Frustrated Santa Fe artist, Whitney Slope, escapes the political games of the Santa Fe art world by heading into the mountain community of Mi Ojo ("My Eye"-a fictitious community representing the real communities that can be found around Santa Fe). He finds his soul in the authentic, rural community and his story is woven with that of his new landlord, Dominga Garcia de Jesus. Slope is brought to a refreshingly honest new way of life as he becomes involved in the stories of other people outside of the affluent community in Santa Fe.

The characters in this book are deep and well developed. The plot carries the reader through a world that is realistic to the area. I especially enjoyed the descriptions of the Santa Fe art gallery community contrasted with the rural Hispanic communities in the mountains. The high quality of the writing and the storyline make this book a must read for anyone who is looking for an excellent work of Southwest fiction.

A book that touches the heart and soul and bring the New Mexico culture, people and land alive.

This book is extremely funny. Most of the children hate to take baths. This book has beautiful colored pages and the Spanish language is clear, fluent and well used. I recommend this book to be use in the classroom for English language learners or for dual inmersion settings.

I am a Kindergarten teacher who has read this book to many classes. They love it! Many little children relate to Carlos and his aversion to baths. I understand there are flaws in the translation, but, as a read aloud for children it scores big.

Nelson Reed's "Caste War of Yucatan" tells the story of an obscure Maya rebellion in Mexico in the 1840's with vigor and a style that makes this history come alive. This is a history that most Yucatecan ladinos didn't want told for many years. But in a masterful way, Reed has put life into one of the most interesting corners of the history of the Americas...the only successful native American rebellion...one that ended in disaster for all concerned.

The story covers the 53 year struggle of the communities of Yucatec Maya that rebelled against intolerable oppression in 1847 and whose events snowballed to an all out race war which raged on and off until its flame was finally extinguished due more to illness and exhaustion than to the resolve of the participants. This gripping tale of battles and desperation has enough horror and action to cause the reader to ponder who these Maya are that today greet the Cancun visitors with warm smiles and hospitality.

Mike Reed

I'm the author of books and articles about Mexico, Cancun and the Yucatan Peninsula. I've lived in Cancun since 1983 and I find the The Caste War of Yucatan by Nelson Reed the most useful and fascinating book about this area.

The modern history of the North American continent began here in Quintana Roo, the site of the first Spanish landing on the mainland. The story of Quintana Roo is the story of Mexico in miniature. Nelson Reed's book is by far the most authoritative history of Quintana Roo ever published in English.

Although closely focused on the Maya rebellion that began in 1847 and continued well into the 20th Century, The Caste War of Yucatan presents a sensitive, accurate and comprehensive picture of the entire history of the Yucatan Peninsula, with many important insights into the history of Mexico as well.

Meticulously researched but written in a gripping narrative style that reads like a popular novel, this book is entertaining, horrifying, sad and always profoundly fascinating. Very highly recommended.

jules_siegel@hotmail.com

Chelonia: Return of the Sea Turtle is a valuable educational tool for children and a great read. I have been giving talks to kids in San Diego about sea turtles and Chelonia is a great way to wrap up my talks. Kids of all ages absolutely love this story of the rescue of an endangered sea turtle.

If your children love the ocean and marine animals then you should get this beautiful story.

The beautifully drawn children's picturebook Chelonia: Return Of The Sea Turtle is the very highly recommended and collaborative work of Dawn E. Navarro, Robert E. Snodgrass, and Wallace J. Nichols. Based upon a true story, the exciting and informative text is enhanced with accurate illustrations of the birds, sea mammals, fish, crustaceans, and vegetation associated with the sea and form the habitat and world of the sea turtle. a series of "Sea Log" sidebars provide educative informational asides that are a perfect augmentation to the lively and engaging story of a little girl who rescues a sea turtle and eventually returns it to the sea.

You will be hard pressed to find another book written with this level of analysis. The Zapatista rebellion was not an overnight reaction to a single set of economic rules, but is rather the manifestation of centuries of injustices, financial hardships and lack of political efficacy. This book explains the multitude of issues and events leading to the Zapatista rebellion. Dr. Harvey is a scholar who understands the political complexity and communicates this for all to understand.

The book has all the substance and objectivity of a scholarly work by someone who has done research in Chiapas for over a decade, but unfolds with all the suspense of a good novel. It is the definitive account to date on this very important topic and a significant contribution to the debate on indigenous rights.

This is a wonderful book, beautifully written and immensely touching. The author interweaves vivid descriptions of his farm and its inhabitants -- both past and present -- with his observations on cider-making, the care of apple orchards, his wife's art, and his memories of his late, much-loved daughter. He doesn't gloss over the irony that, after he spent years working on nuclear testing, his daughter should contract breast cancer; but he isn't polemical about it, and by the end of the book his personal tragedy is subsumed into the rhythms of the seasons and the ongoing life of the farm. The timeline of the book is circular -- it's not a straightforward history -- but I felt that this further emphasized the cyclical nature of life in the orchard. I recommend the book unreservedly.

This is a very special tenderly written book about living...loving...working... and dieing. Every one can find something to relate too with Harvey in this book. I would highly reccomend it.

In Civil War in the Southwest, Thompson has edited the accounts of several members of Sibley's Brigade in its New Mexico campaign, the accounts having been printed in the Overton Sharp Shooter in East Texas in the late 19th Century.

The accounts are quite readable, some even humorous. The accounts of major battles are accompanied by battle maps provided by Frazier. While the accounts focus on the major occurances within the campaign, they are filled with minutia as well, allowing the brigade to live and ride on again, as vividly as they did 140 years before.

While the names of many soldiers appear in the accounts, Thompson made no effort to provide complete troop muster rolls, focusing instead only on editing the newspaper accounts. Where names do appear, Thompson has end notes with more information on the soldier, gleaned from a variety of sources.

Civil War In The Southwest: Recollections Of The Sibley Brigade by Civil War scholar and historian Jerry Thompson presents eighteen distinctive episodes written by members of General Henry Hopkins Sibley's command who fought and traveled more than eight thousand miles through snake-infested bayous to snow-capped mountains to fight and die in more than sixteen major battles of the American Civil War. The brigade consisted of young, zealous Texans who sought to invade New Mexico Territory as a step toward the Confederate conquest of Colorado and California in order to seize their resources (including the gold fields) in support of the South. This compendium of eye witness accounts is positively riveting and is enthusiastically recommended as a unique, invaluable contribution to Civil War Studies supplemental reading lists and reference collections.

This is probably my favorite of the Claire Malloy mysteries because here Joan Hess breaks away from the formula that most of the previous books have followed. Claire is away from the bookstore in Faberville (Acapulco no less) and the usual cast of characters/relationships there (although Caron is along and Peter checks in by phone).

The change of scenery and the unavailability to fall back completely on what has worked in the past seems to have inspired Hess to pen a better written mystery, while retaining all of the humorous touches that distinguish her earlier work. Unfortunatly, this book was a one-off experiment and later installments return Malloy to the predictable but enjoyable confines of Faberville. One only hopes that Hess will someday once again be daring and make another left turn that will breath new life into this fine series.

Presumed-dead cousin Veronica calls Claire from Chicago to ask her to unmask the blackmailer who won't let her forget that she murdered a Hollywood producer thirty years ago. Never mind that she did the time for doing the crime--she's built a new life for herself and doesn't want this stain on her reputation. Off go Claire and Caron to Acapulco--but unlike Elvis, they don't have "fun" there. Unless you call getting arrested by the Mexican police (Claire) and kidnapped by some greasy bum (Caron) fun. As Caron would say, Claire simply Asks for Trouble everywhere from Mexico to a convent (!) in Phoenix to her cousin's elegant digs in Chicago. You'll find Claire joining the jet set, Caron's anguish over Yet Another Major Crisis involving Rhonda MacGuire, Farberville High's Queen Bee, and more delightful flirtation between Claire and handsome cop Peter Rosen, in Joan Hess' latest. Have fun. .

"Coal Town, the Life and Times of Dawson, New Mexico"
Toby Smith
ISBN 0-941270-82-3

My wife and I discovered Dawson on a vacation to northern New Mexico. A picture on a historical marker showed a once relatively large town that had had many houses and facilities. We were both struck by there being a cemetery with no surviving town. Later, when, during a web search, I came across Toby Smith's book about Dawson. I ordered it.

With a relatively obscure subject, this is a book not likely to be widely read, and that is a shame. Because the book that Toby Smith has written is a remarkable one. Through extensive interviewing, he has reconstructed the vanished homes and buildings of Dawson, re-populated them with departed generations of citizens, and breathed life back into what was once a dynamic coal mining community.

There are photos in the book that depict, among other things, the bodies of miners in caskets after a 1923 mining explosion, the proud 1937 football team that shared the state championship, and a 1941 photo of a smiling GI on furlough with his brother and sisters. Apart from the pictures, Mr. Smith tells stories about and gives impressions of many of the townsfolk. What Edgar Lee Masters did for the people in the fictional Spoon River cemetery, Smith has done for the former inhabitants of Dawson.

Our vacation walk through the Dawson cemetery revealed that many of the coalminers were from other countries. One section contains graves of over two hundred men, mostly Italians, who were killed in a disastrous mine explosion in 1913. Other nationalities represented in Dawson were Yugoslavs, Japanese, Finns, French, Swedes, and Mexicans.

The Phelps Dodge Company that owned the mines and the entire town, in many regards, engaged in enlightened management. For example, it had an anti-discrimination policy for employees of all nationalities and races, including blacks. After the 1913 tragedy, Smith writes that the company "did not look at the tragedy in terms of lost earnings." To its credit, each widow was given $1000, each miner's child $200, and the family of each bachelor $500, large amounts for that time. On the other hand, the company remained a staunch holdout for years in recognizing the miners' union.

In 1950, with coal demand having steadily declined from the heyday of the coal-burning, steam engine, Phelps Dodge closed Dawson's last mine. As it owned all the buildings and houses, the town was simply shut down. Everyone left, and the buildings and equipment were sold off. Dawson, unlike other defunct mining towns, though, for over fifty years has refused to die. A visitor to the cemetery can see that it is still kept up, and every other year, former residents gather on the town site to have a picnic and to reminisce.

There is something about the universal human struggle in this story of Dawson, and Toby Smith has written a fine book about it.

One of the pleasures I was able to provide for my father, shortly before his death at 89, was the gift of this book. Toby Smith has done a wonderful job of resurrecting and bringing back to life the "ghosts" of this coal mining camp, known now only for its cemetary. My parents and I read the book together, reliving our personal memories of the people and the environment which not only shaped our lives but was forever etched on our consiousness. There was so much he could have written about Dawson but his excellent culling and synthesizing of the countless interviews brings to life the essence of the "company town" and the lives of the resident. He was able to show that in this community of immigrants, ethnicity meant sharing your cusine and your culture rather than an emphasis on differences, a phenomena no doubt influnced by the impact of thedangerous unpredictable occupation of mining coal that united us all. My second reading left me with the impression of "a story well told", one which could be enjoyed not only by former "Dawsonians" and current New Mexicans but by anyone who enjoys a glimpse of what life was like in those times in a place where "everyone knew your name". Those whose lives have been disrupted by the closing of plant or industry might also enjoy it. Mr. Smith should do a sequel focusing on my generation and their view of how growing up in Dawson influenced their live.

Here is the last part of Aztecs' History in CHIMALPAHIN's compiling. It's followed by a precious kind of calendar by CHIMALPAHIN himself. A prime material to understand Aztecs' meaning of life. I'm waiting for the 4 other books of this exceptional collection of indigenous testimonies (Please excuse my bad English: I'm an usual French writer)

There are many "Codices" about MesoAmerica. This one is presented as a translate of primitive nahuatl compiling of Aztecs' History. An important contribution to Mexican History. The total collection counts 6 books; two are now available.