Books - April 2009
Plus: Read the full interview with Featured Author Steven F. Havill
Guest Review by Irene Wanner
Gardening
High and Dry: Gardening with Cold-Hardy Dryland Plants
By Robert Nold
Timber Press
420 pages, hardover, $34.95
“It is hard for people to accept the idea that a garden does not have to be watered,” writes Colorado horticulturalist Robert Nold in this beautiful, informative book. His book makes a case for cold-hardy plants adapted to our demanding Southwest environment rather than the exotic (i.e., nonnative) species traditionally popular in Britain or the eastern United States. Once established, local species set Southwest gardeners free from watering and managing drainage, spraying for pests, and applying fertilizers. Eliminating such chores offers savings of time, energy, and precious resources, and is especially rewarding because we live in what Nold used to complain is “the most awful gardening climate on the planet”: When it’s not arid, it’s flooding; it’s freezing in winter and scorching in summer; and it has high-intensity ultraviolet light, low humidity, poor soil, and howling winds. You name it, we Southwestern gardeners struggle with it.
So why not landscape with a proven expert? All we have to do is consult the world’s best teacher—Mother Nature—and study her lessons. Guidance and encouragement from Nold, who has 45 years of experience with drought-tolerant plants, also provides invaluable insights. His opening chapter introduces the dryland climate and the specific gardening methods tailored to its high altitude and low rainfall. He confesses personal failures and successes in a charming yet authoritative text that prompts the reader to begin appreciating the diversity and often-overlooked beauty of local and regional perennials and annuals, grasses, bulbs, rock-garden plants, cacti, yuccas, shrubs, and (briefly) trees. Throughout, the photographs, drawings, and commentary are attractive and instructive.
To complement Nold’s book, I recommend a more comprehensive resource on shrubs and trees. Mary Irish’s Trees and Shrubs for the Southwest: Woody Plants for Arid Gardens (Timber Press, 332 pages, hardcover, $34.95) focuses on the warmer U.S./Mexico borderlands below 4,000 feet. Some of her recommendations may be inappropriate for higher elevations or colder northern temperatures, but her remarks about landscape design, diversity, avoiding invasive species, and harvesting water for trees are relevant everywhere.
No matter where you live, Nold and Irish demonstrate that growing native plants is a smart choice. Their guides provide excellent instruction in simplifying outdoor work while creating a surprising array of colors and textures in your garden.
Irene Wanner, a member of the Native Plant Society of New Mexico, is a writer and editor living in the Jémez Mountains.
Book Briefs by Ashley M. Biggers
Children
Juan the Bear and the Water of Life/La Acequia de Juan del Oso
By Enrique R. Lamadrid & Juan Estevan Arellano, Illustrated by Amy Córdova
University of New Mexico Press
48 pages, hardover, $17.95
Told in northern New Mexico for centuries, the legend of Juan del Oso arrives in print in this finely illustrated and retold book. The story explains the creation of La Acequia del Rito y La Sierra, arguably New Mexico’s most famous traditional irrigation system, which carries water into the Mora Valley, thus allowing the valley’s residents to prosper. In the folk story, outcast Juan del Oso bands together with his father, Oso Grande (Big Bear—and he is a bear), and his father’s superhuman friends, to literally move mountains and rivers to accomplish the engineering feat necessary to bring water to the community.
Passed down through the generations to celebrate Juan del Oso’s feat, the story is presented here by three New Mexicans: author and translator Enrique R. Lamadrid, a professor of Spanish folklore and literature at the University of New Mexico; co-author and agronomist Juan Estevan Arellano, a native of Embudo; and illustrator Amy Córdova, co-owner of Enger-Córdova Fine Art, in Taos.
Fiction
A Daughter's a Daughter
By Nash Candelaria
Bilingual Review Press
256 pages, hardcover, $28
Inspired by the author’s memories of his mother, A Daughter’s a Daughter follows three generations of Hispanic women in one family. Liberata, a prosperous farmer’s daughter, marries a handsome opportunist only to find that her husband is abusive and unfaithful. Although Liberata tries to teach her daughter, María, different values, María also falls into the traditional women’s roles of wife, mother, and housekeeper. María’s own daughter, Irene, tries to free herself from these roles while still valuing her heritage. When, at the end of the story, a shocking secret is revealed, the reader unfortunately only has a few more pages in which to follow Irene as she reconsiders her grandmother’s legacy. “I wanted to reveal the changing roles of New Mexico’s Hispanic women,” says author Nash Candelaria. “I wanted to show how some old attitudes—that men were defined by war and that women were defined by their men—have given way as women seek out more opportunity and fulfillment.” In this compelling novel, he does just that. The Santa Fe resident is the author of several other important works of Chicano literature, including Not By the Sword, an American Book Award winner, and Memories of Alhambra.
A Poetry of Remembrance: New and Rejected Works
By Levi Romero
University of New Mexico Press
180 pages, hardcover, $21.95
A Poetry of Remembrance will carry you away to the llanos (plains) of northern New Mexico’s Embudo Valley. In poems published both in English and New Mexico Spanish, Levi Romero evokes the culture, collective memory, and language of la gente (the people). In his preface, iconic New Mexican author Rudolfo Anaya notes, “The language of the Nuevo Mexicanos is full of metaphors.. . .Language is the hallmark of [Romero’s] poetic strength.. . .The spiritual essence of the Río Grande corridor and its tributaries shines in every poem.” In Romero’s verses, dichos, cantos, prayers, and lowrider lingo blend seamlessly into messages that speak clearly to the heart and soul, regardless of its original language. In “Diablitos,” for example, he describes a visit with his deteriorating mother in a nursing home: “A tapestry of the said and unsaid / of the thought about too much / and of / the dared / not even / think.” In “Lowcura: An Introspective Virtual Cruise Through an American Subcultural Tradition,” he reminisces about Embudo, “Where free-form poetry / mixed with cheap beer / on warm nights by the riverbanks / and stories of lowered ’49 Fleetlines / with flamejobs and spinners / were cast into the dark wind.” These verses will linger in your thoughts long after you have closed the book’s pages.
For the Birds: A Month-by-month Guide to Attracting
Birds to Your Backyard
By Anne Schmauss, Mary Schmauss, & Geni Krolick
Stewart, Tabori & Chang
224 pages, paperback, $19.95
Whether you’re a fledgling ornithologist or just enjoy relaxing on your patio to the sound of gentle twittering, you’ll be sure to find valuable guidance in For the Birds. This easy-to-use guide is packed with tips for optimizing your backyard bird-watching for each month of the year, including selecting the best birdbath, placing nesting boxes, and choosing basic foods (e.g., sunflower seeds) as well as more exotic fare (mealworms, anyone?). Follow the authors’ advice and, no matter where you live, you’ll soon have a colorful kaleidoscope of woodpeckers, hummingbirds, finches, and other birds at your feeder—as I now do. The expert advice in For the Birds comes from sisters Anne and Mary Schmauss, and Geni Krolick, who variously honed their skills in Illinois, Minnesota, and Missouri before coming to New Mexico. The three now own and manage
the Wild Birds Unlimited stores in Albuquerque and Santa Fe,
where they offer specialty wild-bird products and foods.
Poetry
Cowboy Poetry: Tracks That Won't Blow Out
By Ray Owens
Cowboy Miner Productions
220 pages, cloth, $25
The poems in Tracks That Won’t Blow Out exude all the qualities celebrated in the genre of cowboy poetry. At times heartfelt, as in “An Ever Dwindlin’ Breed,” at other times tongue-in-cheek, as in “No Place to Park a Horse,” these poems reflect Ray Owens’s nostalgia for the disappearing cowboy way of life, in which the measures of a good man are honor, a work ethic, a good horse, and a plot of land. The former Artesia resident, now considered a “classic” poet—he passed away in 2007—wrote and recited cowboy poems at gatherings around the country for nearly 15 years. For fans of cowboy poetry, one thing is certain: With his verses now in print, Ray Owens has left some tracks that won’t blow out.
Land Beyond MapsBy Maida Tilchen
Savvy Press
220 pages, paperback, $14.95
Land Beyond Maps crafts a mosaic of women’s journeys to achieve their dreams as artists, naturalists, and entrepreneurs in early 20th-century New Mexico. Maida Tilchen dramatizes the lives of the late landscape photographer Laura Gilpin and her partner, Betsy Forster, a nurse working on the Navajo Reservation, in this quickly moving novel, at the heart of which are Gilpin’s quest to capture the Southwest’s majestic beauty in the perfect light, and her relationship with Forster. Through the diverse perspectives of fictional characters—Ruth, a tuberculosis patient who discovers a penchant for nature; Morna, the wife of a trading-post owner who yearns for more; and Jonnie, an aspiring Harvey House girl cum truck driver—Tilchen creates a vivid, realistic picture of life in Santa Fe and on the reservation during this period.
Travel
New Mexico: An Explorer's Guide
By Sharon Niederman
The Countryman Press
384 pages, paperback, $19.95
This New Mexico edition of the Explorer’s Guide series hits the Land of Enchantment’s highpoints as well as a few back-road favorites. In addition to listing such guidebook standards as outdoor activities, lodgings, and festivals, this one includes categories for quiet delights, such as farmers markets and wineries. Handy icons point out family-friendly activities and lodgings that accept pets. Niederman excels at finding quirky lodgings and shopping destinations, but, unlike other guides, hers doesn’t suggest itineraries; it’s probably best used while exploring a predetermined destination than while wandering about. Niederman is the author of The Santa Fe & Taos Book: Great Destinations, the novel Return to Abó, and numerous articles and publications about the history, cuisine, music, architecture, and culture of New Mexico. She splits her time between Albuquerque and Ratón.
History
The Genízaro and the Artist
By Napoleón Garcia & Analinda Dunn
Rio Grande Books
124 pages, paperback, $15.95
Although Georgia O’Keeffe is one of New Mexico’s most frequently chronicled residents, rarely do we read about the iconic painter from the perspective offered in The Genízaro & the Artist. Written by Napoleón Garcia, an Abiquiú native and genízaro (a person who claims both Colonial Spanish and Native American heritage), this slender volume relates Garcia’s memories of his interactions with the artist—he did odd jobs for her, and worked as her chauffeur. He writes, “I want to tell the story of our
village and how we accepted this world famous artist into our way of living. She became a ‘villager’ here. She respected our way of life and had no desire to change us as so many outsiders want to do.” This is a poignant book about a hardworking man, a simple northern New Mexico village, and the iconic artist who left her mark on them.
