Arizona Books

Both of my children (ages 5 and 7) and I love this book. It is well written, amusing, creative and informative. The format is fun and inventive -- Prickly Pete (a packrat) makes a series of statments about desert creatures and then asks the readers guess whether each one is a fact or a "cactifract"(untrue), before turning the page to find the correct answer. My children love guessing and learning whether they were right. I recommend it for its entertainment value as well as for the information it contains about the natural hsitory of the desert.

Correctamundo!: Prickly Pete's Guide To Desert Facts & Catifracts separates desert facts from "cactifracts", that is, things lots of kids think are true about the desert but are not factual. Lively, fun, educational, and highly recommended for both school and community library collections, Correctamundo! will provide young readers ages 8 to 12 with a splendid and entertaining introduction to the flora and fauna of the desert.

This is the best autobiographical book on a cowboy's life that I've ever read, and I've read quite a few. It's a fun read by a humble man with an attention to everyday detail that is often missing in such books. Cowboying, mining,ranch life, hunting lion and bear with hounds, living outdoors, homesteading, working alongside Apache cowboys, and interesting perspectives on early Arizona towns are all covered here.
This book is a keeper, one I read every couple years, and enjoy it more every time. It's darn good. His second book, More Tales from Slim Ellison, is very good also, but I think this book should be read first. If you read "More Tales" and like it, rest assured you will enjoy "Cowboys Under" even more. If you enjoy Slim's books you might try another called "From Thunder to Breakfast" by Hube Yates. He was a man well loved here in the town of Cave Creek AZ, and like Slim, you'll wish you'd known him afer reading his book.

slim ellison wrote these words and stories long before i was born here in arizona. in fact, his narrative begins in apx 1888-while the infamous pleasant valley range war was just winding down. slims grandfather col. jess ellison and father pearly are featured prominently in his stories-and both of these men were involved in the fighting. slim was there for grizzly fights, encounters with the outlaw apache kid, droughts, fires, floods, and worst of all civilization that followed completion of theodore roosevelt dam in 1912. slims stories focus on northern gila county-the vast and wild country just below the mogollon rim that zane grey made famous in his prolific fiction. other authors have written great books about arizonas cattle country but i can honestly state that this book is the best ever written by one who was there. vive arizona. biglakejake@hotmail.com 12/11/99

Indeed crime seems to have pay for Mr lane. In elegant prose he recalls the many crimes, often bizare stories of some Arizona's citizens. who surely must have liked the hot climate, since he found so many of them there. The picture on the front page of Dillinger, is chilling,but still I could see how he could have held the attention of the ladies, he certainly was one good looking villain! But finally the story I liked best, was the one about Pia Machita, the Indian Chief who after spending some times in American jails, (with all their comforts,) decided to become a model citizen.

Well worth reading!

John Dillinger, Public Enemy #1, snarles from the cover of this engaging book--a mug shot taken when the "podunk" Tucson Police Department arrested him in 1934. Rogers, one of Arizona's top historians, writes with uncommon flair and solid scholarship. He is also one heck of a storyteller, as evidenced by his account of Eva Dugan who lost her head (literally) to a hangman's noose; Winnie Ruth Judd, the so-called "Trunk Murderess," who was said to have hacked up a body and stuffed it into a steamer trunk; and evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, who turned up in Arizona after staging her own kidnapping. This is a terrific book and a great read. Rogers has written another winner.

Mr Shelton rises to the top of my heroes. My heroes are those that rise above their accomplishments to help others reach inside themselves to gain self worth and to reach their own accomplishments. All great teachers bring a sense of hope to their students, a sense of their own worthiness. To leave the confines of his own comfortable academia, Mr Shelton brings his entire heart and soul to the rescue of men without much hope, in his walk across the yard! Every teacher should read this book and discover their own worth!

I encourage anyone wanting to know more about prison and prison arts to read this book. Shelton is such an honest reporter. He tells us about his initial morbid curiosity when asked to "read the poetry of a monster" - an attitude he's now ashamed of - and the desperation he felt when witnessing unexpected horrible consequences for some of his prisoner students as they became poets. He tells us about institutional stupidity and the subversion he found he had to use in order to get anything good done inside. Especially he tells us about the dozens of men he worked with inside, many of whom are now well-published writers (see Ken Lamberton's "Time of Grace" mentioned on this page). "Crossing the Yard" is both moving and unadorned (honest, straight-forward). I'm so grateful for this book.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN, some 1.4 billion people live in farm families that are largely self-provisioning in terms of seeds. In recent years, the skill and knowledge applied to the management and improvement of farmer-varieties has become more fully appreciated. Farmers have been found to employ taxonomic systems, encourage introgression, use selection and breeding techniques, multiply seeds, field test, record data, and name their varieties. It was not so long ago that these farmer-varieties were referred to, in scientific literature, as "primitive" or even "Stone-Age" varieties. They are still referred to by the rather disembodied term, "landraces."

The concerted collection of these materials for conservation and use in modern plant breeding preceeded by some decades any efforts to conserve or use the knowledge farmers had about their materials. Virginia Nazarea's book is at once a warm and loving tribute to farmer-innovators, and a practical guide to the study of "indigenous" knowledge of farming systems and farmer-managed biodiversity. She connects plants to people in ways readers will find difficult to forget, and shows that the existence of diversity in crops is linked with the health and diversity of human cultures. In a sense, they have co-evolved with each other.

Nazarea's field research focused on how people farm sweet potatoes in Bukidnon, Phillipines. In the course of this research she was able to collect 89 sweet potato varieties. Her book offers a detailed account of these varieties and their management. One particularly interesting table provides a compendium of indigenous cultural management beliefs and practices, and comments on each by a plant pathologist, entomologist, agronomist, plant breeder and plant physiologist. The result is fascinating and revealing. In response to the observation that Holy water is mixed with some cuttings so God will watch over and protect the crop, the plant pathologist replies, "purely fanatic," while the plant breeder comments that "water will be good for the cuttings."

Most important, the field research was a test of methodology. This is where the book shines. Nazarea offers a well-conceived, practical, step-by-step guide to researchers who wish to examine the interaction between traditional farmers and their crops. Though Nazarea is an anthropologist by training, this guide, interestingly and uniquely, will be equally valuable to social scientists, ethnobiologists, and agricultural scientists (particularly plant collectors and breeders). Nazarea is clearly sensitive both to the local needs and feelings of farmers as well as to aspirations and needs of researchers. The result is highly useful. In one light volume, the researcher has a complete and rigourous methodology laid out, from the types of questions to ask, to how to ask them and to whom. With slight modification to suit particular circumstances, most researchers may need little else to undertake work in this particular field.

Nazarea's "big" thesis is that "preserving local knowledge pertaining to traditional varieties of crops is complementary, and in many respects indispensable, to the maintenance of the genetic diversity of these crops." Some may argue that she falls a little short in proving its indispensability. Nevertheless, she is on solid ground, genetically and socially, when she demonstrates the importance of on-farm management and what she calls "memory banking" of indigenous knowledge. Equally, she is convincing in arguing that ex situ (genebank) and in situ (on-farm) conservation and management of genetic resources are complementary strategies. Nazarea's contribution is to the latter, both by providing a methodology for research, and an engaging, delightfully-written case study of its application. This is a book without peers in its field.

Literature on indigenous knowledge tends to be long on trendiness and idealism, but short on solid method and results. Nazarea's book is a refreshing corrective by offering a distinct operational program. Nazarea lays out a program for conserving cultural knowledge, step-by-step, with practical examples from one who has been in the trenches. The staggering loss of biodiversity is not just a biological loss, but a loss of human and cultural proportions. Nazarea makes the critical link between nature and culture: when plants go extinct, so does cultural memory. Not only does the world lose an inventory of plant materials, but it also losses a storehouse of knowledge for growing and using plnats. The implication is that attempts to store genetic materials in seed banks is a sterile and half-hearted exercise, because the loss of the cultural, adaptive knowledte has grave consequences for the future of the human species. Nazarea goes to the people at the margins for answers, and in the process, she turns science on its head, proclaiming that "diversity is actually the natural state of things." In that regard Nazarea's work is destined to become an anthropological classic, pointing the direction for the discipline for the next century. Nazarea breaks new ground in decision-making theory by showing the pitfalls of microeconomic models that assume farmers make either-or choices when selecting a course to follow. Instead, farmers use multiple criteria in making cropping decisions in order to spread out the risk against uncertainties of the growing season. This is a sophisticated decision-making process that defies the neat formulations of formalized economic models. In the end, Nazarea documents that women are the best safeguards of indigenous knowledtge through comaraderie and sharing. An experimental in situ conservation program run by the male hierarchy collapsed, but spouses and female relatives took up the work to maintain the plots. If Nazaarea's book is a defense of fuzziness, as she puts it, then less-defined, less-formalized structures of women may also be the best hope for preserving indigenous knowledge.

This lavishly illustrated, large-format "coffee-table" book would make a good showing in anyone's living room--even if it is never read. On the other hand, it provides the most succinct and informative descriptions of the Desert Southwest's major prehistoric native cultures that I have ever read. With this single volume, anyone interested in the ancient cultures of North America can acquire a basic understanding of the Southwest's major five: Anasazi, Mogollon, Salado, Hohokam, and Sinagua. Cheek provides all the information a person needs to know in order to begin learning about these fascinating groups of people.

Descriptions of each culture, along with major archaeological sites representing each, as well as respectable interpretations of major archaeological findings blend to form an indispensible resource for any student of prehistoric North America. I wish I had found this book years ago.

I just thought I'd say a word about my liking this book very much. I am very interested in the indians from the thirteenth century, and this book did a wonderful job of presenting the information extremely well.

David Muench's book is fantastic. I bought this book to give to friends in Europe to show off Arizona, and I couldn't have picked a better book. Everyone has seen pictures of the desert or the mountains, but Muench brings attention to the subtle details of the landscape. I also appreciated that the book didn't just show the desert, but all parts of Arizona. You can't go wrong with this or any of Muench's other collections.

David Muench, the dean of American landscape photogrphers explores a very novel idea - look at the big picture and then the small picture within. It reminds us to look for the little things and find great beauty within. Lawrence Cheek is a gifted writer whose prose matches Muench's genius with a camera. What a spectacular gift book!

1 Star for the old version, 5 stars for the new version.

There have been several new and improved editions of this book from Tucson Audubon Society. It now goes by the name "Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona" with a 2004 copyright.

Highly recommended.

The newest edition of "Russell and Davis" was released on March 20, 2004, and will be an essential part of every Arizona birder's kit: revised and expanded text, completely new seasonal bar graphs, appealing photographs.

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220 million years ago, Arizona was near the equator. The trees that became the Petrified Forest grew on a broad, humid floodplain with lakes and swamps, somewhat like today's Amazon basin, or a more tropical Louisiana. Most of the trees that were petrified were araucaria conifers, related to present-day Norfolk Island pines. Swimming in these waters were prong-toothed sharks and thorny-snouted fish. Giant carnivorous metoposaurs lurked in the muddy swamp bottoms, while great crocodilian phytosaurs hunted the first true dinosaurs on dryer land.

Doug Henderson's moody, atmospheric paintings bring these scenes to life. Robert Long, formerly park paleontologist at Petrified Forest, assures scientific accuracy. Veteran natural-history writer Rose Houk brings polish to the text. McQuiston, as usual, provides an elegant book design. This is a beautiful book. It would be a fine companion for (or memento of) a visit to the Petrified Forest, and a nice gift for a dino-lover. Highly recommended.

I picked up this little book at the International Petrified Forest -
Museum of the Americas, located 3 miles east of Holbrook, AZ, on
I-40 at exit 292, on the way to the national park. This is a new
operation -- the museum features an exceptional collection of
prehistoric Anasazi pottery and artifacts, not to be missed if you like
old Indian crafts. There's also a small collection of dinosaur fossils,
and a nice selection of rough & polished petrified wood for sale, at
good prices. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area.
[Still going strong as of late 2005]


Review copyright 1999 by Peter D. Tillman
Consulting Geologist, Tucson & Santa Fe (USA)

I recommend this book without hesitation for anyone with an interest in paleontology. It provides a balanced view of all forms of life evident at the Petrified Forest National Monument during the Late Triassic, from fish and invertebrates to plants large and small and on up to the most gruesome ruling reptiles and amphibians.

The text is accurate and precise without ever obtrusively presenting theory as fact. This book will age well as future discoveries further refine or reshape our view of the world at that time.

The pencil (charcoal?) and pastel drawings are scientific illustration at its best, with just enough art and dynamic enhancement to make you feel like you really are skipping nimbly around 20 foot phytosaurs, or swimming with freshwater sharks through prehistoric logjams. Each full page drawing is explained by a facing page. Scale and perspective change early and often, leaving you eager to turn the page for the next visual diorama.

The layout is clean and visually elegant, the text easy on the eyes, and the illustrations are easily seen in light from any angle against the high quality semigloss paper.

I have had this book for ten years now, and I still frequently pick it up and let myself drift backwards in time with it until I am rocking gently in warm clear waters in a far prehistoric time. This is truly a first class publication by the Petrified Forest Museum Association. The authors and Museum Association are to be commended!

This book is filled with great suggestions of places to go and things to see/do. It's extremely well organized and filled our week in Tucson with adventure and fun. We hardly ever even traveled the same road twice, there were so many listings. We'd tried the "standards" and found them lacking. There were so many areas around the city of Tucson we'd never heard of, and this book helped us organize our time and travel, although some of the day trips are truly impossible to complete in a day. In fact, we spent most of our time in Tucson outside of Tucson (if that makes any sense). A truly fantastic area guided by a truly fantastic book. If this author has written more books of the same ilk, I'll gladly buy them and enjoy.

The book is very informative and gives you lots of options to choose from. Each section opens up with a map drawing the starting location and all the stops you would make along that perticular trip. There are complete driving directions to help you along the way. It is very easy to combine parts of different trips to suite your own interests, if you desire something different than what is already listed. Another good thing about this book is that it has listings of places to stay, where to eat, and when festivals occur(listed by month.) The descriptions of places to visit include whether or not it is for the casual observer or experienced hiker/climber. I love this book. If you are going to Arizonia, don't pass this book up. It will lead you in the right direction!!