New Mexico Books

Even residents of New Mexico may not realize all the gourmet events happening around the state, nor the culinary trends taking place: that's why professional food writer Sally Moore's Culinary New Mexico: The Ultimate Food Lover's Guide will prove eye-opening to so many. From restaurants and bakeries to food festivals, cooking stores and even wineries, Culinary New Mexico outlines all food oriented destinations, from handmade chocolate makers to breweries and cafes. The recipes scattered throughout also assure many dishes will be reproduced outside the state; but the meat of Culinary New Mexico lies in its destination-oriented tips travelers and residents will appreciate!

Cycle Of Seasons In Corrales by freelance writer Ruth W. Armstrong is an inspirational celebration of the turn of the seasons in Corrales and throughout New Mexico. Love of life, memories of the past and keen awareness of the present permeate this spiritual treatise. Enhanced with the photography of Ruth and Ellis Armstrong, Cycle Of Seasons In Corrales an impressive and timeless evocation and well worth the reading by anyone who appreciates what nature offers as the Earth encircles the Sun.

Rare is the book that can keep you enthralled and page-turning on a topic of which you previously couldn't hold ground past two seconds in conversation.

Or one that you can actually read cover to cover from first picking up.

The style of writing is as breezy as it is intensive and never dry.

An excellent work and book.

Mr. Nichols continues to amaze and delight his readers. As a novelist he lives in an invented world but as an essayast he takes his master's skill at prose and knifes into the butter of living in a world he finds all too real. "Dancing On The Stones" allows the reader to hop safely from the rocks of reality onto the reefs of fantsy. John's reality in Taos becomes the reader's virtual trip to his moral values. The trip is a maze of lofty thoughts bottomed by harsh facts and an unpleasant insistence on making one's living while living with what one makes. If more of us had John Nichols's insight into nature we'd see our world the way he sees his: life exists in spite of nature and life is as fragile as the clouds which enhance and hide it.

I had the privilege and honor to be one of Professor Luis Martín's pupils at SMU a decade and a half ago. I recall his playful, excitable and gregarious personality, as well as his trademark lectures in which he typically juggled history, theology, poetry, sociology and hard-core Sevillian gossip!

Such is the trademark of his writing in "Daughters of the Conquistadores." Don Luis artfully stretches the imagination of the reader by plotting in occurences and tribulations of nuns, divorcees, concubines, "tapadas" and "beatas" in the colonial Peru of 1550-1800. In a most authentic and self-bred style, he narrates the mysteries and abuses taking place in convents and nunneries, haciendas and palaces; and underlines the influence of women in a society relentlessly dominated by "Don Juanism" and sternly regulated and probed by an over-zealous Catholic church.

A book tough to research and tougher to write, "Daughters of the Conquistadores" is fun to read, bare of profound insights and laden with satyrical, albeit tragic, anecdotes.

Joe brings a lot of native stoys with jokes and morals. All use interesting creatures from New Mexico.

What is the difference between tonalpohualli and tomalamatl and Mayan astrology. When I was in Mexico my Tonalamatl was done. I am an obsidian butterfly, jaguar, cassa and hummingbird. When I used Bruce Scofield's book I came up with different symbols. Tonalamatl is based on the Codice Borgio. Is Scofield's the same version? My birthday is Sept. 10, 1948 in Canada. I want to learn the tomalamatl and want to know if that is what Bruce's book will teach me. My e-mail is: heatherhess@hotmail.com PLEASE ADVISE

Dead Water Rites is the fourth book in the Booker Series by Monty Joynes, however readers new to Joynes will understand its powerful message of man's fate if he continues to rape the earth.

A white man known sometimes as Booker and sometimes as Anglo "searches for new identity and spiritual completeness among the Pueblo people." He learns how water is the very lifeblood of the People, and that they regard it as a "living being." A tribal elder sees the water drying up and dying, and trusts Booker with the mission of finding the source of the "sick water."

If the water is truly dying, then the dead water rites will be performed, and life will cease to exist.

As he searches for the sick water, Booker also continues his journey of spiritual growth. He meets a militant female environmentalist, and begins learning of some of the politics involved in water rights. He also learns that perhaps the celibate life isn't right for him after all.

A group of land developers with the philosophy that "any day is a good day to make money" are also looking at the water. They draw up a proposal for a gambling casino, replete with promises of economic security. Buried in the fine print are the clauses handing over all water rights.

A former real estate developer himself, Booker recognizes the true impact of the casino on the People. He explains this to the tribal elders, who say they will "continue to pray and seek a vision." Booker and the young woman are seriously injured in a car accident, from which it takes months to recover. The developers move ahead unhampered with their plans.

Dead Water Rites "is lucid and literary, an articulate and artful plea to cease our self-destructive exploitation of the environment and native people." Those who read it will gain a new respect for the liquid essential to all life on Earth, and a better understanding of those who seek to keep it alive.

Another wonderful story by Ms. Lynn. Easy and enjoyable to read. Great story. Lots of twists and turns. I really enjoy reading her novels.

Death Stars, Weird Galaxies, And A Quasar-Spangled Universe: The Discoveries Of The Very Large Array Telescope by Karen Taschek is an informative and easy-to-follow study of the Very Large Array (VLA) as constructed by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in in San Augustin, New Mexico. Ably authored, and historically concise, Death Stars, Weird Galaxies, And A Quasar-Spangled Universe presents the story of Karl Jasky and his discoveries, and continues on to share a wealth of fun and interesting finds attributed to the VLA's research. Beautifully illustrated throughout and a welcome addition to school and community library Astronomy reference collections, Death Stars, Weird Galaxies, And A Quasar-Spangled Universe is very highly recommended as a complete, active, thorough, and exclusive coverage of the fascinating world of the discoveries made with the technology of modern astronomical sciences for readers of all ages who are interested in the science of astronomy.