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Western Reads - Winter Edition
Western Reads
BY AARON DOWNEY
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Before Sandra Day O’Connor was the first woman to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court and the most powerful woman in the country, she was a young girl on a family ranch in the beautiful, unforgiving high-desert country of the Arizona/New Mexico border. Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest tells the story (with her brother H. Alan Day) of her family and how ranch life made her the woman she became.
Speaking of A Cowgirl and Her Horse, Jean Ekman Adams will delight your little cowpokes with this funny, colorful, and totally charming tale of true friendship and love. Silly and heartwarming, these friends learn the real benefits of caring for one another. And Susan Lowell’s three little javelinas are back in a Christmas tale to put at the top of your list for the young ones. A Very Hairy Christmas, again showcasing the brilliant art of Jim Harris, finds our hairy, hilarious trio making sure that everyone, even the Santa impersonator coming down the chimney, has a happy javelina Christmas.
Winter is coming. And when the winter is here and seems to last forever, the best thing you can do is heed the advice of celebrated Lakota writer Joseph M. Marshall III. In Keep Going: The Art of Perseverance, a grandfather tells traditional stories to a young man struggling to understand the world in the face of a devastating loss. “The weakest step toward the top of the hill, toward sunrise, toward hope, is stronger than the fiercest storm.”
Meanwhile, movies are my favorite medicine. Kick back in cozy comfort and let the magic of the motion pictures take you away. (Also, there’s popcorn!) Later, you can learn all about some classic westerns and other films in Cinema Southwest: An Illustrated Guide to the Movies and their Locations by John A. Murray. There’s a reason they make so many films in our stunning western landscapes. Stay warm, friends. Keep going. And to paraphrase Marshall, continue to defy the darkness.
Aaron Downey is the managing editor at Rio Nuevo Publishers, a division of Treasure Chest Books. We create compelling, visually exciting, award-winning books about the people, places, and things that make the West so distinctive.
