New Mexico Books

The final chapter is in an interesting and informative look at outdoor life in New Mexico in 1824. Jean-Paul Tibbles' illustrations, warm and filled with emotion, add a great deal to the story, and are a welcome addition.

My daughter and I both liked this book. The story has its scary parts, but it also has a nice lesson, and I enjoy the frank look at life then and there. This is another excellent book, a worthwhile addition to your library.

The final chapter of this wonderful book is a highly informative look at Christmas in New Mexico in 1824. Jean-Paul Tibbles' excellent illustrations complement the story nicely, and add a great deal to the joy of reading this book.

This is a wonderful story, with some excellent lessons. I liked the way the family pulled together, and worked hard towards something beyond themselves. Also, I like how the family's religion is worked into the book in a warm and inspiring way. This is another excellent American Girls book, one that my daughter and I recommend to you.

Cheryl Thornburg ...

'Pursuit'

By Rudy Apodaca

The name Rudy Apodaca is well known to many New Mexicans, but his latest venture could expand that acclaim. The retired Appeals Court judge has embarked on a career as an author, and his novel, "Pursuit," is an action-packed thriller that covers a lot of territory, from Vietnam during the war to present-day Washington, D.C., Athens and Paris.

Apodaca's legal background shows as he methodically sets the stage in the first four chapters for what becomes a fast-paced thriller full of sex, lies, kidnappings and political intrigue.

It is the story of John Garcia, a successful attorney whose career defending large corporate clients is putting a strain on his marriage because of the long hours he puts in.

He is also restless career-wise, and is considering taking a judgeship position that has been offered to him.

Enter the Soliz family, whose son has been accused of attacking a young woman from a prominent family, and Garcia finds himself drawn back into his former role of defense attorney and liking it, much to the chagrin of his wife and business partners.

All the while in the background are lurking two men following Garcia for unknown reasons. It is when their identity and purpose is revealed that the novel really takes off.

The plots and subplots in this novel will keep the reader involved, and Apodaca's legal expertise shows in the courtroom scenes that ring true.

The Santa Fe and Albuquerque settings will feel comfortable to New Mexicans, and the far-flung other locations provide the exotic element called for in this genre. ...

'Pursuit'

By Rudy Apodaca

The name Rudy Apodaca is well known to many New Mexicans, but his latest venture could expand that acclaim. The retired Appeals Court judge has embarked on a career as an author, and his novel, "Pursuit," is an action-packed thriller that covers a lot of territory, from Vietnam during the war to present-day Washington, D.C., Athens and Paris.

Apodaca's legal background shows as he methodically sets the stage in the first four chapters for what becomes a fast-paced thriller full of sex, lies, kidnappings and political intrigue.

It is the story of John Garcia, a successful attorney whose career defending large corporate clients is putting a strain on his marriage because of the long hours he puts in.

He is also restless career-wise, and is considering taking a judgeship position that has been offered to him.

Enter the Soliz family, whose son has been accused of attacking a young woman from a prominent family, and Garcia finds himself drawn back into his former role of defense attorney and liking it, much to the chagrin of his wife and business partners.

All the while in the background are lurking two men following Garcia for unknown reasons. It is when their identity and purpose is revealed that the novel really takes off.

The plots and subplots in this novel will keep the reader involved, and Apodaca's legal expertise shows in the courtroom scenes that ring true.

The Santa Fe and Albuquerque settings will feel comfortable to New Mexicans, and the far-flung other locations provide the exotic element called for in this genre...

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

It enters you into a movie of life in those days around Taos. A rainbow of different voices speak. And the voiceover of the narrator is sure and true. Most delightful to me was remembering things I'd all but forgotten - like the Oriental Blue Streaks (a band), Da Nahazli (a hip school), Old Martinez Hall (a place, and the summer solstice at New Buffalo (a happening). Here in these pages, I've found people and places I haven't thought about for a long time - Feather, Preacher, Pabla, Teddy the Juggler, Hotsy Totsy, the Stragecoach Hot Springs, the General Store, peyote meetings on the mesa, Little Joe and Henry Gomez. It all comes back in color and glory and story and song, and it's food for the heart.

"I was always on the hunt for a mythological explanation of the world," says Keltz. "We were reverting to an old form - tribalism - but in a very new way. We would not be a tribe because of lineage, race, language, or tradition. We were a rainbow of people becoming a tribe because we had a collective belief in an alternative to materialism, greed, military power and an unpopular war fought using our brothers, schoolmates and boyfriends."

Not that there weren't some down times, hard times, foolish mistakes and even dangerous blunders. The author makes that clear. We were feeling our way, making it up as we went along. It was colored funny and fun and scary and serious. We knew that the only way to change the world was to change ourselves first. And we did that. None of us who lived through those times are the same people today.

I did catch some inaccuracies - but those are all in the memories of individual voices here. None of them are egregious errors or deliberate slights or misrepresentations as those often found in other chronicles of this time. Somebody said, "If you remember the '60s, you weren't there."

When you're living the life from day to day, it can seem ordinary. You chop wood and haul water, you cook oatmeal for the kids, you gather watercress and rose hips by the rio, but when you step into the world of this book, and the author does her magic for you, the patina of years transforms it into a whole round thing - like a soap bubble in the sun.

I learned a lot about what I'd missed - the hippie New Mexico oracle, "Fountain of Light" and the hippie-made Bicentennial silver and gold concha belt that was worth many thousands (but priceless really) and destined for the Bicentennial 1978 exhibit at the Smithsonian - but was stolen. I slept through all that but sure am glad to know about it now.

There's no index in this, so you can't look up any nouns, but after reading the whole thing, I think I understand why Iris didn't do an index. The story, the saga, is greater than its individual parts and greater than the sum of its parts.

Says Keltz, "We were the critical mass that could change the direction of our capitalistic society" and, "...we were unafraid of our inconsistencies, a people who embraced paradox as the slippery road to a glorious future."

Friends who have this scrapbook have told me that they skipped around, reading only about themselves and their friends, but I recommend doing as the White King advises. "Begin at the beginning; go right on until you come to the end; then stop." That way, you know what to go back to and look at again - photos, drawings, dialogue - whatever. Even if you don't know a single person, place or idea in this book, I believe the work stands on its own merits as a valuable historical chronicle. Sounds like marbles rolling, doesn't it? Rolling through this scrapbook, this album, this experience. Splendid stuff.

pamhan99@aol.com

Henry B. Crawford, Museum of Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX

"Six horse wagons are constructed in Pittsburg, loaded with assorted goods from New York and Philadelphia, transported to Independence in Missouri, and there driven across the country to Mexico . . ."

The great wagons of trade were the means by which the Far West was opened. Mark L. Gardner's "Wagons for the Santa Fe Trade," tells who built these wagons, how they were built and the changes in design as the years passed. Perhaps what comes through most clearly is that the great freight wagons were complex pieces of technology, best constructed by a factory system, not unlike how automobiles are assembled today. By means of these wagons, the South West was brought into contact with the United States, and, eventually, absorbed into the Union. An important and vital chapter of American history well told and well documented.

The final chapter deals with the adventure of the Wind Wagon. In these days of high gas prices it is charming to consider that an attempt was made to avoid high mule prices. A sailed wagon was actually patented (the patent drawings are in the book) and launched. Sometimes the stuff of legend is the truth.