Southwest Books of the Year 2022: Top Picks

How Darlene Arviso Helps A Thirsty Navajo Nation

by McGinty, Alice B.

Book - 2021

Cody, a Diné child, wakes up in the high desert on a blazing hot day only to find his glass is empty, the kitchen water bucket is empty, and the water bar...Show more Cody, a Diné child, wakes up in the high desert on a blazing hot day only to find his glass is empty, the kitchen water bucket is empty, and the water barrels are empty, “no gushing showers, no flushing toilets, no flowing sinks.” No running water. Covering over 27,000 square miles, the Navajo Nation is home to over 150,000 people—40% of whom depend on water delivery trucks in order to survive. Enter Darlene Arviso, school bus driver and Water Lady. Filling up the 3,500-gallon yellow tanker is just the beginning. Darlene brings smiles and sighs of relief to each of the families on her route. Maybe one day the Water Lady’s dream will come true and running water will flow in all reservation homes. McGinty’s moving story of our most important natural resource is brought to life by Begay’s dynamic watercolor and ink illustrations. Arviso gently reminds us of the blessings that are community and intergenerational support. -Mary Margaret Mercado Show less

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The Five Wounds

A Novel

by Quade, Kirstin Valdez

Book - 2021

Quade beautifully fulfills the promise of Night at the Fiestas, her stellar 2015 debut short-story collection, with this big-hearted novel of human frailt...Show more Quade beautifully fulfills the promise of Night at the Fiestas, her stellar 2015 debut short-story collection, with this big-hearted novel of human frailty and redemption, set in northern New Mexico. Amadeo Padilla, the deadbeat father and aspiring penitente from Night, faces new life challenges when his unmarried pregnant daughter moves in with him and his mother who, unbeknown to either, is suffering from an inoperable brain tumor. Quade writes with enormous empathy, wit, and profound understanding of the social, cultural, and economic maze that confronts many rural people of color, as well as the community and family bonds that provide a lifeline to those fortunate to recognize it. As the generous, flawed, fulsome characters in Quade’s mesmerizing book remind us, forgiveness is earned, not bestowed. -Bruce J. Dinges Show less

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The Low Desert

Gangster Stories

by Goldberg, Tod

Book - 2021

You gotta love at least one gangster in this collection, filled with hapless and ruthless bad guys: an unlucky lounge singer and petty crook who, after le...Show more You gotta love at least one gangster in this collection, filled with hapless and ruthless bad guys: an unlucky lounge singer and petty crook who, after learning you can’t trust a con, takes down his business partner only to discover you also can’t trust a clown; Goon Number Four, who enrolls in a DJ class after retiring from decades as a paid assassin; Dark Billy Cupertine, who grew up in The Family and had five kills before he was 17. In all there are 12 stories—some intertwined, some spattered with sly, dark humor—featuring street-weary and cynical guys looking for one last score to send them straight. While the action rolls along at a slow boil, the characters are the heart of this work. Goldberg wraps the reader in their crisp stories delivered with pitch-perfect and deadpan dialog written as much for the ear as the eye. “The world’s a shit can, Morris. I told you. Don’t go kicking the can.” -Vicki Ann Duraine Show less

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Send A Runner

A Navajo Honors the Long Walk

by Eskeets, Edison

Book - 2021

“We are still alive. I still speak Navajo. I still see Navajo. I still breathe Navajo. I still dance Navajo. We’re still here.” So said Edison Eskeets, 59...Show more “We are still alive. I still speak Navajo. I still see Navajo. I still breathe Navajo. I still dance Navajo. We’re still here.” So said Edison Eskeets, 59, when he set out from Canyon de Chelly and ran 330 miles to Santa Fe in 15 days. With every stride, Eskeets honored the thousands of Diné who died and the survivors who returned from the Long Walk 150 years ago. The detailed chronicle of the journey, and the preparation and fortitude displayed by Eskeets—a former All-American runner—makes for a riveting read; the context of historical events that lead to the eviction and incarceration of 10,000 Navajos, the portrayal of the continued violations to the land and people, and the imagery of the writing provides a powerful and poignant backdrop and tribute to the human spirit. “Edison starts running. He goes his first mile in his moccasins. He knows it is already done.” -Vicki Ann Duraine Show less

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The Diné Reader

An Anthology of Navajo Literature

Book - 2021

In 1902, U.S. Army surgeon Washington Matthews published a translation of the “Navajo Night Chant” insisting that Navajo song was just as worthy of being ...Show more In 1902, U.S. Army surgeon Washington Matthews published a translation of the “Navajo Night Chant” insisting that Navajo song was just as worthy of being called poetry as any Greek or Chinese lyric. The editors of this splendid collection of Diné writing proceed in that spirit. Their pages are full of delights and surprises, beginning with excerpts from Blackhorse Mitchell’s Miracle Hill, which appeared a year before N. Scott Momaday’s House Made of Dawn, the novel credited with starting the modern Native literary renaissance. Many roads here lead to Luci Tapahonso, an inspiration to generations of Diné poets; the editors’ literary genealogies (with Esther Belin citing Nia Francisco as the first Diné writer she read) and interviews with writers lend special value to the collection. The Diné Reader belongs in every collection of Native American letters, and every Native literature deserves an anthology so thoughtful and well constructed. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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The Forgotten Botanist

Sara Plummer Lemmon's Life of Science and Art

by Brown, Wynne L.

Book - 2021

Sarah Plummer Lemmon, gifted illustrator, scientist, and activist, led a life too remarkable to be forgotten; with this outstanding biography, the story o...Show more Sarah Plummer Lemmon, gifted illustrator, scientist, and activist, led a life too remarkable to be forgotten; with this outstanding biography, the story of Mount Lemmon’s namesake lives on. Ill health prompted Lemmon to leave New England for the west in 1870; there she found the love of her life in botanist J.G. Lemmon. They honeymooned in the Santa Catalina Mountains and roughed it in the Southwest, “botanizing,” discovering hundreds of new plant species, dodging Apaches, and socializing with John Muir and Clara Barton. In this illuminating, often surprising book, Lemmon’s endearing mixture of whimsey and pioneer spirit, and her passion for science are fully realized. Many of her exquisite botanical paintings were lost following San Francisco’s 1906 earthquake, but some survive and provide the book’s full-color illustrations, astounding in their fine detail and breathtakingly lovely. They round out a truly captivating read. -Helene Woodhams Show less

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Wildcat

The Untold Story of Pearl Hart, the Wild West's Most Notorious Woman Bandit

by Boessenecker, John

Book - 2021

In an eye-popping feat of historical sleuthing, Boessenecker drills through hardened layers of myth and legend to tell the even-more-fascinating true stor...Show more In an eye-popping feat of historical sleuthing, Boessenecker drills through hardened layers of myth and legend to tell the even-more-fascinating true story of Arizona’s “bandit queen.” Drawing on genealogical resources, public documents, archival materials, and far-flung newspapers across the United States and Canada, he resolves longstanding debates over Hart’s identity (née Lillie Davy), background, the stagecoach robbery that made her famous, and life after her release from Yuma Penitentiary. For most western biographers that would be enough, but Boessenecker goes a step further, casting revealing light on Hart’s devoted and talented (if often larcenous) siblings. The result is a nuanced portrait of a family struggling against abuse and poverty to make their way in late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century America. -Bruce J. Dinges Show less

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Driving While Brown

Sheriff Joe Arpaio Versus the Latino Resistance

by Sterling, Terry Greene

Book - 2021

Xenophobia famously defined the tenure of “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” But although Joe Arpaio became the face of racist policing and white supremacy in ...Show more Xenophobia famously defined the tenure of “America’s Toughest Sheriff.” But although Joe Arpaio became the face of racist policing and white supremacy in Arizona and provided a template for the Trump administration’s discriminatory immigration policies, the problem didn’t start with him. This superb chronicle follows Arizona’s volatile immigration history from its earliest days, through the incumbency of Arpaio and the Latino resistance movement that ultimately defeated him, ending with the criminal contempt of court conviction that earned Arpaio Donald Trump’s first pardon. The result of decades of boots-on-the-ground reporting by two nationally renowned journalists, this insightful volume offers a scrupulously researched and even-handed account that tells Arizona’s complicated immigration story from both sides of the policy divide. It is journalism at its best. -Helene Woodhams Show less

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Hear My Voice : the Testimonies of Children Detained at the Southern Border of the United States

Escucha Mi Voz : Los Testimonios De Niños Detenidos En La Frontera Sur De Los Estados Unidos

Book - 2021

What happens when a child is taken from their asylum-seeking parent? Crowded cages, little bodies huddled on cold cement floors, and no showers or toothpa...Show more What happens when a child is taken from their asylum-seeking parent? Crowded cages, little bodies huddled on cold cement floors, and no showers or toothpaste greet the separated children in the Clint Border Patrol Station in Texas. In voices filled with sorrow, pain, fear, and anger, 61 children from various detention centers share their stories in a word, a sentence, a stark narration. Seventeen artists ranging from Caldecott winner Yuyi Morales to Raúl Gonzalez III of the borderlands ¡Vamos! series create the indelible images framing the plaintive cries for resolution—or for any acknowledgement of their humanity. Each artist projects, in muted palettes, the senseless trauma experienced by these lost children ages 5-17. Whether in English or Spanish, each language resonates within the same two covers, bringing the reader to appreciate this memorable and impactful witness to the price of political upheaval. -Mary Margaret Mercado Show less

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Becoming Hopi

A History

Book - 2021

The product of fifteen years of collaborative research among archaeologists, anthropologists, and tribal consultants conducted under the auspices of the H...Show more The product of fifteen years of collaborative research among archaeologists, anthropologists, and tribal consultants conducted under the auspices of the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office, Becoming Hopi describes the dynamic evolution of society and culture from scattered precontact villages to large, complex, stable communities intimately connected to the land. Hopi resiliency, the authors convincingly argue, is a testament to the people’s adaptability to constant change and the expression of a lifeway that is always in the process of becoming. Appendices include site descriptions and maps, clan migration routes, and radiocarbon dates. To their credit, the contributors avoid academic jargon in an effort to make their conclusions accessible to a broad Native and non- Native audience. Fact-filled and lavishly illustrated, this landmark study sets an exemplary standard for future tribal histories. -Bruce Dinges Show less

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Treasured Legacies

Conservation, Art, Education, and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Musuem

Book - 2021

From the time the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) first opened its doors in 1952, it has offered high-quality public programming to promote its missio...Show more From the time the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum (ASDM) first opened its doors in 1952, it has offered high-quality public programming to promote its mission of conservation through education. With this lavishly-illustrated book, the authors, who are all associated with the museum, look back on some of these offerings, including Hal Gras’ Desert Ark and Raptor Free Flight, and on the personalities—human, four-footed, feathered, and slithery—that have imbued Desert Museum programming with life and filled visitors with wonder. Replete with historic back-story, entertaining anecdotes, and the stunning scratchboard wildlife illustrations by ASDM Art Institute founder Priscilla Baldwin, this book is a joy to wander through and return to often, and is a must-read for anyone whose memories of Tucson include unforgettable times spent at the Desert Museum. It truly is a treasure. -Helene Woodhams Show less

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Last Chance Texaco

Chronicles of An American Troubadour

by Jones, Rickie Lee

Book - 2021

1960s Phoenix through the eyes of a preteen misfit sets the stage for Jones’s unflinching memoir of her evolution from streetwise delinquent to jazz and p...Show more 1960s Phoenix through the eyes of a preteen misfit sets the stage for Jones’s unflinching memoir of her evolution from streetwise delinquent to jazz and pop icon. Shunted from house to house and from school to school by her vagabond parents, by the time she was seventeen, Jones had stolen a car, served time in juvenile detention, lived hand-to-mouth in a hippie commune, and hitchhiked from the Pacific Northwest to Canada and back. Drawn to the Southern California music scene, she formed attachments with Tom Waits, Doctor John, and others who nurtured her musical talents. Whether grappling with fame, lost love, or addiction, Jones underscores the importance of remaining her own woman. She closes with her father’s funeral in Bisbee, Arizona, followed by a shout out to magic in life and a tip of her beret to family, who “will break your heart either way.” You don’t have to be a music fan to appreciate this book. -Bruce Dinges Show less

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Letters to Helen From Julian Hayden

by Hayden, Julian D.

Book - 2020

When Helen Pendleton Hayden passed away in 1976, her grieving husband of 42 years found solace in writing her letters. For renowned Southwest archaeologis...Show more When Helen Pendleton Hayden passed away in 1976, her grieving husband of 42 years found solace in writing her letters. For renowned Southwest archaeologist Julian Hayden, the act was a balm to his soul; he wrote to Helen nearly every day until his own passing, 20 years later. Part desert diary and part love song, his letters speak of the comforting ordinariness of life: news of friends, his business, desert backyard wildlife, and things they might have talked about at day’s end. But they also eloquently convey the ache of her absence and his longing to be with her, pure poetry in his heartfelt words. The letters were selected from nearly 7,000 pages Julian left behind; helpful annotations provide context, as does as an excerpt from his memoir, Field Man, recounting the couple’s whirlwind romance and their honeymoon by the Gila River in an old Model T. Linger over this book; it reads like a loving embrace. -Helene Woodhams Show less

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Visit Southwest Books of the Year to see Top Picks and all Panelists' Picks from this year and past years. Visit Southwest Books of the Year to see Top Picks and all Panelists' Picks from this year and past years. Show less

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