Arizona Books

Strongly recommended reading from first page to last, The Keepsake Storm showcases the lyrical talents of academician and poet Gina Franco who draws upon an impressive tradition of storytelling in Latino literature to explore the transformative power of compassion. Dealing with such diverse themes as cultural alienation, lost family roots, the ambiguous nature of the self, Gina Franco uses her poetry to reaffirm the power of self-awareness, history, and places. Everything Goes Down a Changeling: A great cloud of tiny insects--ingenious,/the summer light sifted through all those wings/like that, like a thought shifting/over a bog veined in bright water./The air was coming down/with an imminent rain--I could feel it./And you were there, shaking your head,/smiling at the camera though I felt slighted./Everything goes down a changeling, you said./You've got to have it how you can./So it was hopeless already when I noticed/that my legs were running/with blood, with mosquitos thickly drowning,/when you turned from me saying,/well, it's what you wanted.

To say Gina Franco's "The Keepsake Storm" marks an "auspicious debut" flouts the work's wizened eye and immaculate intonation, as well as the balance it creates between self-invention and its reverence for the ancient. This may be a new voice, but its wisdom is ancient and its compassion bottomless in its mastery. There is nothing more boldly American than this poet's celebratory public-letting of sangre mestiza unleashed, harnessed and rivened through the lenses of Romantic and Victorian poetic sensibilities, Chicano cultural narrative and regional legend as it inundates-washes clean-transfuses, annihilates as much as it resuscitates, our notions of poetic form and ethnicity.

Although many articles are written each year on the subject of the "death of American Poetry," hundreds of books of poems by American authors go into print each year that test readers abilities to understand what is meant by "a sequence of poems," as if the words "sequence" and "poem" were some strange abstraction. Like a river, the trajectory of "The Keepsake Storm" however is crystalline from its beginning. It is a mistake to read "precious" into the sequence's seductively deceptive title: first separate "keep"-meaning: to honor; to store; to prevent; to maintain--from the Old English "sake"-meaning: a fault; a contention; an offence-and you only begin to touch on the enormity of Franco's ruminations on ethnicity, gender, abuse, longing, as well as a hopefulness coupled with a fear that hopelessness, real hopelessness, exists.

These poems tell as much of time and place as they undo conventional notions of each: in one poem, the poetic figure who has read, and understands the image created by Mary Shelley "Frankenstein," conflates-or folds-over, as if looking through a transparency-it's childhood notion of Frankenstein's castle as it rises up out of a mining town in Arizona. A flood clears a path and lays bare root and future in a poem called "Del Rio," yet is sustained by a premonitory voice-"The Spirit that Comes When You Call"-that, in its invocation of self, articulates core and derivation older than time, older than Western History, that encompasses Christianity, Indigenous traditionalism, and Colonial mythology as God, La Llarona, and an inextricable force align as one. "You want real?" "Fishing," the first sonnet of the sequence shouts, and then it dares you to look "real" in the eye, dares the reader to go where "God is mean and fresh." And through to the last, the collection holds up its end of the bargain by offering reflected and refracted images of human frailty at times in its most glorious pathos and at others in its most indecorous humor.

Read this book! Get a new enhanced education. It is like no other of the many wonderful and exciting collections published by the University of Arizona Press under its Camino Del Sol imprint. In many ways in differentiates itself from the others in that there are no robosos, tortillas, no borders erected as symbols of obstinacy in the face of oppression or change. If they are there, they are there: simply part of the landscape of a people and a place. Franco has pushed opened a new political and cultural arena for latina letters as her work seems to ask the questions, What do we do with the languages and images that we learn away from home; How are we to talk about ourselves once we've read the Shelleys? Onces we know more of the world than when we left, what do we do to tell those we now live with about where we have come from? This work brings fresh understanding to the notion of "mezclar," Without apology or sentiment, Franco has boldly and intelligently stated with grace and wisdom of formalist training, "I am Latina and this too is what it can sound like!"

John Alcock's status as the dean of animal behaviour studies is delightfully illustrated by this excellent book. A collection of over two dozen essays on the conduct of various animal [and one plant] species relate the findings of an Australian sabbatical. Using his own and other's research he poses questions arising from a medley of animal antics. How have these behaviours come about? He shows how these queries have adaptive evolutionary roots. The beauty of Darwin's idea, he reminds us, is that it provides us with "an adaptationist foundation" for testing hypotheses, arguments and ideas. Adaptations are subtle, often requiring careful perception and analysis. With careful study and cautious speculation he provides some stimulating ideas about the things he observed.

The examples are chiefly birds and insects. The first is Kookaburra, the "alarm clock" of Australian mornings, is famous for its raucous wake-up call. When other birds may sing, caw or carol throughout the day, why does Kooka limit himself [and it's the males doing the laughter] to this brief, but delightful, period? Put simply, it's an energy saving device! Once the territorial claim has been vocally established, he can go on to feeding or courting. Other birds exhibit the immense variation evolution has produced. The Mallee Fowl, a bush dweller may seem "a dream come true" for some. This turkey-sized bird upsets gender patterns. The male bird spends weeks building a five-metre wide nest, enticing a mate to join him, "allowing" her to deposit thirty eggs, then lets her wander off while he meticulously controls the nest environment ensuring a successful hatch. Further north, Bowerbird building is also the male's role. He constructs complex and gaudy structures, although not to the Mallee Fowl's immensity. Here, however, the bower is merely the conjugal boudoir, with the impregnated female left to wander away for both nest building and chick rearing.

Wasps display contrasting practices. With these insects, nest building is nearly uniformly a female task. Males, however, make contributions to mating and reproduction in many other ways. One wasp will bring nectar to a potential mate, then take her wingless body around from flower to flower as they seek a nest site. Other males are even more energetic. They will grab a moth or other large insect, then hang from a twig using the capture as bait. Wasp nesting behaviours offer yet more varieties in practice. One species employs a "housemaid" to guard and clean a ground nest. Such maintenance allows the food-bearing mother to fly directly into the nest, thereby avoiding predators.

Alcock's easy style in this book keeps you at his side. His text is enhanced by Marilyn Stewart's fine drawings. Good maps provide location reference and ranges of the subjects. His science is presented in a conversational, almost friendly manner. He wants you to share his awe, his interest, and his conclusions. We must be grateful to him for this, since we're all aware that others, who are as earnest and knowledgeable as he, don't manage to impart that with the same verve. He also notes that his findings aren't confined to the wonders of the island continent. The rules of life he outlines for us apply to the biosphere we inhabit. Read this book and find out what sort of world you live in. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Written by American biologist John Alcock (along with excellent illustrations by Marilyn Hoff Stewart), this book chronicles Alcock animal observations throughout the land Down Under. Alcocok observed the intimate details of the birth, breeding habits, feeding habits, and sometimes death of a large variety of Australian birds, insects, and mammals. Each chapter devoted to a particular species, he covers not only well known species such as the kookaburra, flying fox, and platypus, but lesser known ones (at least to Americans), such as the northern logrunner, resin wasp, and silver gull.

Alcock not only covers the life habits of a number of species, but also during the course of the book, using these species as examples, explores many concepts in biology. Why do birds sing so early in the morning? Are marsupials really primitive and not able to compete with placental mamamls (such as dogs and horses)? Particulary interesting are his speculations on adaptations on animals. Do all the features of an animal, from the cooperative efforts by grey-crowned babblers to raise a brood of young to the red tail feathers in the otherwise black red-tailed cockatoo all surve useful purposes in species (and individual) survival and were the results of evoultion, or is it wrong to atttribute every feature and behavior an animal to direct survival of individuals and the production of new offspring?

A highly worthwhile and readable book, I recommend it.

This books rocks. It is one of the few books we actually carry in our backpacks on month-long NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) expeditions in the Rockies. We generally appreciate anything Zwinger does, but this book stands by itself as both a classic in nature writing and a definitive nature reference for wilderness travellers in the alpine tundra.

If you have any interest in alpine tundra this is a must read book! If you have even a general interest in natural science and ecology this book is a classic. I was amazed at how the authors were able to integrate a crisp scientific exposition with an almost poetic writing style that left me with such vivid mental images. Even if you are not going to visit the tundra, this book is an experience. If you are hiking these areas it will expand the experience. Read this book!!!

This is the funniest, cleverest, most enjoyable book I have ever read. I recommend it unequivocally.

Read it, Loved it, Saw Others do the same! Want more from Wallace

_The Little Dinosaurs of Ghost Ranch_ by Edwin H. Colbert is a delightful, well-illustrated, and informative book written by the man most responsible for what we know about _Coelophysis bauri_, an important early dinosaur. Writing that one can view this book as a "paleontological case history," Colbert recounted not only the discovery and excavation of the famed mass burial of these little dinosaurs in New Mexico but also what is know of their anatomy, physiology, environment, and what the study of these animals has revealed about dinosaurs in general.

Originally on his way to prospect for fossils in Petrified Forest National Park in June of 1947, George Whitaker and the author (both working for the American Museum of Natural History in New York) and Tom Ierardi decided to investigate a promising fossil deposit on some privately owned land in New Mexico known as Ghost Ranch. The area was known to have produced phytosaur fossils and they only expected to spend a few days there. What instead happened was the beginning of decades of work as Colbert and others over the years came to work on a mass concentration of not "the huge bones of the giant dinosaurs of song and story" but instead the tiny bones of "ancestral dinosaurs."

Colbert described in detail the excavation of these 200 million year old fossils in the "colorful rounded badlands" that so entranced famous painter Georgia O'Keefe (who by the way lived nearby and befriended the scientists). The fossils were "exceedingly fragile," not only because the bones were very small and slender and the leg bones and vertebrae hollow, but because of the nature of their fossilization. They could disintegrate easily into tiny fragments if mishandled. The fossils had to be removed in huge sections instead of relatively thin slabs as the sandstone and siltstone that comprised the Chinle Formation at Ghost Ranch was very friable and liable to collapse. They had to be carefully, painstakingly, and sometimes dangerously removed in huge blocks, coated in thick plaster, burlap bandages, and a supporting framework of wood and then laboriously hauled out of the quarry. Eventually close to thirty blocks were removed from Ghost Ranch.

Of course removing the blocks from the quarry was just the start, as years were spent preparing the blocks. Though generally the lab preparation time and labor on a fossil takes more than ten times the work expended in the field, Colbert estimated that it took something "on the order of twenty to one" for _Coelophysis_. The fossils had to be removed from the rock by hand using jeweler's hammers and small chisels and treated with hardener; even the small, electric vibrating tools, commonly used in paleontology, would quickly reduce the fossils to powder.

Very early in the preparation stage the scientists made discoveries. Some fossils preserved the stomach contents of some of the dinosaurs, only the second time this was known from a carnivorous dinosaur and fascinatingly it revealed that _Coelophysis_ was a cannibal! Other interesting tidbits include the discovery of a "giant" _Coelophysis_ eleven feet long (most were usually six to eight feet; what was the ultimate size limit for this species?) and the fact that in almost all the specimens the lower jaw was tightly locked in place against the skull (evidence that the animals were buried so soon after death that muscles still held the lower jaws tightly in place rather than the skull and jaws becoming separated as is common with dinosaurs).

Colbert provided information about the history of the study of this dinosaur before the Ghost Ranch excavations, centering on David Baldwin of Abiquiu, New Mexico, who found the original _Coelophysis_ fragments in 1881 and Edward Drinker Cope of Philadelphia who first described them in 1887 (first it was placed in genus _Coelurus_ and later in genus _Tanystrophaeus_ before Cope named it _Coelophysis_ from Greek koilos meaning "hollow" and physis meaning "form, nature").

A chapter is spent on a quarry survey, describing the nature of the deposit, the climate at the time, and how the animals might have died and then been quickly buried. Though they apparently died in such numbers due to some catastrophe, there is much disagreement on its nature. Colbert discussed theories relating to volcanic activity (there are no volcanic sediments anywhere near the fossil deposit), poisoning perhaps from drinking water from a highly alkaline pond (unlikely as their bones indicated being deposited and buried by stream currents, not in the still waters of a lake), predator trap (unlikely also, as few individuals are maimed and there is very little disarticulation), and asteroid impact (Ghost Ranch "hardly qualifies for a "Wagnerian twilight"" as it was a local event). Most likely it was due to hunger or thirst from a drought or from drowning while crossing a flooding river.

Another chapter is spent on the anatomy of _Coelophysis_, notably on the key features of its skull and jaws, its vertebra, its tail and the role it played in balance and movement, and its bird-like feet with five toes, only three of which were functional.

A chapter on its lifestyle showed us what tracks attributed to the animal revealed about its physiology and speed (it seems to have been able to reach maximum speeds of fifteen to twenty miles an hour), what analysis of Haversian canals in the bones revealed about its growth rate and physiology, the complicated issue of just what it means to be "warm-blooded," and discussed issues relating to diet, cannibalism, possible congregation in age groups, the size and shape of their eggs, and what their senses might have been like.

Colbert also discussed the ancestors and descendents of _Coelophysis_, how it was one of a very few late Triassic dinosaurs, residents of a largely non-dinosaurian world, and how it established the pattern followed by later small coelurosaurs, ostrich-like struthiomimosaurs, dromaeosaurs, and the tyrannosaurs.

Colbert does not neglect the animals that shared the world with _Coelophysis_ and discussed contemporary amphibians, reptiles, other dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and early mammals.

This is a well-written book that covers the discovery, excavation, and reconstruction of a dinosaur (coelophysis). Discussion centered on this small therapod incorporates broader material, so that the reader gets an understanding of the life and times of other prehistoric creatures in addition to a detailed account of coelophysis

Fortunately, I have a copy of "Lost Pony Tracks" in my personal library. Well, two; the second one, a replacement of the original, is in excellent condition; the "first", a small pocketbook version, is battered, well-worn; bears all the earmarks of an energetic cowgirl child having read it many times over, including a well-placed ketchup stain or two. The cover of that over-loved book still fascinates me - a silhouette of a cowboy on his horse, leg thrown over the pommel, a Saguaro cactus off to the left, and a flaming Southwest sunset backdrop behind them both. It's something not forgotten easily, and that photo-cover is etched in my mind and belongs to the story.

The book without the cover at all, stands at the top of it's kind. Ross Santee was a writer of extraordinary talent. As a self-described "tenderfoot" coming from the East, "Lost Pony Tracks" sprang from his personal encounters with the cowboys of the Arizona of long ago. It is a wonderful book; he captures the essence of everything; the horses, cattle, the "wrecks" with the pack horses; the unique individuals he meets during his stay with them, a self sufficient, tough "breed apart" of men - although us women are in short supply within the pages of his book. (lost woman tracks?) They made their own entertainment, their own religion. He gives us a glimpse into almost everything real of the life of the buckaroo.

One of the passages best remembered was toward the end of this remarkable story that you didn't want to end: "Why is it", he wrote, "when an old cowboy gets ready to take that long, one-way ride, he always starts talking about some old pet horse that's been dead for forty years?"

The way of life as they knew it is dead too; and while it stubbornly exists in some places still, it is in a form that would be unfamiliar to the one Santee saw and lived with on his journeys into the old West.

I highly recommend this book if you can obtain a copy. It's authentic Western Americana, written in a style you won't forget.

First published in 1953, this book is currently out of print, and it shouldn't be. It's a fine, wonderfully written, sensitively drawn memoir of cowboying in Arizona in the years before and after WWI. Santee was 26 years old when he left his small-town Iowa roots and a struggling career as an artist in New York to spend some time with family in Arizona, where he took a job as a "lowly" horse wrangler for an outfit near Globe. Over the years, as a western writer, who illustrated his own books in his distinctive style (now much appreciated), he based his stories and novels on this experience of the everyday lives of men and their horses.

Santee was a perceptive, thoughtful, and observant writer who captured in accounts of incidents and conversations a depth of social history that is hard to find in other books of its kind. It's also rare to find a portrayal of cowboy life so heart-felt. While he had his complaints about men whose faults and deficiencies made them ill-suited to being cowboys, he is chiefly interested in the many men he regarded as admirable for their one-of-a-kind personalities and their strength of character. Among them is the foreman, Shorty Caraway, whose early years on the range are recounted in Santee's "Cowboy," and there are many others, each captured with a precise and loving eye for detail. There is a generous spirit and a gentle humor throughout this book that is sometimes sentimental without ever being corny. In his depiction of daily life in an all-male work environment, Santee gets it just right. His books belong on any shelf of western literature.

Loved the biography well written and thorough. Lowell was a terribly misunderstood genius. Also, the new book in reprint Mars: As the Abode of Life Lowell's proof of life on Mars is worth a try.

If you can't imagine a book on astronomy being a "page turner" then I invite you to pick up a copy of this book. Because of Lowell's belief in Martian life and canals, and his spirited defense of these beliefs, he is often portrayed as a "kook" and "crack pot." Lowell is neither of these things - and he was not the only astronomer of his time to share his belief. One of Percival Lowell's greatest gifts to astronomy is alive and well today; it is the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona - one of the finest astronomical observatories in the world. Whatever you may have heard or read about Lowell, in this book you will meet a fascinating man that, I think, you would have liked to have known.

I like this book! The cover was innocuous and not at all promising but the book was extremely well written for the romance genre, had well thought out, human responses and dialogue and I liked it very much! I was disappointed to not find much else by the author - maybe I'll keep searching

Judi
Blind Spot A romantic ecosuspense book.

Information from the book's back cover is as follows.
DEALING WITH THE DEVIL. The minute Sara opened the shop door, the old feelings came rushing back. The jingling harness brasses, the warm smell of cedar, and the dim light of the brass fixtures reminded Sara Dugan of her childhood, when she'd watched Owen Dixon's grandfather make hats with care and pride. Now that the old man had passed on, Owen was the last of a rare breed: a hatter with a penchant for double-talk and an eye for the ladies.

Tall, lean Owen was one of the reasons Sara had left Arizona town years ago. Back then, she'd been a shy teenager with a terrible crush on Owen, the black-haired man nicknamed Devil. And despite the fact that the years had only made him look wilder and sexier, Sara focused on the business at hand---the deal she'd come to proposed. Own had been afraid to contact Sara after she'd left town. How could you tell a girl that distance was a good thing? How could you tell her that she was becoming a beauty who made your pulse race whenever she came near? But little Sara Dugan had gone off and grown up. And she was about to make a deal with the man they called DEVIL.

A book very much about the Grand Canyon and the art it has inspired from the 1850s to the end of the twentieth century. While predominantly paintings, oils and watercolours, there are also a few photographs and some etchings and drawings. Following the Foreword and Introduction, the book is divided into eight sections which include several discussions of the artists, the effect of the railway and other excursions, and contemporary views. There are also scattered throughout the book interesting short historical quotations from various sources. However the text is fairly minimal in relation to the number or power of the illustrations. The book also provides a selected bibliography.

There are about sixty artists represented by their work, some by just one painting, others by as many as many as six or more. Included in the latter group are Louis Akin, Thomas Moran and Gunnar M Winfross. The text discusses the art and artists often in comparison and always very much in association with the Grand Canyon and the reciprocal effects.

It is a very attractive and due to the paintings an extremely colourful book, illustrated throughout in full colour (apart from the obvious black and white photographs). Most of the pictures are reproduced large to full page and several occupy up to two pages. The wide landscape format of the book is well suited to the many panoramic views (the book measures 9.75" x 11.5"). The quality of reproduction is excellent with the texture of paint and brushwork often clearly evident. On account of the well in excess of 100 illustrations to which the adjectives dramatic, sublime, ethereal can be freely applied, this is without doubt a most imposing book.

A beautifully illustrated overview of artistic responses to America's most famous natural wonder. Ranging from portrayals by early expeditionary artists to recent panoramas that exult in the region's chromatic and geological complexity, this book examines a diverse array of imagery in historical context, augmented by a profusion of literary, scientific, and historical quotations about the canyon and its sublime effects.

First documenting the canyon's potential as a navigable waterway, then working for railroad companies interested in the area's tourist value, artists today are drawn to the region for a host of reasons, but all continue to be fascinated by its enduring spectacle. The Majesty of the Grand Canyon celebrates their achievements and explores their struggle to approach the epic grandeur.

A great history AND art AND art history for both kids and adults, USA-ers and non-USA-ers esp. not likely to see in person, or if you have been so lucky, reinforces those wonderful memories!

The Mobil Travel Guide for California was invaluable for our recent trips on the California coast and to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon. My past experience with other Mobil Travel Guides is that their information is complete and accurate. The ratings system for hotels and restaurants are reliable and will steer you to excellent values and quality establishments. Unless an establishment is brand new, it is a safe bet that it has not been included in the Guide for a reason. The Guide is especially helpful for families who are looking for a quality hotel room or meal for a reasonable price.

We have used the maps in the Guide and it has helpful information for planning trips, including mileage and time between destinations. The individual listings of motels, hotels and restaurants give useful information regarding decor, amenities and pets. We moved our family and pets across country using the Mobil Guide to find hotels that accepted dogs in our price range. This is the finest resource for domestic travel that I have seen. I recommend that you buy it for planning your trip and don't forget to bring it along. We changed our travel plans in the Mojave desert and made reservations on our cell phone using the Mobil Guide to California and the West!

The guide has a nice layout, which makes things easy to find. Each section gives a general overview of what there is to do in an area; this is a great starting point if you are not familiar with the location. I think this would be a great asset to anyone traveling about in Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah.