2 comments about American Route 66: Home on the Road.

1. Jane Bernard and Polly Brown are accomplished, widely-published Santa Fe photographers who spent three years on American's most legendary trail. American Route 66: Home on the Road (172 p., Museum of New Mexico Press, 2003, $45) "winds from Chicago to L.A." These superb color and black-and-white photographs merge with their subjects mini-oral histories and the photographers' journal entries.

   We discover that an elongated Lake Woebegone populated by people such as Charles and Gazelle Stewart, who have surrounded their petrified wood store with towering folk-artsy dinosaurs designed to make kids demand to stop the car. Gazelle recalls how Jerry Seinfeld came in one day with his bodyguard, "a little bitty man...with such a huge gun he could hardly keep his pants up." Seinfeld wanted a $3,000 meteorite, but the power was down, so they couldn't run his credit card. They trusted him anyway.

   "We'd make more money," Charles says, "if I'd stop making so many dinosaurs."




2. Polly Brown and Jane Bernard are the Thelma and Louise of Documentary photography, shooting their way down the Mother Road with eyes and hearts wide open. Steinbeck, Kerouac, Mick Jagger, and Elvis would all love this book, and so do I.

No comments about Jewels of the Navajo Loom: The Rugs of Teec Nos Pos.

1 comments about All Aboard for Santa Fe: Railway Promotion of the Southwest, 1890s to 1930s.

1. Author has extracted oodles of technical references into an overview that covers a vital sixty-year span of American Southwest history. Victoria Dye skillfully illuminates the intertwining of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad Company (AT&SF) with its more visual counterpart and partner, the Fred Harvey Company. In a mere six chapters, along with a smattering of descriptive BW photos, the author summarizes the wild ethnic mixture of the early Southwestern frontier with a strong emphasis on the economic impact of the myriad cultures. She describes how Harvey and AT&SF precipitated the view of pioneer New Mexico and Arizona as `Indian' more than `Mexican or Spanish,' even though the domineering government and religion was of the latter for hundreds of years. Dye further characterizes how the Harvey/AT&SF promotions helped travelers [remarkably] overcome the spectre of Indian hostilities, replacing fear with their inventive illusion of `Santa Fe' gentility. Marketing, promotion and economics are the core of the book. The author is to be highly commended for distilling five centuries of Cultural Revolution in to 100 pages of easy reading. The bibliography yields [literally] hundreds of literary resources (perhaps this book's most valuable contribution) for further reader interest. The author's supplemental material helps substantiate a "who's who" timeline of AT&SF, Fred Harvey, Santa Fe, curio and Southwestern Indian history - don't miss these appendix, page notes, and bibliographic features!

No comments about Mapsco The Roads of New Mexico.

No comments about Hidden Picture-Perfect Escapes Santa Fe and Taos: Plus the Enchanted Circle.

No comments about Jack Thorp's Songs of the Cowboys.

5 comments about The Law of Love.

1. Reading all of these reviews many people compare this book to her first one. Had this been a sequel for the her first novel, then go ahead and compare it. But this is an entirely different book with different characters. Many authors go through different stages in their lifes and many times it shows through in their writing. I enjoyed this book because I had no high expectations for it. I was dissapointed with the CD because I felt that it didn't fit the book as well as it could have. I did enjoy the past lives, but I did also feel that 'magical' things appeard to help the characters out of a tight spot. (Which actually, helps the story move along quite rapidly if you just accept things as they are and not question them.) Enjoyed the book, didn't enjoy the CD so much, loved the pictures and the general idea behind it. Good bathroom reading.



2. Since you read the title, you must guess it is not a realistic book (Can anybody really mention A Law of Love??) Yet, it is really entertaining. What the author mentions in her story is the idea that people reincarnate several times until they settle any conflicts existing in previous lives, and to do so, it is necessary that in the following lives the people who you had these conflicts with, reincarnate close to you. I think this was really a fun book not only for the plot itself that is quite creative, but also because it as a multimedia book. It includes an audio CD and lively illustrations to make you feel as part of the book. For instance, if the person in the book is listening to some music that makes her dream of something, you can also listen to that same music with the aid of the CD while you see the illustrations and share her dreams. Isn't this innovative enough to be worthwhile reading it?



3. Fortunately I have not read Like Water For Chocolate, and so I didn't have particularly high expectations concerning the quality of prose in this book, and reading the jacket prepared me for a rather sappy story. Nevertheless, this was both the most poorly written and poorly conceived book I've read in a long time (if ever!). The writing style reminded me of that of an overstimulated teenager, and the characters were all but empty of substance. What I found most appalling, however, were the ridiculous new-age pseudophilosophies, and the horrendous misinterpretations of karma and reincarnation. Honestly, the whole thing was so bad it was just embarrassing. So glad it was a loaner, not a purchase!



4. After all the hype regarding Like Water for Chocolate, and in view of my deep interest in reincarnation in fiction, I had greatly anticipated this book. It had a compelling start, in detailing the karmic events set into motion with Rodrigo and Citlala, but the switch to the futuristic setting, with all its fantastical and foreign new technologies and philosophies, was too much far, far too soon.
   
   Problems I identified were: poor, scanty characterization; almost total lack of blocking (description of setting); and comprehensive, almost omnipresent 'telling' instead of 'showing'. We are never allowed to draw our own conclusions about the characters from their actions and words-- Esquivel informs us, either through her narration or that of a guardian or demon, exactly what we are to think of everyone. And both the preachiness and massive breadth of the metaphysical 'stuff' was intrusive and annoying, giving the impression she's telling us what to believe, as well.
   
   The ending is, as with so many novels nowadays, rushed and insufficient, a mere wrap-up chapter telling us what happened to all the main characters after the fact, the lazy man's (woman's?) way of getting the damned thing over with. We aren't shown how any of these things occurred, though it would have been both interesting and satisfying to see how these people came to their rewards or punishments.
   
   And worst of all is the pat and ludicrous resolution of the distance between Azucena and Rodrigo. After their initial meeting at the start of the book, they are separated, and the story basically details (with many flourishes) Azucena's travails in finding him again. But when they do find each other, he doesn't remember her any more, and only has eyes for the reincarnation of Citlala, of whom his violation in a prior life was so lovingly recounted in the first chapter.
   
   Azucena, then, finds love with Teo, and enthusiastically copulates with him at every opportunity. This is explained away with a few convenient sentences by Esquivel, who gives Azucena's reunion with Rodrigo the same treatment in her rushed ending. "Oh, Rodrigo remembers Azucena and leaves Citlala and now only has eyes for his soul mate." Just that easy, was it?
   
   I guess a scene of such power and emotion wasn't important enough for her to render for her readers, but I was left wondering if he felt shame for forgetting Azucena was his soul mate and taking up with Citlala, if Azucena harbored resentment for it. Of course, knowing how Esquivel prefers to tell us what to think, she'd have just informed us with a sole paragraph how it all went down, so I suppose that we're not missing anything by her leaving it out.
   
   Also ludicrous is how easily Azucena forgives Isabel's transgressions against her and the others-- again solved with a convenient telling instead of showing. Esquivel proves how poor her grasp of human nature, and how inadequate she is at rendering it in words for her readers, if she thinks that being murdered and abandoned repeatedly by the same person over multiple lifeties can be erased with a sentence or two.
   
   The multimedia aspect of the book feels gimmicky. The music is redundant in style and theme, and the graphic novel parts feel more like Esquivel couldn't be arsed to describe the scene herself, so got someone else to draw it. If a picture is worth a thousand words, she saved herself about 25,000 of them with the artwork. Convenient for her, but ultimately dissatisfying for us.
   
   In general, this book felt like a wacky sci-fi concept that Esquivel wanted "out there" but didn't feel like bothering to put any effort into. Her heavy-handed treatment of both the story and philosophical issues too many 'WTF' moments, where we have to stop and thing hard about what in the world is happening, gives her an overlooming presence that prevents the reader from becoming absorbed in the book; we're too aware it's written, rather than unfolding before us.



5. I bought it in its spanish version. I loved the way that Laura Esquivel wrote "Like Water for Chocolate" all this funny situations and romantic inspirations not to mention the recipes. So, I decided to look a work besides that one. I have the theory that, if you get in love with a book, is pretty uncommon to find a writer that could make a new book surpass its predecessor. This is one of this cases. I got it and started to read, it just got me involved in all this reincarnation theme and how much does it cost find love. Is a book you'r definitvely will get involved and enjoy.

1 comments about The Southwest: New Mexico and Arizona (The Smithsonian Guides to Natural America).

1. All of the Smithsonian Guides to Natural America are excellent, and this one is no exception. It is one of the best guides available to the natural history of the Southwest, and is beautifully illustrated with color photographs. Not only visitors to this region but residents as well would find their understanding and appreciation of the natural environment enhanced by this attractive and informative book.

No comments about New Mexico Impressions.

1 comments about Fishing in New Mexico (Coyote Books).

1. New Mexico has more opportunities than one would imagine for fishing a desert state. However, one typically needs a little help finding the water. Piper's book covers nearly every possible fishing lake, stream, and river in New Mexico with valuable tips on when and how to fish each body of water. Well-organized into the major river drainages, Piper also provides basic maps for each area. The writing is clear and helpful. The only drawback is that the book is now slightly old and some of the details are out of date (access points have closed, new lakes have appeared, etc.). Perhaps a new edition is in the works. The maps could also be a little better, presently they are somewhat cartoonish. Overall, however, this is the best guide to fishing New Mexico.