Arizona Books

Joy Harjo is a multi-talented artist - poetry and music (with Poetic Justice) available. Here she has paired her words to Stephen Strom's photographs. His photographs of landscapes have an unusual and very effective use of colors ... many reminding me of the softness of watercolor or pastels.

Joy Harjo has provided text - somewhere between prose and prose poems - that engage the accompanying photographs to create a mythic sense. For example a photo of rose-tinted desert sand with no sky (Overlook west of Tuba City)is accompanied by "Two sisters meet on horseback. They gossip: a cousin eloped with someone's husband, twins were born to his wife. One is headed toward Tsaile, and the other to Round Rock. Their horses are rose sand, with manes of ashy rock."

An excellent book.

Nowhere have I read poetry that so completely encompasses the Native American view of the connectedness of all things. Harjo's writings, coupled with Steven Strom's photography of "Indian country" make this a book that I read over and over, each time drawing something new. It is one of the only books I've ever read that convinces me that language is "alive", as alive as we are, as alive as the shoulder bone of a mountian, as alive as a comet which streaks its way across the sky. It is my favorite book. Period.

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

Fowler and Mooney have produced the most accessible -- and frightening -- book yet covering the ongoing loss of crop genetic diversity.

You think the Irish Potato Famine was bad? We may not have seen anything yet.

I am novice plant lover and read this book given to me by a farmer who is saving seeds in Idaho. It is excellent reading for anyone interested in our children's future as the threat to genetic diversity happening now will affect their welfare. EVERYONE should consider saving seeds! It covers complex issues in a readable manner and is worth having in your reference home library along with information on heirloom seeds. It puts a new spin on the potatoe famine in Ireland and outlines how realistically we should be concerned about famine here and abroad. "if diversity is to be saved, it may have to be saved by amateurs." A wonderful book.

"The Silver of the Sierra Madre," which plays off the title of B Traven's masterpiece, is a history book that reads like an adventure story. It centers on the Americans John Robinson and Alexander Shepherd, and others like them, who came to northern Mexico to get rich by opening silver mines. Hart uses primary sources such as diaries, letters and obscure books in both English and Spanish to chronicle the difficulties these American capitalists had as they searched for silver. The book is centered on Batopilas, one of the most unusual towns and earth, at least as difficult to reach as a Nepalese town in the Himalayas. To get there you had to ride on mules through some of the most beautiful and dangerous country on the planet, the Barranca del Cobre, a system of seven canyons that makes our Grand Canyon seem small by comparison. This is a little known part of American history that professor Hart makes come alive with the skill of a novelist backed up by the research of a great historian .

For anyone interested in the Copper Canyon region of the Mexican State of Chihuahua this books is a welcome addition to the rather small canon of works about this area of Mexico (in English no less!). Hart provides a good synthesis that is equal parts, travel log, 19th century business practices study, all set within the cultural back ground of the residents of the canyons. Many people who have interest in this area of Chihuahua are well acquainted with Grant Shepherd's book "Silver Magnet" and will find this an excellent "prequel" as well as a scholarly counterpoint to that work. The first half of this work is dedicated to the ownership of the mines in Batopilas by John Robinson, and the second half to the ownership of the mines under Alexander Shepherd. To round out the work Hart provides us with 25 mostly historic photographs of the area. Shepherd's business practices are well exposed as are those of the Mexicans in the second half of the book and it is easy to understand the frustrations of the lower classes. For those of us in the United States similar conditions frequently existed though the response in the early 20th century brought the system back to equilibrium unlike Mexico which erupted in violence.

Hart's writing makes for a fast and interesting read though he does tend to relate some points more than once throughout the book. He also has a tendency to alternately refer to the principal characters by their last names then by first names where it is my experience most writers of history tend towards always referring to their subject by last name only. Then again this more casual style may well be the ultimate reason the book is more reader friendly compared to some other history books.

Curiously, Hart mentions at least twice in this book that John Robinson's grandson married General Luis Terrazas' only granddaughter. It would seem from Mark Wasserman's book "Capitalists, Caciques, and Revolution" that General Terrazas had a multitude of granddaughters. Also, in the introduction Hart's mentions that Batopilas was under the political administration of Nueva Galicia and perhaps this should instead read Nueva Vizcaya.

Hart is to be commended for taking up this particular subject matter and especially for choosing the setting of the Sierra Madre of Chihuahua. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the Copper Canyon and to those who have family origins or relatives from that area of Chihuahua.

Snake Hunting on the Devil's Highway is a hysterical and fun collection of stories that revolve around two guys who travel to Arizona in search of exotic reptiles and amphibians and find trouble, fun and craziness along the way. I'm sure the book will make a great movie too. Action, adventure and humor are a constant theme in the book. I really enjoyed how the author broke each adventure into its own chapter, which made the book more like a collection of really funny short stories but ended up being very much related. Intelligence comes from the least likely places at times, and the animals described in nice detail are utterly amazing, which makes you feel a little bit more comfortable about snakes, lizards and frogs after reading this book. But its the crazy situations that's so peculiar and incredible in the book that made it extra enjoyable for me. Fascinating how these two guys are experts in something most people would run away from (SNAKES), and these guys run straight for it! I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to laugh, and enjoy themselves for an easy and enjoyable read!

After reading this book you will never again have to simply shrug and stare off into space when queried about your phobia around heading out into the remote desert in the small hours after midnight, the less moonlight the better, to hunt for potentially lethal rattlesnakes or other exotic specimens such as a large toad that urinates profusely upon being picked up by an eager collector. Trust me, your fears will now stand upon a firm foundation.

On the other hand, my bet is you'll also develop a deeper appreciation for some of the more reclusive of God's creatures. While there are a few times you might get mad at certain characters who, in their stupid cruelty, haven't even evolved near as far as their reptilian victims, for the most part this book is good for much merriment. My favorite among the string of tales and anecdotes involves snake-killer Ranger Rick who gets his payback in way that makes you wish you'd been there. He's not permanently damaged by the experience but he sure learns to have a little respect for wild things.

I was very much reminded of Edward Abbey's story-telling style when reading "Snake Hunting." Even though they are easy-going, sitting around the campfire stories, there's an exciting undercurrent due to the potential for disaster at the turn of page. These tales are very human, filled with foibles, phobias and a wee bit of what's termed "foul language." Parental discretion advised? Well, only if you keep your kids in a closet where they never hear the radio, watch TV or connect with the internet. It's pretty tame by modern standards. And, after all, it's about two wild and crazy guys out hunting deadly snakes in the freaking desert in the middle of the night ... I mean, don't judge it by tea party standards.

While this isn't an academic book, Richard Lapidus reveals himself as a brave and serious naturalist in the course of this humorous series of stories. The patient reader will be surprised and rewarded by the information absorbed over the course of reading it. And I wouldn't be surprised if over the course of vicariously trucking along on these adventures and misadventures, you come to feel like you've found a friend. A quirky friend all right, but aren't they the best kind?

"Songs from the Loom: A Navajo Girl Learns to Weave" is the BEST, most sensitive and comprehensive children's book on the subject. Photographer and writer, Monty Roessel, took a personal approach to creating this book when he chose his daughter and his mother as subjects. He documented his ten year old daughter, Jaclyn, as her grandmother taught her to weave. The fifth grader learned about the practical aspects of weaving; like shearing sheep, carding and spinning wool, natural dyes, and weaving techniques. Nali Ruth (Grandmother) also taught Jaclyn about important Navajo stories related to weaving and the significance of each tool.

This book has an informative, well written text and wonderful graphics. It has many photographs and informative diagrams. Small samples of different rug patterns appear in the margins every few pages, leading to a full page map of the regions associated with the patterns. The wooden Navajo loom is shown in a labeled drawing. The traditional stories of how weaving originated for the Navajo people are on separate pages from the rest of the text, bordered by a rug-type design. I would recommend this book for both adults and children over 8 as a delightful way to learn about this subject. He honors his mother, his daughter, and Navajo weaving with this book.

If you are buying this book for a child, "Navajo Rugs and Blankets: A Coloring Book" by Chuck and Andrea Mobley, with Sam Mike as illustrator, is a must have supplement. Children interested in "Songs From the Loom" will find themselves inspired to experience Navajo rugs and this coloring book is a great way to extend the story!

This book offers a remarkable sharing, not just of weaving, but of cultural traditions. The reader gains a new understanding and insight of Dine philosophy. It does an exceptional job of conveying a message of mutual love and respect between generations.

A good resource for classroom studies of Native Americans and how they live today.

From Joy Harjo - Mvskoke poet, musician, writer

"Any full portrait of a society -- and the Sonoita Plain is a society: of
lands, plants, skies, creatures (including humans) -- must be artful,
lyrical, factual, historical, mythical, insightful and inspiring.This
is a tremendous order -- and it's all here in this beautiful marriage of
text and photographs."

From John W. Donaldson - Rancher & recipient of the 2003 Western Heritage Award, National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

"Carl and Jane Bock's book Sonoita Plain is a superb
comprehensive and informative piece of work. Anyone who is interested in the
environmental intricacies of Southern Arizona's grasslands would do well to
read this book and keep it close by for future reference."

Established in 1968 by the Appleton family and now part of the National Audubon Society's sanctuary system, the Appleton-Whittell Research Ranch is a tract of 8,000 acres on the Sonoita Plain of southeastern Arizona. This is land that has been left alone for the past 35 years. There has been no dam building, fire fighting, grazing, pest control, and no commercial or agricultural development of any kind. Co-authored by Carl and Jane Bock, Sonoita Plain: Views From A Southwestern Grassland showcases and highlights the ecosystems of the Sonoita Valley and the Research Ranch. Enhanced with the superb color photography of Stephen Strom, readers are informed with respect to the diverse life forms which range from towering century plants to tiny Botteri's Sparrow, the elegant Mexican pronghorn, and the humans of diverse eras and purposes that were associated with this region from ancient Clovis big-game hunters to border crossers seeking entrance into the U.S., to nature loving tourists come to see and experience what the Sonoita Valley has to offer. Highly recommended reading, especially for environmental activists and academicians, Sonoita Plain would well serve as a template or model for similar books on other natural environment restoration landscape projects elsewhere in the country.

The common view of deserts as "barren" places empty of life is firmly laid to rest by this excellent collection of essays. Alcock's relation demonstrates the wide variety and diversity of lifeforms found in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. Plants, insects, birds and other animal life abound if you take the trouble to find them. The author is an expert at observing all this life. Better, he's adept at showing you how to follow in his footsteps to see what he sees.

"Footsteps" is the significant term in this book. Not ATVs, aircraft, nor other vehicular means, but walking quietly is the method to employ in behold ing the desert. Alcock provides examples of his techniques in researching various aspects of life. Surprising wasps in their rituals requires finesse and timing. Seemingly, he moves directly from office to landscape - one of his marking tools being a bottle of Liquid Paper. With this "paint" he can identify individual insects - male wasps and butterflies seeking mates. This technique lapses with rattlesnakes and coyotes, however.

More easily identified subjects are the palo verde trees and giant saguaro cactuses. His palo verde trees are numbered [in his memory], but the saguaros are often elusive. Not because these ancient, giant cacti are mobile, but because his urban neighbours see fit to use them for target practice. Many of his jaunts confront him with spent shells, pock-marked rocks and shattered giant cactus plants. Desert soil pockets, often the home of slumbering spade-foot toads are riven with vehicle tracks. Their passage disturbs the dormant toads who believe the noise presages water-delivering thunderstorms. Awakening, they emerge in the belief the water is signalling the time for courtship and reproduction. The disappointment is greater than simply mating deferred. It may mean the toad has expended its resources. It will dry out and expire.

In describing how the details of desert life is seen today, Alcock muses on the roots of life's processes. Why do the Tarantula Wasp and the Great Purple Hairstreak butterfly [which displays nothing visible that's purple] evolve parallel mating rituals? How can some species successfully deal with the spines of the cholla cactus when a human stuck with the spines must endure a full day's pain? Why do some bees fly in solitude while others are flock in swarms? Alcock examines these and similar questions with sound evolutionary logic. He stresses that simple or apparent solutions often require re-examination. Horned lizards only take a few ants from a nest entrance. Are they "prudent predators" saving prey for later exploitation? Alcock reflects on possibilities to arrive at a solution Darwin would have admired. As do we. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

John Alcock brings us with him on a tour of the Usery Ridge (north of Mesa, near Phoenix, Arizona) after the winter rains, but before the harsh heat of summer. The book mostly discusses evolutionary behavior of plants and animals found there. There are a few humorous passages which add an unexpected laugh. Dr. Alcock is concerned with the disappearance of the desert and its treasures.

Sonoran Desert Summer is another of John Alcock's easy to read introductions to this desert's more fascinating creatures. The reader not only gets to experience the desert inhabitants' comings and goings during a typical summer in the Sonoran Desert, he or she does it in comfort! As informative as it is entertaining, this book gives the reader valuable insights into the wonderful adaptations of some of the desert's most interesting plants and animals. Written by a biologist who can also write, this book is fun to read, easy to digest, and makes every jaunt into the desert just that much more meaningful. And, the illustrations are charming as well. All in all, a good buy whether you are a tourist or a long-time desert rat.

Taking up an Alcock book and following his desert jaunts is always a pleasure. His enthusiasm for the lands others call "bleak" invites imitation. Whatever view we hold for deserts must be reconsidered and assessed for validity when we close the final page. He shows us life where we perceive an empty terrain. Brief appearances by birds, insects, coyotes, even water catch his eye and are imparted to us. While the variety of life here is as vast as the landscape, one feature is brought into view repeatedly - the giant cactus saguro. This bizarre plant becomes a lodestone for his travels because its condition signals so much about conditions. "Sonoran Desert Summer" sounds intimidating, but Alcock shows how important this season is to life.

Reflecting the brief jaunts Alcock takes into the Sonoran, the book is a collection of essays. The topics vary from feather structure for body temperature control through insect, bird and plant reproduction to government policies on coyotes. The wealth of detail neither obscures nor is muted by the desert's vastness - an aspect of which we are reminded on nearly every page. Mountains loom on the horizon and monsoon thunderheads build on their crests, but under this Hackberry bush a small butterfly is playing out a timeless strategy for finding a mate. Alcock misses none of it, and you feel pangs of regret that he's there and you're not. Still, he reminds us, human intrusion on desert solitudes are a destructive force. The Hohokum peoples, who inhabited this area for a duration four times longer than Europeans have inhabited the Western Hemisphere, likely irrigated themselves out of existence.

Alcock, true to his role as a teacher, is full of questions. How does the Digger Bee know where to excavate to obtain a mate? Why do phainopeplas, a dark-plumaged, crested bird, nest in solitude in Arizona but in groups in California? Why do "auxiliaries" occur in some bird species? Why does the zebra-tailed lizard wave its tail, an act likely to lure predators? Alcock doesn't whip out the answers to these conundrums, but guides you through a process of examining evidence, talking about other researchers' efforts and provides you with the most likely evolutionary solution. No aspect of a species lacks an evolutionary pathway, he reminds us. We must work it out from our time and place as best we can.

What is the worth of these efforts? Do they have meaning for those of us not granted the prize of desert residence? Alcock's assessment of government policies of "pest" removal can be applied anywhere. Coyotes, despised by ranchers as despoilers of herds and by suburbanites as raiders of garbage cans, find themselves targetted for eradication. Alcock shows the short-sightedness of such policies and how to replace them with more realistic ones. Heed his warning. Humanity can't afford to lose desert life - "writing its own epitaph in the sand" along with his favoured saguro. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

I recommend this book to all persons interested in lions in the America's. It will appeal to and educate people with diverse opinions on the management of this wonderful species of cat. Mr. Shaw is not only a good biologist, he also tells it like it is, and in a well written way. I especially hope that North America's wildlife decision makers will read and heed Mr. Shaw's conclusions about lion management. This book is for the biologist, the rancher, the lion hunter, and the preservationist.

We bought this book to learn more about lions in general, and increase my rancher/lion hunter husband's understanding of issues surrounding them. We were a little concerned that the angle might lean one way or another but were gratified by the balance. Well crafted and very informative. Highly recommend to any one interested in mountain lions.