New Mexico Books

There are not many books that stay in print for thirty five years, especially one with such a narrow ambit, but this one deserves the honor.

Tony Hillerman has done an exceptional job of writing the Preface and the Introduction, and in collecting the eleven other essays contained in this excellent compilation. It's impossible to summarize the treasures; here are a few of the fragments I particularly enjoyed.

Tony Hillerman: "Pretentious as it sounds, and tough as it is to prove, there does seem to be something about New Mexico which not only attracts creative people but stimulates their creativity."

Oliver La Farge: "What is New Mexico, then? How to sum it up? It is a vast, harsh, poverty-stricken, varied, and beautiful land, a breeder of artists and warriors. It is the home, by birth or by passionate adoption, of a wildly assorted population which has shown itself capable of achieving homogeneity without sacrificing its diversity."

Winfield Townley Scott: "The breadth and height of the land, its huge self and its huge sky, strike you like a blow."

Ernie Pyle: "We like it here because we're on top of the world, in a way; and because we are not stifled and smothered and hemmed in by buildings and trees and traffic and people. We like it because the sky is so bright and you can see so much of it. And because out here you actually see the clouds and the stars and the storms, instead of just reading about them in the newspapers."

Oliver La Farge: "If you stay on, and if you keep quiet, the rhythms of drum, song, and dance, the endlessly changing formations of the lines of dancers, the very heat and dust, unite and take hold. You will realize slowly that what looked simple is complex, disciplined, sophisticated. You will forget yourself. The chances are then that you will go away with that same odd, empty, satisfied feeling which comes after absorbing any great work of art."

In a compelling way, this collection constitutes a "work of art", informed by an appreciation that D.H. Lawrence describes as "for greatness of beauty I have never experienced anything like New Mexico.... It had a splendid silent terror, and a vast far-and-wide magnificence which made it way beyond mere aesthetic appreciation."

If you have any interest in seeing New Mexico as a number of excellent writers do, this is the book for you.

Robert C. Ross 2008

This is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the state of New Mexico.

The nine authors who each tackle a chapter provide a unique and fascinating insight into life, and more specifically, women's life at Los Alamos. This book is a must read for those interested in the cultural and social aspects of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.

This book, originally compiled during the early postwar years at Los Alamos, consists of reminiscences, letters, and essays by representative women who devoted their lives to the Los Alamos experience during World War II. A unique description of the Manhattan Project, it remains one of those disarming pieces of historical literature that make history such an engrossing field to wander into.

This is a great book even you are not interested in the state of New Mexico... and if you are that much the better. Toby, a journalist for the Albuquerque Tribune, looks at ordinary people, landmarks, and places in a way that brings them alive. He choses interesting subjects and then lets you feel that you've been there and met them. Very objective, interesting, and accurate.

Toby Smith has an enviable ability to bring his subjects -- the people of New Mexico -- to life. My favorite story is "A Clean Sweep," but every one has something to enjoy. This is my second favorite book on New Mexico. My first is "New Mexico Odyssey," by the same author!

The best literate companion for a trip to the four corners area of US. It has selections from writings touching all areas where curiousity may take you as you travel through the deserts and canyons of the Anasazi.

Stories and Stone: Writing the Anasazi Homeland is a beautifully conceived, designed, and engaging work. The book sheds new light and understanding on the ancestral puebloan people. Reuben Ellis' forward and introductory essays to each excerpt engender a deeper appreciation and cultural awareness of the southwest and its history. Excerpts from Tony Hillerman, Wallace Stegner, Marietta Wetherill, Frank Waters, and Terry Tempest Williams were among my favorite--leaving me with a strong desire find and camp in a secluded canyon beneath the silent, ghostly ruins of the Anasazi

Of all the books my brother, Bill has written, I most love this one. SUNSTRUCK is about the area of the world on which he is an expert, a remote area of the Sonoran Desert, but more importantly, these are thought-provoking essays on life and living. Even if, like me, you don't usually read essays about the natural world I think you'll appreciate his writing style and world outlook. Bill shares anecdotes about the outdoor life, hiking, those he meets and gets to know in the desert (including la migra and people escaping the border patrol, mountain lions, rattlesnakes, bighorn sheep) that make the reader feel as if they are there with Bill at the moment of encounter.

So I hope you'll enjoy a book about a wondrous place in the world that few people visit, and even fewer understand: El Gran Desierto, the Devil's Highway. Yes, this review is written by the author's sister, but don't hold that against me. Given my proclivity to reading fiction, I might not have picked up this book if my brother hadn't written it. I am so glad I had the opportunity to enjoy his vivid use of language and to vicariously experience some of Bill Broyles' adventures in the desert.

It is officially called El Camino del Diablo-The Devil's Highway. It's also known by a variety of other names best left out of this review. It stretches for some 130 miles of desert from Sonoyta, in Mexico's state of Sonora, to Yuma, Arizona, on the Colorado River. There is precious little permanent water and ground temperatures can, and do, reach 150 degrees and more. It includes parts of two national monuments, a national wildlife refuge, and a gunnery range in Arizona not to mention various intities in Mexico. The are can be explored via foot or four-wheel drive vehicle. It can be done. It's done every year by experts and fools, lots of fools, legal and illegal. Many don't make it. It is a killer. If you are intrigued by scorpions, drug smugglers, sidewinders, bandits, illegal aliens, rattlesnakes, sand storms, unbearable heat, lack of water, a military gunnery range, and a host of other unbelievable challenges this is the trip for you. I don't know of any typical travel or guide book that will prepare you for this trip but this book comes as close as any to providing one with a sense of what to expect and when to go. It is probably the very best book ever published about this special place. The author and photographer have a knack of presenting a highly readable, visually accurate account of the dangers and beauty that await the visitor to a place noted author Charles Bowden says "...we finally get to face ourselves because we are alone with life itself." I have done this trip in a four-wheel drive vehicle and can only say be careful...very careful. This is a must read both for the armchair traveler and boots on the ground type.

This book just won a 2000-2001 Southwest Book Award.

Beneath each handmade quilt is a warm human being, and a fascinating story. Dorothy Zopf uncovers this material in her fascinating pastiche of oral histories. She pinpoints how what's available and what's needed combine with natural artistry to create lasting and functional treasures. The common thread that weaves this patchwork together is a texture of a place, of a time, and of a group of women who come alive in Zopf's deft hands. The stories and photos she has pieced together are not to be missed.

This great book for anyone interested in New Mexico history, state politics etc, etc, etc. Fabian is a great example of a statesman doing what is right despite the possible consequences.

After reading this biography you may be surprised to find that this is only a part of the story. But this part is well told. As I am from a family that has followed New Mexico doings for almost a century and have worked for Fabian and with David over the years I am not unbiased. However, if you had been at Fabian's side as he entered any gathering of the state's leaders over the last 30 years you could not fail to be impressed at the warm personal welcome and obvious regard for this man from the most important people of the time, and the barely masked discomfort of those who put personal gain ahead of the good of the State of New Mexico.

If you are new to New Mexico, read this book for a better understanding of how we got to where we are today. If you live or work in New Mexico, keep this book handy and refer to it when you need to know how to get things done. Older folks will find lots to prompt their recollections, but, if you are young, read it to find an example of how to overcome challenges and leave a legacy greater than yourself.

Two weeks ago I knew virtually nothing about Pueblo pottery. After a whirlwind tour of Santa Fe & its museums, notably the Indian Cultural Arts Museum, in which I paid special attention to the exhibits on ceramics: (1) Maria Martinez of San Ildefonso Pueblo, who revived the art of Pueblo pottery in the early 20th century virtually single-handedly; (2) styles of the different Pueblos, including San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Acoma, Laguna, Hopi, etc.--I kept coming back to the Santa Clara section, and was especially attracted to one particular piece to the extent that I had to take out my note pad and make a note of that artist's name, Tammy Garcia; I was going to remember her and look for more works by her for sure (silly me, to think I had "discovered" her); (3) Casas Grandes, an ancient culture that was "new" to me and my husband centered south of the Mexico-New Mexico border--actually would have been contemporary with the "ancestral Pueblo" (or "Anasazi") culture of the New Mexico/Colorado area.

We were to learn that there was currently a sculpture exhibit in the garden area outside the museum featuring Tammy Garcia's recent large-scale works in bronze, which are amazing, and I also found this book in the museum gift shop and decided to purchase it later on-line (so I wouldn't have to carry it home).

Meanwhile, the next day in the Wheelwright museum, some people were purchasing Santa Clara pottery in the gift shop, and I learned more there, including which gallery featured Tammy Garcia's work in Santa Fe (Blue Rain) and how famous she is, and how nice a person and how sweet her two little daughters are as well. I did get to go to the gallery, and enjoyed every piece of Tammy Garcia's art I had the joy to see in person, though I cannot afford to purchase any of it myself. Not sure why, but the lady in the gallery gave me a copy of this book, either because I so obviously really, really, truly loved Tammy's work, as opposed to being just interested in whether I thought it would appreciate in value or impress my friends, or whether she didn't believe I really didn't have the money and thought I was going to return to buy a lot of art or was representing somebody; I prefer to think the former, but would be amused to think the latter.

In any case, I am thrilled to have the book, because it is what I can afford to have of Tammy Garcia's work, and her pottery is beautiful; if you get a chance to see it in person, please do; it's wonderful. Most of the book is pottery, which is how she started out, and the photographs are gorgeous; in recent years, she is "experimenting" with other media, such as glass and bronze, partly by collaborating with other artists, which you will also learn about in the last part of the book. Not that I am an expert or anything, but I would say she is beyond experimenting; her glass sculptures are very nice, and the bronzes are spectacular; I would be very proud to have any of her works in my home, although it would outclass everything else I own, pretty much. I am glad I also got to pick up the gallery's exhibition catalog which has more of Tammy Garcia's bronzes in it; and when I was in Taos, I also visited the Blue Rain Gallery there and saw a few more of her works just to be really complete.

All the Pueblos have their own individual styles, and Santa Clara and San Ildefonso's are particularly lovely, with their red-on-red and black-on-black highly polished pots--reading the description of how this is accomplished in another museum exhibit on Maria Martinez, it's a very labor intensive process, that is actually apparently done by hand polishing for many, many hours, as opposed to applying some kind of glaze to make the pots shiny. San Ildefonso's pottery is characterized more by stylized, etched surface designs, largely contributed by Maria's husband Julian, such as feathers (as seen in the Mimbres culture, to the south of the Puebloans) and water serpents.

Santa Clara pottery is additionally unique because of its carved, relief designs, giving the surface a 3-D aspect. Tammy Garcia's carvings are particularly bold, deep, and sharply defined, as if she is not at all afraid of cutting right through the soft clay; it is amazing to think of her handling the unbaked pots while stacking them for the firing process--how thin and fragile the carved-out areas must be, how easy to tear, and how hard to make perfectly sharp edges on the soft clay. Well, that is why her piece stood out in the first exhibit I saw and why she commands top prices and is sold in an exclusive gallery, because of her genius.

There is a quote from her in the book saying she is criticized as being "non-traditional," whatever that means. I am still not an expert, so you may take whatever I say with as many grains of salt as you wish, but the Santa Clara Pueblo still claims her (though she was born in Los Angeles), and her pottery appears to be in the Santa Clara style, and the museum displays one of her pieces in the Santa Clara section. Her pottery technique and colors and style are of Santa Clara type, though I don't know enough about the particular designs to know if they are traditional. Obviously, when she began to experiment with other media such as glass and bronze, that is non-traditional, and nobody, least of all herself claims it to be traditional, although she uses Indian designs and motifs in her artwork--but it's clearly a modern art form.

I did get to the Santa Clara Pueblo, unfortunately apparently during siesta time, but found one shop open on the highway, and bought a small pot there (not of course one of Tammy's), but it's very lovely. I hope to return to New Mexico and the Pueblos and to see more of the pottery soon. In the meantime, I can enjoy my memories, my Santa Clara pot, and this book.

If you are an artist or appreciate art, you need this book in your home. The biographical information is intriguing, and in-depthly honest. The pottery itself is breathtaking. It's hard to describe the shapes, the stories, the colors....you just need to read it to believe it!

In "Taos Pueblo Painted Stories", Native American artist and Taos Pueblo resident Jonathan Warm Day draws from his childhood memories of Pueblo life in a visual presentation that follows the Taos Pueblo community through the fours seasons. The result is an impressive combination of imagery and story blended together to describe a culture of traditions and customs. "Taos Pueblo Painted Stories" is highly recommended for readers of all ages and would make a welcome, timeless, and enduringly popular addition to family, school and community library Native American collections

Anyone who ever has been to Taos Pueblo will feel a wave of nostalgia upon seeing Jonathan Warm Day's paintings - and those who haven't been there will want to go. Accompanied by an evocative text written by the artist, each painting depicts an aspect of pueblo life, following the calendar through the four seasons. Rich in color and texture, Jonathan's paintings draw the viewer into the scene. One can almost hear the stream as it ripples through the pueblo, smell the burning pinon, taste the hot bread fresh from a traditional kiva oven. This is the work of an artist deeply connected with his subject, and his affection for Taos Pueblo is apparent in every brush stroke, every word.

Very cool book. One of my favorite NM books. And I have alot.