Arizona Books

Snake Hunting on the Devil's Highway is a hysterical and fun collection of stories that revolve around two guys who travel to Arizona in search of exotic reptiles and amphibians and find trouble, fun and craziness along the way. I'm sure the book will make a great movie too. Action, adventure and humor are a constant theme in the book. I really enjoyed how the author broke each adventure into its own chapter, which made the book more like a collection of really funny short stories but ended up being very much related. Intelligence comes from the least likely places at times, and the animals described in nice detail are utterly amazing, which makes you feel a little bit more comfortable about snakes, lizards and frogs after reading this book. But its the crazy situations that's so peculiar and incredible in the book that made it extra enjoyable for me. Fascinating how these two guys are experts in something most people would run away from (SNAKES), and these guys run straight for it! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to laugh, and enjoy themselves for an easy and enjoyable read!

After reading this book you will never again have to simply shrug and stare off into space when queried about your phobia around heading out into the remote desert in the small hours after midnight, the less moonlight the better, to hunt for potentially lethal rattlesnakes or other exotic specimens such as a large toad that urinates profusely upon being picked up by an eager collector. Trust me, your fears will now stand upon a firm foundation.

On the other hand, my bet is you'll also develop a deeper appreciation for some of the more reclusive of God's creatures. While there are a few times you might get mad at certain characters who, in their stupid cruelty, haven't even evolved near as far as their reptilian victims, for the most part this book is good for much merriment. My favorite among the string of tales and anecdotes involves snake-killer Ranger Rick who gets his payback in way that makes you wish you'd been there. He's not permanently damaged by the experience but he sure learns to have a little respect for wild things.

I was very much reminded of Edward Abbey's story-telling style when reading "Snake Hunting." Even though they are easy-going, sitting around the campfire stories, there's an exciting undercurrent due to the potential for disaster at the turn of page. These tales are very human, filled with foibles, phobias and a wee bit of what's termed "foul language." Parental discretion advised? Well, only if you keep your kids in a closet where they never hear the radio, watch TV or connect with the internet. It's pretty tame by modern standards. And, after all, it's about two wild and crazy guys out hunting deadly snakes in the freaking desert in the middle of the night ... I mean, don't judge it by tea party standards.

While this isn't an academic book, Richard Lapidus reveals himself as a brave and serious naturalist in the course of this humorous series of stories. The patient reader will be surprised and rewarded by the information absorbed over the course of reading it. And I wouldn't be surprised if over the course of vicariously trucking along on these adventures and misadventures, you come to feel like you've found a friend. A quirky friend all right, but aren't they the best kind?

"Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave" is the BEST, most sensitive and comprehensive children's book on the subject. Photographer and writer, Monty Roessel, took a personal approach to creating this book when he chose his daughter and his mother as subjects. He documented his ten year old daughter, Jaclyn, as her grandmother taught her to weave. The fifth grader learned about the practical aspects of weaving; like shearing sheep, carding and spinning wool, natural dyes, and weaving techniques. Nali Ruth (Grandmother) also taught Jaclyn about important Navajo stories related to weaving and the significance of each tool.

This book has an informative, well written text and wonderful graphics. It has many photographs and informative diagrams. Small samples of different rug patterns appear in the margins every few pages, leading to a full page map of the regions associated with the patterns. The wooden Navajo loom is shown in a labeled drawing. The traditional stories of how weaving originated for the Navajo people are on separate pages from the rest of the text, bordered by a rug-type design. I would recommend this book for both adults and children over 8 as a delightful way to learn about this subject. He honors his mother, his daughter, and Navajo weaving with this book.

If you are buying this book for a child, "Navajo Rugs and Blankets: A Coloring Book" by Chuck and Andrea Mobley, with Sam Mike as illustrator, is a must have supplement. Children interested in "Songs From the Loom" will find themselves inspired to experience Navajo rugs and this coloring book is a great way to extend the story!

This book offers a remarkable sharing, not just of weaving, but of cultural traditions. The reader gains a new understanding and insight of Dine philosophy. It does an exceptional job of conveying a message of mutual love and respect between generations.

A good resource for classroom studies of Native Americans and how they live today.

From Joy Harjo - Mvskoke poet, musician, writer

"Any full portrait of a society -- and the Sonoita Plain is a society: of
lands, plants, skies, creatures (including humans) -- must be artful,
lyrical, factual, historical, mythical, insightful and inspiring.This
is a tremendous order -- and it's all here in this beautiful marriage of
text and photographs."

From John W. Donaldson - Rancher & recipient of the 2003 Western Heritage Award, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

"Carl and Jane Bock's book Sonoita Plain is a superb
comprehensive and informative piece of work. Anyone who is interested in the
environmental intricacies of Southern Arizona's grasslands would do well to
read this book and keep it close by for future reference."

Established in 1968 by the Appleton family and now part of the National Audubon Society's sanctuary system, the Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch is a tract of 8,000 acres on the Sonoita Plain of southeastern Arizona. This is land that has been left alone for the past 35 years. There has been no dam building, fire fighting, grazing, pest control, and no commercial or agricultural development of any kind. Co-authored by Carl and Jane Bock, Sonoita Plain: Views From A Southwestern Grassland showcases and highlights the ecosystems of the Sonoita Valley and the Research Ranch. Enhanced with the superb color photography of Stephen Strom, readers are informed with respect to the diverse life forms which range from towering century plants to tiny Botteri's Sparrow, the elegant Mexican pronghorn, and the humans of diverse eras and purposes that were associated with this region from ancient Clovis big-game hunters to border crossers seeking entrance into the U.S., to nature loving tourists come to see and experience what the Sonoita Valley has to offer. Highly recommended reading, especially for environmental activists and academicians, Sonoita Plain would well serve as a template or model for similar books on other natural environment restoration landscape projects elsewhere in the country.

The common view of deserts as "barren" places empty of life is firmly laid to rest by this excellent collection of essays. Alcock's relation demonstrates the wide variety and diversity of lifeforms found in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Plants, insects, birds and other animal life abound if you take the trouble to find them. The author is an expert at observing all this life. Better, he's adept at showing you how to follow in his footsteps to see what he sees.

"Footsteps" is the significant term in this book. Not ATVs, aircraft, nor other vehicular means, but walking quietly is the method to employ in behold ing the desert. Alcock provides examples of his techniques in researching various aspects of life. Surprising wasps in their rituals requires finesse and timing. Seemingly, he moves directly from office to landscape - one of his marking tools being a bottle of Liquid Paper. With this "paint" he can identify individual insects - male wasps and butterflies seeking mates. This technique lapses with rattlesnakes and coyotes, however.

More easily identified subjects are the palo verde trees and giant saguaro cactuses. His palo verde trees are numbered [in his memory], but the saguaros are often elusive. Not because these ancient, giant cacti are mobile, but because his urban neighbours see fit to use them for target practice. Many of his jaunts confront him with spent shells, pock-marked rocks and shattered giant cactus plants. Desert soil pockets, often the home of slumbering spade-foot toads are riven with vehicle tracks. Their passage disturbs the dormant toads who believe the noise presages water-delivering thunderstorms. Awakening, they emerge in the belief the water is signalling the time for courtship and reproduction. The disappointment is greater than simply mating deferred. It may mean the toad has expended its resources. It will dry out and expire.

In describing how the details of desert life is seen today, Alcock muses on the roots of life's processes. Why do the Tarantula Wasp and the Great Purple Hairstreak butterfly [which displays nothing visible that's purple] evolve parallel mating rituals? How can some species successfully deal with the spines of the cholla cactus when a human stuck with the spines must endure a full day's pain? Why do some bees fly in solitude while others are flock in swarms? Alcock examines these and similar questions with sound evolutionary logic. He stresses that simple or apparent solutions often require re-examination. Horned lizards only take a few ants from a nest entrance. Are they "prudent predators" saving prey for later exploitation? Alcock reflects on possibilities to arrive at a solution Darwin would have admired. As do we. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

John Alcock brings us with him on a tour of the Usery Ridge (north of Mesa, near Phoenix, Arizona) after the winter rains, but before the harsh heat of summer. The book mostly discusses evolutionary behavior of plants and animals found there. There are a few humorous passages which add an unexpected laugh. Dr. Alcock is concerned with the disappearance of the desert and its treasures.

Sonoran Desert Summer is another of John Alcock's easy to read introductions to this desert's more fascinating creatures. The reader not only gets to experience the desert inhabitants' comings and goings during a typical summer in the Sonoran Desert, he or she does it in comfort! As informative as it is entertaining, this book gives the reader valuable insights into the wonderful adaptations of some of the desert's most interesting plants and animals. Written by a biologist who can also write, this book is fun to read, easy to digest, and makes every jaunt into the desert just that much more meaningful. And, the illustrations are charming as well. All in all, a good buy whether you are a tourist or a long-time desert rat.

Taking up an Alcock book and following his desert jaunts is always a pleasure. His enthusiasm for the lands others call "bleak" invites imitation. Whatever view we hold for deserts must be reconsidered and assessed for validity when we close the final page. He shows us life where we perceive an empty terrain. Brief appearances by birds, insects, coyotes, even water catch his eye and are imparted to us. While the variety of life here is as vast as the landscape, one feature is brought into view repeatedly - the giant cactus saguro. This bizarre plant becomes a lodestone for his travels because its condition signals so much about conditions. "Sonoran Desert Summer" sounds intimidating, but Alcock shows how important this season is to life.

Reflecting the brief jaunts Alcock takes into the Sonoran, the book is a collection of essays. The topics vary from feather structure for body temperature control through insect, bird and plant reproduction to government policies on coyotes. The wealth of detail neither obscures nor is muted by the desert's vastness - an aspect of which we are reminded on nearly every page. Mountains loom on the horizon and monsoon thunderheads build on their crests, but under this Hackberry bush a small butterfly is playing out a timeless strategy for finding a mate. Alcock misses none of it, and you feel pangs of regret that he's there and you're not. Still, he reminds us, human intrusion on desert solitudes are a destructive force. The Hohokum peoples, who inhabited this area for a duration four times longer than Europeans have inhabited the Western Hemisphere, likely irrigated themselves out of existence.

Alcock, true to his role as a teacher, is full of questions. How does the Digger Bee know where to excavate to obtain a mate? Why do phainopeplas, a dark-plumaged, crested bird, nest in solitude in Arizona but in groups in California? Why do "auxiliaries" occur in some bird species? Why does the zebra-tailed lizard wave its tail, an act likely to lure predators? Alcock doesn't whip out the answers to these conundrums, but guides you through a process of examining evidence, talking about other researchers' efforts and provides you with the most likely evolutionary solution. No aspect of a species lacks an evolutionary pathway, he reminds us. We must work it out from our time and place as best we can.

What is the worth of these efforts? Do they have meaning for those of us not granted the prize of desert residence? Alcock's assessment of government policies of "pest" removal can be applied anywhere. Coyotes, despised by ranchers as despoilers of herds and by suburbanites as raiders of garbage cans, find themselves targetted for eradication. Alcock shows the short-sightedness of such policies and how to replace them with more realistic ones. Heed his warning. Humanity can't afford to lose desert life - "writing its own epitaph in the sand" along with his favoured saguro. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

I recommend this book to all persons interested in lions in the America's. It will appeal to and educate people with diverse opinions on the management of this wonderful species of cat. Mr. Shaw is not only a good biologist, he also tells it like it is, and in a well written way. I especially hope that North America's wildlife decision makers will read and heed Mr. Shaw's conclusions about lion management. This book is for the biologist, the rancher, the lion hunter, and the preservationist.

We bought this book to learn more about lions in general, and increase my rancher/lion hunter husband's understanding of issues surrounding them. We were a little concerned that the angle might lean one way or another but were gratified by the balance. Well crafted and very informative. Highly recommend to any one interested in mountain lions.

Early in the seventeenth century, Spaniard Fray Angelico wants to bring the word of God to the natives living throughout the New Mexico Territory. To his shock, the Hopi ignore his plea to save these savages from the devil. Though disappointed by their rejection of his deepest beliefs, Fray tries to protect his "wards" from the greedy rulers of New Spain, especially Captain de Leiva who sees the native wealth as a means of restoring honor to his family name.

Though somewhat successful in defeating the Hopi, de Leiva finds the Navajo willing to battle back, led by Cougar. When Cougar meets the Hopi's Morning Butterfly they fall in love with one another. However, even a foreign invader who destroys everything sacred may not be enough to bind the tribes and unite the star-crossed lovers.

Vella Munn is one of the great writers of historical fiction. Her tales always make the era she writes about seem as if events are unfolding in actual time. Her latest treasure, SOUL OF THE SACRED EARTH, is a superb tale that showcases the Spanish intrusion into the lives of the Hopi and Navajo people. A bit of romance softens the impact of a tale in which tragedy seems to be the only path for all the prime players.

Except for a brief prelude set in 1599, the events in this book take place during the summer and fall of 1628 in what is now Arizona. The Spanish have come to Oraibi, a Hopi village atop a mesa. Their contingent is small: a captain seeking the fabled riches of the area, a small number of soldiers, and a Franciscan priest intent on saving the savages' souls. Their arrival sets into motion not only a clash of Spanish and Hopi cultures, but also an encounter between Hopi and Navajo traditions. Morning Butterfly is a young Hopi woman who knows some Spanish, and is drafted to serve as translator for the newcomers. Cougar is a Navajo from a nearby settlement who arrives to steal the soldiers' horses. Cougar understands the Hopi language, making communication possible between these two communities. While both the Hopi and the Navajo lament the intrusion of the soldiers and the priest, they react in very different ways. The Hopi are known as the Peaceful Ones. They attempt to live with the invaders, and even, reluctantly, help him to build his church. Fray Angelico believes he may be making headway in converting the Hopi, since some submit to baptism, but it is clear to readers that the baptisms and sermons are not turning them from the own beliefs. The Navajo live as raiders, and are proud of their ability as warriors; their reaction to the Spanish is very different. A sense of tradition and place permeates this book. Words from legends, songs, and chants are woven throughout the story. Readers also learn of the two groups' beliefs through the explanations Morning Butterfly and Cougar give each other about their people. Fray Angelico and the captain represent two very different, but equally disruptive, Western attitudes: one missionary, the other exploitative of the people and land. The land is sacred to both the Hopi and Navajo, and their strong relationships with it become clear in this book. Tony Hillerman's novels have introduced me to the place and some of the beliefs in this book, but the time period is new to me. The book seems very well researched, though not intrusively so. Soul of the Sacred Earth is a compelling read. I was desperate to see the Spanish leave, so that the Hopi and Navajo societies wouldn't be further disrupted, but feared being too hopeful, knowing how history has turned out.

Trudi Jacobson, for the Historical Novels Review

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 thought-provoking work of social anthropology is a revision of the author's doctoral dissertation, but is nevertheless highly readable for the non-specialist. Taking as her theme the idea that "the queen is what the queen does," Hayden proposes that the Sovereign -- or at least this Sovereign -- has far more influence, both politically and socially, than might generally be thought or that the English constitution might envision. She does it both by distancing herself, personally and ceremonially, from her subjects, but also by drawing in the aristocracy (the closest people available who resemble herself) for close support. This mechanism can be seen in action every time the royal family poses on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, and by noting the long list of things the queen simply does not do, such as attend the funerals of non-royals, give anything away (ever), or permit anyone else to initiate a conversation in her presence. This puts her on a higher plane than ordinary mortals. Moreover, much of what is regarded as "ancient" ritual dates only from the early 20th century; Victoria was a very different sort of monarch, and a much less astute one. Hayden does an excellent job of explaining the royal system as it operates in Britain, and her insights also help to explain later events -- such as the Royal Family's ham-handed confusion at the outpouring of popular grief on the death of Princess Diana.

There are lots of books about the British Royal Family out there. Many are blatantly pro- or anti- this or that Royal, or insider 'exposés' from former valets or aides. This book isn't like that, and that makes it all the more worth reading.

Author Ilse Hayden looks at the Royal Family and the insititution of the British monarchy from the standpoint of a social anthropologist. She argues convincingly that the Sovereign's influence over government and society is both greater and more direct than is usually recognized. Much of that influence is camouflaged by ritual that seems to be ancient, but is really, for the most part, surprisingly modern.

Hayden takes a comprehensive view of Royal ritual, from big events like coronations and funerals, through Trooping the Colour, to bread-and-butter events like Royal visits and investitures. She also addresses questions like why The Queen carries a purse when she never uses cash, and what's up with the hats and white gloves. She also analyzes how the aristocracy both enhances and draws from the lustre of the Monarchy.

It's no exaggeration to say this book changed my view of the British Monarchy entirely. Whether you're monarchist, republican, or agnostic, you'll find valuable insights here. For anyone interested in moving beyond quick-and-dirty biographies to substantive analysis of what the Monarchy is really all about, you'll find true food for thought here.

This book was a coming-of-age story of a different sense. It's not the typical teen girl becomes woman story. Instead, it appeals to the young adult (like myself in my 20s) or I would imagine any yearning adult. If you've been wondering about your next step in life or love, this is for you. If you've been wondering about your family, or reflecting on your past, this is for you. If you're leaving one physical/geographical place to try out a new one, this book is for you. It's about discovery and reflection.

And a great first book. Lovely images and a good story about love, life, the West, growing up, and everything. Recommended if you like modern literature and fiction.