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General Recommendations

Southwest Books of the Year 2023 for Adults

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PimaLib_SWBooks

Pima County Public Library

Staff-created list

Southwest Books of the Year considers titles published during the previous calendar year that are about Southwest subjects, or are set in the Southwest. The Southwest Books of the Year panel of reviewers—subject specialists and voracious consumers of Southwest literature—are pleased to offer up their personal favorite titles of the year, complete with brief reviews. Books selected by two or more panelists become Southwest Books of the Year Top Picks, our designation for the best of the best. Their choices are published in our annual publication, Southwest Books of the Year. Click on a title to see all formats available.

By:

PimaLib_SWBooks

Pima County Public Library

23 items

23 items

Dinosaurs

Dinosaurs

A Novel

by Millet, Lydia

Book - 2022

TOP PICK: Across her three-decade career, Millet has specialized in concocting stories about domestic life that initially feel strange but, in her hands, ...Show more TOP PICK: Across her three-decade career, Millet has specialized in concocting stories about domestic life that initially feel strange but, in her hands, increasingly feel like our natural lived reality. The setup of her twelfth novel is weird, comic, and deceptive in her trademark manner: Gil, a wealthy recently divorced man, has pulled up stakes and walked all the way from the East Coast to Phoenix, seeking a change in scenery. He gets what he wants, but the new vistas involve his psyche as much as the Sonoran flora and fauna. His new home is next door to what appears to be a just-so nuclear family, but soon peculiarities begin to creep in, and it becomes harder for him to keep his distance. In exploring the intersection between the two households, Millet carefully exposes how we both protect and undermine each other, delivering the story with a dry wit and alertness to humanity's most deeply rooted instincts. - Mark Athitakis Show less

TOP PICK: Across her three-decade career, Millet has specialized in concocting stories about domestic life that initially feel strange but, in her hands, ...Show more TOP PICK: Across her three-decade career, Millet has specialized in concocting stories about domestic life that initially feel strange but, in her hands, increasingly feel like our natural lived reality. The setup of her twelfth novel is weird, comic, and deceptive in her trademark manner: Gil, a wealthy recently divorced man, has pulled up stakes and walked all the way from the East Coast to Phoenix, seeking a change in scenery. He gets what he wants, but the new vistas involve his psyche as much as the Sonoran flora and fauna. His new home is next door to what appears to be a just-so nuclear family, but soon peculiarities begin to creep in, and it becomes harder for him to keep his distance. In exploring the intersection between the two households, Millet carefully exposes how we both protect and undermine each other, delivering the story with a dry wit and alertness to humanity's most deeply rooted instincts. - Mark Athitakis Show less

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Marlowe's Revenge

Marlowe's Revenge

by Stuart, Dan

Book -

TOP PICK: "This was a weird one, and weird ones meant trouble." So writes Dan Stuart near the opening of Marlowe's Revenge, the last of a trilog...Show more TOP PICK: "This was a weird one, and weird ones meant trouble." So writes Dan Stuart near the opening of Marlowe's Revenge, the last of a trilogy. He's right, of course. Stuart has had plenty of experience in weird climes. As leader of the legendary band Green on Red, he's known rock-star fame. In the wake of fame, he's known addiction and climbed from the wreckage. He's been known to hit the links to work out the demons, and he's seen bad guys and Gila monsters up close. All figure in this picaresque tale starring alter ego Marlowe Billings and a Tucson that the tourist bureau won't rush to endorse, where drug smuggling, murder, skulduggery, dubious legal ethics, raw violence, and many another "preternatural event" figure. There's even some golf amid episodes set in plenty of recognizable Tucson landmarks. While he's paid his dues researching his shaggy-dog story, Stuart is clearly having a grand time with it—and so will readers. - Gregory McNamee Show less

TOP PICK: "This was a weird one, and weird ones meant trouble." So writes Dan Stuart near the opening of Marlowe's Revenge, the last of a trilog...Show more TOP PICK: "This was a weird one, and weird ones meant trouble." So writes Dan Stuart near the opening of Marlowe's Revenge, the last of a trilogy. He's right, of course. Stuart has had plenty of experience in weird climes. As leader of the legendary band Green on Red, he's known rock-star fame. In the wake of fame, he's known addiction and climbed from the wreckage. He's been known to hit the links to work out the demons, and he's seen bad guys and Gila monsters up close. All figure in this picaresque tale starring alter ego Marlowe Billings and a Tucson that the tourist bureau won't rush to endorse, where drug smuggling, murder, skulduggery, dubious legal ethics, raw violence, and many another "preternatural event" figure. There's even some golf amid episodes set in plenty of recognizable Tucson landmarks. While he's paid his dues researching his shaggy-dog story, Stuart is clearly having a grand time with it—and so will readers. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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Mecca

Mecca

by Straight, Susan

Book - 2022

TOP PICK: Straight's ninth novel is a sweeping epic set in California's Imperial Valley, the desert region between Los Angeles and the Arizona border, pop...Show more TOP PICK: Straight's ninth novel is a sweeping epic set in California's Imperial Valley, the desert region between Los Angeles and the Arizona border, populated by a multitude of memorable characters. A motorcycle officer's determination to adhere to the law conceals a dark secret from his past; an undocumented Palm Springs spa employee stumbles across an abandoned infant and becomes entangled in a larger tale of betrayal and wealth; the family of a teenager is rashly killed by a police officer, prompting a range of consequences. Integrating race and class, city and desert, life and death, Straight's story feels both all encompassing and specific to our current moment, from the Covid pandemic to racial tensions to Western wildfires. It's also a story filled with humor, irony, and natural detail, capturing a region whose landscape is often forbidding but has also provided a haven for generations of families. - Mark Athitakis Show less

TOP PICK: Straight's ninth novel is a sweeping epic set in California's Imperial Valley, the desert region between Los Angeles and the Arizona border, pop...Show more TOP PICK: Straight's ninth novel is a sweeping epic set in California's Imperial Valley, the desert region between Los Angeles and the Arizona border, populated by a multitude of memorable characters. A motorcycle officer's determination to adhere to the law conceals a dark secret from his past; an undocumented Palm Springs spa employee stumbles across an abandoned infant and becomes entangled in a larger tale of betrayal and wealth; the family of a teenager is rashly killed by a police officer, prompting a range of consequences. Integrating race and class, city and desert, life and death, Straight's story feels both all encompassing and specific to our current moment, from the Covid pandemic to racial tensions to Western wildfires. It's also a story filled with humor, irony, and natural detail, capturing a region whose landscape is often forbidding but has also provided a haven for generations of families. - Mark Athitakis Show less

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Sinking Bell

Sinking Bell

Stories

by Louis, Bojan

Book - 2022

TOP PICK: The characters in Louis’s sharp debut collection are generally Navajo men who've hit the skids somewhere around Flagstaff. They work constructio...Show more TOP PICK: The characters in Louis’s sharp debut collection are generally Navajo men who've hit the skids somewhere around Flagstaff. They work construction but can't get ahead. They're struggling to get clean, but temptation stalks them. They want to put some distance between themselves and their heritage, but family and history have a very strong pull. They try to get a writing career off the ground, but competition and confidence threaten to do them in. Yet even while these men are flailing, Louis writes about them with intelligence, humor, and dignity—in the process asking questions about how much we carry of others' assumptions about us and what kind of work is necessary to overcome it. Such working-class figures have long been too rare in American fiction, and his book signals not just the arrival of a talented short-story writer but a promising revival of storytelling about America's underclass. - Mark Athitakis Show less

TOP PICK: The characters in Louis’s sharp debut collection are generally Navajo men who've hit the skids somewhere around Flagstaff. They work constructio...Show more TOP PICK: The characters in Louis’s sharp debut collection are generally Navajo men who've hit the skids somewhere around Flagstaff. They work construction but can't get ahead. They're struggling to get clean, but temptation stalks them. They want to put some distance between themselves and their heritage, but family and history have a very strong pull. They try to get a writing career off the ground, but competition and confidence threaten to do them in. Yet even while these men are flailing, Louis writes about them with intelligence, humor, and dignity—in the process asking questions about how much we carry of others' assumptions about us and what kind of work is necessary to overcome it. Such working-class figures have long been too rare in American fiction, and his book signals not just the arrival of a talented short-story writer but a promising revival of storytelling about America's underclass. - Mark Athitakis Show less

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Feels Like Home

Feels Like Home

A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands

by Ronstadt, Linda

Book - 2022

TOP PICK: Is any Tucsonan as beloved as Linda Ronstadt? Likely not, and her celebration of the Sonoran Desert will help cinch the deal. She rightly insist...Show more TOP PICK: Is any Tucsonan as beloved as Linda Ronstadt? Likely not, and her celebration of the Sonoran Desert will help cinch the deal. She rightly insists that Sonora, the Mexican state, is an integral part of our region, a picturesque font of story, song, and especially food that's central to Arizona history. In this sparkling blend of memoir, cookbook, and bicultural manifesto, Ronstadt traces her German-Mexican family to the small town of Banámichi, located in the high desert along the Río Sonora, "the ribbon that meanders through the desert . . . down the mountains from an old mining town . . . greening what it touches, the fields of alfalfa and chiles and wheat and grasses that sprout and bloom amid the mesquite and cactus." Tucson figures prominently, too. Her book is richly illustrated with photographs of people and places and studded with saliva-spurring recipes, but it's Linda Ronstadt's winsome prose that makes it a treasure. - Gregory McNamee Show less

TOP PICK: Is any Tucsonan as beloved as Linda Ronstadt? Likely not, and her celebration of the Sonoran Desert will help cinch the deal. She rightly insist...Show more TOP PICK: Is any Tucsonan as beloved as Linda Ronstadt? Likely not, and her celebration of the Sonoran Desert will help cinch the deal. She rightly insists that Sonora, the Mexican state, is an integral part of our region, a picturesque font of story, song, and especially food that's central to Arizona history. In this sparkling blend of memoir, cookbook, and bicultural manifesto, Ronstadt traces her German-Mexican family to the small town of Banámichi, located in the high desert along the Río Sonora, "the ribbon that meanders through the desert . . . down the mountains from an old mining town . . . greening what it touches, the fields of alfalfa and chiles and wheat and grasses that sprout and bloom amid the mesquite and cactus." Tucson figures prominently, too. Her book is richly illustrated with photographs of people and places and studded with saliva-spurring recipes, but it's Linda Ronstadt's winsome prose that makes it a treasure. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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Michael Chiago

Michael Chiago

O'odham Lifeways Through Art

by Chiago, Michael

Book - 2022

TOP PICK: Self-taught artist Michael Chiago bases his paintings on the O'odham practices he witnessed and his conversations with elders about a past that ...Show more TOP PICK: Self-taught artist Michael Chiago bases his paintings on the O'odham practices he witnessed and his conversations with elders about a past that preceded him. Born in 1946, he grew up on the reservation and started drawing when he was sent away to boarding school. One cannot help but appreciate the intricate details in each painting of the desert people, landscapes, plants and animal life. Reprinted in color, each of his paintings provide a treasure trove of insights into the O'odham people and their lives in the Sonoran Desert. Co-author Amadeo M. Rea incorporates words and phrases from the O'odham language in his descriptions of Chiago’s work that provide additional context and further enhance the visual experience. As an O'odham artist, Chiago's art offers a rare indigenous perspective that makes this book a must-read for those interested in the history and ethnography of the Sonoran Desert. - Lydia R. Otero Show less

TOP PICK: Self-taught artist Michael Chiago bases his paintings on the O'odham practices he witnessed and his conversations with elders about a past that ...Show more TOP PICK: Self-taught artist Michael Chiago bases his paintings on the O'odham practices he witnessed and his conversations with elders about a past that preceded him. Born in 1946, he grew up on the reservation and started drawing when he was sent away to boarding school. One cannot help but appreciate the intricate details in each painting of the desert people, landscapes, plants and animal life. Reprinted in color, each of his paintings provide a treasure trove of insights into the O'odham people and their lives in the Sonoran Desert. Co-author Amadeo M. Rea incorporates words and phrases from the O'odham language in his descriptions of Chiago’s work that provide additional context and further enhance the visual experience. As an O'odham artist, Chiago's art offers a rare indigenous perspective that makes this book a must-read for those interested in the history and ethnography of the Sonoran Desert. - Lydia R. Otero Show less

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Nobody Is Protected

Nobody Is Protected

How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States

by Jones, Reece

Book - 2022

TOP PICK: The US Border Patrol is often thought of solely as a fixture of America's southern border, but its role is much wider and more troublingly power...Show more TOP PICK: The US Border Patrol is often thought of solely as a fixture of America's southern border, but its role is much wider and more troublingly powerful. Its jurisdiction includes all US territory within 100 miles of a border. Court rulings have given its officers a great deal of latitude for searching and detaining anyone falling under its purview—"the legal right to sweep people off the streets of an American city without a warrant or even probable cause that a crime was committed," as Jones writes. His thorough work of history and reportage explores the Border Patrol's roots in the Texas Rangers and Wild West era-extrajudicial justice, details key US Supreme Court rulings that expanded its reach, and features on-the-ground reporting in Arizona on how the agency's mandate to protect the border has often morphed into a paramilitary force prone to abusive and intimidating actions. - Mark Athitakis Show less

TOP PICK: The US Border Patrol is often thought of solely as a fixture of America's southern border, but its role is much wider and more troublingly power...Show more TOP PICK: The US Border Patrol is often thought of solely as a fixture of America's southern border, but its role is much wider and more troublingly powerful. Its jurisdiction includes all US territory within 100 miles of a border. Court rulings have given its officers a great deal of latitude for searching and detaining anyone falling under its purview—"the legal right to sweep people off the streets of an American city without a warrant or even probable cause that a crime was committed," as Jones writes. His thorough work of history and reportage explores the Border Patrol's roots in the Texas Rangers and Wild West era-extrajudicial justice, details key US Supreme Court rulings that expanded its reach, and features on-the-ground reporting in Arizona on how the agency's mandate to protect the border has often morphed into a paramilitary force prone to abusive and intimidating actions. - Mark Athitakis Show less

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Solito

Solito

A Memoir

by Zamora, Javier

Book - 2022

TOP PICK: In this memoir, poet and writer Javier Zamora, who lives in Tucson, details his migratory journey from El Salvador to the U.S. He tells the stor...Show more TOP PICK: In this memoir, poet and writer Javier Zamora, who lives in Tucson, details his migratory journey from El Salvador to the U.S. He tells the story from the perspective of Chepito, Zamora's 9-year-old self. His grandfather in El Salvador entrusted strangers to shepherd Chepito across more than 2,500 miles to reunite him with his parents in California. Along the way, as he crosses Guatemala and Mexico, the innocent and relatively sheltered Zamora struggles to make sense of the world of smugglers, violence, and betrayal. Strangers take Chepito under their wing, and he never loses faith in their kindness and dutifully follows instructions. As he crosses the Sonoran Desert, he is told, "If you get lost, it's your fault." Beautifully written, Zamora's memoir is a must-read that is difficult to put down and hard to forget. - Lydia R. Otero Show less

TOP PICK: In this memoir, poet and writer Javier Zamora, who lives in Tucson, details his migratory journey from El Salvador to the U.S. He tells the stor...Show more TOP PICK: In this memoir, poet and writer Javier Zamora, who lives in Tucson, details his migratory journey from El Salvador to the U.S. He tells the story from the perspective of Chepito, Zamora's 9-year-old self. His grandfather in El Salvador entrusted strangers to shepherd Chepito across more than 2,500 miles to reunite him with his parents in California. Along the way, as he crosses Guatemala and Mexico, the innocent and relatively sheltered Zamora struggles to make sense of the world of smugglers, violence, and betrayal. Strangers take Chepito under their wing, and he never loses faith in their kindness and dutifully follows instructions. As he crosses the Sonoran Desert, he is told, "If you get lost, it's your fault." Beautifully written, Zamora's memoir is a must-read that is difficult to put down and hard to forget. - Lydia R. Otero Show less

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Shutter

Shutter

by Emerson, Ramona

Book - 2022

Emerson's debut novel is a remarkable balancing act. It's a gritty detective story set in Albuquerque, where Rita Todacheene, a police crime scene photogr...Show more Emerson's debut novel is a remarkable balancing act. It's a gritty detective story set in Albuquerque, where Rita Todacheene, a police crime scene photographer, is compelled to follow a lead on a brutal murder. It's a coming-of-age story about how her love of photography became a necessary escape hatch during a troubled childhood. And it's a Native American tale thick with family and tribal lore, steeped in a mysticism that at once guides and complicates Rita's journey. As she tunnels deeper into the story's central crime, she's surrounded by the ghosts of past injustices and also finds herself reckoning with her personal history and the long reach of her tribal past. Emerson, a Diné writer, filmmaker, and New Mexico resident, delivers a story that's at once supernatural and earthbound, with a rich sense of place and history. - Mark Athitakis Show less

Emerson's debut novel is a remarkable balancing act. It's a gritty detective story set in Albuquerque, where Rita Todacheene, a police crime scene photogr...Show more Emerson's debut novel is a remarkable balancing act. It's a gritty detective story set in Albuquerque, where Rita Todacheene, a police crime scene photographer, is compelled to follow a lead on a brutal murder. It's a coming-of-age story about how her love of photography became a necessary escape hatch during a troubled childhood. And it's a Native American tale thick with family and tribal lore, steeped in a mysticism that at once guides and complicates Rita's journey. As she tunnels deeper into the story's central crime, she's surrounded by the ghosts of past injustices and also finds herself reckoning with her personal history and the long reach of her tribal past. Emerson, a Diné writer, filmmaker, and New Mexico resident, delivers a story that's at once supernatural and earthbound, with a rich sense of place and history. - Mark Athitakis Show less

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Zig Zag

Zig Zag

by O'Brien, J.D.

eBook - 2023

A richly written caper that starts with the robbery of a marijuana dispensary by a couple of losers and ends with a splash of blood in the movie ghost tow...Show more A richly written caper that starts with the robbery of a marijuana dispensary by a couple of losers and ends with a splash of blood in the movie ghost town of Calico. Debut author J.D. O’Brien is already a master of the neonoir genre with a skillful use of hardboiled simile. A mechanic's scab "looks like a strip of bacon taped his arm" while the face of a bail bondsman has "that dustbowl photograph look." This well-paced road thriller with an abundance of smoking, felonious conduct, and cocktail lounge philosophizing plays out in the American vernacular of bad motel rooms and joints like Yum Yum doughnuts. Absurdist touches hide the secrets of the plot just around the bend. It owes a little to Jackie Brown, a little to Raymond Chandler, and lots more to the author's own considerable imagination, eye for working-class signifiers, and ear for intelligent dialogue. - Tom Zoellner Show less

A richly written caper that starts with the robbery of a marijuana dispensary by a couple of losers and ends with a splash of blood in the movie ghost tow...Show more A richly written caper that starts with the robbery of a marijuana dispensary by a couple of losers and ends with a splash of blood in the movie ghost town of Calico. Debut author J.D. O’Brien is already a master of the neonoir genre with a skillful use of hardboiled simile. A mechanic's scab "looks like a strip of bacon taped his arm" while the face of a bail bondsman has "that dustbowl photograph look." This well-paced road thriller with an abundance of smoking, felonious conduct, and cocktail lounge philosophizing plays out in the American vernacular of bad motel rooms and joints like Yum Yum doughnuts. Absurdist touches hide the secrets of the plot just around the bend. It owes a little to Jackie Brown, a little to Raymond Chandler, and lots more to the author's own considerable imagination, eye for working-class signifiers, and ear for intelligent dialogue. - Tom Zoellner Show less

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No Enemies

No Enemies

Poems

by Baca, Jimmy Santiago

eBook - 2022

"To be a poet you must have gratefulness / at the center of your mission to write." So says Baca, who is grateful for many things: family, langu...Show more "To be a poet you must have gratefulness / at the center of your mission to write." So says Baca, who is grateful for many things: family, language, the New Mexico earth. Gratitude doesn't mean acquiescence, and in this collection of poems Baca sounds a manifesto: he is, he insists, bound to no one, not accepting academic positions or grants as if to declare, "a Chicano can survive / and succeed and flourish as a poet on the power / of his poems," twitting foundations and administrations that deem him unsuitably uncooperative. Baca's resistance to things as they are quickens when it comes to recent politics and current events, though even there he finds hope in such things as the pandemic's giving people cause to find themselves and change their lives: "It was a time future generations would later call / a time of gardens." Central to contemporary Latinx poetry, Baca voices both thanks and anger, always memorably. - Gregory McNamee Show less

"To be a poet you must have gratefulness / at the center of your mission to write." So says Baca, who is grateful for many things: family, langu...Show more "To be a poet you must have gratefulness / at the center of your mission to write." So says Baca, who is grateful for many things: family, language, the New Mexico earth. Gratitude doesn't mean acquiescence, and in this collection of poems Baca sounds a manifesto: he is, he insists, bound to no one, not accepting academic positions or grants as if to declare, "a Chicano can survive / and succeed and flourish as a poet on the power / of his poems," twitting foundations and administrations that deem him unsuitably uncooperative. Baca's resistance to things as they are quickens when it comes to recent politics and current events, though even there he finds hope in such things as the pandemic's giving people cause to find themselves and change their lives: "It was a time future generations would later call / a time of gardens." Central to contemporary Latinx poetry, Baca voices both thanks and anger, always memorably. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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Brown Neon

Brown Neon

by Gutiérrez, Raquel

Book - 2022

Although a number of essays focus on other places, writer Raquel Gutiérrez also provides us insight into Tucson, Arizona, and the Sonoran Desert where the...Show more Although a number of essays focus on other places, writer Raquel Gutiérrez also provides us insight into Tucson, Arizona, and the Sonoran Desert where they currently live. Offering a deep appreciation of the environment, Gutierrez writes about adobe, "Everything that made this mud— the water, the straw, occasional blood—must be strong enough to hold a house together." They also ruminate about the importance of water to the region and the complexities that drive border issues and injustices. Through the various essays we learn about Gutiérrez's life, their mentors, evolving cultural tastes, and the theorists and artists they find compelling. But it is Gutiérrez's efforts to build community and thirst for love that readers will appreciate most about this thought-provoking book. - Lydia R. Otero Show less

Although a number of essays focus on other places, writer Raquel Gutiérrez also provides us insight into Tucson, Arizona, and the Sonoran Desert where the...Show more Although a number of essays focus on other places, writer Raquel Gutiérrez also provides us insight into Tucson, Arizona, and the Sonoran Desert where they currently live. Offering a deep appreciation of the environment, Gutierrez writes about adobe, "Everything that made this mud— the water, the straw, occasional blood—must be strong enough to hold a house together." They also ruminate about the importance of water to the region and the complexities that drive border issues and injustices. Through the various essays we learn about Gutiérrez's life, their mentors, evolving cultural tastes, and the theorists and artists they find compelling. But it is Gutiérrez's efforts to build community and thirst for love that readers will appreciate most about this thought-provoking book. - Lydia R. Otero Show less

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First Impressions

First Impressions

A Reader's Journey to Iconic Places of the American Southwest

by Weber, David J.

Book - 2022

The Southwest was a tableau of delight, confusion, and horror for some of the first Europeans to lay eyes on it, and they reached for comparisons they cou...Show more The Southwest was a tableau of delight, confusion, and horror for some of the first Europeans to lay eyes on it, and they reached for comparisons they could understand. The men on the expedition of García López de Cárdenas to the Grand Canyon in 1540 swore they saw boulders "bigger than the great tower at Seville." When Father Eusebio Kino first saw the ruins of Casa Grande near the Gila River in 1694, he speculated it was built by Aztecs and was one of the Seven Cities of Gold (it was neither). The late historian David J. Weber set out to collect and annotate some of these initial "outsider" views of fifteen iconic sites in the Southwest: Carlsbad Caverns, Acoma Pueblo, Canyon de Chelly, the city of Tucson, among others. His work was expanded and completed by the distinguished author and journalist William DeBuys. The collaboration is a memorable compendium of reactions to monuments that continue to beguile first-time visitors. - Tom Zoellner Show less

The Southwest was a tableau of delight, confusion, and horror for some of the first Europeans to lay eyes on it, and they reached for comparisons they cou...Show more The Southwest was a tableau of delight, confusion, and horror for some of the first Europeans to lay eyes on it, and they reached for comparisons they could understand. The men on the expedition of García López de Cárdenas to the Grand Canyon in 1540 swore they saw boulders "bigger than the great tower at Seville." When Father Eusebio Kino first saw the ruins of Casa Grande near the Gila River in 1694, he speculated it was built by Aztecs and was one of the Seven Cities of Gold (it was neither). The late historian David J. Weber set out to collect and annotate some of these initial "outsider" views of fifteen iconic sites in the Southwest: Carlsbad Caverns, Acoma Pueblo, Canyon de Chelly, the city of Tucson, among others. His work was expanded and completed by the distinguished author and journalist William DeBuys. The collaboration is a memorable compendium of reactions to monuments that continue to beguile first-time visitors. - Tom Zoellner Show less

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First & Wildest

First & Wildest

The Gila Wilderness at 100

Book - 2022

This readable diverse collection of essays, excerpts, poems, and testimonials to the first wilderness area ever created in the United States is timely and...Show more This readable diverse collection of essays, excerpts, poems, and testimonials to the first wilderness area ever created in the United States is timely and sorely needed as federal public lands become all the more crucial as carbon storers and refuges for wildlife in the face of climate change. From contemporary writers of the Southwest wild like Philip Connors and Pam Houston, to poets like Joy Harjo, and public servants like Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, First & Wildest offers a many-faceted look at the stunning landscapes and the natural and human history of the Gila. - Lydia Millet Show less

This readable diverse collection of essays, excerpts, poems, and testimonials to the first wilderness area ever created in the United States is timely and...Show more This readable diverse collection of essays, excerpts, poems, and testimonials to the first wilderness area ever created in the United States is timely and sorely needed as federal public lands become all the more crucial as carbon storers and refuges for wildlife in the face of climate change. From contemporary writers of the Southwest wild like Philip Connors and Pam Houston, to poets like Joy Harjo, and public servants like Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, First & Wildest offers a many-faceted look at the stunning landscapes and the natural and human history of the Gila. - Lydia Millet Show less

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Bad Mexicans

Bad Mexicans

Race, Empire, and Revolution in the Borderlands

by Hernandez, Kelly Lytle

Book - 2022

“Revolutions are hard to schedule.” True, but whenever a dictator takes power, a resistance is born. Consider Porfirio Díaz, the constitution-shredding pr...Show more “Revolutions are hard to schedule.” True, but whenever a dictator takes power, a resistance is born. Consider Porfirio Díaz, the constitution-shredding president of Mexico from 1888 to 1915. Against him, among many other leaders, stood the brilliant mercurial writer Ricardo Flores Magón, who, in exile with his brother Enrique, organized Latino- and workers'-rights movements in the Southwest while fomenting armed struggle in his homeland. In this vivid history, Kelly Lytle Hernández charts the rise and fall of the magonistas, her narrative embracing labor struggles, the Mexican Revolution, and anti-Hispanic violence and exclusionist hysteria along the border, with the US government funding counterrevolutionary Mexican forces and sending the brothers to Leavenworth. The cast of characters includes Mother Jones, Gregorio Cortez, William Randolph Hearst, and Pancho Villa, and Hernández's narrative is captivating. - Gregory McNamee Show less

“Revolutions are hard to schedule.” True, but whenever a dictator takes power, a resistance is born. Consider Porfirio Díaz, the constitution-shredding pr...Show more “Revolutions are hard to schedule.” True, but whenever a dictator takes power, a resistance is born. Consider Porfirio Díaz, the constitution-shredding president of Mexico from 1888 to 1915. Against him, among many other leaders, stood the brilliant mercurial writer Ricardo Flores Magón, who, in exile with his brother Enrique, organized Latino- and workers'-rights movements in the Southwest while fomenting armed struggle in his homeland. In this vivid history, Kelly Lytle Hernández charts the rise and fall of the magonistas, her narrative embracing labor struggles, the Mexican Revolution, and anti-Hispanic violence and exclusionist hysteria along the border, with the US government funding counterrevolutionary Mexican forces and sending the brothers to Leavenworth. The cast of characters includes Mother Jones, Gregorio Cortez, William Randolph Hearst, and Pancho Villa, and Hernández's narrative is captivating. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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The Colony

The Colony

Faith and Blood in A Promised Land

by Denton, Sally

Book - 2022

On November 4, 2019, a convoy of women and children was ambushed on a road in the Sierra Madre of northern Mexico. Nine died. Members of two communities f...Show more On November 4, 2019, a convoy of women and children was ambushed on a road in the Sierra Madre of northern Mexico. Nine died. Members of two communities founded by fugitive Mormon polygamists, the victims had seemingly fallen afoul of one of Mexico's warring cartels. But was it really the narcos? Denton's deeply researched investigation follows unlikely paths: some of the killers were Chinese-speaking. The two communities— one once led by a white supremacist dubbed "the Mormon Manson"—had clashed with each other and with their Mexican neighbors. Somehow the bizarre NXIVM sex cult got involved. Pressed to declare the cartels terrorists, the US government blinked even as Mexico braced for invasion after the binational people of La Mora and LeBaron communities lobbied for armed intervention. We'll likely never know the truth behind the murders, but Denton's narrative, as riveting as any noir novel, delivers tantalizing possibilities. - Gregory McNamee Show less

On November 4, 2019, a convoy of women and children was ambushed on a road in the Sierra Madre of northern Mexico. Nine died. Members of two communities f...Show more On November 4, 2019, a convoy of women and children was ambushed on a road in the Sierra Madre of northern Mexico. Nine died. Members of two communities founded by fugitive Mormon polygamists, the victims had seemingly fallen afoul of one of Mexico's warring cartels. But was it really the narcos? Denton's deeply researched investigation follows unlikely paths: some of the killers were Chinese-speaking. The two communities— one once led by a white supremacist dubbed "the Mormon Manson"—had clashed with each other and with their Mexican neighbors. Somehow the bizarre NXIVM sex cult got involved. Pressed to declare the cartels terrorists, the US government blinked even as Mexico braced for invasion after the binational people of La Mora and LeBaron communities lobbied for armed intervention. We'll likely never know the truth behind the murders, but Denton's narrative, as riveting as any noir novel, delivers tantalizing possibilities. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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The Marauders

The Marauders

Standing up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands

by Strickland, Patrick

Book - 2022

Vigilantes arise, the theory has it, when law enforcement is inadequate to protect property or personal interests. But what if the vigilantes, styling the...Show more Vigilantes arise, the theory has it, when law enforcement is inadequate to protect property or personal interests. But what if the vigilantes, styling themselves as anti-immigrant paramilitaries, are themselves criminals? That's just what happened when a grifter named Shawna Ford and her crew showed up in the little Arizona town of Arivaca. In their wake, a resident and his young daughter were dead. That didn't keep other militias from trying to set up shop, among them a firebrand who later figured in the January 6 coup attempt in Washington. Despite support for the vigilantes from the Trump White House—which, writes journalist Strickland in this searching account, "had breathed fresh life into a white supremacist movement that had been stagnant, although always present, always waiting, for years"—the people of Arivaca came together to make it clear to the outsiders that they weren't wanted. They still aren't. - Gregory McNamee Show less

Vigilantes arise, the theory has it, when law enforcement is inadequate to protect property or personal interests. But what if the vigilantes, styling the...Show more Vigilantes arise, the theory has it, when law enforcement is inadequate to protect property or personal interests. But what if the vigilantes, styling themselves as anti-immigrant paramilitaries, are themselves criminals? That's just what happened when a grifter named Shawna Ford and her crew showed up in the little Arizona town of Arivaca. In their wake, a resident and his young daughter were dead. That didn't keep other militias from trying to set up shop, among them a firebrand who later figured in the January 6 coup attempt in Washington. Despite support for the vigilantes from the Trump White House—which, writes journalist Strickland in this searching account, "had breathed fresh life into a white supremacist movement that had been stagnant, although always present, always waiting, for years"—the people of Arivaca came together to make it clear to the outsiders that they weren't wanted. They still aren't. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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Tucumcari Tonite!

Tucumcari Tonite!

A Story of Railroads, Route 66, and the Waning of A Western Town

by Stratton, David H.

Book - 2022

As a boy growing up in Tucumcari, New Mexico, in 1935, future history professor David Stratton was there when one of the most respected men in town steppe...Show more As a boy growing up in Tucumcari, New Mexico, in 1935, future history professor David Stratton was there when one of the most respected men in town stepped off the Rock Island Railroad to announce the building of a nearby dam. It was a signal event in the rise and fall of this village on the ragged edge of the plains that once boasted of 1,200 motel rooms, some of them in durable old Route 66 courts with glass lobbies and “100% refrigerated air.” The 1970s Tucumcari Tonite! billboard campaign, aimed at coaxing travelers off Interstate 40, gave way to a scruffier future as the town emptied out. Stratton's rigorous, detailed, and ultimately loving portrait brings to life local figures such as Blue Swallow Motel proprietor Arch Huggins, Tucumcari Daily News editor Paul Dodge, real estate visionary Alex Goldenberg, and the mesa that presides over the melancholy seat of Quay County. An apex work of a distinguished Western historian. - Tom Zoellner Show less

As a boy growing up in Tucumcari, New Mexico, in 1935, future history professor David Stratton was there when one of the most respected men in town steppe...Show more As a boy growing up in Tucumcari, New Mexico, in 1935, future history professor David Stratton was there when one of the most respected men in town stepped off the Rock Island Railroad to announce the building of a nearby dam. It was a signal event in the rise and fall of this village on the ragged edge of the plains that once boasted of 1,200 motel rooms, some of them in durable old Route 66 courts with glass lobbies and “100% refrigerated air.” The 1970s Tucumcari Tonite! billboard campaign, aimed at coaxing travelers off Interstate 40, gave way to a scruffier future as the town emptied out. Stratton's rigorous, detailed, and ultimately loving portrait brings to life local figures such as Blue Swallow Motel proprietor Arch Huggins, Tucumcari Daily News editor Paul Dodge, real estate visionary Alex Goldenberg, and the mesa that presides over the melancholy seat of Quay County. An apex work of a distinguished Western historian. - Tom Zoellner Show less

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Michael Moore

Michael Moore

Drawings

by Gold, Paul

Book - 2022

Artist Michael Moore, based in Oracle, Arizona, teams up with Paul Gold to produce this eye-catching catalog of fifty of Moore's photo-realistic charcoal ...Show more Artist Michael Moore, based in Oracle, Arizona, teams up with Paul Gold to produce this eye-catching catalog of fifty of Moore's photo-realistic charcoal drawings. He has long been known as a formidable Southern Arizona artist and art educator, and this collection gives us a cross section of his plein air work in charcoal from more than fifty years of observing the landscape and bringing it to us in unmatched detail. The book is divided into three sections, with Moore’s reminiscence of each location next to each drawing. The Montana section speaks to his love of water, its patterns and its effects on the land. The Arizona section features his love of the desert including Oracle’s rock piles and mountains, and the last section covers drawings from his wanderings in Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and elsewhere. As a non-artistic person, I marvel at the detail and beauty of each lovely and unique drawing. - Margie Trujillo-Farmer Show less

Artist Michael Moore, based in Oracle, Arizona, teams up with Paul Gold to produce this eye-catching catalog of fifty of Moore's photo-realistic charcoal ...Show more Artist Michael Moore, based in Oracle, Arizona, teams up with Paul Gold to produce this eye-catching catalog of fifty of Moore's photo-realistic charcoal drawings. He has long been known as a formidable Southern Arizona artist and art educator, and this collection gives us a cross section of his plein air work in charcoal from more than fifty years of observing the landscape and bringing it to us in unmatched detail. The book is divided into three sections, with Moore’s reminiscence of each location next to each drawing. The Montana section speaks to his love of water, its patterns and its effects on the land. The Arizona section features his love of the desert including Oracle’s rock piles and mountains, and the last section covers drawings from his wanderings in Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and elsewhere. As a non-artistic person, I marvel at the detail and beauty of each lovely and unique drawing. - Margie Trujillo-Farmer Show less

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Tracing Time

Tracing Time

Seasons of Rock Art on the Colorado Plateau

by Childs, Craig

Book - 2022

Spirals, "the shape of the wind." Starbursts. Hands, "markers of ancestry." Suns. Bighorn sheep, a prayer for a good hunt to come. The...Show more Spirals, "the shape of the wind." Starbursts. Hands, "markers of ancestry." Suns. Bighorn sheep, a prayer for a good hunt to come. The ancient vocabulary of rock art, of petroglyphs and pictographs, is remarkably similar around the world, and still we can read only a portion of the gallery.Is a piece of rock art a territorial claim, a boundary marker?A simple declaration that says, "I was here?" Craig Childs, that gifted interpreter of the Southwest and its deep past, has some ideas that he sets forth in Tracing Time, building on decades of study and reflection. One bit of good advice? To understand, slow down, take your time: "If you can take an hour at a rock art panel, take an hour. It may astonish you how they unpack themselves." Every explorer of the hidden canyons and cliff faces of the Colorado Plateau will want this book—and, insists Childs in encouragement, to discover "the book of the Colorado Plateau can be read." - Gregory McNamee Show less

Spirals, "the shape of the wind." Starbursts. Hands, "markers of ancestry." Suns. Bighorn sheep, a prayer for a good hunt to come. The...Show more Spirals, "the shape of the wind." Starbursts. Hands, "markers of ancestry." Suns. Bighorn sheep, a prayer for a good hunt to come. The ancient vocabulary of rock art, of petroglyphs and pictographs, is remarkably similar around the world, and still we can read only a portion of the gallery.Is a piece of rock art a territorial claim, a boundary marker?A simple declaration that says, "I was here?" Craig Childs, that gifted interpreter of the Southwest and its deep past, has some ideas that he sets forth in Tracing Time, building on decades of study and reflection. One bit of good advice? To understand, slow down, take your time: "If you can take an hour at a rock art panel, take an hour. It may astonish you how they unpack themselves." Every explorer of the hidden canyons and cliff faces of the Colorado Plateau will want this book—and, insists Childs in encouragement, to discover "the book of the Colorado Plateau can be read." - Gregory McNamee Show less

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The Mexican Chile Pepper Cookbook

The Mexican Chile Pepper Cookbook

The Soul of Mexican Home Cooking

by DeWitt, Dave

Book - 04/15/2022

Are you a chile lover? Chile, not chili. Dave DeWitt, food historian and one of the foremost authorities on chile peppers, spices, and spicy foods, and Jo...Show more Are you a chile lover? Chile, not chili. Dave DeWitt, food historian and one of the foremost authorities on chile peppers, spices, and spicy foods, and José C. Marmolejo, who operated Don Alfonso Foods in Austin, Texas, have co-written the ultimate chile book. The Mexican Chile Pepper Cookbook: The Soul of Mexican Home Cooking covers the early pre-Hispanic origins of chile in Mexico and its evolution over the centuries as the foremost ingredient in Mexican food, and, with more than 150 recipes, they provide ample proof of its versatility. The recipes for small bites, soups, tacos, tamales, meat dishes, and desserts are presented in an easy-to-follow fashion, with color photos to tempt you to try each one. The added section on side dishes with potatoes, mushrooms, and beans rounds out a couple meals. Enjoy the chile for its fiery and delightful flavors. - Margie Trujillo-Farmer Show less

Are you a chile lover? Chile, not chili. Dave DeWitt, food historian and one of the foremost authorities on chile peppers, spices, and spicy foods, and Jo...Show more Are you a chile lover? Chile, not chili. Dave DeWitt, food historian and one of the foremost authorities on chile peppers, spices, and spicy foods, and José C. Marmolejo, who operated Don Alfonso Foods in Austin, Texas, have co-written the ultimate chile book. The Mexican Chile Pepper Cookbook: The Soul of Mexican Home Cooking covers the early pre-Hispanic origins of chile in Mexico and its evolution over the centuries as the foremost ingredient in Mexican food, and, with more than 150 recipes, they provide ample proof of its versatility. The recipes for small bites, soups, tacos, tamales, meat dishes, and desserts are presented in an easy-to-follow fashion, with color photos to tempt you to try each one. The added section on side dishes with potatoes, mushrooms, and beans rounds out a couple meals. Enjoy the chile for its fiery and delightful flavors. - Margie Trujillo-Farmer Show less

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A Place of Thin Veil

A Place of Thin Veil

Life and Death in Gallup, New Mexico

by Rosebrough, Bob

Book - 2021

This book by Rosebrough, a former mayor of Gallup, is at once a crime story, political memoir, and engaging collection of Southwest lore. Gallup has a tr...Show more This book by Rosebrough, a former mayor of Gallup, is at once a crime story, political memoir, and engaging collection of Southwest lore. Gallup has a troubled and complicated past, from its role in the US war on the Navajos in the 1860s, to its status as an early-20th century coal-mining boom town (and site of violent labor strikes), to national notoriety for its civic efforts to combat alcoholism. Rosebrough is clear-eyed and engaging about Gallup's history and challenges, considering the town through the lens of a 1971 incident when a 19-year-old Navajo activist, Larry Casuse, kidnapped Mayor Emmett Garcia and was killed by police. Casuse's story comes to symbolize the many clashing forces in Gallup, from business interests to race to the old-line machine politics Rosebrough attempted to dismantle. The killing also provides a lingering mystery that makes compelling reading as Rosebrough explores the essence of Southwest life. - Mark Athitakis Show less

This book by Rosebrough, a former mayor of Gallup, is at once a crime story, political memoir, and engaging collection of Southwest lore. Gallup has a tr...Show more This book by Rosebrough, a former mayor of Gallup, is at once a crime story, political memoir, and engaging collection of Southwest lore. Gallup has a troubled and complicated past, from its role in the US war on the Navajos in the 1860s, to its status as an early-20th century coal-mining boom town (and site of violent labor strikes), to national notoriety for its civic efforts to combat alcoholism. Rosebrough is clear-eyed and engaging about Gallup's history and challenges, considering the town through the lens of a 1971 incident when a 19-year-old Navajo activist, Larry Casuse, kidnapped Mayor Emmett Garcia and was killed by police. Casuse's story comes to symbolize the many clashing forces in Gallup, from business interests to race to the old-line machine politics Rosebrough attempted to dismantle. The killing also provides a lingering mystery that makes compelling reading as Rosebrough explores the essence of Southwest life. - Mark Athitakis Show less

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Southwest Book of the Year

https://www.library.pima.gov/southwestbooks/

Web Resource

See this year's complete list, and find links to previous years! See this year's complete list, and find links to previous years! Show less

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