Book Chat

Visit your local bookstores to buy books. Send your book for review to: Book Chat, 614 Don Gaspar Ave., Santa Fe, NM 87505

At The Precipice

Paskus is a widely-published environmental journalist and producer of the New Mexico in Focus series: “Our Land: New Mexico’s Environmental Past, Present and Future.” She reminds us New Mexico is in a megadrought; our beetle-killed moutainsides are burning hotter than ever; snowmelt is evaporating before it reaches ranches and farms that so desperately need it; we are draining aquifers which may not renew themselves; in some places the Rio Grande is drying up and we may never be able to fill Elephant Butte Dam again. Her sharp observations are softened with telling vignettes about nature because “Scientists can predict and model. But data points and graphs don’t inspire people to change their behavior. That takes faith. And love.” This book appeals to New Mexicans who love the animals and the land. By Laura Paskus • unmpress.com 800-249-7737

Weird Santa

When Skinner was small, Christmas was a special time when the hard edges of the heart were softened, “a time of redemption and conversion.” Love is lurking in the plot of each of these holiday stories. In “Christmas Village,”

Historic Churches of New Mexico Today

Graziano explores the “querencia” of rural adobe churches of New Mexico from Mora County to Taos, Chimayo, and south to the chain of pueblo church communities along the Rio Grande. The author focuses on the buildings but also on priests, parishioners, caretakers, and restorers who cooperate to preserve religious traditions. He speaks to past tensions and resistance to Catholicism when the Pueblo peoples were forced to abandon their kivas to build and attend Catholic churches as part of the Hispaño deculturation process. Overall, the book is profoundly about “the importance of a church in the life and identity of an extended family.” “Natural, cultural, and supernatural realms fold over and into one another with a fluid continuity.” By Frank Graziano • global.oup.com 800-445-9714

Jim becomes obsessed with creating a miniature Christmas scene. His wife, Delia, is critical and jealous when crowds of admirers come to see Jim’ s creation. But on Christmas Eve, a little boy appears who opens their hearts to a warmer future. In a sweet and spicy tale, under the spell of Grandma’ s gingerbread cookies, a courting couple gobbles up cookies made to look like

The Land of Rain Shadow

These fiction stories set in Horned Toad capture the folksy slang and rural values of a small, drought-ridden town in Texas. Obviously proud of her West Texas heritage, Roach is not above poking at Toad for a few laughs. Religion plays a major role in some of these tales. The only entertainment in Toad was in the school, the churches, or at lively tent revivals. “Singing, praying, dancing and shouting is a fine way to spend the summer,” a young man says. In “The Day After Pearl Harbor, 1941,” Roach describes how they mobilized in Toad, rolling bandages, practicing air raid warnings, applying for jobs in the bomber plant. A grassroots historian and folklorist, Roach has received three Spur Awards and the Carr P. Collins Prize for her nonfiction and short fiction. Her dry humor is both funny and astute. By Joyce Gibson Roach • ttupress.org 806-742-2982

him and her, which leads them both to bliss. In “A Doggie's Tale” a boy secretly adopts an abandoned puppy. Otto lives under the dilapidated porch of a house that is condemned. Will the bulldozers demolish the house on top of him? Or will Otto follow Tony home and sleep on his feet? By Brian Allan Skinner • nighthawkpress.com 575- 758–1499