Southwest Books of the Year 2024 for Adults

The Life Story of Archaeologist Marjorie F. Lambert

by Tisdale, Shelby J.

Book - 2023

Born in 1908, Marjorie F. Lambert became interested in archaeology when renowned scholar Edgar Lee Hewett gave a guest lecture on the ancient Southwest at...Show more Born in 1908, Marjorie F. Lambert became interested in archaeology when renowned scholar Edgar Lee Hewett gave a guest lecture on the ancient Southwest at her college. Impressed by her scholarly skills, Hewett invited her to attend graduate school at the University of New Mexico. Writes biographer Tisdale, she later said that “once she got her hands in the dirt, she never looked back.” She learned field skills at New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon, then excavated ancient pueblos throughout the region. Alas, she was a woman in a time when archaeology was a man’s domain; Hewett hired her as a curator at the Museum of New Mexico but remarked condescendingly, “I approve of lady curators, because they are such good housekeepers.” Lambert spent the rest of a long career overlooked and underpaid, though, as Tisdale writes in this welcome book, she did exemplary work that, among other things, connected the Southwest to ancient Mesoamerica. -Gregory McNamee Show less

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Heaven's Harsh Tableland

A New History of the Llano Estacado

by Carlson, Paul Howard

Book - 2023

Usually dismissed by outsiders as a dull shingle of feedlots, grasslands, shallow lakes, sleepy towns, and the occasional oil pumpjack, the “stark, sunbak...Show more Usually dismissed by outsiders as a dull shingle of feedlots, grasslands, shallow lakes, sleepy towns, and the occasional oil pumpjack, the “stark, sunbaked mesa” of the Llano Estacado that covers the Texas Panhandle and the flatlands of eastern New Mexico has needed a learned interpreter to explain why this overlooked corner of America deserves more than an uninterested glance out the window on Interstate 40. Paul H. Carlson takes us on a historical ride through this “horizontal, uniform and ruler-straight” area populated by Archaic age hunters, Spanish wanderers, Comanche diplomats, bison skinners, reckless sodbusters, cowboy poets, the awl bidness, tree planters, guitar heroes, corporate agri-lords, and dreamers of all kinds. While the tone can verge on the overly exuberant, this is a worthy narrative map of a seemingly timeless region, where change comes both slow and agonizingly fast. -Tom Zoellner Show less

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Picturing Sabino

A Photographic History of A Southwestern Canyon

by Lazaroff, David Wentworth

Book - 2023

David Lazaroff’s photographic history of Sabino Canyon is a delight that will resonate with generations of Tucsonans, who have returned to Sabino for its ...Show more David Lazaroff’s photographic history of Sabino Canyon is a delight that will resonate with generations of Tucsonans, who have returned to Sabino for its beauty and tranquility over the years, as well as visitors and newcomers to Southern Arizona. The photographs and text cover the history of the canyon from the use of the area by the Hohokam and the O’odham peoples to the visitors of today. Evidence of its earliest people can be found in grindstones, pottery fragments, and ancient agricultural fields. We are fortunate that plans to mine, dam, and “develop” the area were thwarted by delays, financial losses, and environmental concerns. Early Tucsonans traveled the 13 miles to Sabino Canyon by horse and buggy with picnic baskets in hand; now visitors can walk, bike, hike, and view the canyon by tram. That continuity shows the timelessness of Sabino Canyon, and it’s wonderful to learn more about our old friend in the Santa Catalina Mountains. -Margie Trujillo-Farmer Show less

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The Deserts of California

by Kaufmann, Obi

Book - 2023

The third in Kaufmann’s series of illustrated field atlases about California’s biomes (following earlier volumes on coasts and forests), this book explore...Show more The third in Kaufmann’s series of illustrated field atlases about California’s biomes (following earlier volumes on coasts and forests), this book explores the desert regions in the state’s southeast region, comprising the Great Basin, Mojave, Sonoran, and Colorado deserts. Desert dwellers know how vivid and complex the region’s fauna and flora can be, and Kaufmann’s lush and precise watercolors capture them beautifully. It’s a book designed to serve as a companion for your next hike, compact and with a durable cover, well organized by region with detailed information about the landscape’s trees, flowers, and assorted creatures. But it’s also a book that rewards any engaged reader, spelling out how the landscape has developed over millions of years and making a passionate case for its fragility and need for preservation. As Kaufmann asks, “Are we stealing from the future to support an economy whose sustainability is based on an illusion?” -Mark Athitakis Show less

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Under the Piñon Tree

Finding a Place in Pie Town

by Thompson, Jerry D.

eBook - 2023

Pie Town, New Mexico, is a wide spot on a narrow road not far from the Arizona border—but not close to anywhere. Jerry Thompson, a retired professor, spen...Show more Pie Town, New Mexico, is a wide spot on a narrow road not far from the Arizona border—but not close to anywhere. Jerry Thompson, a retired professor, spent his youth in that high country, and here he spins lively tales of its history and its inhabitants and visitors past and present, well known and otherwise. It was an enterprising gas station owner who named the place, thanks to a neighbor who taught him how to make apple pies that he sold to hungry travelers. It was a Farm Security Administration photographer who, during the Depression, put Pie Town on the map with his images of gaunt, hardworking people—farmers, shepherds, loggers— enjoying themselves at a Saturday night dance. And it was a hard-drinking ne’er-do-well who told Thompson about the hamlet’s secrets, some of them true. “Today, Pie Town is only a shell of its former self,” writes Thompson. Shell or no (and forgive the pun), you can still get a worthy slice of pie there. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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Sonoran Desert Journeys

Ecology and Evolution of Its Iconic Species

by Fleming, Theodore H.

Book - 2022

The Sonoran Desert is the wettest desert on the planet, thanks to the mediating influence of the Gulf of California. It is the most biodiverse desert as w...Show more The Sonoran Desert is the wettest desert on the planet, thanks to the mediating influence of the Gulf of California. It is the most biodiverse desert as well, harboring untold numbers of plant and animal species. As a final superlative, the Sonoran Desert has given birth to the finest body of writing—scientific, anthropological, literary—of any desert on Earth. Ecologist Fleming adds to that body with this well-considered, accessible work of scholarship, examining the evolutionary paths taken by some of the desert’s denizens and the sometimes surprising results those paths have yielded: unisexual whiptail lizards, for instance (“unisexual species are always very young, usually much less than one million years old”), and the likelihood that pit vipers such as rattlesnakes evolved specifically to eat warm-blooded prey. There’s much to learn on every page about bats, bobcats, packrats, and many other beings under our burning sun. -Gregory McNamee Show less

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Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals of Big Bend

by Collins, Cindi Sirois

Book - 2023

Is there anyone who isn’t fascinated by dinosaurs? And is there anyone who, having seen the place, isn’t enchanted by Big Bend National Park? This wellwri...Show more Is there anyone who isn’t fascinated by dinosaurs? And is there anyone who, having seen the place, isn’t enchanted by Big Bend National Park? This wellwritten, charmingly illustrated book combines a winning topic in a winning setting—and it’s not simply a marriage of convenience, for the Big Bend country of southwestern Texas and northern Coahuila has seen several species found nowhere else, such as Agujaceratops, “a ceratopsian dinosaur with a horned head, parrotlike beak, and heavy frill,” and Catactegenys, “a night lizard found only in the Aguja Formation of Terlingua.” Added to these endemics are critters fierce and mild, including giant crocodiles, the last common ancestor of today’s living cats, pint-sized camels, fearsome smilodons, and ancestral primates. The book includes notes on geology and the ancient environment of what was once the outlet of a giant inland sea, as well as pointers on where to see fossil formations. - Gregory McNamee Show less

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Bringing Home the Wild

A Riparian Garden in A Southwest City

by Stromberg, Juliet C.

Book - 2023

Arizona State University ecologist and botanist Juliet Stromberg’s intriguing, feisty personal account of tending—and living with—a sprawling garden outsi...Show more Arizona State University ecologist and botanist Juliet Stromberg’s intriguing, feisty personal account of tending—and living with—a sprawling garden outside Phoenix makes a charismatic read even for those who don’t have the time or space for a garden of their own. Stromberg speaks to plants as though they’re friends, bemoans the rise of the “plant-blindness” that keeps so many people from noticing the vibrant, verdant world that surrounds them, and gets amusingly belligerent on subjects like native-plant purists. She urges us toward messy, biodiverse gardens, against the use of toxic pesticides, and toward a deeper engagement with the green world, even in urban spaces. -Lydia Millet Show less

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Eating up Route 66

Foodways on America's Mother Road

by Baker, T. Lindsay

Book - 2022

Used as a wagon road in the 19th century and declared a federal highway in 1926, Route 66 stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles. Modern interstates have c...Show more Used as a wagon road in the 19th century and declared a federal highway in 1926, Route 66 stretches from Chicago to Los Angeles. Modern interstates have chewed up large portions of the highway, particularly back east, but in the Southwest much of the old road—graded dirt for decades until finally being paved—still exists. Baker’s book celebrates the food of the Mother Road, which gave birth not just to fast food chains such as McDonalds and Dairy Queen but also, back in the day, to countless mom-and-pop diners and roadside stands that offered regional treats for intrepid travelers. Some still serve: grab a giant steak at the Big Texan in Amarillo, a Frito pie in Glenrio, a cheese crisp in Holbrook, a burger at Delgadillo’s Snow Cap in Seligman, a taco at the Mitla Café in San Bernardino. While you’re eating, enjoy this nostalgia-laced, high-calorie tour of an iconic road that continues to draw devotees from all over the world. -Gregory McNamee Show less

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The Official Cookbook of the Chile Pepper Institute

by Bosland, Paul W.

Book - 2023

The NMSU Chile Pepper Institute’s Teaching Garden in Las Cruces inspired this detailed, fascinating, and delicious tribute to the chile pepper. Noted chil...Show more The NMSU Chile Pepper Institute’s Teaching Garden in Las Cruces inspired this detailed, fascinating, and delicious tribute to the chile pepper. Noted chile scholars Paul W. Bosland and Wendy V. Hamilton bring years of research and enthusiasm to this cookbook, which is organized according to the type of chile, from the Chile Piquín to the Trinidad Scorpion. Learn about how chile peppers were one of the first crops to be domesticated in this hemisphere around 10,000 BCE and how chiles are categorized by pod type and Scoville Heat Units, and then cook flavorful chile-centric recipes including Yellow Mole Chicken, Ancho-Orange Hot Fudge, Spicy Thai Noodles, and Avocado and Scrambled Egg Brunch Bowl. Carolyn Graham’s gorgeous photographs pay tribute to the beauty of the Southwest’s signature fruit. -Jenny Shank Show less

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