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Browsing All Nonfiction Books - D :

Clicking on a book cover will search for the book in the catalog. If it is not part of our collection, you may request it by clicking on the Can't Find It link. An icon indicates if the book is chosen by a panelist as one of the year's best.

Desert Eternal, The: Words and Images
By Connie Spittler, Robert Spittler. Blurb.com. 79 pp. .
Personal essays are mixed with photos by the author’s husband to portray their love of the Sonoran Desert and Catalina Mountains near Tucson, Arizona. Like many who buy homes on the edge of the desert, they have fallen under its enchanting spell. They are living proof that people and wildlife can share and enjoy the same beautiful landscape. [Bill Broyles]

Disappearing Desert: the Growth of Phoenix and the Culture of Sprawl
By Janine Schipper. University of Oklahoma Press. 144 pp. Index. $19.95.

A study of different types of development in the Phoenix area explores the cultural basis of suburban sprawl and environmental loss.
Distant Bugles, Distant Drums: The Union Response to the Confederate Invasion of New Mexico
By Flint Whitlock. University Press of Colorado. 293 pp. Index. . $22.95.

Do You Know the Cucuy? = Conoces al Cucuy?
By Claudia Galindo, Jonathan Coombs. Pinata Books. $$15.96.

After hearing her grandfather's tales about the Cucuy, a bogeyman who kidnaps bad children, a girl meets him and makes a new friend.
Dolly & Zane Grey: Letters from a Marriage
By Lina Elise Grey, Zane Grey, Candace C. Kant. University of Nevada Press. 437 pp. $34.95.
Readers of Tom Pauly's biography of the iconic western writer (SWBOY Pick 2005) are aware that Grey was a compulsive philanderer whose affairs his wife tolerated and even helped conceal. This fascinating collection of letters provides an intimate, unvarnished account of an unconventional marriage and business partnership based on complementary strengths, mutual love, and (at least on Dolly's part)steely determination and perseverance. Zane Grey, meanwhile, pretty much redefines ordinary concepts of self-absorption and self-indulgence. [Bruce Dinges]

Double or Nothing: How Two Friends Risked it All to Buy One of Las Vegas' Legendary Casinos
By Tom Breitling, Cal Fussman. Collins. 243 pp. . $24.95.
This is a well-written, even sprightly account of how Breitling and Tim Poster became friends starting with Tim’s offer to pay for lunch when he realized his fellow student was shocked by the cost of an $8 sandwich. How they eventually came to own the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in downtown Las Vegas will be an exciting read for poker players, but those in search of understanding the phenomenon that IS Las Vegas must look elsewhere. [W. David Laird]

Dying to Live: a Story of U.S. Immigration in an Age of Global Apartheid
By Joseph Nevins, Mizue Aizeki. Open Media/City Lights Books. 255 pp. $16.95.

By focusing on the plight of one Mexican border crosser, this book puts a human face and absorbing story on the tragedy of illegal immigration from Mexico into the U.S.
Pima County Website