New Mexico Books

The Bugman On Bugs: Understanding Household Pests And The Environment presents the practical wisdom of a board certified entomologist concerning dealing with common pests such as cockroaches, ants, flies, spiders, fleas, bed bugs, termites, and more. A simple, basic guide for the lay reader with bug problems, The Bugman On Bugs does not go into excessive detail but simply offers solid advice, including tips when a bug problem can be dealt with on one's own and when one should call a professional. Also highly recommend is the previous volume in this series, "Ask the Bugman."

As a sixth grader I know a lot about the Holocaust I think Hittler was an evil man.He made the Nazis put Jews, Gipseys, exc.. in camps.This gives you lots of information.The name is "The resistance world war 2.

In Pure Instinct, discoverer/originator, Kathy Kolbe provides invaluable insight into our natural tendencies and helps us to understand how to get into the right type of job, make our companies more productive and better places to work in the process. The book discusses ways to reduce stress and strain at work and in our personal lives too. An excellent communication tool that helps us make the best of our natural talents.

The writings of Diego de Vargas, commander of the re-conquest of New Mexico after 15 years of terror following the revolt of 1680 are now available in English. This book is a must for anyone interested in New Mexico history. This is history straight from the source through the eyes of the man who created the history. I consider this to be the best of the De Vargas reads.

This is a unique coming-of-age story, set in the Badlands well before the arrival of white settlers. Little Bear is a native American adolescent. He has won admiration for courage and skill in hunting, but his distaste for war against other tribes has made him somewhat of a misfit. As a rite of passage into adulthood, he must spend about two weeks alone in the wilds, eating only what he can kill or find. During this retreat, he falls in the dark into a canyon. The "two weeks" could be much shorter or longer, depending on whether he can survive or ever get out. I confess I am not reviewing the audio cassette, but the book which I read in 1958, then 1980, then 1994. I was spellbound when I first read it, and years later the magic was still there. The word pictures are superb. Little Bear's encounters with bison and a mountain lion become very suspenseful. I really hope this book can become available to the public in a more affordable format. It is nothing like SHANE, Schaefer's most famous story, which I found enjoyable though somewhat trite. But I found CANYON to be not only Schaefer's best, but one of the best by any author. This nontraditional Western would be cherished by those who love nature and nonviolence.

I'm a trained archaeologist and worked in the field for many years. I learned much from this book, including some things that I had never even imagined. Well done -- easy to read.

Author James Brooks has turned out a fascinating book about slavery among American Indians and the Spanish colonists of New Mexico. We see through his eyes the cultural synthesis in New Mexico that took place over a period of three centuries among Indian tribes and Spanish colonists.

Slavery worked in many ways in the borderlands. The Indians vied among themselves for captives that could be traded among themselves, put to work, or adopted into the tribe. Spanish captured Indians and made of them family members, slaves, or soldiers. Indians captured Spaniards with the same aim. The result was an ethnic stew.

What makes this book much better than the average scholarly endeavor is Brook's use of primary sources to come up with precise information and fascinating stories of individuals impacted by slavery. For example, we often hear authors talk in generalities about the Comanches as a warlike, raiding nation. Brooks quantifies their impact. He tells us that from 1771 to 1776 that Indians, mainly Comanches, killed 1,674 people in Mexico and stole 68,256 head of livestock. That gives us a vivid picture of the scope and scale of Comanche depredations and a reason to believe that the terror they inspired was not exaggerated. (He also includes extensive footnotes so one could check the sources of his information.)

Moreover, Brooks tells us about the fate of individuals swept up in Comanche raids. One Mexican boy, for example, was captured by the Comanches when he was eight, enslaved, and then sold to the Wichita when he was twenty. He then became an employee of the Spanish to deal with Indians on their borders and when last seen by history had amicably rejoined his Comanche enslavers and was enroute to New Mexico to visit his parents from whom he had been stolen twenty years before. Another woman abducted by Comanches in New Mexico ended up as a French matron in St. Louis. The ethnic stew boils and bubbles.

Brooks also looks at the internal New Mexican society and the relations among its social classes, including slaves, descendants of slaves, Christianized Indians, mestizos, and Spanish grandees. He examines slavery among the Navajo and describes their pastoral economy, as well as that developed by the New Mexicans. Along the way he looks into tidbits of Pawnee religious ceremonies, Kiowa society, the Ute and Apache, and the epidemics of European diseases that brought the high-flying Comanches down to earth.

Brooks concludes his book with a look at the coming of the Americans to New Mexico in the nineteenth century, the society they found, and their impact. He tells briefly a story about an American woman who, in 1909, found that she had inherited 32 Ute slaves -- perhaps the last slaves in the United States.

Smallchief

We speak Spanish and want our children to learn, so we purchased this book. The story is fun and the pictures are nice. We read it to them in Spanish, and they read it in English, as it has both languages. Our hopes are that when they become familiar with the story, they will read it in Spanish too!

If you're a caver or just interested in caving, this book is a lot of fun. The Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico are home to some of the world's most beautiful caves, including Carlsbad Caverns and Lechuguilla Cave. This book describes Robert Nymeyer's adventures and misadventures with his buddies in the high Guadalupe caves. The descriptions of early vertical caving techniques using lariats and the photographs taken with flash powder are priceless examples of what folks will do when bitten by the exploration bug.

Mention Carlsbad, and many people immediately think of caverns and retirees. But there is a lot more to the place. In 32 stand-alone, one-page essays, each illustrated with two full-color photographs, the author examines the landforms, socio-economic activities, the residents and the history. Local photographers provide the spectacular view of area sights. The book is an effective, positive celebration of Carlsbad, and truly delivers a sense of what life is like for folks in this area of southeastern New Mexico. -- A review by Charles Bennett, New Mexico Magazine