Southwest Books of the Year 2017: Bill Broyles' Picks

Ten Years of Recovery From the Willow Fire

by Alcock, John

Book - 2017

How does a mountain restore itself following a raging forest fire? Where the Willow Fire burned thousands of acres in the Mazatzal Mountains of central Ar...Show more How does a mountain restore itself following a raging forest fire? Where the Willow Fire burned thousands of acres in the Mazatzal Mountains of central Arizona in 2004, John Alcock invites us along as he monitors and records the serial return of lupine and damselflies, grasshoppers and garter snakes, oak and elk. With the practiced eye of a college professor, he stops to examine a squad of caterpillars feeding together on one branch and wonders whether they have a toxic defense against hungry birds or if they find safety in numbers. He points out that barrel cacti secrete nectar sugar for ants, so they will guard against cactus-eating insects. We see Centris bees wrestling over females. Each fascinating chapter reveals how life regains its foothold on the scorched slopes. Faced with fire and changing climate, Alcock consoles us to take a hike “somewhere, anywhere” and appreciate the forest as it evolves. Show less

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After the Wildfire

Ten Years of Recovery From the Willow Fire

by Alcock, John

eBook - 2017

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A Land Apart

The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century

by Burke, Flannery

Book - 2017

When friends from afar come to visit our Southwest, what should we show them? Scenic places, certainly, but what about the culture? Navajo rugs or jewelry...Show more When friends from afar come to visit our Southwest, what should we show them? Scenic places, certainly, but what about the culture? Navajo rugs or jewelry? The UFO site in New Mexico? Low-rider cars on the streets of Tucson? Dams and campuses, museums and missions? And how did all of these pieces become our Southwest, anyway? For example, tourism brought jobs to some of the hottest and driest places, but that bringing also required constructing stories, sometimes mythical, about those places. In A Land Apart, cultural historian Flannery Burke explains how the Southwest became the Southwest and why Arizona and New Mexico seem so different. She dissects the reasons that the defense industry boomed here, delves into bedeviling problems like water rights, explores the influences of Native Nation and Mexican cultures, and weaves literature and arts into a satisfying discussion of the fascinating history behind those landmarks and highlights of our culture. Show less

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A Land Apart

The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century

by Burke, Flannery

eBook - 2017

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Ordered West

The Civil War Exploits of Charles A. Curtis

by Curtis, Charles A.

Book - 2017

What it was like to be a soldier on the American frontier 150 years ago? In this richly told story, quartermaster Charles Curtis, who served in Arizona an...Show more What it was like to be a soldier on the American frontier 150 years ago? In this richly told story, quartermaster Charles Curtis, who served in Arizona and New Mexico from 1862-1865, brings us life as it was: a mix of humor, hard work, simple pleasures, and occasional sadness. Curtis met Kit Carson, powwowed with Navajo survivors of the Long Walk, danced with señoritas in Santa Fe, and chided Elliott Coues for his vanity. Whether describing the rooms of a Pueblo Indian village, leading a ten-man wagon detail to buy potatoes, or dining with Hispanics and Native Americans, Curtis writes with compassion. His vignettes are great fun: a careless soldier puts his bedroll atop an ant hill; a retired cavalry horse named Two Bits proves to be not just a winner but a hero, and Curtis himself is nearly arrested for unwittingly “stealing” acequia water to irrigate the camp’s garden. Show less

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Why the Raven Calls the Canyon

Off the Grid in Big Bend Country

by Klepper, E. Dan

Book - 2017

When a keen-eyed photographer goes to live for seven years on a hardscrabble horse-and-mule ranch along the Rio Grande west of Big Bend, TX, his camera ca...Show more When a keen-eyed photographer goes to live for seven years on a hardscrabble horse-and-mule ranch along the Rio Grande west of Big Bend, TX, his camera captures the character of the place while he discovers his own. Dan Klepper finds joy in ranch work, fixing the water lines, playing with the dogs, or soaking in a stock tank or hot spring. Life is simpler and the joys quenching, with even the act of getting a haircut leading to a photo series that both entertains and discloses. Horses, flashfloods, hikes, chores, friends, dogs, and even a hog, are all here. He portrays ferocious storms, towering rock walls, hidden tinajas, and the fury of a river in flood, and the total mix is exhilarating. My many favorites include "200 Moons," "Hailstones," "Big Hill, "Twenty-four Hours," and "Dot," an endearing puppy. Every page is a treat. Klepper maintains a gallery in Marathon, TX. Show less

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Mark Klett

El Camino Del Diablo

by Klett, Mark

Book - 2016

History meets fine art in photographer Mark Klett’s grand El Camino del Diablo. In the summer of 1861, mining engineer Raphael Pumpelly fled his camp sout...Show more History meets fine art in photographer Mark Klett’s grand El Camino del Diablo. In the summer of 1861, mining engineer Raphael Pumpelly fled his camp south of Tucson and high-tailed it to California along the US-Mexican border. Pursued by bandits, he barely escaped with his life, but did leave us a dramatic account of his escape. One hundred and fifty years later, Regents Professor Mark Klett re-opened that book and added photographs, giving us a three-part edition: a facsimile of Pumpelly’s account, Klett’s 66 double-page photographs of the stark landscape along Pumpelly’s route, and a back pocket stuffed with an accordion-fold display of saguaro cactus portraits. Klett admirably fulfills his goal to compare the present-day experience with Pumpelly’s, and steer us to "the compelling intersection of transience, potential danger, and constant beauty." Whether your aim is history, desert, or appreciation of fine photographs, this aesthetic multiplex is for you. Show less