For 32 years, the Tucson-Pima County Public Library has presented “Southwest Books of the Year,” a list of page-turners and must-reads chosen by a distinguished panel of judges. This year, the University of New Mexico Press boasts three books chosen as top 35 panelist picks.
Otero Mesa: Preserving America’s Wildest Grassland was a panelist pick of judges Sharon Gilbert, a library with the Pima County Public Library, and Paul Huddy, a scientist with the Solar Institute.
“This book’s story is important because it is representative of the on-going battle over the long term management of public lands and choices between development and extraction or preservation and nature,” said the judges of Otero Mesa. “Thanks to award-winning nature writer Greg McNamee, and the remarkable photography of scientist Stephen Strom and naturalist Stephen Capra, it is a story well told.”
Panelist W. David Laird, former head of libraries at the University of Arizona, chose Kenneth Milton Chapman: a Life Dedicated to Indian Arts and Artists by Karen Barrie and Janet Chapman as one of his picks.
“This thorough and very well-written biography is a fascinating look at a little-known but important figure in the early development of Santa Fe as a focus of Native American and Western art,” says Laird, who called the book an “excellent piece of scholarship—accurate, thoroughly researched and readable.”
A Field Guide to the Plants and Animals of the Middle Rio Grande Bosque was a pick of Bill Broyles, a Tucson writer, naturalist, and retired teacher.
“This fascinating book will introduce you to more than 700 common birds, plants, insects, fish, and mammals… the array of species is truly outstanding,” says Broyles of the guide, which was edited by Jean-Luc E. Cartron, David C. Lightfoot, Jane E. Mygatt, Sandra L. Brantley, and Timothy K. Lowrey.
The Southwest Books of the Year “Notable Books” list contains books that are not top panelists picks, but are recommended reading nonetheless.
Four UNM Press titles were on the Notable Books list:
· New Mexico Territory During the Civil War: Wallen and Evans Inspection Reports, 1862-1863, edited by Jerry D. Thompson of Texas A&M International in Laredo.
· New Mexico's Crypto-Jews: Image and Memory by the late Cary Herz of Albuquerque
· No Settlement, No Conquest: A History of the Coronado Entrada by independent historian Richard Flint of New Mexico
· Wolves at Our Door, a novel by J.P.S. Brown of Patagonia, Ariz.
Southwest Books of the Year—Best Reading 2008 is published by the Pima County Public Library in partnership with the Friends of the Pima County Public Library and the Arizona Historical Society.
For more information, visit: Southwest Books of the Year.
For more information, contact Amanda Sutton 272-7190 asutton@unm.edu.
Media Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920; e-mail: cgonzal@unm.edu
Posted by scarr at February 19, 2009 12:19 PM