New Mexico Books

The First American: The Suppressed Story of the People Who Discovered the New World

Christopher Hardaker

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Forty years ago, an amateur prehistorian discovered an engraved mastodon bone near Mexico City, showing a virtual bestiary from the Ice Age. Harvard University took notice and excavated nearby sites around the Valsequillo Reservoir. They found perfectly buried kill sites with the oldest spearheads in the world. Some archaeologists postulated their age at 40,000 years, three times older than the official 12,000-year-old date for the first Americans. Then the shocker--United States Geology Survey (USGS) geologists came up with the date of 250,000 years old!

Even though these dates were published in peer-reviewed geological journals, archaeologists wrote off the geologists, saying they were mistaken and that their dates were too ridiculously old. Archaeologists never returned to the site and curiosity died out. Soon after, this once world-class archaeology region became off-limits for official research, a "professional forbidden zone."

The Valsequillo discoveries were legendary, but regarded as "fringe" by professional archaeologists. Why this radical turn-about? What was found that was so unspeakable, so impossible? What happened to these artifacts--America's earliest art and spearheads, and why don't archaeologists seem to care? In the new book, The First American, archaeologist Christopher Hardaker tries to unearth the mystery.

The book details the events of the discovery and its subsequent dismissal, as well as the attempt in 2001 by a wealthy outsider to find the truth about the Valsequillo discoveries. Included in The First American are photos of the original artifacts, and excerpts from reports, letters, and memos from the site participants themselves.

Archaeologists will once again be forced to ask the same question their mentors asked: Are we too in love with our own theories to ignore the evidence of science yet again? And readers will hear the real story of the great Valsequillo discoveries, the greatest story of early American man never told.

The Spell of New Mexico

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The Spell of New Mexico 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 44 people found this review helpful.

This is a must read for anyone seriously interested in the state of New Mexico.

An exceptional collection of essays about the appeal of New Mexico 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

There are not many books that stay in print for thirty five years, especially one with such a narrow ambit, but this one deserves the honor.

Tony Hillerman has done an exceptional job of writing the Preface and the Introduction, and in collecting the eleven other essays contained in this excellent compilation. It's impossible to summarize the treasures; here are a few of the fragments I particularly enjoyed.

Tony Hillerman: "Pretentious as it sounds, and tough as it is to prove, there does seem to be something about New Mexico which not only attracts creative people but stimulates their creativity."

Oliver La Farge: "What is New Mexico, then? How to sum it up? It is a vast, harsh, poverty-stricken, varied, and beautiful land, a breeder of artists and warriors. It is the home, by birth or by passionate adoption, of a wildly assorted population which has shown itself capable of achieving homogeneity without sacrificing its diversity."

Winfield Townley Scott: "The breadth and height of the land, its huge self and its huge sky, strike you like a blow."

Ernie Pyle: "We like it here because we're on top of the world, in a way; and because we are not stifled and smothered and hemmed in by buildings and trees and traffic and people. We like it because the sky is so bright and you can see so much of it. And because out here you actually see the clouds and the stars and the storms, instead of just reading about them in the newspapers."

Oliver La Farge: "If you stay on, and if you keep quiet, the rhythms of drum, song, and dance, the endlessly changing formations of the lines of dancers, the very heat and dust, unite and take hold. You will realize slowly that what looked simple is complex, disciplined, sophisticated. You will forget yourself. The chances are then that you will go away with that same odd, empty, satisfied feeling which comes after absorbing any great work of art."

In a compelling way, this collection constitutes a "work of art", informed by an appreciation that D.H. Lawrence describes as "for greatness of beauty I have never experienced anything like New Mexico.... It had a splendid silent terror, and a vast far-and-wide magnificence which made it way beyond mere aesthetic appreciation."

If you have any interest in seeing New Mexico as a number of excellent writers do, this is the book for you.

Robert C. Ross 2008

Editorial Review:

A rich gathering of essays that evoke the unique and mysterious appeal New Mexico has had for some of the twentieth century’s best-known writers. Included are selections by Mary Austin, Oliver La Farge, Conrad Richter, D.H. Lawrence, C.G. Jung, Winfield Townley Scott, John DeWitt McKee, Ernie Pyle, Harvey Fergusson, and Lawrence Clark Powell. Hillerman’s preface and introduction are choice specimens of his incisive humor and his own deep love of the state.

“Should be required reading for all those who call themselves New Mexican.”—James Arnholz

The Great Taos Bank Robbery

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Vintage Tony Hillerman 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 4 people found this review helpful.

I purchased this after hearing Tony read a few passages at a lecture. The book is a series of essays Tony wrote as his Masters Thesis at the University of New Mexico. They are true tales of New Mexico, but told only as Tony, one of America's greatest yarn spinners can. Most, in particular the "unfeloneous unbankrobbery" in the title essay will have you holding your sides, while at the same time learning something about the unique culture of the Land of Enchantment. Highly recommended as well is Tony's autobiography "Seldom Disappointed".

Editorial Review:

The two inept bandits who staged the Great Taos Bank Robbery got away, though empty-handed - and ended up panhandling downtown, somehow overlooked by the police hunting them everywhere else.  They thus entered the annals of local lore - along with the Great Flood of 1935, a three-day drizzle that caused an epidemic of leaky adobe roofs in the usually arid Taos. 

These stranger-than-fiction true stories are from master storyteller Tony Hillerman's own collection of favorite anecdotes.  Reading the stories himself, he captures the quirky character of Taos and other areas of New Mexico as only a loving resident - and great writer - could, skillfully using regional tales to comment wryly on the most universal of human foibles.

Pueblos, Spaniards, and The Kingdom of New Mexico

John L. Kessell

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Editorial Review:

The first narrative history devoted to the tumultuous seventeenth century in New Mexico. Kessell's work presents a clearer picture than ever before of events leading to the Pueblo Revolt.

The Wheel Of Time: The Shamans Of Mexico Their Thoughts About Life Death And The Universe

Carlos Castaneda

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fishing lure for New Agers 1 out of 5 stars.
12 of 15 people found this review helpful.

I have read all of Castaneda's books. I was introduced to them by my husband, a real life Warrior. When I first opened the book, I thought: This is jus a cut and paste work of someone who inherited the rights to his royalties.
Then my husband pointed out at the countless times the book has the word "shaman" in it.
That doesn't sound like Castaneda at all! The only time he used "Shaman" was in "The teachings of Don Juan" and (this is a rough quote from memory) it was to say: "Don Juan was what antropologists call a shamman, but he prefers to be called a sorcerer or a man of knowledge" and never used the S word again in his books.
Waste of money if you already have the books. This is just a water down version, made palatable for New Agers, so that they can buy all the other books.

Editorial Review:

WORLD-RENOWNED BESTSELLING AUTHOR CARLOS CASTANEDA'S SELECTION OF HIS WRITINGS ON THE SHAMANS OF ANCIENT MEXICO

Near the end of his life, Carlos Castaneda gathered together and reviewed his seminal works on his training as a shaman initiate, recorded in a literary career that spans over thirty years. The result is this groundbreaking collection of quotations -- the essence of Carlos Castaneda, drawn from his landmark volumes including The Teachings of Don Juan, Journey to Ixtlan, A Separate Reality, and Tales of Power. Enhanced with an introduction and original commentary by the author, this powerful work illuminates the shaman's life as never before. Castaneda's words explore how the ancient shamans could literally touch and direct the wheel of time -- a profound yet pragmatic tradition that can be felt even in our day.

Top Secret/Majic: Operation Majestic-12 and the United States Government's UFO Cover-up

Stanton T. Friedman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Explosive and Threatening!!! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

With the discovery of the MJ12 Documents in the national archives, Friedman made history. How accurate are the papers? And how reliable is the list of these 12 top scientists and military men?? That is the question.
Nevertheless, there are plenty of evidence and dat to substantiate Friedman's claims. Great book!!!

Editorial Review:

Top Secret/Majic is the result of nuclear physicist and renowned UFO investigator Stanton T. Friedman's twenty-one year search for the truth about the mysterious Operation Majestic 12, President Truman's top-secret UFO investigation team. In this updated edition of his landmark book, he tells the incredible tale of the July, 1947 recovery of a crashed flying saucer near Roswell, New Mexico, and the establishment by President Truman of a truly all-star cast to deal with the saucer and its non-human inhabitants. The first four Directors of Central Intelligence, the first Secretary of Defense, and several outstanding scientists and military leaders were part of the team. Through painstaking research and startling evidence—including documents that have never before been published—Friedman effectively exposes the U.S. government's biggest-kept secret: a fifty-eight year UFO cover-up.

A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque

Jean-Luc E. Cartron, David C. Lightfoot, Jane E. Mygatt, Sandra L. Brantley, Timothy K. Lowrey

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Extending from the spillway below Cochiti Dam, about fifty miles north of Albuquerque, to the headwaters of Elephant Butte Reservoir, near Truth or Consequences in the southern portion of New Mexico, the Middle Rio Grande Bosque is more than a cottonwood woodland or forest. It is a complete riverside ecosystem, among the more important in the world's arid regions.

Every day hundreds of visitors to the bosque encounter flora and fauna they can't identify. Researchers and municipal, county, state, and federal resource agency personnel concerned with the bosque's management need to know how plants and animals are linked to their habitats.

With descriptions of more than seven hundred plants and animals illustrated with color photographs, this authoritative guide is the first of its kind for the Middle Rio Grande Bosque and is an invaluable resource for land managers, teachers, students, eco-buffs, and nature enthusiasts. It also reveals the important role the bosque plays in New Mexico's natural heritage.

In Justice: Inside the Scandal That Rocked the Bush Administration

David Iglesias

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Bush administration's drive to politicize the Justice Department reached a new low with the wrongful firing of seven U.S. Attorneys in late 2006. Their action has ignited public outrage on a scale that far surpassed the reaction to any of the Bush administration's other political debacles. David Iglesias was one of those federal prosecutors, and now he tells his story.

Iglesias has long served in the Navy as part of the JAG corps. One of his earliest cases, about an assaulted Marine in Guantanamo Bay, became the basis for the movie A Few Good Men. When Bush chose him to become the U.S. Attorney for New Mexico, it was a dream come true. He was a core member of Karl Rove's idealized Republican Party of the future -- handsome, Hispanic, evangelical, and a military veteran. The dream came to an abrupt end when Senator Pete Domenici improperly called Iglesias, wanting him to indict high-level Democrats before the 2006 elections. When Iglesias refused, the line went dead. Iglesias was fired just weeks later. First, he was devastated. Then, he was angry. Now, he is speaking out.

Iglesias recounts his interactions with Bush, Rove, Alberto Gonzales, and other key players as he takes readers into his time at the Justice Department to reveal what top Republican officials said and did, and how they subverted justice.

New Mexico, Rio Grande, and Other Essays

Tony Hillerman

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

If you love New Mexico, buy this book 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 11 people found this review helpful.

If you ever read books of Tony Hillerman, be sure to take a look at this book. His love of the state of New Mexico is well known by readers of the Jim Chee/Joe Leaphorn Mysteries, but this book is about the overwhelming beauty of the state. The vast open spaces, the silence and the history. This collection of essays together with the outstanding photographs is a must.

Wonderful writing, great photos, bad print job. 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 8 people found this review helpful.

If Only!

If only this book had been printed by the National Geographic Society, or Arizona Highways, or somebody who specializes in scenic calendars. The fabulous photos in here deserve top quality printing, and they didn't get it.

However, I heartily recommend this book to all my fellow Hillerman fans, *anyway*, because the essays are great, and the background information on some of the events that inspired scenes in certain of the novels is priceless. If you loved 'A Thief of Time' as much as I did, you'll very much enjoy the descriptions of the actual site that inspired it. Hillerman's 'travelogue' down the Rio Grande is also wonderful.

Editorial Review:

Renowned author Tony Hillerman's original essays written for "New Mexico" and "Rio Grande, " plus two new essays, are complemented by the extraordinary images of Muench and Reynolds.