I found out about this book from a class that I took at the Desert Botanical Gardens here in Phoenix. It is a great addition to Judy Mielke's book, Native Plants for Soutwestern Landscapes and Mary Rose Duffield's book, Plants for Dry Climates. Carol Shuler has some great charts toward the back of the book on trees, shrubs, groundcovers, and accent plants. I love the section on horticulture which covers some basic design principles. There are also lots of great pictures throughout and great explanations of many types of plants.

I read this book in one setting. What a fascinating journey Sladen takes you on in this first hand account of a significant moment in history. I've been reading books on the west my entire life and I have to say this is the best single book one could read on the American Southwest. It chronicles the remarkable meeting between General O.O. Howard and the Great Apache leader Cochise. Sladen records Cochise's personality and style in great detail. He gives a vivid portrait of life in an Apache village. He presents Tom Jeffords and Howard as they really were. He describes the incredible county this drama played out in with the sensibility of a true lover of beauty and nature. Sladen's become one of my heros along with Cochise and Edward R. Sweeney who edited this book and wrote a brilliant biography of Cochise.

For those who have eaten at the restaurant in NY and know how good the chili is, this is your chance to try and recreate their chili. Although you'll never get your chili to taste as good as the restaurant's, it will ease your cravings until you have the chance to go to NY again. These recipes are very easy to follow and the payoff is worth it. Every friend I've given this book to has made at least 3-4 different types of the chili and have liked them all. Tenderfoots be ware!!

Written by an anthropologist who tells Maria's story through short stories as told to her by Maria. This book begins with Maria's accounting of pueblo life during her childhood. You learn of her life with her artistic, but alcoholic, husband Julian. An interesting accounting of their work which earned world acclaim for the unique pottery they produced. This book is a window to a time long forgotten and into the soul of a creative artist. The community spirit of the pueblo is well described and inspiring. You can't put this down once you begin. It's a great read!

This book traces Twain's indebtedness to the humorists of the antebellum South and his adaptations of their literary techniques. The final chapter deals with Twain's unpublished papers, which Dr. Lynn described as "the broken ruins and unfinished monuments of a great talent." For anyone who wants to understand the provenance of Twain's art.

Mary Colter was a woman ahead of her time --- an architect and interior designer when few women attempted it. She interwove rustic techniques, local materials and American Indian themes into buildings and designs well before that was accepted by others in her professions. Her rustic buildings at Grand Canyon National Park still survive to the delight of many visitors. Colter was at times a prefectionist, hard to get along with, a workaholic and extremely demanding of herself and her co-workers. Yet the author shows us her life and work with sympathy as well as depth. This book is well illustrated with color and black and white photos. Well researched. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It answered all my questions!

Wish I'd reviewed this one right after I read it, shortly after I bought the book from Amazon last year.

The author passed away on July 3rd, 2003, just a few days ago.

I enjoyed the book, written by a civilized man with a great insights into American literature, popular culture, and the human condition historically and at large.

Some chapters of the above book, such as the ones on THE WILD BUNCH and GERONIMO, are exclusively on movies. The chapters on books include:

William Faulkner's Ike McCaslin in GO DOWN, MOSES.

L. D. Clark's A BRIGHT TRAGIC THING: A TALE OF CIVIL WAR IN TEXAS, about the Great Hanging in Gainesville, Texas in 1862.

Gore Vidal's BILLY THE KID.

Jan Candia Coleman's I, PEARL HART, based upon a true story and perhaps the most interesting essay here. "About female self-assertion in a cruel, male dominated world."

Montserrat Fontes's DREAMS OF THE CENTAUR.

David Morrell's LAST REVEILLE, another fine essay that made me think I might want to read the book after all.

Mariana Azuela's LOS DE ABADJO, "a classic about the Mexican Revolution which features a band of mavericks who drift into and along with the Revolution without any clear sense of purpose."

Other essays are entitled: "The Feminizing of Freedom and Fulfillment: Como Agua Para Chocolate," "Mirrors, Dreams, and Memory: Gringo Viejo," and "Crossing Into Fascism in Bisbee 17."

Doublas Canfield earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from the University of Notre Dame in 1963, master's degrees from Yale and the Johns Hopkins Universities in 1964 and 1966, respectively, and a Ph.D. from the University of Florida in 1969, where he was a United States Steel Foundation Fellow and where he earned election to Phi Beta Kappa. He taught at UCLA before coming to the University of Arizona in 1974, where he became Regents Professor in 1994.

Besides the book above, Canfield was the author of several scholarly books and articles in the two fields of Restoration and early eighteenth-century British literature (particularly the drama) and comparative literature and culture of the Southwest borderlands. In the spring of 2001, he was invited to Italy, to the University of Florence to lecture in this latter field and to the University of Tuscia to lecture in the former, where a series of translations of Restoration comedies into Italian has begun in his honor.

An expert on the Restoration, he was a Renaissance Man in every sense of the word. He won several fellowships for his scholarship, the most recent from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2000-2001. He was also the winner of several teaching awards, including 1993 Arizona Professor of the Year. He was especially proud of his service to the University of Arizona as chairman of President Manuel Pacheco's Task Force on Undergraduate Education in 1991-1992.

According to Rick Wallach, president of the Cormac McCarthy Society, Canfield was also a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and a national referee with AYSO. He coached his sons in several sports from the early 1970s until the mid-1990s, and co-coached and refereed a soccer team with his son Colin as recently as the fall 2002. His other hobbies were hunting and writing poetry, of which he has two books published. He has also authored a poetic drama on John Charles Fremont.

Rick Wallach, in a tribute to him at the McCarthy Society from which much of this review is garnered, said, "All of us who knew Doug were aware of his passionate commitment to social justice, and his favorite course to teach was "The Ideology of Human Rights," His last wish was for world peace with justice. . ."

"Doug's wonderful long essay on Cormac McCarthy's Suttree, which he read at the Society's annual conference in Tucson last year, will be published sometime in the (we hope) near future..."

i wonder i we were kin? last name same as min

David Rosenbaum undertook a tremendous task in researching and documenting Mexicano resistence in the aftermath of the United States annexation of the Southwest territories (over 15,000,000 square miles) from Mexico to end the Mexican-American War (1848). Contrary to popular history the southwest territory was not conquered by General Kearney "without a shot being fired." The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the war and guaranteed U.S. citizenship, land rights, and use of Spanish to the Mexicanos and Spaniards who remainded on their land. Dr. Rosenbaum's first-rate research documents the resistence, scurmishes, and battles that took place as mexicanos fought to protect their families, their property and their rights in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

We have just about every Thailand guidebook here at our school. When we set off on our last photo trip we took with us only three guides. The book that turned out to be the most useful was the Michelin Green Guide for Thailand. The two large maps at the front were very useful in planning the trip. One map highlighted the best places to visit in Thailand (using a 3 star system). The other map gave suggested round trip tours in different areas of Thailand. Another useful feature of the book is that places are sorted alphabetically rather than by region. This meant fast and easy access to places we wanted to visit. As well as details about what to see in each location (again with a 3 star system helping you pick out the highlights) there is also an excursion list for other places to see in the area. Many of these extras aren't listed in your regular guide. As we were driving, we found it invaluable that they always clearly showed us how to get to each location and they never once got us lost. Some people might not like the absence of a hotel listing, but we found this no problem in Thailand. Hotels and guesthouses are always easy to find.