Southwest Books

I wish I had had this guidebook when I visited Roswell before. On my next visit I will know what to do besides go to the UFO Museum. Who knew you could ride an antique carousel, attend a live cattle auction, or photograph the hanger where they stored the UFO Crash debris (including the alien bodies)? The section on Nightlife even destroys the myth that there is nothing to do in Roswell after 8 p.m.

The book is well organized, interesting, easy to read, and has a few touches of humor that make it more fun than the usual dry travel guide. I also like the clever alien drawings in the margins. Now I'm ready for my next trip to Roswell!

This is a very useful guidebook for touring Roswell or for learning more about the town where the Roswell Incident took place. It is accurate and up to date. Its website also provides useful travel updates.

The book is arranged by sections of town, making it easy to use as a guide for walking or driving around. Its many maps are helpful but some include too many locations to be read easily.

The whole chapter "On the Trail of the Roswell UFO Crash" has interesting information about the events and locations around town associated with the UFO Crash, as well as information about the UFO Museum, UFO Festival, UFO souvenirs, and even the lyrics to a witty song, "UFO Breakdown." The author doesn't take a position on UFOs but gives a good sample of different stories that have been told about the incident so that a tourist can see how the locations the book describes fit into the overall picture.

Beyond UFOs, the book points out lots of other attractions and activities available to the tourist. It seems to make an effort to identify locations representing Roswell's multicultural roots: Anglo, Hispanic, African-American, Asian, Native American, Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish.

It also points out locations of interesting, if minor, historical events related to Charles Lindbergh, General John Pershing, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, William Jennings Bryant, Will Rogers, Conrad Hilton, and, of course, Elvis.

The nine page index makes locations easy to find. The appendix lists books and DVDs about Roswell--both UFO-related and on topics ranging from Billy the Kid to Marilyn Monroe.

Charming line drawings of aliens are scattered throughout. Don't miss my favorite one that spoofs the town's alien-face lampposts. It's easily overlooked at the very end of the book.

This book works well as a detailed guide for visitors to find their way to major and minor attractions around Roswell. It also creates a sense of the place for armchair travelers who are interested in visualizing the setting of the 1947 events surrounding the UFO crash. I recommend it for both types of visitors.

Patrick Dearen, a professional journalist and inveterate outdoorsman, writes well and fairly on this unusual subject. He paints a true picture of old time West Texas, its denizens, and of a time now mostly past. This readable account has excellent bibliographic references. The best part is its authenticity and plain entertaining style. It is simply a winner.

SADDLING UP ANYWAY: THE DANGEROUS LIVES OF OLD-TIME COWBOYS uses actual stories from cowboys before the 1930s to blend tales with accounts of heroism and life on the early frontier. A glossary of cowboy language and terminology helps in understanding the accounts, while chapters discuss the duties and lives of the frontier hand.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The speed in which I received my book was wonderful - and I can't remember the last time a book that was used was in such great quality!
Thanks for making my Christmas a Merry One!

I visited Santa Fe 20 years ago and was charmed by the city, enough so that I moved here and have made it my home. I keep meeting other people with the same story.

So what a pleasure it is to find this beautifully photographed love song to Santa Fe! The historical photos are fascinating. I recognize some of the spots, but many places have changed so much. The nice thing is that Santa Fe, while growing and changing, retains is charm and its easygoing atmosphere.

This book is a treasure.

Santa Fe will be 400 years old next year, and this beautifully illustrated and written book was issued in commemoration of its rich history.

There are eleven chapters, nine dealing with various historical eras in the city's history: high desert living before the formation of the city, the founding, the Pueblo Revolt, the Spanish Restoration, 25 years as a Mexican town, the U.S. occupation, the Santa Fe Trail, the Palace of Governors and a history of histories of the city. Each chapter is written by a recognized expert in the area, and each is illustrated with many black and white images.

Two chapters were particularly interesting to me. "Españols, Castas, y Labradores" by Adrian H. Bustamante is a very careful analysis of the the complex mixing and cross mixing of different ethnic backgrounds. "One's social position was determined by the degree of pureza de sangre española that flowed in one's veins. To have been born in Spain, especially in Castile, gave one the highest classification possible -- penninsular." Pure españoles who had been born in the New World had the marginally lower status of Criollos (Creoles)." The book lists on page 54 (you may be able to retrieve a copy through the Amazon Search this Book function) 22 separate "castas" typical of the 18th century: mestizo, castizo, otrna a español, mulato, morisco, etc.

Tara M. Plewa's "Acequia Agriculture" is a beautifully written, fact laden discussion of water, irrigation and their defining roles in Santa Fe's history. "Long established Spanish irrigation methods translated well to the dry landscape. The practice of irrigation necessitated establishing rules so that benefits were divided equitably among users. As I. G. Clark has written in his insightful book, Water in New Mexico: A History of Its Management and Use, Spaniards had centuries before learned irrigation techniques from the Romans and, later, Islamic water law from the Moors. It was the Prophet Mohammed who had taught about the law of thirst, which grants living things free access to all waters to satisfy their needs. ... These ideas, established more than one thousand years ago, form the foundations of contemporary water laws followed in the western United States today." Plewa illustrated her essay with a number of maps, pictures and charts, perhaps the most interesting two photographs of the Acequia Madre from 1890 and 2007, respectively -- the principles of Mohammed in practice many hundreds of years after his death.

The publisher offers a very generous extract from the book at sarpress.sarweb.org , focusing on the archeological studies of the city.

Two weeks ago I asked the owner of Collected Works, a great bookstore in Santa Fe for the "essential" books needed to understand Santa Fe. Her list: New Mexico: An Interpretive History by Marc Simmons; Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya; The Wind Leaves No Shadow by Ruth Laughlin; The House at Otowi Bridge: The Story of Edith Warner and Los Alamos by Peggy Pond Church; and Santa Fe, History of an Ancient City: Revised and Expanded Edition edited by David Grant Noble.

This wonderful volume is a perfect introduction of this complex, endlessly fascinating city.

Robert C. Ross 2008

The chapter edited by Tara Plewa remains one of the most enlightened discourses on the Santa Fe River that I have ever read. Plewa is a brilliant writer, with a knack for detailing this area and its history is an unparalleled manner... this one is not to be missed, and be on the lookout for anything that Plewa writes!

I have only just finished reading this wonderful book about Henry Shukman's journeys in New Mexico.My own imagination would take over as i took in all the fascinating landscapes,people and places that the author was sharing with me.Indians and artists,shacks and glorious views from the middle of no-where...The author came across as sensitive and although at times he would feel pulled by fond memories of England,his passion for where he was there and then was so obvious.I now have a passionate dream of my own. To go and search out these places for myself and be inspired by all they have to offer..

The writings of the author left a deep impression on me. He writes with a very romantic, extremely descriptive style that allows you to feel what he saw. I lived in NM for 3 years and after reading the book was ready to go back. Mr Shukman did such a great job detailing his journey. He described many of the places I remember from there. I found myself nostalgic for the Southwest. He did such a good job, that I was ready to go back because I wanted to visit some of the places that I had never gone to when I had the opportunity. After you read the book, if you've never been to the Southwest you too will be ready to pack your bags!!!

I have several scat and track field guides, and this is my favorite. It has excellent illustrations of the animals, scats, tracks, and track patterns. It has nifty little size guides to the tracks right on the same page and a ruler on the back cover. It covers a large geographical area: CA, NV, UT, AZ, CO, NM, and TX. The intro gives a great overview of how to learn how to track. This book is well worth the money!

I found this book to be informative and very user friendly, especially since it is hand held size, making easy to take into the field. Halfpenny also gives accurate measurements of track size and gait patterns for each species and a brief description of the animals. In addition, there is a strong emphasis on the scat of each species with very detail drawings. There is also a section on the tracks of various bird species. a must for everyone interested in tracking in the southwest.

If you love Sedona, this is the perfect book for you. The pictures are amazing.

A very nice photo-history of Sedona & Oak Creek Canyon, with photos largely from the Sedona Historical Society archives. Author Heidinger , a great-grandaughter of the namesake of the town, is well-qualified to write about her subject.

The first Anglo settler moved into Oak Creek Canyon in 1879. The early settlers were farmers and ranchers. Oak Creek Canyon was well-known for its apple orchards. In 1902, when the Sedona post office was established, there were 55 residents. In the mid-1950's, the first telephone directory listed 155 names. Parts of the Sedona area weren't electrified until the 1960's.

Sedona began to develop as a tourist destination, vacation-home and retirement center in the 1950's. Most of the development seen today was constructed in the 1980's and 1990's.

The cover photo is TC & Sedona Schnebly's home below Schnebly Hill, about 1901. TC was Sedona's first postmaster, and their home doubled as Sedona's first hotel.

Recommended for Sedona residents and Redrock Country fans. And I recommend a visit to the Sedona Heritage Museum when you're in the area.

Happy reading--
Peter D. Tillman

I purchased this book after a recent visit to the Santuario de Chimayo near Taos, New Mexico, which is one of the churches it features. The photos are absolutely gorgeous and provide an excellent feel for the incredible beauty of these wonderful, historical buildings. The book covers everything from each church's unique architecture to the fascinating folk art that can be found within.

This book features superb photography of the historic Catholic missions built in the southwest states and California. The beautiful photographs, many of them full-page, are of exterior and interior views of the missions, as well as closeups of architectural and artistic details. A short written history accompanies each featured mission, and although there are some mentions of the historical personages and events connected with the missions, most of the histories refer to the physical aspects of the missions such as their construction, remodeling, etc. This is a great coffee-table or armchair traveler book, but one will need to look elsewhere for a serious study about mission history.

Many books have been written about the Comstock Lode, and the haydays from 1859 to 1880. But not much has been written about the men that put together the " Big Bonanza" It is really interesting, about how the discovery and development of the Big Bonanza came into being.

Also it tell of what was done by the Bonanza Crowd, ( McKay, Fair Flood and O'Brian, with their new found wealth, and what they did with it.
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Anyone interested in early Nevada and Comstock history will like this book.

I first read the "Silver Kings: The Lives and Times of MacKay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, Lords of the Nevada Comstock Lode", because there was a family story that James G. Fair might be a lost relative. If he is it's quite distant, but the book was so interesting that I've since read everything I could get my hands on about the Comstock Lode and it's characters. Virginia City really did more as the birth place of the myths and truths of the Old West than did Tombstone or Dodge City. I am also an "Earp" buff and have read much available on the "Gun Fight" related characters. Even Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, was a reporter for the Virginia City newspaper during his early days. The book was fantastic. I'm glad to see it in reprint as I will give it as gifts to some of my friends. I had hunted long and hard for my old copy. If you like stories of the Old West you will enjoy this one. And the stories are true.
Senator Mike Fair
Oklahoma State Senator