book chat I By Phaedra Greenwood Visit your local bookstores to buy books. Send your book for review to: Book Chat, 614 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87505
Chupacabra Meets Billy The Kid What risks will a blocked novelist take to capture the true nature of a historic outlaw? Carrying her laptop, Rosa Medina glides back to 1879. She encounters an alternative reality inhabited by shapeshifters, ETs, Bigfoot and Chupacabra. She confronts a group of scientists known as C-Force that threatens to clone armies of Chupacabra and take over the world. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, she meets Billy/Bilito, (the Kid) who is polite and sober. He sings soulful Hispanic folk songs as they ride to the Lincoln County War. He won’t shoot Bigfoot because the creature mutters something in Mescalero Apache. In the bar, “Rosa had felt a thrill when she floated across the floor in Billy’s arms.” She can’t change the Arrow of Time that drives Billy to his fate, but can she get home without getting shot? Between the lines, Anaya delivers both joyful and painful slices of Southwestern history. Five stars! Thanks to this brilliant, compassionate man for all his wonderful books. He will be missed.
Near Art Experience Lisa Gill and Ezra were smashed head-on by another truck on Broadway in Albuquerque in 2001. When she came to and struggled out of her pick up, Lisa found herself staring at a wall mural, a hopeful community effort that she later believed “saved us all.” The drunk driver ran. Angry witnesses pursued Manny, pummeled him into submission, and waited for the cops. Her friend Ezra stood beside her and recited poetry. “ …this is what happens when poets get into car crashes,” she wrote. At the salvage yard, when her step-father had finished explaining “totaled,” “I realized I had climbed out of that mangled mess of metal.” What she lost, besides her truck, was logic, color vision, the use of her upper arms and shoulder. What she endured was nerve-raked, screaming pain. What ate up her life in a long recovery was about 150 doctor and therapist appointments for neurological damage. “I got lucky.” Manny almost ran free to crash again. Almost. Five stars!
Tall Tales & Half Truths of Pat Garrett Pat Garret is the man who killed Billy the Kid. LeMay, former president of the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico, recounts not only that historic moment, but “the most significant moments of Garrett’s career.” LeMay doesn’t shy away from humorous tales and slander. Or how an outlaw that Garret had shot bled to death in the corner while Garret played poker. Apparently, this tall, lanky cowboy who came from a genteel family in Alabama had a mouth and an attitude. He also had a wife and four children to support and was often broke. He owned a ranch in Roswell, and his greatest dream was to irrigate the Pecos Valley. He helped finance the Northern Canal, a 40-mile-long irrigation canal through the Pecos Valley. New towns sprang up along it, but Garrett never got credit for his efforts. He did succeed in creating Chavez County, but not in becoming its sheriff. He was ambushed and killed by one of his enemies—a fascinating read.
By Rudolfo Anaya • Oupress.com
By Lisa Gill • Amazon.com
By John LeMay • HistoryPress.net
Amazon.com • 800-848-6224
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Amazon.com • 843-972-1821
The Good Life Lab Wendy and Mickey traded high-paying but boring jobs for self-employment and time to enjoy their lives as homesteaders. They got rid of the TV and “acquired fundamental knowledge.” They learned how to keep photo documentation and take notes. As they invented tools, cooked up new recipes and learned wildcrafting remedies, they also
12 August 2020 • enchantment.coop
created this book of practical and spiritual advice about self-sufficiency and how to reconnect with community. They harvested prickly pear cactus, made mesquite flour, installed solar panels, bought an electric car. When they began remodeling a 40-year-old mobile home in a former RV park in Truth or Consequences, they developed valuable skills. Wendy learned how to weld; Mickey invented things like a custom temperature
controller. With this guide you can repair common household electronics or build a plant dehydrator with four yards of screen and a few plastic bread trays. This retro book was way ahead of its time. Now, in the throes of COVID-19, we need all the hands-on advice we can get. Five Stars! By Wendy Jehanara Tremayne Arcadiapublishing.com Amazon.com • 413-346-2100
