I’m engaged to New Mexico. I’ve been engaged for eighteen years. I’ve worn its ring of rainbow set with a mica shard. I’ve given my dowry already, my skin texture, my hair moisture. I’ve given New Mexico my back-East manners, my eyesight, The arches of my feet. New Mexico’s a difficult fiancé. —excerpt from “Something […]
Books
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
On the dark side of the park: a ranger’s memoir
Park ranger Jordan Fisher Smith dreamed of a career in Yosemite or Grand Teton, but fate led him to California’s Auburn State Recreation Area, a place he calls “the inverse of Yellowstone.” During his 14 years as a ranger in the canyons of the American River, the long-planned Auburn Dam loomed over the place, always […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
Western Voices: 125 years of Colorado Writing
Western Voices: 125 years of Colorado Writing Edited by Steve Grinstead and Ben Fogelberg 396 pages, softcover $19.95. Fulcrum Press, 2004. Editors from the Colorado Historical Society chose the essays in this diverse collection, and they chose well. There’s Muriel Sibell Wolle describing the intense two-year lifespan of a mining town too high to endure […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror
The Last Refuge: Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment in an Age of Terror David W. Orr, 172 pages, hardcover $20. Island Press, 2004. David Orr, professor of environmental studies and politics at Oberlin College, explains how our centralized, industrialized, corporate way of life makes us more vulnerable to acts of terrorism. But he offers a […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2005: Anarchy in the Gas Fields
As if We Were Grownups: A Collection of ‘Suicidal’ Political Speeches That Aren’t
As if We Were Grownups: A Collection of “Suicidal” Political Speeches That Aren’t Jeff Golden, 147 pages, softcover $12. Riverwood Books, 2004. Sick of endless political spin? Oregon writer Jeff Golden is, too. He makes the case that politicians need to treat voters like adults and tell us the difficult truth, even if it’s not […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
From folk singer to fierce activist — the life of Katie Lee
Among desert rats and river lovers, folk singer and activist Katie Lee is legendary. A Hollywood actress in her youth, Lee started running Southwestern rivers in her 30s and became an outspoken defender of her beloved Colorado River. She fought the damming of Glen Canyon, and celebrated its beauty and mourned its loss in All […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
You, too, can be in the know about California’s H2O
Mention the word “cyborg” in Sacramento, and the name of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pops immediately to mind. It’s easy to forget that the state he governs — part natural waterscape, part ingeniously engineered plumbing system — is a hydraulic cyborg that could probably kick even the Governator’s butt. One number pretty much speaks for […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
The Basket Maker
The Basket Maker Kate Niles 224 pages, hardcover $22.95.BR> GreyCore Press, 2004. This first novel by a college writing instructor in Durango, Colo., tells a searing story of incest and compassion from five perspectives, including the ghost of the Ute Chief Ouray. Surprisingly, the device works, and we are gripped. This article appeared in the […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
The Meat You Eat: Corporate Farming and the Decline of the American Diet
The Meat You Eat: Corporate Farming and the Decline of the American Diet Ken Midkiff 240 pages, softcover $23.95 St. Martin’s Press, 2004 Midkiff shows us the ugly underbelly of industrialized meat production: “Mad cow” disease scares, farm animals shot full of massive doses of hormones and antibiotics, and giant farms producing giant amounts of […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2005: Have Environmentalists Failed the West?
Of Chiles, Cacti, and Fighting Cocks: Notes on the American West
Of Chiles, Cacti, and Fighting Cocks: Notes on the American West Frederick Turner 297 pages, softcover $16.95 Fulcrum Press, 2004 First published in 1990, this book of deft essays is back in print and as engaging as ever; it even includes some new work. Whether he’s describing cock fights, the artist Georgia O’Keeffe’s solitary ways […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
Mountain Harmonies
Mountain Harmonies Howard L. Smith 192 pages, hardcover, $23.95. University of New Mexico Press, 2004. In Mountain Harmonies, Howard Smith offers more than musings on environmental philosophy: He crafts a useful guidebook of sorts that takes readers from Glacier National Park to New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness. Whether you travel a thousand miles or two blocks […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
California Poem
California Poem Eleni Sikelianos 200 pages, paperback, $16. Coffee House Press, 2004. “The dental imprint of California / is gravelly, epileptic, spasm / of a sea-born bungled broken Coastal Range of ridges & spurs with localized names …” writes California native Eleni Sikelianos in her new book full of poems, funky photos and collages, and […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
Everyday objects and extraordinary journeys
The word “relic” conjures up a host of connotations, from human remains to a historic souvenir. It can denote a custom from the past, the remnants of an ancient language, or a fragment of a whole. It can represent the last of a dying species, or an indefatigable survivor. > —Jack Nisbet Northwestern writer Jack […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
Forcing nomads to farm — the Utes’ sad story
In “The Utes Must Go!” Peter R. Decker explores how fear-mongering politicians and settlers suppressed the Ute bands in the 1800s
Posted inFebruary 7, 2005: The Asphalt Graveyard
The Pine Island Paradox
The Pine Island Paradox Kathleen Dean Moore 251 pages, hardcover, $20. Milkweed Editions, 2004. Philosopher Kathleen Dean Moore’s latest book is like a basket of seashells and pinecones: Each essay is a precise, self-contained bit of truth. Her central theme, that the well-being of humans cannot be separated from that of the rest of the […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
Capturing a Chediskai childhood
Eva Tulene Watt was born in 1913 on the Fort Apache Reservation, just north of the Salt River in southeastern Arizona. She’s traveled far during her long life, living and working in Spokane, Wash., Stillwell, Okla., and San Francisco, Calif., among other places. But her home has always been in and around the small reservation […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
Civil Disobedience: Poetics and Politics in Action
Civil Disobedience: Poetics and Politics in Action Edited by Anne Waldman and Lisa Birman 469 pages, softcover $18. Coffee House Press, 2004. This anthology contains 40 essays, lectures and interviews with notables such as Gary Snyder, Joanne Kyger and Bobbie Louise Hawkins. In need of some raucous poetry, fiery speeches and a few good reasons […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
A Place to Stand
A Place to Stand Jimmy Santiago Baca 264 pages, hardcover $24. Grove Press, 2004. If you think your own busy life offers challenges, open Baca’s latest book and be very grateful. Baca is not only New Mexico’s finest poet and homegrown writer, but an ex-con whose memoir will stun those of us who think we […]
Posted inJanuary 24, 2005: Written in the Rings
One with Ninevah: Politics, Consumption and the Human Future
One with Nineveh: Politics, Consumption and the Human Future Paul R. and Anne H. Ehrlich 447 pages, hardcover $27 Island Press/Shearwater Books, 2004. This husband-and-wife team at Stanford University lays out the ways in which the human race is jeopardizing its place on earth. Looking at everything from consumption and birthrates to “sustainable governance” and […]
Posted inDecember 20, 2004: Stand Your Ground
Moab uranium tailings: should they stay or should they go?
The U.S. Department of Energy is calling for public comment on its plans to clean up a 130-acre pile of uranium tailings and contaminated soils currently leaching ammonia and radioactive materials into groundwater — and the Colorado River — just three miles upstream from Moab, Utah. The Atlas Minerals Corporation had operated the Moab uranium […]