Southwest Books

I came across this book recently when the family home was in the process of being sold. It was a gift from my mother to my father, my father being born and spending part of his childhood in Harlan County, KY. I held onto it, and eventually got time to read it. As I got through most of the book, I found some interesting parallels in Mr. Jones' life and some of my family history. I was unaware of the history of "bloody Harlan," and learning about it, even if at this moment from only one voice, gave me a lot of insight on my family that I did not have before, and helped me understand how my family got to where it is now.

I HIGHLY recommend this book, to anyone who has ties to Harlan County, KY, easter Kentucky in general, or for anyone who enjoys the stories of a man who never knew the meaning of a vacation.

A must to read........
I felt I was there with him. I was eating the food and drinking the cold buttermilk. I could hear the heavy breathing of the mules going up the mountains of eastern Kentucky. This is a simple and straight look at a true and honest man, who taught himself and those around him that you choose your path in life. His seemed to be rewarded with an abundance of love.

I've read the series and if you liked the white indian series, you'll love the hawk and the dove series.

Since Amazon didn't post an editorial review, here's the description from the back of the book to help you decide if this book is for you: "THE HAWK. Wild and free, the sole survivor of a brutal massacre, John Cooper Baines lives by his wits as he treks across the unclaimed wilderness. Brought to manhood in an indian village, he moves on to New Mexico -- a turbulent land ravaged by bandits and stamped by the legacy of aristocratic Spain. AND THE DOVE. Headstrong and beautiful, the daughter of an exiled Spanish nobleman, Catarina is torn by warring passions, haunted by a vibrant dream. Only a man who can tame the savage land can subdue her defiant heart. Together they will live the glorious beginnings of a dynasty as proud as royal Spain, as reckless and bold as frontier America."

Living in the Southwestern Chihuahuan desert, I am always on the search for sources of information regarding local flora and particularly ethnobotanical uses of plants. This is an excellent guide originally published in 1947 and edited by Michael Moore who I consider to be an expert on herbal uses of native southwestern plants. For anyone interested in this subject, a fabulous resource to have in your library!

Laura Curtin lived and worked among the curanderas and Native Americans of Northern New Mexico during the early part of the twentieth century. She fell in love with the plants and their lore, and later, at the prompting of a friend, decided to record them. Healing Herbs was first published in 1947, at a time when interest in traditional healing in Northern New Mexico was in decline. It helped preserve traditional information for a new generation -- when editor Michael Moore arrived in Santa Fe in the 1960s he found copies of Curtin's book as a prized possession in many traditional households. The book is unique in the literature of ethnobotany in that it was written essentially by an insider in the tradition, rather than by an observer doing interviews.

Practical and healthful ways to prepare the popular flavors of the southwest. Common ingredients prepared in unique ways. Good nutritional information included.

Janet Taylor is a culinary expert whose newest cookbook, "The Healthy Southwest Table" showcases a superbly illustrated cornucopia of savory, colorful, palate pleasing and appetite satisfying dishes associated with the American southwest. From Green Tea Cooler; Fresh Fruit Salsa; Flat Enchiladas; and Tangy Tuna Cabbage Salad; to Lemon-Lime Prickly Pear Chicken; Chipotle Barbecue Tofu and Vegetables; Leftover Fish or Chicken Tacos; and Decadent Chocolate Pudding, "The Healthy Southwest Table" features more than one hundred recipes that are as delicious as they are nutritious. The novice kitchen cook will especially appreciate the informative instructional commentaries on roasting, toasting, grilling, and working with tortillas. Further enhanced with 'Highlights of Some Nutritional Studies' and 'Making Smart Food Choices', "The Healthy Southwest Table" is confidently recommended for both personal and community library ethnic and regional cookbook collections.

"...a skyscape of feathery cirrus clouds stretched southward toward Mexico. To the west over the Painted Desert, they were flushed with the afterglow of sunset" From `Dance Hall of the Dead"

At a book signing in Ft. Worth to benefit a homeless shelter, Tony Hillerman expressed how much fun it was to make this book with his brother Barney.

This book contains 200 spectacular pictures from all over Hillerman country. Many pages are picture only with the caption on the page prior or after. The text among the pictures is a combination of history and exerts from Hillerman novels. Now when you read the novels these pictures will come to mind.

Re3ading this book and looking at the pictures will make you homesick even if you have never been there.

This is the latest of the books that I have read by Tony Hillerman. While writing entertaining fictional storys, his addition of real places makes them very believable. My next project is to visit these places using this book as my guide.

Oddly enough, Agnes Franz hasn't created just a history of one Arizona town in the book, Historic Prescott. What I found instead in these collected descriptions and photos was a cross-section of the wild west as a whole.

Released in today's era of rapid and often bewildering change, this book provides a clear and colorful case study--a kind of executive summary by verbal and visual snapshots--across another time of development, one that occurred as America's wildest frontier morphed into today's version of civilization. Historic Prescott shows the world's most famous American fantasy era through the life of one pivotal town.

By gathering and rapidly describing countless key events in 16 chapters--chapters like Bucky O'neill - Rough Rider, Home on the Ranchland, Prescott's Chinese History, Indian Way of Change, Law and Some Order, and Rodeo--Historic Prescott uncovers a town--and the type of town--that was the backbone of the west.

Franz writes in a staccatto style that may take a page or so to get used to by some readers, but most will probably get into its flow right away. Events move along quickly; that's for sure.

The price leans toward the steep side, but if you're a fan of the old west, there's much to enjoy in this slim large-format volume. Franz's collection and easy-reading descriptions make it just plain fascinating to watch the west of our fantasy grow up into the modern era.

I would highly recommend this well-written book to every Prescottonian...Arizonian...in fact anyone interested in the history of Prescott and Yavapai County. The author's extensive research - both for facts and photographs - has resulted in a fascinating tale of the growth of a small mining town and its surrounds.

Dan Flores has lived most of his life in the Horizontal Yellow. Another, more historical term for this land would be the Spanish-Mexican Frontier. Florida was not settled from Mexico, of course, and the settlement of California was decades to more than a century later.

Flores explores this land from both the history and natural history points of view, with the historical part generally beginning with the first Spanish-U.S. contact as part of post-Louisiana Treaty boundary negotiations.

Not all Texas is the Southern spillover of Dallas and Houston; get acquainted with the rest of it, and adjacent areas, in this book.

Dan Flores' long-awaited new book once again proves he has few peers when it comes to a deep understanding of his native Near Southwest, a vision for its long term health, and the ability to weave a tale which is scholarly, literary, and deeply personal.

If you are serious about learning more about plants, all forms of propogation, then this is the book for you. It gets technical, but again, if you are serious, then you can figure it out. Comprehensive, well organized, good drawings, good glossary (no pronunciation guide though)and good index. A must have reference. Thanks to Ms Nokes.

This book has received an Award of Excellence for book design in the 2001 Southern Books Competition. "Lovely green cloth binding opens to stunning title page typography that sits upon faint leaves. The typographic design is classic without being boring. Details, like the screened-back ornaments on the Contents page speak to the refinement of the design." Congratulations to the author and illustrator, designer Ellen McKie, and the University of Texas Press.

I have not yet read this book, I have only just ordered it, but I am so excited to read it because currently I am the coordinator of the Hollenback Community Garden in Brooklyn New York. Our garden is on the former site of the Hollenback Mansion where Amelia grew up, which burned down in 1979.

Compiled, edited and Annotated by Mary J. Straw Cook, Immortal Summer: A Victorian Woman's Travels In The Southwest is a collection of letters and black-and-white photographs by Amelia Hollenback, a Victorian woman who had the opportunity to see 1897 America with her own eyes. With extensive contextual annotation, Immortal Summer is a vivid, superbly organized and presented primary source which takes in what American life, land and people were really like more than a century ago. One curious note: Author and historian Mary Cook lives in Santa Fe in the very house that Amelia Hollenback commissioned John Gaw Meem to build in 1932!

Chaco Canyon is in the middle of nowhere, a unexceptional canyon in the New Mexico desert where nobody in his right mind would try to make a living. All the more amazing is that this barren place was the center of the Anasazi civilization. The Great House of Pueblo Bonito is the largest pre-historic building north of Mexico, counting 800 rooms and constructed about 1,000 years ago.

Chaco is mysterious and this book of seventeen essays by authorities in several fields explores those mysteries. One is given the point of view of the scholars as well as representatives of the Pueblo, Hopi, and the Navajo Indians. Good charts, maps, and photos, some in color, support the text. Perhaps the most interesting of all the mysteries is how the Anasazi fed themselves in this unpromising environment and a brief sidebar talks about Chaco agriculture -- although not enough.

The most interesting essay in the book is titled "The Chaco Navajos" and is about the coming of the Navajos, the Spaniards, and the Anglos to Chaco Canyon long after the Anasazi had disappeared. Included is a brief account of pioneer archaeologist, Richard Wetherill, killed in a gunfight with a Navajo in 1910. "Richard Wetherill Anasazi" by Frank McNitt is a fine biography of Wetherill, a character worthy of legend.

"In Search of Chaco" is an attractive, up-to-date look at current theories and thinking about Chaco. One suspects there's a lot more to learn. One quibble: I despise the politically correct term "Ancestral Pueblo" used by the scholars for the people who built Chaco. The old and romantic name, "Anasazi," is far preferable.

Smallchief

Chaco Canyon is in the middle of nowhere, a unexceptional canyon in the New Mexico desert where nobody in his right mind would try to make a living. All the more amazing is that this barren place was the center of the Anasazi civilization. The Great House of Pueblo Bonito is the largest pre-historic building north of Mexico, counting 800 rooms and constructed about 1,000 years ago.

Chaco is mysterious and this book of seventeen essays by authorities in several fields explores those mysteries. One is given the point of view of the scholars as well as representatives of the Pueblo, Hopi, and the Navajo Indians. Good charts, maps, and photos, some in color, support the text. Perhaps the most interesting of all the mysteries is how the Anasazi fed themselves in this unpromising environment and a brief sidebar talks about Chaco agriculture -- although not enough.

The most interesting essay in the book is titled "The Chaco Navajos" and is about the coming of the Navajos, the Spaniards, and the Anglos to Chaco Canyon long after the Anasazi had disappeared. Included is a brief account of pioneer archaeologist, Richard Wetherill, killed in a gunfight with a Navajo in 1910. "Richard Wetherill Anasazi" by Frank McNitt is a fine biography of Wetherill, a character worthy of legend.

"In Search of Chaco" is an attractive, up-to-date look at current theories and thinking about Chaco. One suspects there's a lot more to learn. One quibble: I despise the politically correct term "Ancestral Pueblo" used by the scholars for the people who built Chaco. The old and romantic name, "Anasazi," is far preferable.

Smallchief