Arizona Books

I am trying very hard to get your attention and this is the only way I know to do it. Images of America: Tucson Arizona is a great book. I know because I wrote it. I do not have such an ego that I want to review my book. However, when I type in my name as the Author --"Jane Eppinga" it says that the Tucson book is not yet published. IT HAS BEEN PUBLISHED FOR OVER TWO MONTHS. Could someone update this information? Sincerely Jane Eppinga

This is the latest version of Tucson Audubon Society's venerable bird-finding guide to southeast Arizona. It's a worthwhile update of a worthy guide. And it will get you around one of the most exciting birding regions in the entire country.

The "Davis & Russell" name has been dropped, but the format is the same as the two prior editions from 1995 and 1999- spiral bound, geograhpically arranged site coverage (no loop trips as in ABA/Lane guides- better for some, not so for others) and excellent seasonal bar graphs/annotated checklist.

The directions to each site are generally very clear and easy to follow. Each site has key bird species expected there listed.

The only competition for this book is the ABA/Lane guide by Richard C. Taylor. Both are useful and recommended. If you "need" loop trips, buy Taylor's book. If you find that format pesky when you deviate from the loop buy this book. If you want coverage of more individual sites, buy this book. If you want the most accurate bar graphs, buy this book.

Forward by Kenn Kaufman!

UPDATE: The new 7th edition just arrived on shelves in September 2007. It's identifiable by the Violet-crowned Hummingbird on the cover.

This book is a well-written and highly detailed review of the law enforcement situation in the Southwestern frontier. It enlightens the reader about the levels of pioneer law enforcement (city, county, territorial) and their intertwined responsibilities or lack thereof. The background has been researched almost to a fault. If you are an 'early western' afficionado and/or the kind of person who likes to pour over microfiche reals of old newspapers and other minutiae at the local library, then is a must read. Larry Ball brings just enough western outlawry and criminal intrigue to his writing to keep it entertaining, although there are areas that bog down, especially when it comes to reporting on expense reimbursements and political appointments. However, the author demonstrates how these aspects are examples of the necessary evils in fighting crime on the frontier. The notes and references guide the casual reader and the scholar to their respective areas of interest and further reading. 315 pp., Univ. of New Mexico Press (1978).

Dr. Borland takes you, as a visitor, to see current festivals enacted in Masaya, Nicaragua. She begins with the St. Jerome festival and then explains the torovenada masquerades (including the Ahuizotes of Monimobo), the transvestitite Negras marimba dances, and the wagon pilgrimage of Popoyuapa. But unlike being a tourist viewing these events, Dr. Borland helps unmask them--letting you see the history, the politics, the class and gender complexities, and even how the "traditional" religious worship is more a contemporary idealization than a historical tradition. She is clearly a talented folklorist using appropriate ethnographic tools for the description and analysis.

Any collection strong in biological science - particularly college-level holdings - will want UNNATURAL LANDSCAPES: it blends science writing and research with first-person stories of adventure to provide a lively introduction to invasion ecology and restoration management, and uses the author's own kayak trips as a basis for considering invasive species in the Southwest and Mexico regions. Her journeys read like a blend of scientific investigation and travelogue and thus serve as a fitting introduction to habitat management issues.

This superb volume, as a result of yeoman duty by its editors, has gathered results from the latest space probes, interpreted by the most expert astronomers available. Although I have NO formal training in astronomy whatsoever (I'm an interested layperson in the field), I found the articles clear in exposition, fascinating in content, and documented with commendable care. In cases where competing theories are hotly debated (e.g., the origin of the coronae on satellites of Uranus), the authors frankly state their own preferred explanation, admit its weaknesses as well as its strengths, acknowledge the merits of rival conjectures, and refer the reader to appropriate sources for further detail. Therefore, this volume not only summarizes current knowledge, but also illustrates science as it should be practiced -- a dispassionate search for correct understanding of Nature.

I had the unique pleasure of meeting the author and a group of her close friends in her beautiful hometown of Portal, AZ. Seems like pretty much the whole town has read all of her books and are her biggest cheerleaders! Well, I wasn't disappointed. Jeanne's books are mostly set in southeastern Arizona during pioneer times, and she does a masterful job of taking readers to that place and time. Her stories are unparalleled examinations of the strength of the human spirit, and give sensitive and poetic treatment to the interplay between the tribes and the settlers of that era. I passed this book around my family and they are all big Jeanne Williams fans now. You will not be disappointed!

Author Jim Slingluff has paddled every navigable mile of Arizona's Verde River, plus many of it's tributaries and his expertise really shows through in this book. Slingluff is a die-hard canoeist and this book is full of information specific to canoeists, though it's also a great guidebook for kayakers and rafters.
Slingluff breaks the river down into sections that can be canoed, beginning with the headwaters at Morgan Ranch near Prescott, all the way down to the confluence with Arizona's Salt River, near Phoenix. He also describes every rapid and potential hazard encountered on the river. This information may be dated since the book was last revised in 1996, but it's a great way to get an idea of what you're facing in a trip down the Verde.
I haven't yet made my own trip down the Verde, but when I go, the Verde River Recreation Guide is going with me.

Spanish literature scholar and professor Bryant Creel presents The Voice Of The Phoenix: Metaphors Of Death And Rebirth In Classics Of The Iberian Renaissance, an in-depth examination of how Spanish and Portuguese literary masterpieces from between the late fifteenth and early seventeenth centuries subtly contributed to the changing social attitudes and cultures in a "Renaissance" transitional era, that gradually transformed the restrictions of a dominant medieval traditionalism. Arguing that Renaissance authors sought to develop literary culture along secular lines in order to "modernize" a society while slipping under the watchful radar of theology-based censorship, The Voice Of The Phoenix scrutinizes such classics as poems of Fray Luis de Leon, and works of prose fiction including "Lazarillo de Tormes", Jorge de Montemayor's "Diana", and Cervantes' "Don Quixote". Divided into independent essays each scrutinizing a specific topic yet all linked by common themes of (often metaphorical) death and rebirth, The Voice of the Phoenix is a welcome contribution to college library and Iberian literature study shelves.

The approach beta in this book for What's My Line and for the Rockfellow formations is better than that found in any other book on the area, including Kerry's book (Backcountry Climbing in Southern Arizona, the acknowledged bible for Cochise). In addition, the updated approach to Warpath, and the inclusion of Sedona routes like the Mace and Four Flying Apaches (another item not found in any other guide) would probably make this a worthwhile purchase for most visitors. Its low price is a huge plus for out-of-state visitors like me who nonetheless don't like to waste time getting hopelessly lost. It covers a lot of routes in a lot of areas within Arizona, more of a sampler than anything else, yet it somehow also manages to pack in a lot of extremely useful and current beta.

My first trip to Cochise was this past week and it was amazing. I don't know if it would have been half as much fun without the guidance of Abbott's book here. The finest route we climbed on, 'Endgame', is a steep, 5 pitch bolted 5.10a that I knew only from magazine photos and scant Internet beta. It's not covered in Abbott's book -- but the approach to the End Pinnacle routes is, paradoxically, better covered in Abbott's book than any of the guides that do have topos for Endgame. (If you want a comprehensive guidebook to Cochise, you need to supplement Kerry's book with the updated approaches found in this book, anyways -- and Kerry's book covers many more obscure crags which will be of keen interest to repeat visitors. Alas, it is out of print -- but the Summit Hut people have a copy which you may be able to Xerox, if you ask nicely.) In any event, once you arrive at the West Stronghold (another handy suggestion from Abbott is to stick with the West Stronghold as your base camp), it is likely that other climbers will be about, so ask them.

If you are planning a road trip to Arizona, this $10 book is a no-brainer.