Southwest Books of the Year 2015: Top Picks

Edward Abbey, Wallace Stegner, and the American West

by Gessner, David

Book - 2015

David Gessner brings alive writers Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner in this personal, literary, road trip meditation on the state of the American West. AL...Show more David Gessner brings alive writers Edward Abbey and Wallace Stegner in this personal, literary, road trip meditation on the state of the American West. ALL THE WILD THAT REMAINS visits locations that influenced the work of Stegner and Abbey and revisits places that featured in Gessner’s own personal "rebirth" in the West. It’s essay-like, with Gessner introducing Stegner and Abbey and continuing his examination of them as he travels. —Christine Wald-Hopkins (Also selected by Bill Broyles, Bruce Dinges, Vicki Ann Duraine, and Helene Woodhams) Show less

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American Ghost

A Family's Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest

by Nordhaus, Hannah

Book - 2015

All families have their ghosts, but few are as fascinating and worth knowing as Nordhaus’s great-great-grandmother, Julia Staab, whose spirit is rumored t...Show more All families have their ghosts, but few are as fascinating and worth knowing as Nordhaus’s great-great-grandmother, Julia Staab, whose spirit is rumored to haunt her former home, today’s La Posada hotel in Santa Fe. Curious about her spectral ancestor, Nordhaus sifts through diaries, newspapers, correspondence, books, oral history—and even consults psychics—to expose and understand the tragedy that plagued her family, in both the Old World and the New. The result is an engrossing story of Jewish settlement in the Southwest and a moving account of how the past haunts us all.—Bruce Dinges (Also selected by Vicki Ann Duraine) Show less

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Chasing Arizona

One Man's Yearlong Obsession With the Grand Canyon State

by Lamberton, Ken

Book - 2015

In a boldly ambitious book, Ken Lamberton sets out to visit Arizona’s every county and Indian nation, see every state symbol, taste the state’s many ethni...Show more In a boldly ambitious book, Ken Lamberton sets out to visit Arizona’s every county and Indian nation, see every state symbol, taste the state’s many ethnic foods, and see the highest peaks and deepest valleys—all in one year. —Bill Broyles (Also selected by Helene Woodhams) Show less

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Detained and Deported

Stories of Immigrant Families Under Fire

by Regan, Margaret

Book - 2015

His face is pressed between rusting steel bars; her arms, from the other side, envelop both the bars and his shoulders and neck. The couple embracing on t...Show more His face is pressed between rusting steel bars; her arms, from the other side, envelop both the bars and his shoulders and neck. The couple embracing on the dust jacket of Margaret Regan’s new border book is nothing if not emblematic of today's border situation: needing to be together; divided by the wall. —Christine Wald-Hopkins (Also selected by Helene Woodhams) Show less

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Epitaph

A Novel of the O.K. Corral

by Russell, Mary Doria

Book - 2015

Russell breathes new life into an often-told story in this epic retelling of the 1881 face-off between the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons a...Show more Russell breathes new life into an often-told story in this epic retelling of the 1881 face-off between the Earp brothers, Doc Holliday, and the Clantons and McLaurys on a windswept street in Tombstone, AZ. —Bruce Dinges (Also selected by Vicki Ann Duraine) Drawing on prodigious reading in the historical literature, she re-envisions the principal characters as actors in a Greek tragedy drawn by passion and fate to a thirty-second confrontation that will haunt the remainder of their lives and spark a legend for the ages. Russell has written the novel of the OK Corral gunfight and a classic reimagining of the Old West. Show less

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The Jaguar's Children

by Vaillant, John

Book - 2015

You and your best friend Cesar have paid a smuggler to take you north across the dangerous Mexican border inside the empty tank of a water truck. The truc...Show more You and your best friend Cesar have paid a smuggler to take you north across the dangerous Mexican border inside the empty tank of a water truck. The truck breaks down, the smugglers flee with your money, and now you’re trapped inside. What do you do? The pulse-pounding plot takes many twists and turns as flashbacks and stream of consciousness leave us gasping for air. Author John Vaillant, who once lived in Oaxaca, fills this novel with cultural color and authenticity on top of a gripping and timely drama..—Bill Broyles (Also selected by Bruce Dinges, Vicki Ann Duraine, and Christine Wald-Hopkins) Show less

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Night at the Fiestas

Stories

by Quade, Kirstin Valdez

Book - 2015

Quade explores the treacherous terrain of the human heart in these remarkable stories set mostly in northern New Mexico. A broken man seeks redemption pla...Show more Quade explores the treacherous terrain of the human heart in these remarkable stories set mostly in northern New Mexico. A broken man seeks redemption playing the role of Jesus in a penitente ceremony. A small-town girl meets a mysterious artist at Santa Fe fiesta. A young man finds his reprobate father living with a snake and rats in his grandmother’s guest house. A college student confronts complicated feelings of envy and resentment on a visit home. —Bruce Dinges (Also selected by Christine Wald-Hopkins) Show less

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Sonoran Strange

by Phillips, Logan

Book - 2015

Tucson treasure, poet, and performer Logan Phillips penned a protest song, cautionary tale and love song in his tribute to the Sonoran Desert. Layere...Show more Tucson treasure, poet, and performer Logan Phillips penned a protest song, cautionary tale and love song in his tribute to the Sonoran Desert. Layered with early and contemporary voices, these powerful verses decry the march of “progress”—migrants who, after first conquering the indigenous peoples, continue to subjugate the landscape. Read this challenging and captivating debut poetry collection and gain a new appreciation for the tenacity of the fragile desert terrain; a must for Arizona residents and anyone crossing the state line. —Vicki Ann Duraine (Also selected by Bruce Dinges) Show less

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Unprocessed

My City-dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food

by Kimble, Megan

Book - 2015

Eating simply can be a complicated business. This is what Megan Kimball discovered when she opted to spend a year eating off the grid, bypassing all thin...Show more Eating simply can be a complicated business. This is what Megan Kimball discovered when she opted to spend a year eating off the grid, bypassing all things frozen, enriched or shrink-wrapped in favor of locally-sourced food that was additive, preservative and manipulation-free. UNPROCESSED is the record she kept as she relearned how to feed herself. Each chapter illustrates a step along her nutrition journey—from grinding her own wheat to slaughtering her own meat—and includes fascinating digressions into food history. —Helene Woodhams (Also selected by Bill Broyles) Show less

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The Water Knife

by Bacigalupi, Paolo

Book - 2015

The prognosis isn’t pretty for the Southwest when the taps run dry. People are literally dying of thirst in Bacigalupi’s dystopian Phoenix, where water is...Show more The prognosis isn’t pretty for the Southwest when the taps run dry. People are literally dying of thirst in Bacigalupi’s dystopian Phoenix, where water is wealth and powerful cartels fight to the death to control it. Bacigalupi’s thriller has its roots in the writings of science and environmental journalists, and is his “…first foray into writing science fiction for readers more used to science than fiction.” It will keep you turning pages – and maybe looking over your shoulder. —Helene Woodhams Also selected by Christine Wald-Hopkins Show less

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