★ Reviews of books about New Mexico

Books to read if you're planning a vacation in "New Mexico", sorted by average review score:

Dancing Moons: Poems

Published in Hardcover by Doubleday (October, 1995)

Authors: Nancy C. Wood and Frank Howell

Average review score:

Reflections from a Medicine Lake

I have never quite understood why Nancy Wood's poetry collections are classified as "young adult". Her deep wisdom and clarity are more likely to be more fully appreciated by adults. This is a wonderful gift book for transitions times: graduations, marriage, death of a loved one, etc. Her poems are liking looking deep into a Medicine Lake where one sees the very fabric of life and all the its intricate connections. Frank Howell's paintings will fill you with awe and haunt your dreams.

"A precious collection of thoughts for everyone."

I first read Nancy Wood's Dancing Moons after visiting Santa Fe and seeing Frank Howell's gallery. The words and thoughts that Wood has shared with the reader are thoughtful and energising. I find myself going back to her writings for guidance often,for myself and to share with friends and loved ones. I am appreciative of the emotions she has shared with us. Her talents as an expressive writer are world class.

Day-Signs: Native American Astrology from Ancient Mexico

Published in Paperback by One Reed Pubns (01 September, 1997)

Author: Bruce Scofield

Average review score:

"Astrologer's Point of View"

This author is one of the main voices in the Mesoamerican calendar debate. His approach is clearly defined for you. Many websites have his articles posted. This book's chart (1900 thru 2000) for determining your "day sign" involves less calculating than his later "Signs of Time" but you do need to count days. It includes the Maya AND Aztec names & glyphs, but he uses the English translation of the Aztec sign names. This field covers a variety of peoples: Maya, Toltec, Zapotec, Mixtec & Aztec. While there are variations between each group, the "Tonalpouhalli" (Aztec)/"Tzolkin" (Mayan) or Sacred Calendar(260-Day) follows the same day & number order regardless of the naming & year-bearer systems.

I have a question

What is the difference between tonalpohualli and tomalamatl and Mayan astrology. When I was in Mexico my Tonalamatl was done. I am an obsidian butterfly, jaguar, cassa and hummingbird. When I used Bruce Scofield's book I came up with different symbols. Tonalamatl is based on the Codice Borgio. Is Scofield's the same version? My birthday is Sept. 10, 1948 in Canada. I want to learn the tomalamatl and want to know if that is what Bruce's book will teach me. My e-mail is: heatherhess@hotmail.com PLEASE ADVISE

Desert Awakenings

Published in Hardcover by NorthWord Press (October, 1998)

Authors: Jeff Gnass and John Murray

Average review score:

Fantastic!Suggestive!Inspiring

Well,I had heard of this book before I saw it in a local bookstore,but I thought it wouldn`t be good,as the desert book "Western Horizon" was said to be better.
But I was wrong at this time. Already when I first looked inside it,I knew it would be amazingly suggestive for me. And I bought it. It was rather cheap for beeing such a book.
It features all kinds of deserted landscape from the US.
Some times,it doesn`t look much like desert,mostly in the Mojave,which the first chapter is about. Deserts are not at all lifeless places - in fact,it is full of wild palms,beautifull flowers and cacti with artistic shapes.
The second chapter treats the Sonoran Desert,and it,too,contains more of the diverse flora,especially the red cactus flowers.
In the third chapter,called Colorado Desert - Life on the Rocks,there are lots of such pictures too,but there is one special image that catches your attention immidiatley - pressure ridges in a salt pan,which looks like the finest crystals ever found!
The fourth chapter shows other kinds of desert. For you who like rocky deserts,this is something. It has fantastic sceneries from hundreds of feet high rocks,as well as a picture of dunes with white sand. That is the most lifeless of all deserts and the quietness is sometimes even frightening.
The fifth chapter is about The Great Basin Desert,and that is the largest desert of North America. Many pics in this chapter contains really fantastic views,and you`ll even find SNOW here!In a desert!Just amazin,isn`t it?Some of the most inspiring pictures are found here,and therefore,this is my favorite chapter. The special with those pictures are the mud formations at dusk.
The sixth chapter is "Painted Desert",which is also very inspiring,and here there are some pictures of the Colorado Plateau,which is fantastic rock formations where fossils of my favorite animals can be found (dinosaurs!). Many of the formations here are well-known from Western Movies. In this chapter,amazing pictures of Grand Canyon can be found as well.
I have now realized that this is my No.1 inspiration source for my animal stories. When I am drawing them,I am always looking at pictures of this book to find a suitable background for my dinosaurs. I am combining the best pictures. And then it is just to add the dinos. When I read this book,I pretend that I am trying to create a good dinosaur movie when looking at the pictures. It is incredibly inspiring,and ABSOLUTELY something for anyone who likes painting or look at landscapes.
You could spend (money) for "The Western Horizon" or (less) for this one. The choice is up to you. But I have made mine. Get inspired and save a lot of money by buying this one!

The desert never looked more beautiful

Jeff Gnass and John Murray have managed to convey with in the pages of this wonderful book the incredibly diverse and colorful landscapes that makeup the desert regions of the south western United States. Their photographic images are with out a doubt some of the best ever put to film. Tne text is entertaining as well with personal insights relating to visiting a particular area photographed. I never grow tired of looking at the images- they are as close as you can get without actually being there. Highly recommended for lovers of the desert regions or for those that would like to experience them but cannot get there.

Dirty Pool

Published in Hardcover by St. Martin's Press (March, 1999)

Author: Steve Brewer

Average review score:

An excellent mystery wrapped up in a great sense of humor.

Bubba Mabry should have been a member of the Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight. He has a penchant for getting into trouble, yet somehow always gets his guy. Steve Brewer has a knack for developing a fine mystery, all the while exposing his protagonist's weaknesses and fumblings. And he does it with a refreshing sense of humor. Brewer can also turn a phrase so that the reader remembers excerpts from his books long after finishing them. Dirty Pool is the fifth in the Bubba Mabry series and makes the reader call for more, more, more. This latest book brings new dimension to Bubba with the addition of the investigator's long-lost father, Dub, and Bubba's continuing relationship with Felicia, the hard-edged newspaperwoman. As I read Dirty Pool, I began to think that Bubba was growing---in sophistication, in compassion, in competence. But, in the end, it was actually the people around him who grew. Bubba is an incorrigible plodder, who somehow gets the job done. And does so in an endearing way. Unlike a lot of writers whose characters and plots become diluted with subsequent editions, Brewer seems to get better as he goes along. And so do his characters. If you like a good mystery and want a good laugh along the way, pick up Dirty Pool---or any other of Brewer's works, for that matter.

Humorous mystery starring an anti-hero

Albuquerque private investigator Bubba Mabry desperately wants to tell his nemesis private detective William J. Pool to go to hell when his unscrupulous rival asks for help. However, Bubba needs the cash, sees a chance to obtain a needed boost to his own agency, and also has an opportunity to finally trump William. He agrees to join in on the investigation of locating Richie, the teenage son of Texas millionaire Dick Johnson.

The circumstantial evidence points towards an abduction especially since the kidnapper sent Dick a ransom note. However, Dick feels his crazy son set up the entire affair, including authoring the note. Bubba delivers the ransom, which Richie collects. Dick informs his two detectives that the one who brings his son home keeps the ransom money. Amoral William sets bungling Bubba up to fail as they contend for $200,000.

DIRTY POOL is a different type of private detective story because the hero is more human than most investigators found in mystery tales. Bubba has at best average intelligence and makes the cowardly lion seem heroically intrepid. However, this leaves readers with divergent feelings towards him. At times, one wants to help him as he muddles his way through a case. At other times the audience will want to slap him silly and shut the book. Stephen Brewer demonstrates he has the ability to write an entertaining novel starring a less humorous Couseau-like boob.

Harriet Klausner

Edge of Taos Desert: An Escape to Reality

Published in Paperback by University of New Mexico Press (June, 1987)

Authors: Mabel Dodge Luhan, Lois P. Rudnick, and John Collier

Average review score:

Significant Historical Literature

In December of 1917, Mabel Dodge Sterne and her husband, artist Maurice Sterne, made their way up to Taos in an unforgettable journey up the rural road. Mabel immediately connected spiritually and emotionally with Taos and was drawn to find a place to stay. "Edge of Taos Desert" is the story of her personal transformation during her first year in Taos. In many ways, this book is an insightful commentary on Santa Fe and Taos in 1918. Mabel's description of the physical and cultural environment is vivid. She describes the Mexicans bringing in wood by burro to sell as well the first time she saw an Indian. Careful readers will discern the conflicts and prejudices between the Pueblo people, the Mexicans, and the more newly arrived Anglos. She provides many priceless early observations of the region that may best be understood by readers who have some knowledge of New Mexico history and culture. However, understanding Mabel's history may provide more information about the significance of this book.

Mabel Dodge Luhan grew up in a wealthy family that left her emotionally bankrupt. She spent years of her adult life looking for the fulfillment of her emptiness. She was a renaissance woman in Italy, and then a salon hostess in New York, hosting conversations with some of the brightest minds of her time. She was a radical modernist looking for a solution to the American ills brought on by the Industrial Revolution. "Edge of Taos Desert" is the most important autobiographical chapter in her life because, in the Pueblo people, she believed that she had found a solution to both her emotional emptiness and America's discontentment. Her role in the future became to draw artists to Taos to write about and paint the people, the place, and the culture in order that it might be saved and that, we, as Americans might also save ourselves with what we'd learned.

She had a messianic vision of utopia with the Victorian belief that a woman's role was to support others. She found her own voice, though, in writing her autobiographies and several other books. "Edge of Taos Desert" is a beautifully written literary piece. She journeys through with strong social and cultural observations and a bold confidence and irreverence that allows her to see what a white woman of her time would not have been allowed to see. By August of 1918, her third husband (Sterne) has returned to New York, and she enters the door of being one of the most infamous Taoseno's in that town's history with a poignant and personal tale to tell.

A beautiful description of New Mexico in l9l7

This book is a rare jem. The writing is of unparralled beauty and perception. Mabel Dodge Lujan describes her arrival in Taos, New Mexico in l9l7. Lujan has come from New York city where she was a wealthy socialite involved in various art and political/psychological cicles (She was the former lover of John Reed who was portrayed by Warren Beatty in the movie Reds). She has come to Taos to reunite with her husband, the artist Maurice Stearn. However, almost imediately she finds that the town of Taos, and especially the Indians of the neighboring pueblo, are awakening the depths of her in a sublime and inevitable way. She describes how this process of conversion from a relatively shallow person (though an earnest seeker of truth), to one who begins to understand and feel the life beyond herself is catalyzed by the Indian Tony Lujan, whom she later marries. The story is really a spiritual one, but never described as such. Rather one only feels the utter humility of this women in the face of a way of life that increasingly draws her to it while also drawing her to the depth of herself. Her descriptions of the Indian life of the pueblo must be some of the finest ever crafted about native Americans.

The Food of Sante Fe: Authentic Recipes from the American Southwest

Published in Hardcover by Periplus Editions (June, 1998)

Authors: Dave Dewitt and Nancy Gerlach

Average review score:

A homerun... but what's new!

Dave and Nancy are gods in the hot and spicy food business. As usual you can expect concise information along with mouth-watering recipes. As host of the television series "The Sonoran Grill" and author of 4 cookbooks, I know good food writing when I see it and this is as good as southwest cooking gets. Just click on "All Books" by either Dave or Nancy and you'll see why they are so qualified to write this important cookbook and why I must add a copy of it to my collection

It's like being in Santa Fe -- at all the best places.

Food in Santa Fe is a major part of the style and ambiance of the city. New Mexican regional products, especially chilis and corn, and southwestern cooking styles, everything from barbeque to Tex-Mex to authentic regional Mexican and Indian cooking, are strong influences. But Santa Fe has everything from tiny cantinas with home style New Mexican cooking to 5 star restaurants where New Mexico is an influence, but suave professionalism, integration of tastes, and high presentation is the norm.

The Food of Santa Fe takes you there, telling you about the food, the style, and the best restaurants. We've been to Santa Fe many times and reading the book is like taking a brief (and teasing) visit. I have to head for the kitchen and check out the chili supply. It's also a good way to prepare for a trip -- briefing you on what to expect, what to look for, and where to find the very best examples.

There are many Santa Fe cookbooks -- those from Mark Miller and the Coyote Cafe being the best known -- but this is perhaps a better overview, and a very pretty book to read.

We expect to buy copies for our Santa Fe loving friends as Christmas gifts.

George Curry 1861-1947: An Autobiography

Published in Paperback by University of New Mexico Press (April, 1995)

Authors: George Curry, H.B. Hening, and Sam Smith

Average review score:

Very Detailed

A very interesting Book written about One of New Mexico's Greatest People!! A must have for NM history students and historians. I am not just saying this because he was my Great Grand Father.

Excellent

Well researched and written biography of my Great, Great Grandfather. Tales of his colorful past and the many famous people he knew.

Girl on a Pony (The Western Frontier Library, Vol 61)

Published in Hardcover by Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Trd) (April, 1994)

Authors: Laverne Hanners and Larry L. King

Average review score:

A powerful woman's jewel

You wouldn't guess at the power of this book from it's size. As finely written as the complicated, intricately tatted lace fancywork Laverne's mother tatted into bleached sugar sacks, "still whole after fifty years." Stories as gripping and gritty as anything Hemingway ever wrote, featuring hailstorms that break every window in the house, treacherous horses, dogs, and rattlesnakes, and scandalous cowboys. Frequent flashes of wise, deep humor, understated and droll, that catches you unawares and leaves you laughing out loud. This was a woman worthy of the name. Would make a terrific movie.

Funny and honest life of a girl growing up in the desert

I wish you could all have met Dr. Hanners! Janet Reno wrote to Dr. Hanners praising her mutual memory of growing up wild and free while trying to control nature and nature in the form of a pony. These are real people, many of whom still live in Kenton, Oklahoma, population 52.

Healing Herbs of the Upper Rio Grande: Traditional Medicine of the Southwest

Published in Paperback by Western Edge Pr (June, 2003)

Authors: L. S. M. Curtin, Michael Moore, Mimi Kamp, Mary Austin, and L. M. S. Curtin

Average review score:

from the Medical Herbalism journal

Laura Curtin lived and worked among the curanderas and Native Americans of Northern New Mexico during the early part of the twentieth century. She fell in love with the plants and their lore, and later, at the prompting of a friend, decided to record them. Healing Herbs was first published in 1947, at a time when interest in traditional healing in Northern New Mexico was in decline. It helped preserve traditional information for a new generation -- when editor Michael Moore arrived in Santa Fe in the 1960s he found copies of Curtin's book as a prized possession in many traditional households. The book is unique in the literature of ethnobotany in that it was written essentially by an insider in the tradition, rather than by an observer doing interviews.

Excellent guide to herbal uses of native Southwestern plants

Living in the Southwestern Chihuahuan desert, I am always on the search for sources of information regarding local flora and particularly ethnobotanical uses of plants. This is an excellent guide originally published in 1947 and edited by Michael Moore who I consider to be an expert on herbal uses of native southwestern plants. For anyone interested in this subject, a fabulous resource to have in your library!

The Hispano Homeland

Published in Hardcover by Univ of Oklahoma Pr (Txt) (May, 1992)

Author: Richard L. Nostrand

Average review score:

A must for New Mexico and Southern Colorado Genealogy

Reviewer: A reader from Southern Colorado - Northern New Mexico. An excellent aid for those of us researching our family roots in New Mexico. This book does much to explain and date the migration of our Hispanic/Indian ancestors in and from the Rio Grande Valley during the past 400 years.

Excellent depiction of the Hispano subculture

In this book Nostrand describes the cultural geography and history of the "Hispano homeland" -- a region in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado with a distinct and interesting history and culture. He also traces the connections between this region and outside influences, from the early Spanish settlers, to the Pueblo Indians and Anglos, to relations with other Mexican Americans in the U.S. today. This book is useful in understanding borderland influences further away from the more often represented U.S./Mexico border. Covering over 400 years of history, it shows how border influences change and last through time. It's well written, extremely thorough with good maps tracing "intrusions" of other cultures into the region, and good tabular information, too. I found this book invaluable for my own work in northern New Mexico, but this book may also be useful for those interested in rural development, community studies, and sense of place, as Nostrand articulates well what the Hispano Homeland means to the people who live there and why it becomes necessary for some to leave. It is a good complement to Carlos Velez-Ibanez' Border Visions, which is less geographically based and focuses more on cultural place closer to the U.S. - Mexico border.

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