New Mexico Books

Reviewed by Kelli Glesige for Reader Views (9/06)

Flora Adams is a woman of forty plus years who is returning home to west Texas from Albuquerque to visit her Aunt Cora in Luddock. It's been twenty years since Flora has been home, but she hopes a visit will help her recover from recent breast cancer surgery and the ravages of the chemotherapy treatments. Flora also hopes the time away will help her failing marriage of twenty years to husband Jeff.

While visiting her old hometown, Flora remembers all the fond childhood memories of her mother and grandmother as they put together lovely quilts for the family to enjoy, creating lasting treasures to snuggle and keep warm with. Flora remembers how the intricate patterns of special blocks were always special to behold such as the Five Point Star and the Flower Basket. With the leftover scraps, the odd shaped pieces could be used as a Crazy Quilt, and that is what Flora feels she's made of her life--not a lovely and stitch perfect block, but a crazy quilt.

While visiting the exact spot of her old home, Flora meets Mac, a stubborn old man who teaches Flora some important lessons of life. Flora ends up extending her visit and moving in with Mac. Flora reacquaints herself with old friends, even old boyfriend, James Willie, who is now the town sheriff. Mac teaches Flora to live for today and to take what your soul needs, for tomorrow may be too late. Flora tells Mac about her cancer and her fears of death. Flora and Mac become good friends and learn just how much they have in common. They soon realize they both need each other in more ways than they know. Even Shorty the dog is a loyal and needed companion in this unique partnership.

Because of troubles at home, Mac's granddaughter Jillian comes to live with Mac and Flora. It soon becomes apparent the know-it-all punk rock front that Jillian wears is just that, a front. She too is running away from something and has found solace in the lifestyle Mac leads. Jillian loves the home she now shares in Texas, especially when she meets Scott, another teen who lives nearby.

I loved everything about Crazy Quilt from the first page to the last. It is all about living and caring about what is most important in life. Crazy Quilt is about finding out who you are, what you really want out of life, and what makes you happy. Ultimately, we all desire a fulfilling life without regrets.

Women in their middle years or those touched by cancer are the target audience, for they will readily relate to Flora and her fears. Those dealing with chemo, a troubling marriage, menopause, teens, or sick and aging loved ones should also relate. Quilt lovers will enjoy the novel too.

Crazy Quilt is a lovely story with a memorable and heartwarming message you will not soon forget. The characters are interesting and their personalities are well developed. The underlying theme of quilts just pulls it together so nicely. I strongly recommend reading this superb book. Thirty percent of the author's royalties from the book goes to the University of New Mexico Cancer Research and Treatment Center for cancer research.

Crazy Quilt by Paula Paul is the entertaining, original and engaging story of Flora Adams, a cancer patient who, in the midst of a recuperation leave, stumbles upon an old man who becomes both an annoyance and an infatuation to her. Readers will be delighted as author and former journalist Paula Paul's intricate plot and an amusing spectra of characters ranging from Jillian, a young punk-rocker, to James Willie, the Texas town's sheriff. Enthusiastically recommended reading, Crazy Quilt is superbly crafted, fun and entertaining novel.

Flora Adams' cancer treatment is over. Minus a breast and hair, she refuses to face the fear that her tumor might return. Her husband offers no support, but she cannot accept that her disfigurment is adding more stress to her already shaky marriage. So she runs from her Albuquerque home, supposedly to visit an aunt in Lubbock, Texas. In reality Flora isn't sure where she's going. She finds herself in Muleshoe, a town near the New Mexico border. There, for reasons she can't quite understand, she searches out the old ranch house where she grew up. The house isn't there. Instead, a crusty old man named Mac inhabits a shack on the land, now owned by a large corporation. In fact, as Flora arrives, Harley, a man in the company's employ, tries to drive her and Mac away. Drawn to Mac, Flora begins to protect him. Sooin, she meets old friends, including a high school flame, James Willy, now the local sheriff. Then comes Jillian, Mac's great granddaughter cast off by her own mother.

The unlikely group has a strange effect on Flora, her self confidence, her marriage, and her fear. Mac becomes an example for her to follow in her own life. Jillian, James Willy, and Mac's neighbors, Lucy, Juan, and baby Brittany add their support. Like a quilt frame, they let Flora lay out her life and play with its possibilities, as a quilter would experiment with a design.

In Crazy Quilt, Paula Paul offers a wonderful array of small town characters who have a rich existance on the beautiful high plains of west Texas. They draw Flora into this life. She feels herself reconnecting with her past. Using the metaphor of a quilt, the author cleverly weaves Flora's history into the present, as she recalls her mother and grandmother piecing fabrics together to make the bed coverings. The recollections bring Flora a healthy dose of wisdom, and understanding of herself and her situation.

As she gets more involved with her new friends, Flora realizes that they, too, have problems they must solve. Mac has several big ones. So does Jillian. Helping them sort through their messes, leads her to some interesting perspectives on her own.

Crazy Quilt is a story of growth, and the discovery that hope pops up in unlikely places. While tackling the serious subject of a breaat cancer patient's feelings after treatment, Crazy Quilt never gets maudlin or syrupy. Paula Paul has found a good balance of humor, pathos, reality, memory, sensuality, and human spirit to make her story both believable and uplifting.

Natural spirit-filled poetry accompanied by stunning colourful artworks.
I hear the book is out of print so I would recommend getting a copy on Amazon as it is a collectable to pass down with meaning in your family.
If you have interest, respect, or intregue like the Native American Indian culture for nature, spirit, the earth, and heartfelt connections to all, then this is a beautiful book that you will appreciate. A special find.

I first read Nancy Wood's Dancing Moons after visiting Santa Fe and seeing Frank Howell's gallery. The words and thoughts that Wood has shared with the reader are thoughtful and energising. I find myself going back to her writings for guidance often,for myself and to share with friends and loved ones. I am appreciative of the emotions she has shared with us. Her talents as an expressive writer are world class.

I have never quite understood why Nancy Wood's poetry collections are classified as "young adult". Her deep wisdom and clarity are more likely to be more fully appreciated by adults. This is a wonderful gift book for transitions times: graduations, marriage, death of a loved one, etc. Her poems are liking looking deep into a Medicine Lake where one sees the very fabric of life and all the its intricate connections. Frank Howell's paintings will fill you with awe and haunt your dreams.

Rubén Cobos' short but monumental "Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish" (1983) was a classic the day it was printed. If you have any interest in the Spanish-speaking cultures of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, this book is a great way to learn something about the dialect without plunging into a difficult linguistic study.

Like Samuel Johnson's dictionary, Cobos's is a book you can sit down and read enjoyably. The entries are not just translations of Spanish words into English. Cobos traces their origin and (in most cases) illustrates their meaning by including them in sample sentences. For instance, "murre" (in standard Spanish, "muy"): "Esta muchita es murre gente" ('This child is very friendly'). Additionally, many words are also explained by the use of proverbs and folk-poems.

Cobos also explains the cultural signficance of about a third of the words in the dictionary. For example, "pitarrilla": "Pitarrilla, f. [Obviously, the dictionary has great value not only (nor even primarily) for the linguist, but for the anthropologist and historian, as well. It is completely free of technical linguistic terminology and accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of standard Spanish. (I might emphasize that the book is a guide to local usage only and does not include standard Spanish words.) Although the pronunciation of the New Mexico/southern Colorado dialect is relatively standard, Cobos has taken care to indicate divergences where they exist (e.g., "raices" is pronounced "rái-ces", not "ra-íces"). He includes a short historical and linguistic introduction, tracing the four-hundred year evolution of the dialect. Finally, for a kick, at the start of each alphabetical section you'll find a short proverb -- "P. 'Pa pendejo no se necesita mestro' (To be a fool one needs no school)."

A valuable book that sells for a good price. Five stars.

For years, my wife and I had heard people in northern New Mexico speaking Spanish as described in this book, and we believed they were just not educated properly in correct Spanish grammar and vocabulary. Then I found this book. All the sudden, all the odd pronunciations, verb conjugations and vocabulary made sense. This Spanish evolved almost on its own since the 1500's!

My wife, who is from Oaxaca, Mexico, constantly looks to me to interpret for her when we do business with Northern New Mexicans (who refer to themselves as "Españoles", not Hispanics)who speak this dialect of Spanish. Some time ago, we bought furniture from a sales-lady who referred to herself as an "Española". My wife was happy to be attended to in her native tongue, but when the sales lady asked for my wife's "licencia para arrear", I could tell she didn't have a clue. Thanks to this book, I was able to properly interpret it as "drivers license" (not "marriage license" as my wife was inclined to believe).

From a practical standpoint, it's probably not of much use anywhere else in the world, but if you come to northern New Mexico, and you want to converse with the native Spanish-speakers, you'd better come armed with this book!

I recently wrote a book about the history of the towns of New Mexico's Sandia Mountains, and during that time I probably picked this book up two or three times every day.
It is invaluable--loaded with obscure words that no normal Spanish-English dictionary would ever have. It's well-structured, nicely organized, clearly printed, thorough, and as complete as you would ever need it to be.
In its way, it's a sort of linguistic and cultural history of New Mexico and southern Colorado, disguised as a dictionary. Leaf through it and glance at a few words and definitions, and you can't help but learn fascinating things about the people and the places that produced these terms.
If you are a New Mexico student or scholar or writer, you really NEED to have this book. Your work will be incomplete without it.

This is a great book to help children get interested in history. I usually find history boring, but it was fun to read about characters my own age and how their lives were! Culca is young girl who goes on many adventures around the world! I would recommend his book to anyone who likes to read about exciting adventures!

The Diving Bell is an interesting and exciting book written by Todd Strasser. It takes place in a mexican village in the 1500's. It is about a brave and determined young girl named Culca, and her brother Tulone - a courageous young diver. He dives down and gets oysters to get pearls to sell for his family.
It all begins when the Spaniards come and kidnapp all the young men in the village and take them to a ship wreck to dive for treasure. Culca is determined to save her brother and his friends, and she would risk her life to do it. Will she accomplish it? Will she save her people? Read the diving Bell and you will find out!
I've read this book so many times that the cover is falling off. It is adventurous and daring. So if you are a person who likes suspensful stories, read The Diving Bell!

HI, to all the people that have not read this book it is the time to do it!I read a chapter, and then put it down, then I had to pick it back up and read it! I think that Todd should make another book about the main character, Culca. He should make it about her life and about things that happen to her as she goes on with her life. I would go out and get it the day it came out. People may think it is a kids book but,I think anyone could read it if they wanted to read it.I am 10 yr. I love big 300 page books like that for adults. But this book is for anyone to read. I think Culca was so brave for what she did and how far she went to get her brother.I love all the Todd Strasser books! I love the book Help I'm Trapped In My Camp Counselors Body. It is in way two diff. worlds from the book The Diving Bell. I also can't get over how she said she would dive instead of her brother. How when she was climbing up the rope it's like I felt her pain too!So I would get the book the day it came out if he made another one ! Well hope I encouraged you to read this book!

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necesito el articulo grati

necesito el articulo grati

This is a wonderfully written, extremely entertaining novel. Read just after my return from Ecuador, it was a fantastic look into an Ecuador I'd only learned to love.

David Stuart's ECUADOR EFFECT appears--at first glance--to be a fictionalized version of his own anthropological fieldwork in Ecuador in the 1970s. But it is much more than just that. It is a deeply felt commentary on the human condition, from a sensitive and observant soul who writes knowingly of a country and its people from a base of personal experience.

ECUADOR EFFECT moves on several levels simultaneously: It is the very stuff of Greek tragedy, the working out of deep, irremediable human flaws toward a seemingly pre-destined end. It is a work of anthropology, revealing the soul of a country (one of the three so-called 'Indian' countries of South America, along with Peru and Bolivia, the former 'Alta Peru'). And is a powerful (for want of a stronger term), excruciatingly moving story of human evil in all its forms, and the price that ultimately must be paid for that evil.

I have not read a finer tale in my 61 years, nor one that more effectively engages all the human senses and reactions. Those who have read Dr. Stuart's Guaymas books will recognize his major themes, and once again enjoy the work of a master storyteller, who makes the distinction between fiction and non-fiction irrelevant as he moves expertly through all the dark alleys--and the brighter, happier glades as well--of the essential human agony.

Jack Snyder

Wow! A devastatingly gorgeous story of how one man, an American stranger in southern Ecuador, learns a thing or two about love, family and justice. David E. Stuart takes you on a journey that breaks your heart, sets it aflutter, and then afire. Powerfully written, Stuart crafts a riveting story with a quick tempo. It's a literary dark horse.

In December of 1917, Mabel Dodge Sterne and her husband, artist Maurice Sterne, made their way up to Taos in an unforgettable journey up the rural road. Mabel immediately connected spiritually and emotionally with Taos and was drawn to find a place to stay. "Edge of Taos Desert" is the story of her personal transformation during her first year in Taos. In many ways, this book is an insightful commentary on Santa Fe and Taos in 1918. Mabel's description of the physical and cultural environment is vivid. She describes the Mexicans bringing in wood by burro to sell as well the first time she saw an Indian. Careful readers will discern the conflicts and prejudices between the Pueblo people, the Mexicans, and the more newly arrived Anglos. She provides many priceless early observations of the region that may best be understood by readers who have some knowledge of New Mexico history and culture. However, understanding Mabel's history may provide more information about the significance of this book.

Mabel Dodge Luhan grew up in a wealthy family that left her emotionally bankrupt. She spent years of her adult life looking for the fulfillment of her emptiness. She was a renaissance woman in Italy, and then a salon hostess in New York, hosting conversations with some of the brightest minds of her time. She was a radical modernist looking for a solution to the American ills brought on by the Industrial Revolution. "Edge of Taos Desert" is the most important autobiographical chapter in her life because, in the Pueblo people, she believed that she had found a solution to both her emotional emptiness and America's discontentment. Her role in the future became to draw artists to Taos to write about and paint the people, the place, and the culture in order that it might be saved and that, we, as Americans might also save ourselves with what we'd learned.

She had a messianic vision of utopia with the Victorian belief that a woman's role was to support others. She found her own voice, though, in writing her autobiographies and several other books. "Edge of Taos Desert" is a beautifully written literary piece. She journeys through with strong social and cultural observations and a bold confidence and irreverence that allows her to see what a white woman of her time would not have been allowed to see. By August of 1918, her third husband (Sterne) has returned to New York, and she enters the door of being one of the most infamous Taoseno's in that town's history with a poignant and personal tale to tell.

I really loved this book - beautifully written and it is a wonderful look at Taos and the Pueblo in the early 1900's. My daughter has orderd the next one, "Winter in Taos" as a Mother's Day gift.Luhan is a most unusual person with a very beautiful outlook on the high desert and it's people.

This book is a rare jem. The writing is of unparralled beauty and perception. Mabel Dodge Lujan describes her arrival in Taos, New Mexico in l9l7. Lujan has come from New York city where she was a wealthy socialite involved in various art and political/psychological cicles (She was the former lover of John Reed who was portrayed by Warren Beatty in the movie Reds). She has come to Taos to reunite with her husband, the artist Maurice Stearn. However, almost imediately she finds that the town of Taos, and especially the Indians of the neighboring pueblo, are awakening the depths of her in a sublime and inevitable way. She describes how this process of conversion from a relatively shallow person (though an earnest seeker of truth), to one who begins to understand and feel the life beyond herself is catalyzed by the Indian Tony Lujan, whom she later marries. The story is really a spiritual one, but never described as such. Rather one only feels the utter humility of this women in the face of a way of life that increasingly draws her to it while also drawing her to the depth of herself. Her descriptions of the Indian life of the pueblo must be some of the finest ever crafted about native Americans.

This book gives a well rounded look at the work of Edward Sheriff Curtis in a size that is easy to handle.

After viewing on PBS, a documentary of Edward Sheriff Curtis, I was moved to purchase this excellent work.
I was touched to my soul, by the photos, and how well they conveyed a race of people who have all but vanished.
The text that goes with the pictures is also quite good, and tells a remarkable story of a man obsessed to tell the world a story which we all need to hear and see. Curtis sacrificed his own finances and marriage, and did succeed in completing a very exhausting pilgrimage.

This is perhaps the greatest book authored by my uncle, Victor Hugo Boesen. He worked diligently with Curtis' daughter and other members and friends of the Curtis family to research and to write this book. The photographs are stunning. It is a must read for anyone interested in the history of the American Indian and Curtis' crucial role in recording this history. This book has been translated into French and German. Victor Boesen served as a war correspondent for Liberty Magazine during World War II and was present at the signing of the peace treaty on the USS Missouri. His writings appeared in Life, Look, the Los Angeles Times, and other major periodicals and newspapers.

[Review by Larry Blumenfeld, Blumenfeld & Aswsociates, Post Office Box 2831, 660 Circulo Nomada, Tubac, AZ 85646-2831, (520) 398-3371, published in COUNCIL FIRES, The Publication for Western Americana Enthusiasts, Vol. 8, Issue #1, January, 1998, p. 16-17.] E1 Llano Estacado: Exploration and Imagination on the High Plains of Texas and New Mexico, 1536-1860. Written by John Miller Morris. Austin: Texas State Historical Association, First Edition ($39.95). El Llano Estacado is an extremely well written new work of Southwestern History, brilliantly revealing the historical core and heart of one of America's most history-packed regions--the mesaland of the Southern High Plains in Texas and New Mexico. From the Canadian River in the north to the Edwards Plateau in the south, from the Pecos River in the west to the awesome canyonlands of the Red, Pease, Brazos, and Colorado Rivers in the east, these 50,000-square miles of what is commonly referred to as "the Llano" are here chronicled over a period of 300 years, revealing the history, cultural grandeur, and mythic wonders of this special ruggedly beautiful land. A knockout read for both historians and buffs alike, Morris's new book is his song to this unique environment, revealing, melding, and analyzing a diversified series of Spanish, French, Mexican, and Anglo-American explorers and adventurers and how they made their mark on this remarkable land. The book opens with an examination of what is known as the Lost Coronado Trail, pursuing the question of where did the Coronado Expedition go in 1541. What follows is nothing short of a breakthrough analysis of what they saw and how they remembered it as revealed through their personal accounts and journals. The second part of the book, which deals with the Llano Frontier, continues its unique approach to the study of the three centuries of Spanish exploration and imagination following Coronado. Here we revisit this extraordinary land through the eyes and imaginations of the conqueror, Juan de Onate, the accounts of the French explorers, Pierre Mallet and Paul Mallet, and the travel diaries of trailblazers Pedro Vial, Jose Mares, and Francisco Amangual. Part Three then explores and analyzes "the invention or discovery of the Llano through the Anglo imagination," including the "prose of the poet Albert Pike, the grand deceits of Alexander Le Grand, the reasoning of Josiah Gregg, and the legendary collapse of the Texan-Santa Fe Expedition" as chronicled by George Wilkins Kendall and Thomas Falconer. Together the author analyzes what he calls the "American rhetoric of romantic discovery." The Great Zahara, the last of four parts, deliciously delves into the "perceptual approaches of classic U. S. Explorers James W. Abert, Randolph B. Marcy, A. W. Whipple, Andrew Gray, and John Pope...." Powerful, unusual, stimulating, and nothing short of brilliant, El Llano Estacado is one of the finest works of cultural and mythic history of a region I have ever read. Morris has penned a great work of both history and imagination, pushing the boundaries on historical scholarship to limits that I would have never thought possible. This book should change the way history is not only written but perceived. You must read this mmagnificent book!!

Using historical writings of early explorers, the author captures the mystery and magic of the great Llano Estacado or "Staked Plains" that begin in West Texas and extend north and west. Particularly amusing is the efforts of early railroad surveyors to find underground water at the edge of the Llano (aka the caprock) only to miss one of North America's largest aquifers (the Ogalla) by a matter of miles and in some cases yards.

We were going on a trip to see the Llano Estacado and the canyon in west Texas.This book gave the trip so much dimension and understanding at how hard the life was for the explorers and the pioneers in this harsh land.Very cleverly written,holds one attention. Wonderful

"These stories are at once bittersweet, tender, and funny without ridiculing. We recognize ourselves or know someone in those shoes and they touch our hearts. We root for or pray along with them as they try to unravel the puzzle of their lives. Romo skillfully maintains and heightens the momentum and allure of the story with folkloric intrigue: how and why has the Rio Grande turned red?" -- Liz Raptis Picco, for El Andar.

Imagine Joyce's Dubliners set on the Rio Grande. Like life itself, this book is sweet, sad, beautiful, astonishingly interconnected, and all too short. When Tomasita burns the beans, she sets in motion a series of events that touches the lives of a dozen other women, and attracts the notice of millions. Romo employs a series of brief vignettes to tell powerful, emotion-packed stories of life and death and love and pain, and ties them all together into an exquisite package. Short, but delightful in its richness and complexity, this is a perfect gem of a novel, and one of few works of fiction this reviewer has read recently that didn't cry out to be edited down. All of the main characters are Mexican-American women, so women and Latinos may find this book especially endearing, but such is the power of Romo's achievement that this slim volume can readily be appreciated by everyone.

"Romo has a pleasing, unpretentious writing style, and he sometimes exhibits a real eye and ear for the ordinary moments that give life meaning. Throughout EL PUENTE, I was frequently reminded of John Steinbeck. Romo isn't as obsessed with social and economic justice, but he has a similar knack for describing the lives of plain, simple folk on the street.... EL PUENTE shows a lot of promise."--Steven Robert Allen