New Mexico Books

If you have an interest in Storyteller pottery this is probably the most definitive book you will find. It is well illustrated with many photographs of storyteller pottery. Most of the "big name" potters are included. The only problem is, now that you've found the pottery that you like, HOW DO YOU FIND THE POTTER? Problem solved - check out THE NATIVE AMERICAN INDIAN ARTIST DIRECTORY. Find the potter you like in Babcock's book, then look up the name in the index of the Directory and there you have it - name, address, home phone number, maybe even e-mail or website!

If you plan to travel in the Santa Fe/Taos/ Albuquerque area and want to see the Pueblos, this is a must. It is concise but complete.

Each Pueblo is described and history given. You'll even know how to pronounce the names properly. such as Cochiti or Acoma.

You'll know where to buy pottery, jewelry or art work.

See the beautiful Southwest.

I purchased this book as a gift for my mom. She moved to Los Alamos in 1951 and has really enjoyed reminiscing about the housing and people she first met. A must read for the Los Alamos oldtimers, a fun walk down memory lane.

What a great work of history! This book was honestly like a breath of fresh air. I read so many histories, and this one really stood out to me. The author weaves a complex and engaging story through the various narratives, and ends up painting a very interesting picture of colonial society in Quito. Kris Lane presents some very interesting research and knows how to tell a good story. This book is one of the better histories I have read in the last several years, and I have read many.

Award-winning children's book creators Deborah L. Duvall and Murv Jacob present Rabbit and the Well, the latest in a series of picturebooks based on a Cherokee cycle of animal tales. In Rabbit and the Well, Ji-Stu the trickster rabbit persuades his animal friends to dig a well so that they will have enough to drink in times of drought. But Ji-Stu is too lazy to participate in creating the well! When Ji-Stu plies his tricks to steal well water anyway, the animals get together and hatch a plan to teach the selfish rabbit a lesson. The stylized illustrations add the perfect touch to this gentle story about the importance of responsibility and community.

Ms. Duvall has been writing the Rabbit books, based on traditional Cherokee stories, and her husband Murv Jacob has been illustrating them brilliantly, for a number of years now. One of my friends who visits Tahlequah, Oklahoma annually has been buying these books at Murv's shop each time she hits town. I finally bought one myself from Amazon when my friend sent me to a site where Rabbit Goes to Kansas could be viewed.

In this charming story, clearly Ms. Duvall's original addition to the Rabbit mythos, Rabbit travels to Kansas, meets a settlement of Jayhawks, and brings the sport of basketball back to Oklahoma. Both the story and the artwork are delightful, and, speaking as a KU graduate, I can't imagine a better gift for any Jayhawk.

I highly recommend both Rabbit Goes to Kansas and the other Duvall & Jacob books Amazon offers. Not only are these wonderful books for children, they speak clearly also to the inner child in all of us.

Deftly authored for young readers by Deborah L. Duvall and graced with paintings by Murv Jacob, Rabbit Plants The Forest is the folktale tale story from Native American and Cherokee cultures of Ji-Stu (Rabbit) and the invitation from Sa-lo-li the Squirrel to help plant the forest with the seeds of new trees. Illustriously carrying young readers through this story drawn from Cherokee traditional lore, Rabbit Plants The Forest follows Ji-Stu and Sa-lo-li in their adventurous quest to plant hickory nuts, walnuts, pecans and acorns (which her family have planted since the world began) to keep the forest a thick and beautiful place. Rabbit Plants The Forest is very highly recommended as the creative and vivid telling of two growing spirits as they pursue life and happiness, as well as a better world for all throughout their forest home.

I had the distinct pleasure of viewing a copy of this book over the weekend, and wondered why it has taken so long for someone to take enough notice of Rance Hood's work to finally put together a wonderful gift of a book such as "Rance Hood: Mystic Painter." The artist himself supplied the photos for the project, while a tremendous writer, Jim Hester, provides the beautiful text. The pairing of these two seems preordained, as the words and imagery work together magnificently!

If you're searching for gift ideas and have an artist in your family, this book is highly recommended!

This book has 29 true short stories of people who lived in New Mexico, when it was a territory. Each story is about 2-5 pages long. There are some black and white pictures of these same people included in the book.

What a wonderful book. I particularly liked these were people who lived in New Mexico and that I could look at the pictures of each person as I read about them. This author has certainly done a lot of research. I have read a lot of New Mexico history and this book is gem. Many of the stories were ones that I had never heard before. Because the stories are short, it is easy to pick the book up for 15 or 20 minutes, read a story and put it down without losing your place. I appreciated the humor that Marc Simmons displays through out this book, many of these short stories end on a humorous note.

This is a great book about the people who lived in New Mexico when it was still being formed into a state. It certainly provides a history of New Mexico through a different slant. I enjoyed every minute of reading it. My husband read it and enjoyed it as well.

Unlike other disorienting works by other authors in this field, you can depend on this work to keep you headed in the right direction at all times (or time zones, as the case may be). Just remember to fold properly between chapters (outings?) and always remember that anytime you're going uphill, you're pointed north.