parishioner John Gaw Meem. There is also art work from Gustav Baumann. All in all, hard to beat.
+ Holy Ghost Creek by Frank D. Weissbarth. University of New Mexico Press. 125 pp. $23.95. A warm, inviting book about the simple joys of fishing small trout streams. The reader vicariously experiences the excitement of finding a hidden gem of a stream, the contemplative and spiritual aspects of fly-fishing, and even the connection between father and son in nature.
+ Hope's Horizon: Three Visions for Healing the American Land by Chip Ward. Island Press and Shearwater Press. 350 pp. Index. $27. A thoughtful, readable book for everyone interested in environmental issues from damming projects to nuclear power and the storage of nuclear waste. The chapter on Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell is worth the price of the book.
* F The Horse in the Kitchen: Stories of a Mexican-American Family by Ralph M. Flores. University of New Mexico Press. 194 pp. $21.95.
Horse Trails of Arizona: Mountain Trails and Camps by Michael C. Yager. Johnson Books. 204 pp. Index. $17.50. Basic but important contact information. Only one map but Yager identifies Forest Service maps to use, which is a good idea anyway.
How Arizona Sold Its Sunshine: The Historical Hotels of Arizona by Victoria Clark. Blue Gourd Publishing. 190 pp. $19.95. Clark describes, not always accurately and occasionally sketchily, 65 Arizona hotels, including their ghosts and famous visitors. Did Pancho Villa really ride his horse up the marble steps of Douglas' Gadsden Hotel? Clark doesn't have an answer to that one, but the Pond who built Stone Ashley in Tucson, now home to the Mountain Oyster Club, was not, as Clark writes, a Cheeseborough Pond heiress. An earlier statement included here stating there are no photo credits was in error. J. C. Martin, Coordinator.
Hunters, Hounds and Horseman by Billy Kiehne. Git a Rope! Publishing. 106 pp. $25. According to the introduction, Kiehne depicts a lifetime of hunting bear and mountain lion in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico.
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I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl by Laurie Notaro. Villard. 228 pp. $12.95. She's still addicted to the confrontational solution to any problem, but she no longer seems to think vomiting is hilarious. Laurie Notaro has settled down into having to deal with bosses - naturally unreasonable bosses, actually, certifiable misfits - at the anonymous Phoenix newspaper that carried her weekly column for several years. Now we see Notaro and her husband trying to get allergy medicine (a lot of it) across the Mexican border; a childless Notaro faced with an ever-increasing amount of motherhood amongst her friends; Notaro on kidney stones (her own); Notaro with a mother hooked on QVC. As ditsy and disparaging as ever, she's becoming a kinder, gentler, funnier Notaro, but still in no danger of going mainstream.
Identity, Feasting, and the Archaeology of the Greater Southwest edited by Barbara J. Mills. University Press of Colorado. 339 pp. $65.00, cloth; $26.95, paper. These proceedings are from the 2002 Southwest Symposium, its eighth biennial meeting which attracted 350 persons to Tucson. The sponsors were the Arizona State Museum and the University of Arizona's Department of Anthropology.
* F The Importance of a Piece of Paper: Stories by Jimmy Santiago Baca. Grove Press. 225pp. $22.
The Imus Ranch, Cooking for Kids and Cowboys by Deirdre Imus. Rodale. 248 pp. Index, 8 by 10 1/2-inch format. $29.95. Yep, it's that Imus family headed by Don, the noisy radio personality. Ms. Imus is dedicated to treatment in pediatric oncology. The health issues should have had more space, but some of the vegetarian recipes sound delicious in this handsomely mounted volume.
F In Company: An Anthology of New Mexico Poets After 1960 edited by Lee Bartlett, V.B. Price and Dianne Edenfield Edwards. University of New Mexico Press. Mary Burritt Christiansen Poetry Series. 522 pp. $34.95. Selected works from 82 poets who have either been born in New Mexico, have taught there or live there now, make up this sturdy book that, unfortunately, lacks an index.
* Indian Country: Travels in the American Southwest, 1840-1935 by Martin Padget. University of New Mexico Press. 250 pp. Index. $37.95.
* In Search of Chaco: New Approaches to an Archaeological Enigma edited by David Grant Noble. School of American Research Press. 140 pp. Index. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. $19.95.
Inside the Hoover Dam Scrapbooks. Stewart Library Special Collections of Weber State University 81 pp. 10 by 8-inch format. Published as part of an exhibit at the Stewart Library Special Collections, emphasizing archival collections from their holdings. The photographs are accompanied by excerpts from published sources, including oral histories. An important dissemination of primary source materials; too bad it's not readily available. President Franklin Roosevelt at the dam's dedication: "Gee, this is magnificent." For prices and how to obtain this attractive, nicely produced record Contact: Weber State University Stewart Library, 2901 University Circle, Ogden, Utah 84408-2901.
Insiders' Guide to the Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona by Todd R. Berger, Tanya Lee and Kerri Quinn. Insiders' Guide Series/Globe Pequot Press. 297 pp. $16.95. An updated version of this commendable armchair/RV traveler.
Into Another Time: Grand Canyon Reflections by Margaret Randall. University of New Mexico Press. 96 pp. $12.95. Poetry from political activist Randall (Hunger's Table: Women, Food and Politics), a book based on more than 50 years of happy Grand Canyon visits. Randall is the author of more than 100 volumes of memoir, political commentary, cultural studies and poetry. She is a writer, political activist and photographer living in Albuquerque.
* Into the Canyon, Seven Years in Navajo Country by Lucy Moore. University of New Mexico Press. 224 pp. $24.95.
F In the Owl's Eye by Rick Rocco. Trafford. 231 pp. $21.95. This debut mystery set in Southern Arizona in 1885 introduces rancher Sam Patlock as its amateur sleuth. A good first novel, but Rocco needs practice with dialog and a better editor to catch chronological anomalies.
F In the River Province by Lisa Sandlin. Southern Methodist University Press. 176 pp. $15.95. Short stories about contemporary New Mexicans who live along the Rio Grande River.
Inventing Texas: Early Historians of the Lone Star State by Laura Lyons McLemore. Texas A&M University Press. 130 pp. Index. $29.95. Laura McLemore's historiography deals with the 18th and 19th century historians and how they handled the so-called Texas Myth in their writings.
* Isabella Greenway: An Enterprising Woman by Kristie Miller. University of Arizona Press. 330 pp. Index. $24.95.
+ It Seems Like Only Yesterday, Mining and Mapping Arizona's First Century: Vol. 1, The Yuma Years by Robert Lenon with Robert and Judith Whitcomb. iUniverse. 178 pp. Index. $17.95. A superb memory takes nonagenarian Lenon through the first 18 years of his life, leaving off when he departs Yuma for the University of Arizona.
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Javelinas by Lauray Yule. Rio Nuevo Publishers. Look West Series. 6 1/4 by 6 1/2-inch format. 64 pp. $12.95. A small, tidy, succinct wrap-up of the collared peccaries (often misidentified as wild pigs). Where and how they live and what to do and not do about them. And, naturally, some darling photographs.
* John Wesley Powell: An Annotated Bibliography (Bibliographies and Indexes in American History) by Marcia L. Thomas. Praeger Publishers. 288 pp. $92.95.
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+ Landmark Buildings: Arizona's Architectural Heritage by Ann Patterson, Mark Vinson. Arizona Highways. 176 pp. Index. $18.95. Patterson is an architecture critic and Vinson an historic preservation officer. They profile 165 Arizona buildings that are architecturally distinctive and have an interesting and sometimes colorful and historic past. Excellent photographs accompany each entry. Readers will have their own favorites to add. One obvious omission for many will be the Gadsden Hotel in Douglas.
F Land of Echoes: A Cree Black Novel by Daniel Hecht. Bloomsbury. 407 pp. $24.95. Ghosts and possession in New Mexico. Pretty much over the top.
The Language of Blood: The Making of Spanish-American Identity in New Mexico, 1880s-1930s by John M. Nieto-Phillips. University of New Mexico Press. Index. 312 pp. $32.50. New Mexico native Nieto-Phillips is associate professor of history and Latino studies at Indiana University. In this book he traces the roots of the "myth," of New Mexico's Hispanics who have long considered themselves to be members of the Spanish Diaspora and not Indian or Mexican at all. Growing up, he had trouble reconciling this lofty lineage with his family's working class status. As a college graduate, he came home to his grandfather's funeral and decided to investigate. This could have been a nifty memoir. As it is, it's pretty heavy, academically-conscious going.
Las Vegas Weddings: A Brief History, Celebrity Gossip, Everything Elvis, and the Complete Chapel Guide by Susan Marg. Perennial Currents. $13.95. The city's matrimonial industry is "rife with quirky detail," according to an only mildly enthusiastic review in the Oct. 4 Publishers Weekly. An estimated five percent of the country's weddings are performed there.
F Late Bloomer: A Novel by Melissa Pritchard. Doubleday. 365 pp. $23.95. Set in Phoenix, this is a really good send-up of romance novels.
Lawmen, Outlaws, and S.O.Bs. Gunfighters of the Old Southwest by Bob Alexander. High-Lonesome Books. 310 pp. Index. $30, cloth; $16.95, paper. If you thought Billy the Kid (see below) was tough, dip into Alexander's lives of 15 "notable gunmen, most of them largely lost to history." They are advertised to be "tougher than Wyatt Earp," to have "killed more people than Billy the Kid, stole more livestock than Butch Cassidy and took more bullets than Harvey Logan."
F Law of the Land: The Trial of Billy the Kid by Johnny D. Boggs. A Signet Book. 311 pp. $5.99. This book is engaging, fun to read, and apparently a lot of it is true. In the author's note at the book's conclusion he credits two Billy the Kid experts with guiding him along the murky path of the notorious young -he was dead at 21-outlaw's history.
Legendary Watering Holes: The Saloons That Made Texas Famous compiled and edited by Richard Selcer. Number ten: Clayton Wheat Williams Texas Series. College Station: Texas A&M University Press. $29.95. Included are four entertaining accounts of legendary Texas establishments, by whatever name you might call them: saloons, barrooms, honky-tonks, or watering holes.
Let the Record Show...Gila River Indian Reservation Water Rights and the Central Arizona Project by Earl Zarbin, published by the author. 296 pp. illustrated, tables, maps, index and bibliography. $29.95. As a retired Arizona Republic newspaper reporter, Zarbin's speciality is Arizona's water. While focusing on the Gila River Indian Reservation, he explains how roughly one percent of Arizona's population on 13 Indian reservations will control 51.66 percent of the state's major surface water supply, the Colorado River, if the U.S. Congress approves legislation introduced by Senator Jon Kyle and Representative J.D. Hayworth. (Note: As of preparation time, the bill had passed Congress and was awaiting the president's signature.)
T The Life and Times of Mexico by Earl Shorris. W.W. Norton. 780 pp. Index. $29.95. "This 3,000 year history distinguishes itself in a field of worthy contenders (but) the overall effect is a beautiful, passionate and powerful account of a nation that American readers can ill afford to ignore," says Publishers Weekly.
Life of the Marlows: A True Story of Frontier Life of Early Days Rev. by William Rathmell, edited, with an introduction and annotations by Robert K. DeArment. Denton, Texas: University of North Texas Press, 2004. $27.95. First published in 1892 and expanded in 1931, this new edition tells the story of the five Marlow brothers and their trials and tribulations in late 19th century Texas.
Little River by Scott O'Mack, Scott Thompson and Eric Eugene Klucas. Technical Series 82. Statistical Research, Inc. 280 pp. $27.50. If only this publication had an index, it would be an invaluable resource to tidbits of Tucson history from Rillito Racetrack to George Phar Legler's Valley of the Moon. As it is, you just have to dig. The stated formal purpose is "an overview of the archaeology, history and ethnography of a section of the Rillito River valley near Tucson, Arizona."
F Loaded Dice by James Swain. Ballantine Books. 310 pp. $22.95. As is Swain himself, protagonist Tony Valentine is a specialist in ferreting out people trying to cheat gambling casinos-employees as well as patrons. The material in this novel is numbingly authentic as it develops into a handbook for catching thieves.
Lone Star Rising: The Revolutionary Birth of the Texas Republic by William C. Davis. Free Press. 354 pp. Index. $27. A good, popular history of the Texas Revolution.
+ Los Alamos: The Ranch School Years, 1917-1943 by John D. Wirth and Linda Harvey Aldrich. University of New Mexico Press. 306 pp. Index. $29.95. Founded on the isolated Parajito Plateau in New Mexico's Jemez Mountains, LARS was conceived as a boarding school run on the principles of scouting. This is an in-depth look at the ranch as a school and, secondly, at the surrounding community. LARS closed its doors when the U.S. government chose the site for its Manhattan Project.
Lost and Found: My Life in a Group Marriage Commune by Margaret Hollenbach. University of New Mexico Press. 171 pp. $16.95, paper. A reflection on life in a Taos commune by a one-time resident. It was a sad life and the author comes across as a really mixed-up girl. For another take on this time and place see, New Buffalo (below).
Loteria! Art by Teresa Villegas, Essay and Riddles by Ilan Stavans. University of Arizona Press. 60 pp. $14.95. An explanation of this popular Mexican game of chance which is a distant relative of bingo. Stavans provides the game's history and the rules of play. Villegas designs a colorful set of Loteria cards each containing a riddle. English and Spanish.
+ Lotions, Potions and Deadly Elixirs: Frontier Medicine in America by Wayne Bethard. Roberts Rinehart. Index. 238 pp. $27.95. An invaluable and humorous look at 19th century medicine including a timeline of dates associated with major discoveries in the arts and sciences. Good photographs.
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Mammals of North America by Nora Bowers, Rick Bowers (photographers) and Kenn Kaufman, Kaufman Focus Guides. Houghton Mifflin. 352 pp. Index. $22. There are listings on 450 species of wild animals in the U.S. and Canada. Many consider this an indispensable field resource for amateur nature enthusiasts.
F The Maquiladora Murders by Sydnie Goodell. Treble Heart Books. 144 pp. $9.95. Taking place in Southern Arizona, this debut mystery shows promise for its author's future works (which are on the way). Its premise is a rumor that Mexicans were being lured across the border with the promise of a maquiladora job, only to be pawns in an organ donor market.
Maria Chabot - Georgia O'Keeffe: Correspondence, 1941-1949 edited by Barbara Buhler Lynes and Ann Paden. University of New Mexico Press. 542 pp. Index. $45. For hardcore Georgia O'Keeffe fans, Lynes' book covers very fully this period in O'Keeffe's life.
Max Evans' Hi Lo Country text by Max Evans, photographs by and Jan Haley. University of New Mexico Press. 132 pp. 155 color photographs. $34.95. Although he now lives in Albuquerque, "The Hi Lo Country has been and always will be a part of my heart, soul, my total being," Evans, 80, writes of northeastern New Mexico. Haley's photographs provide a "visual road trip," into the territory. Evans recently received the Owen Wister Award "for lifelong contributions to the field of western literature" from Western Writers of America. (See, Ol' Max Evans below).
Men of the West: Life on the American Frontier by Cathy Luchetti. W.W. Norton. 11 by 9 1/4 inch format. 252 pp. $35. This book completes a trio that began with Women of the West, and Children of the West. She includes adventurers, cowboys, laborers, doctors, politicians, farmers and ministers. They are immigrants from around the world, Blacks, American Indians, Chinese, Spanish and Mexicans-each in search of his dream of a better life.
Mexican Americans and the Law by Reynaldo Anaya Valencia, Sonia R. Garcia, Henry Flores, Jose Roberto Juarez Jr. University of Arizona Press. 197 pp. Index. $15.95. Intended as a supplement to other reading and teaching material, this is a bit dry. It is a part of the Mexican American Experience Series.
* Mimbres Archaeology of the NAN Ranch Ruin by Harry J. Shafer. University of New Mexico Press. 297 pp. 9 by 11-inch format. $59.95.
Miners and Cowboys: the Real People of the True Southwest by Ted Cogut and Bill Conger. Arizona Mining History. 200 pp. $24.95.
F Miracle Hill, The Story of a Navajo Boy by Blackhorse Mitchell with a new foreword by Paul Zolbrod. University of Arizona Press. 230 pp. Index. $16.95. Except for a new foreword, this is a reprinting of the 1967 original published by the University of Oklahoma Press. Mitchell is a Navajo healer who now lives in Shiprock and teaches at Red Mesa High School and the Diné College on the Navajo Reservation. This charming autobiography was written while he was a student at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M.
Miranda: The Story of America's Right to Remain Silent by Gary L. Stuart. University of Arizona Press. 210 pp. Index. $24.95. Here is the inside story and the legal history of the accused's right to counsel and silence. Stuart, a lawyer and law professor, personally knows many of the figures involved in the Miranda case and here unravels its complex history.
The Modern Cowboy by John R. Erickson. 2nd Edition, revised. University of North Texas Press. 211 pp. Index. $18.95. Publishers Weekly called this account of a year in the life of a modern cowboy, "a lively portrait, sure to appeal to all Western buffs."
Mountain Harmonies: Walking the Western Wilderness by Howard L. Smith. University of New Mexico Press. 197 pp. $23.95. Smith offers a holistic perspective on life. He takes readers on a walk through Western wildernesses from the Sandia Mountains all the way to Mount Rainier in the Pacific Northwest. He stresses the spirituality of place and a harmony with nature.
Mountain Ranges of Colorado by John Fielder. Westcliffe Publishers. 231 pp. 13 1/2 by 12 1/4-inch format. $75. Stunning coffee table collection of photographs of the great Rocky Mountains.
T The Mule Men: A History of Stock Packing in the Sierra Nevada by Louise A. Jackson. Mountain Press. 254 pp. Index. $12. The Pony Express may have been a heroic, short-lived effort in the transportation history of the West, but the real day-in-day-out heavy lifting, no pun intended, goes to mules. "It is true that mules are often slow, ornery, mean, lazy," wrote Ike Livermore, a mule pack station manager in the Sierra Nevadas in the mid-20th century. But, he added, they were also, "smart, uncomplaining, hard-working, sure-footed, easy keeping and long lived." Jackson traces the history of the packing trade as well as offering interesting personality profiles.
F The Murder at Gates Pass by David Skramstad. Publish America. 172 pp. $19.95. A police procedural that begins as a simple homicide at the Old Tucson amusement theme park ends as a far more insidious plot involving illegal drugs.
+ Murder in Tombstone: The Forgotten Trial of Wyatt Earp by Steve Lubet. Yale University Press. 253 pp. $30. Was Wyatt Earp a hero or a villain? Aficionados will eagerly pick this carefully researched reconstruction of the trial of Wyatt Earp over a gunfight that was over in less than a minute. The author suggests that the trial was an independent event from the gunfight and that the verdict could have been quite a bit different if the defense hadn't taken advantage of the prosecution's mistakes.
My City Different, a Half-Century in Santa Fe by Betty E. Bauer. Sunstone Press. 114 pp. $16.95. Betty Bauer moved to Santa Fe in 1953 and worked on the Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper. She also did odd jobs and made friends. In 1968, with Marian Love, a former New Yorker, she founded the still successful Santa Fean magazine. Together and separately they met most of the town's famous visitors. They rubbed elbows with its eccentric residents. Bauer and Love sold The Santa Fean in 1994. Love died in 2000. Bauer now lives in Scottsdale. Anyone who has lived in or regularly visited Santa Fe in the last 50 years will enjoy this book and wish there were more of it both in substance and length.
My Kind of Heroes by Elmer Kelton. State House Press. 96 pp. $14.95. Cloth. These five light-hearted essays have been given as speeches and several have been recorded. Kelton's heroes are ranchers, cowhands, oil workers and others who built Texas. To Kelton, there is no "Myth of the West." His heroes lived it. He also takes a poke at environmentalists and revisionist historians.
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Navajo Weaving in the Late Twentieth Century: Kin, Community, and Collectors by Ann Lane Hedlund. University of Arizona Press. 10 1/4 by 10 1/4-inch format Index. 143 pp. $35. This smaller book is from the author who, along with Joe Ben Wheat, had one of last year's top SWBOY choices, Blanket Weaving in the Southwest. Hedlund is director of the Gloria F. Ross Center for Tapestry Studies at the Arizona State Museum on the University of Arizona campus. Collectors may find this particularly useful.
* Native American Picture Books of Change: The Art of Historic Children's Editions by Rebecca Benes. The Museum of New Mexico Press. 168 pp. Index. 11 1/2 by 9 1/4-inches format. $45.
Native American Placenames of the United States by William Bright. University of Oklahoma Press. 600 pp. $59.95. Thought to be the first comprehensive, up-to-date, scholarly dictionary of American placenames derived from Native American languages. Although the book covers the entire United States a very large number of entries are from the Southwest.
The Navajo Long Walk by Lawrence W. Cheek. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 64 pp. $12.95. A title in Rio Nuevo's "Look West" series.
Negotiating Conquest: Gender and Power in California, 1770s to 1880s by Miroslava Chavez-Garcia. University of Arizona Press. 241 pp. Index. $39.95. A scholarly analysis of the way Mexican and Native women challenged the patriarchal traditional culture of the Spanish, Mexican and finally the early American era in California.
F Never Look Back by Linda Lael Miller. Atria Books. 275 pp. $12.95. Set in Phoenix, wealthy heiress lawyer Clare Westbrook, has opened for business in a dangerous part of town where she only wants clients who are innocent and downtrodden. But not even her sometime lover, sexy Detective Anthony Sonterra, can protect her from random gun shots and brickbats. In this combination of thriller and romance, prolific Scottsdale author Miller pens her 46th book.
New Buffalo: Journals From a Taos Commune by Arthur Kopecky. Foreword by Peter Coyote. University of New Mexico Press. 291 pp. $24.95. The journal entries by definition are episodic. The picture that comes across is one of accuracy though not too lively. Also suggest referencing Lost and Found (above).
New Mexico by Nancy Harbert; photographs by Paul Chesley, Michael Freeman and Kerrick James. Compass American Guides. 315 pp. $22.95, cloth; $21, paper.
A New Plateau: Sustaining the Peoples of Canyon Country edited by Peter Friederici and Rose Houk. Senior Photographer Tony Marinella. Introduction by Gary Nabhan. A Project of the Center for Sustainable Environments, Northern Arizona University with assistance from the Museum of Northern Arizona, published by Renewing the Countryside, info@rtcinfo.org, www.renewingthecountryside.org, or Center for Sustainable Environments, Box 5765, Flagstaff AZ 86011-5765. 160 pp. $39.95, cloth; $24.95 paper. Accompanied by CD: Fresh from Canyon Country: Voices from the Colorado Plateau. Family Folk Productions. 13 tracks [from CSE], liner notes by Gary Nabhan. $15.00.
F The Nonesuch Chronicles by William M. Barnes. Panther Creek Press. 141 pp. $16.95. Petroleum geologist Barnes, who grew up in a small West Texas oil town, recalls the people who lived there as he was growing up.
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F The Oddity: A Novel by V.B. Price. University of New Mexico Press. 361 pp. $24.95. Although it begins with a bloody riot scene, this fat book by poet/journalist Price is a novel of ideas rather than action. Diarist Hana Nicholas is forcibly removed from her New Mexico home and we are outraged that she is being treated as insane/troubled when it is clear from her internal monolog that she is not. Then we read, as the story unfolds (skipping back and forth through the middle part of the 20th century), of events which force us constantly to change our evaluations of Hana and the friends and family around her. This is a book, like a glass of fine wine, to be sipped, tasted and pondered.
"...Of Sea and Sand": A Drama of Two Living Deserts by Bruce F. Barber. Black Forest Press. 365 pp. Glossary. $14.95. An enthusiastic look at Baja California. Our panel found it not always accurate, but Barber has spent a lifetime wandering, searching and just enjoying the Baja peninsula.
Ol' Max Evans: A Biography, the First Thousand Years by Slim Randles. University of New Mexico Press. 338 pp. $24.95. Readers of this book may think Evans (author of such humorous southwestern cowboy tales as The Rounders, The Hi-Lo Country, and Blue Feather, as well as biographies and collections of stories) is a character, perhaps more than one, right out of his own imagination. Interesting biography of a multi-faceted man. (Also see Max Evans' Hi Lo Country, above).
* On the Bloody Road to Jesus: Christianity and the Chiricahua Apaches by H. Henrietta Stockel. University of New Mexico Press. 314 pp. Index. $29.95.
Organ Pipe, Life on the Edge text by Carol Ann Bassett, photographs by Michael Hyatt. University of Arizona Press. 89 pp. $13.95. The organ pipe cactus is described as, "a prickly octopus turned on its head." The monument has been in the news lately because the transportation of illegal drugs has made it into dangerous ground and it has also become a passage way for illegal immigrants. But Bassett and Hyatt are more concerned with its beauty, history, solitude and unique ecology.
The Other State New Mexico, USA by Richard McCord. Sunstone Press. $14.95. McCord, a journalist, founded the Santa Fe alternative newspaper, The Reporter. His recollections run more toward lesser-known characters such as a friendly neighbor who drank too much; a Georgia girl who founded the London Frontier Theatre Company in Magdalena; a retired insurance executive who found a cave. Stuff like that. The best story in his slim book, however, is about John Ehrlichman. (See also Betty Bauer's My City Different about Santa Fe).
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Pages of Stone: Geology of the Grand Canyon & Plateau Country National Parks & Monuments, 2nd edition revised by Halka Chronic & Lucy Chronic. The Mountaineers Books. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. 173 pp. Index. $16.95. A classic. What is new about this edition appears to be the addition of Halka Chronic's granddaughter, Lucy, as an author.
The Parramore Sketches: Scenes and Stories from Early West Texas by Dock Dilworth Parramore. State House Press. 96 pp. Revised edition. $18. A 1975 book republished with new material displays the considerable natural artistic talent of rancher D.D. Parramore, born in 1875 to a West Texas ranching family. It is also valuable for its real life account of 19th century ranch life.
Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid as I Knew Them, Reminiscences of John P. Meadows edited by John P. Wilson. University of New Mexico Press. 192 pp. $21.95. Most of Meadows' published memories and other documents reprinted here have been seen and/or used by other historians. Nevertheless, Wilson has carefully structured them into a readable narrative, adding a lengthy introduction and extended epilogue with notes to explain his sources and his own thoughts on Meadows' veracity. A carefully documented and indexed volume.
F The Perfect Age by Heather Skyler. W.W. Norton. 395 pp. $24.95. Set during three successive summers in Las Vegas, Nevada, although any place would do so long as it needed young lifeguards in the summertime. Helen, 15, a lifeguard, is learning about sex and so, in a way, is her 40-something mother, Kathy, while the men in their lives try to puzzle out where and why things went wrong.
T F The Perfect Play: A Novel by Louise Wener. William Morrow. 342 pp. $24.95. A poker novel set almost entirely in England with only the last couple dozen pages moving to Las Vegas, Nevada.
Pioneers of Arizona and the Early Southwest: History of a Pioneer Family in the Southwest by Yjinio F. Aguirre. Published by the author. Spiral bound. 71 pp. $35. The head of this longtime Hispanic family with ranching activities in northern Mexico and Southern Arizona, now settled in Red Rock, Arizona, recalls his childhood on Aguirre family ranches, life in Tucson in the 1920s and 1930s and his family's history.
Prehistory in West Prescott, Arizona prepared by Richard Anduze, Thomas N. Motsinger and James M. Potter. SWCA Anthropological Research Paper Number 9. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. 195 pp. $21.95. Excavations at seven sites in West Prescott, Arizona, provide new information on a poorly understood group. The results suggest a "pit house-figurine" population of the Prescott Culture who reinforced social identity through production of ceramic figurines in human and animal forms. Evidence indicates use of a range of local wild resources including large game, cultivation of maize and other domesticated plants, and trade in marine shell, Hohokam ceramics, and at least some of the Prescott Gray Ware pottery that is associated with this culture.
Presidio, Mission, and Pueblo: Spanish Architecture and Urbanism in the United States by James Early. Southern Methodist University Press. 260 pp. Index. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. $49.95, cloth; $29.95, paper. This is a worthwhile book to use as a resource anywhere you find Spanish architecture. The history of Spanish Colonial architecture in the United States covers more than 300 years and includes churches, presidios, government buildings and living spaces. The author looks at the cultural forces that includes the building of various, often massive, structures.
The Prickly Pear Cookbook by Carolyn Niethammer. Photography by Robin Stancliff. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 120 pp. Index. $14.95. Native to the Americas, both the fruit and the pads are quite nutritious containing vitamins C and A, calcium and high fiber content. There are suggested medicinal properties such as using the pads to help regulate blood-glucose levels in people with non-insulin dependent diabetes. The recipes in this book should help the medicine go down.
The Protohistoric Pueblo World A.D. 1275-1600 edited by E. Charles Adams and Andrew I. Duff. University of Arizona Press. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. 218 pp. Index. $50. Fifteen technical papers by 25 authors provide, mostly for trained or in-training archaeologists, a synthesis of what is now known about pueblo (i.e. town) dwellers along the various river valleys in eastern Arizona and central/western New Mexico.
+ The Pueblo Revolt: The Secret Rebellion that Drove the Spaniards Out of the Southwest by David Roberts. Simon & Schuster. 288 pp. Index. $25. Roberts is a popularizer in the best sense of the word. Whether writing biography, evaluating exploration and adventure, or explaining hoaxes, he uses the latest information available to explain in plain language what really happened. The story of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 has been told many times but never more readably than here. Detailed index and a substantial annotated bibliography included.
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F Rag Trade: Poems by Miriam Sagan. La Alameda Press. 126 pp. $16. Sagan is a veteran New Mexico poet. She edits Santa Fe Poetry Broadside, an e-zine, and teaches on line for UCLA-Extension, Santa Fe Community College. Her poems are chatty, folksy. For the uninitiated readers who aren't familiar with the people she writes about, a short biography would help.
Recipes from the Rim: A Collection of Recipes from the Community Members of Grand Canyon National Park collected by the Grand Canyon PTA. Morris Press Cookbooks. $15. A fund-raiser.
Revenge! And Other True Tales of the Old West edited by Sharon Cunningham and Mark Boardman. ScarletMask Enterprises. 227 pp. $35.
The Richest of Fare: Seeking Spiritual Security in the Sonoran Desert by Phyllis Strupp. Sonoran Cross Press. 249 pp. Index. $24.95. A sentimental look at the spiritual aspects of nature
.F Ride the Whirlwind by Ernest L. Schusky. Bookman Publishing & Marketing. www.bookmanmarketing.com 249 pp. $14.95. Anthropologist Schusky has written a novel about the 1680 Pueblo Indian uprising in New Mexico. He views the uprising through the eyes of a young Puebloan. It's interesting to read it in conjunction with David Roberts' non-fiction account, The Pueblo Revolt (listed above).
Rio Grande edited by Jan Reid. University of Texas Press. 336 pp. $29.95. An anthology of prose dealing with the land around the Rio Grande. Ecology, history, culture, politics, it's all here from writers as diverse as Tony Hillerman and Elena Poniatowska. Good bedside reading. Great photographs but no captions.
The River Has Never Divided Us: A Border History of La Junta de Los Rios by Jefferson Morgenthaler. University of Texas Press. 317 pp. Index. $22.95, paper; $60, hardcover.
* Roadside New Mexico: A Guide to Historic Markers by David Pike. University of New Mexico Press. 434 pp. 8 maps, 66 halftones. Index. $23.95.
Rodeo 101: History of the Payson, Arizona Rodeo 1884-1984 by Jinx Pyle and Jayne Peace. Git a Rope! Publishing. 238 pp. Cloth, $100; paper, $25. The publisher says, "This is the story of the West's last wide-open cow town and the world's oldest, continuous rodeo."
Roots of Sedentism: Archaeological Excavations at Valencia Vieja, a Founding Village in the Tucson Basin of Southern Arizona edited by Henry D. Wallace. Anthropological Papers No. 29, Center for Desert Archaeology. 8 /2 by 11-inch format. 451 pp. $34.95.
+ Running Uphill: Recollections of a Congressman from Arizona by Jim McNulty. Whitewing Press. 244 pp. Index. $29.95, hardcover; $17.95, paper. What comes across in this cheerful memoir of the one-time Arizona Congressman, who in 1984 lost to Jim Kolbe, is that he is probably too nice a guy to have been in politics in the first place!
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Saints of the Pueblos by Charles M. Carrillo. LPD Press. 92 pp. Index. $19.95. An attractively presented research of the correlation between Hispanic devotional images of saints and Pueblo pottery traditions.
San Xavier to San Augustin by Scott O'Mack and Eric Eugene Klucas. Technical Series 81. Statistical Research, Inc. 243 pp. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. $27.50. An overview of cultural resources for the Paseo de las Iglesias feasibility study in Pima County.
* Sandstone Seduction: Rivers and Lovers, Canyons and Friends by Katie Lee. Johnson Books. 240 pp. $17.50.
Santa Fe Hispanic Culture: Preserving Identity in a Tourist Town by Andrew Leo Novato. University of New Mexico Press. 160 pp. $24.95. A Santa Fe native talks about the pluses and minuses of selling "history and tradition" so successfully that the people upon whom it depends for integrity can't afford it.
F Santa Fe Passage by Jon R. Bauman. St. Martin's Press. 323 pp. $24.95. Set in Santa Fe in the early 1800s. Protagonist Michael Collins is an enterprising American freighter who builds his fortune transporting luxury goods across Indian country on terrible roads and through bad weather. The novel ends as the Mexican War looms.
Santa Fe-Taos Hiking Guide by Bob D'Antonio. Westcliffe. 184 pp. $12.95. Billed as describing 52 of the best hiking trails in northern New Mexico.
Sarah Bowman, Pioneer Madam by Jay Moynahan. Chickadee Publishing. 66 pp. Illustrations. Spiral bound. $15. Known as the "Great Western," Bowman was prostitute and brothel owner in the pioneer West. Her area of activity included Mexico, Texas, and Arizona.
Saving the Ranch: Conservation Easement Design in the American West by Anthony Anella and John B. Wright, photographs by Edward Ranney. Island Press. Index. 172 pp. $60, cloth; $30, paper. It is no longer unusual for ranchers to find that their land is worth more than the cattle it sustains. Economic survival becomes paramount. In this book, the authors offer an alternative solution to "cashing in." It is a voluntary legal agreement that puts the market to work for the land. Anella is an Albuquerque architect and Wright is a professor of geography at New Mexico State University. Wright is a board member of the New Mexico Land Conservation Collaborative.
The Secrets of San Lazaro Pueblo by Forrest Fenn. One Horse Land & Cattle Co. 320 pp. $90. Former Santa Fe art gallery owner Fenn owns San Lazaro Pueblo which he bought years ago for taxes. With the help of professional archaeologists he has been unearthing treasures ever since.
Serenading the Light: Painters of the Desert Southwest text by David Clemmer Schenck. Southwest Publishing. 120 pp. 9 by 11-inch format. 53 color plates. $49, cloth. This was written to accompany the exhibit of Schenck's collection of southwestern painters, most of them from New Mexico. As extraordinary as it is for a private person to own such a group of paintings, better examples can be seen in museums.
The Settlement of the American Continents: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Human Biography edited by C. Michael Barton, Geoffrey A. Clark, David R. Yesner and Georges A. Pearson. University of Arizona Press. 280 pp. 8 1/2 by 11-inch format. $75. This volume approaches the human settlement of the Americas from a biogeographical perspective. Barton and Clark are professors of anthropology at Arizona State University; Yesner is on the University of Alaska at Anchorage faculty, and Pearson is adjunct assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Kansas.
F The Shadow of Venus: A Claire Reynier Mystery by Judith Van Gieson. Signet Mass Market. 272 pp. $5.99. This 3rd in the series is not quite as believable as the others but is still a good read. Claire Reynier, special collections librarian in the Zimmerman Library, University of New Mexico, has the curiosity and courage to follow the clues to solve the mysterious death of a homeless woman in the basement of her library.
Shame and Endurance: the Untold Story of the Chiricahua Apache Prisoners of War by H. Henrietta Stockel. University of Arizona Press. 193 pp. $35. Once again Stockel exhibits her prodigious knowledge of the Apache Indians. She pulls together government documents and news items to recreate the story of the Chiricahua Apaches' 27 years of imprisonment at Fort Marion and Fort Pickens, Florida; Mount Vernon, Alabama; and, lastly, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
T She Wore a Yellow Ribbon: Women Soldiers and Patriots of the Western Frontier by JoAnn Chartier and Chris Enss. TwoDot, an imprint of Globe Pequot Press. 181 pp. Index. $11.95. Profiles of 12 women in the early West. They were soldiers, scouts, interpreters, nurses and vagabonds such as Calamity Jane but almost none of these women got into the Southwest.
A Short History of Las Vegas, 2nd edition by Barbara Land and Myrick Land. University of Nevada Press. 266 pp. Index. $17.95. This megalopolis has grown enough in the last five years to merit the addition of a considerable body of new material including plans for its 2005 centennial. Good pictures, though small and gray. Both writers are members of the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame.
F Side Canyons by Laurie Wagner Buyer. Five Star. 275 pp. $26.95. Four women spend nine life-changing days on a Colorado River trip through the Grand Canyon. The results are exploration, discovery, recognition and acceptance.
Silk and Sagebrush: Women of the Old West by Phyllis de la Garza. Silk Label Books. 249 pp. $9.99. The vignettes of some 21 well-known Western women include fictional characters from the imagination of de la Garza. There are no references.
Silko: Writing Storyteller and Medicine Woman by Brewster E. Fitz. University of Oklahoma Press. 288 pp. $34.95. Here is a detailed and scholarly interpretation of Silko's storytelling. The author particularly looks at the dynamic between the written story as produced by the literate Marmon family, and growing up in a culture where oral tradition is important.
A Silver Camp Called Creede: A Century of Mining by Richard C. Huston. Western Reflections Publishing Company. Index. 547 pp. $32.95. Retired mining and civil engineer Huston, who worked in the Creede silver mines on his college vacations, provides an in-depth look at a long departed, influential era in silver mining as well as a detailed account of the lives of the people involved.
+ F Skeleton Man by Tony Hillerman. HarperCollins. 241 pp. $25.95. Hillerman, as usual, has a creative plot, but it is pretty far out in left field. The date was June 30, 1956. A TWA Superconstellation and a United Airlines DC-7 collided over the Grand Canyon. All 128 persons aboard both planes died. However, in Hillerman's version it is known that one of the victims went down with a brief case filled with diamonds strapped to his arm. Now, 48 years later, for one reason or another, the antagonists and protagonists in the story descend into the Canyon to find that arm. Some want the diamonds, some just want the arm for the DNA it contains. Aiding and abetting are Joe Leaphorn, Jim Chee, Navajo cops, and Cowboy Dashee, a Hopi law enforcement officer—all familiar to Hillerman fans.
F Slow Kill by Michael McGarrity. Dutton. 275 pp. $23.95. McGarrity's series hero, Santa Fe Police Chief Kevin Kerney, finds himself embroiled and seemingly a suspect in a California murder case when he happens to be visiting the murdered man's horse ranch. Smoothly written but, like its title, sloooow.
Solace, Rituals of Loss and Desire by Mary Sojourner. Scribner. 189 pp. $23. In this collection of essay-like memoirs Sojourner, who teaches writing in Flagstaff, is ruthless in her descriptions of the time when, young and lost, she lived a dissipated life of drugs and sex. Author of Sisters of the Dream, a feminist novel that couples a prehistoric Pueblo Indian woman and a modern resident of northern Arizona, Sojourner's writing grows from southwestern roots.
Soldier-Artist of the Great Reconnaissance: John C. Tidball and the 35th Parallel Pacific Railroad Survey by Eugene C. Tidball. University of Arizona Press. 226 pp. Index. $39.95, cloth. An assessment of Tidball's important but unrecognized role in the Pacific railroad surveys.
F Song of the Road by Dorothy Garlock. Warner Books. 402 pp. $12.95, paper. A string of run-down motel cabins in New Mexico on Route 66 brings redemption and new purpose into the life of the widowed, broke and pregnant heroine. Sounds like a good book for Oprah, except it has a happy ending.
F So Quietly the Earth by David Lee. Copper Canyon Press. 144pp. $15, paper. Lee was the first poet laureate of Utah. From his varied background he writes in voices of rural southwesterners. This collection includes several tributes to the Grand Canyon.
Southwest Slow Cooking by Tammy Biber and Theresa Howell. Northland Publishing. 122 pp. Index. $16.95. These recipes do not suggest just tossing food and spices into a pot; some require a little advance preparation, but are well worth the effort. While not all take all day to cook, they still allow a good portion of time for other activities such as working up an appetite. Nice use of southwest ingredients and many with chipotle and other chiles.
Spooky Southwest: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings and Other Local Lore retold by S.E. Schlosser. Globe Pequot Press. 181 pp. $11.95.
F The Stalkers by Robert Lewis. Xlibris 227 pp. $28.79, cloth; $18.69, paper. Billed as a novel of suspense, romance and international intrigue, Lewis, a technical writer, uses his years of Arizona living and travel in Mexico to put together a novel involving family secrets, perfidy and greed as his young Mexican-American heroine attempts to claim her inheritance from her Mexican grandfather.
Stalking the Big Bird: A Tale of Turkeys, Biologists, and Bureaucrats by Harley Shaw. University of Arizona Press. 143 pp. $17.95. Despite its polished prose, retired wildlife manager Shaw's recollections of a portion of his successful career with Arizona Game and Fish may have a limited audience.
The Strange Career of Bilingual Education in Texas, 1836-1981 by Carlos Kevin Blanton. Texas A&M University Press. 204 pp. Index. $29.95. Blanton is an assistant professor of history at Texas A&M and a proponent of bilingualism which, he writes, is a "thoroughly American education." Its roots go back to the 1830s and Stephen F. Austin's proposal to teach Anglo children Spanish, as well as English and French.
Such Is the Life of a Cowboy's Wife by Jean Bowser. Hats Off. 110 pp. $10.95. The subtitle reads, "humor and insight from the other half of the working cowboy." Funny and practical, Bowser writes, "You know you are a cowboy's wife when you doctor the kids' cuts with Purple Cow Medicine..."
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A Tapestry of Kinship by Jose Antonio Esquibel and Dr. Charles M. Carrillo. LPD Press. 67 pp. Index. $15.95. The influence of four notable Santa Fe santeros from the first two decades of the 19th century are studied. This is considered the "golden age" of Spanish colonial art. Esquibel is a genealogist, Carrillo, a contemporary santero who participates in Santa Fe's annual Spanish market.
Tiempos Lejanos: Poetic Images From the Past by Nasario Garcia. University of New Mexico Press. 126pp. $23.95. Bilingual presentations of very simple short poems.
Tequila! A Natural and Cultural History by Ana G. Valenzuela-Zapata and Gary Paul Nabhan. University of Arizona Press. 113 pp. $14.95, paper; $29.95, hardcover. Valenzuela-Zapata and Nabhan tell all about Mexico's national drink which, they say, has displaced whiskey as a drink of choice in the United States. They alternate between a poetic and a scholarly approach.
The Texas Indians by David La Vere. No. 95: Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University Press. 293 pp. Index. $29.95. A chronological and cultural history of Texas Indians for the last 12,000 years. Well written. Mirrors stories of other tribes. Could make a fine, readable textbook.
The Texas Post Office Murals: Art for the People by Philip Parisi. Texas A&M University Press. 9 1/2 by 9 1/2 inch format. 181 pp. $50. Some of the country's best regional artists participated in projects such as the ones this attractive book celebrates.
The Texas Rangers and the Mexican Revolution: The Bloodiest Decade, 1910-1920 by Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler. University of New Mexico Press. 671 pp. $37.50. The book is as big as Texas itself and meticulously researched. The authors paint the Texas Rangers as heroic saviors or as outlaws and killers. It seemed to depend on whether they were dealing with the Anglo or Mexican population. A comprehensive list of Rangers and their dates of service is included.
The Tex-Mex Cookbook: A History in Recipes and Photos by Robb Walsh. Broadway Books. 267 pp. Index. $17.95. For those who like to read cookbooks as well as cook with them, the title says it all!
There's a Bobcat in My Backyard! Living With and Enjoying Urban Wildlife by Jonathan Hanson. Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Guide. University of Arizona Press. 167 pp. Index. $16.95. Hanson makes a case for living with wildlife in urban areas. (See The Beast in the Garden, above).
T Third Views Second Sights: A Rephotographic Survey of the American West, Mark Klett, project director. Museum of New Mexico Press. 12 by 9 1/4-inch format. 238 pp. $60. (Includes a CD). Although concentrating on Northern Nevada, Utah and Colorado, this valuable book follows by 20 years Second View: The Rephotographic Survey Project (1984), which rephotographed the 19th century survey photographs of the West taken by the expeditionary photographers William Henry Jackson, T.H. O'Sullivan and William Bell.
Thirty Years of Sausage, Fifty Years of Ham, Jimmy Dean's Own Story by Jimmy Dean and Donna Meade Dean. Berkley Publishing Group. 278 pp. $22.95. From his hardscrabble youth in West Texas, through a successful career in country and western entertainment, to sausage mogul, Jimmy Dean offers a lively autobiography. It gets even snappier when he gets to his unhappy relations with those "liars, turncoats, cutthroats" at the Sara Lee Company who bought his sausage label.
T F This Is Not Civilization by Robert Rosenberg. Houghton Mifflin. 304 pp. $24. This is one of those remarkable novels that leads the reader effortlessly to a clear understanding of situations and characters. A portion of the first half of the book is set on an Apache Reservation in northern Arizona and on the campus at NAU. A major character is a young Apache man who eventually seeks the help of his former counselor in Europe. According to Booklist, Rosenberg comes across as a fine new talent in depicting the lives of four people from vastly different backgrounds. His story starts in Arizona and ends in Istanbul. Publishers Weekly called Rosenberg's prose, " pitch perfect, a vibrant mix of the serious and the absurd. He puts a brilliant new spin on a compelling type: the Well-Meaning American."
To Animas With Love: A History by Carol Dunagan Smith and Lenora Dunagan, Silver City, N.M. Thompson-Shore, Inc., Dexter, Mich., 296 pp. $45. There is not much in the vast Animas Valley, Hidalgo County, New Mexico, but rolling hills, dry lake beds and plenty of good rangeland. It is also rich in history and Carol Dunagan Smith assembles the memories of her mother, Lenora Dunagan, and other locals who have ranched in the area since the 1880s. Good for genealogy and includes a staggering number of photos.
Tombstone, Arizona, "Too Tough To Die": The Rise, Fall and Resurrection of a Silver Camp: 1878 to 1990 by Lynn R. Bailey. Westernlore Press. 398 pp. Index. $25. With notes, a bibliography and an index this comes very close to being all you'll ever need to know about the history of Tombstone which, according to Bailey, in the late 1870s was "one of the greatest mining centers on the North American continent," and which has gone on to become an authentic, if limited, historic district, attracting a substantial number of tourists.
Traveling New Mexico: A Guide to the Historical and State Park Markers by Phil T. Archuletta and Sharyl S. Holden. Sunstone Press. 419 pp. $22.95. See Roadside New Mexico: A Guide to Historic Markers.
Triginta Uno Dies: Thirty-One Drawings, Thirty-One Days by Daniel Martin Diaz. La Luz de Jesus Press. 70 pp. $30. Attractive renditions of Roman Catholic religious symbols from a Tucson artist.
Troweling Through Time: The First Century of Mesa Verdean Archaeology by Florence C. Lister. University of New Mexico Press. Index. 288 pp. $24.95. An account of the lively history of Mesa Verde archaeology from the first trips into the pueblo past in 1849 to the current preservation and public education programs at Crow Canyon Archaeological Center.
True West: Authenticity and the American West edited by William R. Handley and Nathaniel Lewis. University of Nebraska Press. 370 pp. Index. $49.95. The editors have assembled some 15 essays in an attempt to define the authentic West in its many manifestations. Discussions include narratives from Japanese internment camps during World War II; an analysis of Curtis' "ethnographic portraits"; the imagined West as presented by Knotts Berry Farm; imagined Indians and the sacred landscape; concepts of Mormons and their place in the West.
F The Twist by Richard Calder. Four Walls Eight Windows. 238 pp. $12.95. Science fiction, Tombstone of the future-if this is your dish of tea, it's fun.
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+ UFOs Over Galisteo: And Other Stories of New Mexico's History by Robert J. Torrez. University of New Mexico Press. 160 pp. 19 halftones. $16.95. Retired New Mexico state historian Torrez has written a column about New Mexico history since 1992. The columns, which make up this book, first appeared every two months in Santa Fe Pride and now are in the government employees' monthly newspaper Round the Roundhouse. His short chapters concern little-known or forgotten happenings. He doesn't embellish them in any way. "The Risks of Business," is the story of an 1818 business venture gone sour. It leaves unanswered questions but provides an astonishing look at the wealth of a rich man at that time.
The Ultimate Route 66 Cookbook edited by Tammy Gales. Northland Publishing. 112 pp. $9.95. There are good recipes in this ultimately disappointing volume. The big problem is so little identification with Route 66. The recipes could come from anywhere. If you just need another cookbook, check it out.
"The Utes Must Go!" American Expansion and the Removal of a People by Peter R. Decker. Fulcrum Publishing. 235 pp. $17.95.
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Visiting the Grand Canyon: Views of Early Tourism by Linda Stampoulos. Arcadia Publishing. 128 pp. $19.99. More than 200 vintage photographs from the Grand Canyon National Park Museum. The focus is on 1893-1919.
Voices of El Presidio: Personal Tucson Histories edited by David Burckhalter. Southwest Center, University of Arizona/ El Presidio Neighborhood Association. 140 pp. $15. This slender volume presents somewhat edited interviews of residents of Tucson's El Presidio neighborhood by knowledgeable Tucsonans who knew which questions to ask.
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Visiting the Grand Canyon: Views of Early Tourism by Linda Stampoulos. Arcadia Publishing. 128 pp. $19.99. More than 200 vintage photographs from the Grand Canyon National Park Museum. The focus is on 1893-1919.
Voices of El Presidio: Personal Tucson Histories edited by David Burckhalter. Southwest Center, University of Arizona/ El Presidio Neighborhood Association. 140 pp. $15. This slender volume presents somewhat edited interviews of residents of Tucson's El Presidio neighborhood by knowledgeable Tucsonans who knew which questions to ask.
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Zuni Fetishes & Carvings by Kent McManis. Rio Nuevo Publishers. 144 pp. Index. $14.95. This is an expanded edition of McManis' two volumes on the subject published in 1995 and 1998.