Book Chat BY PHAEDRA GREENWOOD
MY WILD LIFE: A MEMOIR OF ADVENTURES HOMELAND BURNING By Brinn Colenda WITHIN AMERICA'S NATIONAL PARKS By Roland H. Wauer 2014, 288 pages, $39.95 Texas Tech University Press 800-832-4042; www.ttupress.org Wauer recalls “a wonderful way to make a living,” 32 years as a seasonal ranger in eight national parks including Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, Death Valley National Monument, Yosemite, Zion, Pinnacles National Monument in California, Big Bend, Texas, Great Smokey Mountains National Park, and the Virgin Islands. He also served as chief of the Division of Natural Resources in Washington, D.C. A biologist and avid birder, he made significant contributions to research projects on birds, mammals, reptiles, invertebrates, and other wildlife. He models how to be the interface between the natural world and the tourists who love the parks to death. At Glacier Bay in Alaska, a steady increase in cruise ships that go to see endangered humpback whales are endangering the humpbacks that shelter their calves in the summer. While serving the Southwest Regional Offices, he wrote a proposal for an ecological study of mountain lions near Carlsbad that were purportedly killing a rancher’s cattle. Never a dull moment. Well done.
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JULY 2018
EARS OF CORN: LISTEN
2018, 292 pages, $17.95 Southern Yellow Pine Publishing 850-421-7420; www.syppublishing.com
By Max Early 2014, 100 pages, $28 3: A Taos Press 303 249 4731; www.3taospress.com
This is Book 2, a military thriller in a compelling series called “Callahan Family Saga,” classic tales of good vs. evil set in the naïve days before 9/11 when Americans thought “It can’t happen here.” The first book was Cochabamba Conspiracy, a world take-over attempt by the arch villain, Kurt Wallerine, that unrolls in Bolivia. The last one is Chita Quest, where Colonel Tom Callahan and his brother attempt to rescue their father, a Vietnam POW, from a prison camp in Siberia. Colenda is a retired lieutenant colonel, a pilot for over 20 years, who utilizes in riveting fiction his authentic and scary flights of derring do. His hero is Tom Callahan, and Colleen is his lovely, intrepid wife. One of his female pilots, Rhui, declares to her father, “All those innocents who are slaughtered by suicide bombers are somebody’s children. Even the bombers. The killing has to stop.” But Wallerine is on a revenge mission to burn up America’s wildlands. Read the book!
Max Early is a renowned poet and potter from Laguna Pueblo with pottery in many permanent collections nationwide. This beautifully designed book with many black and white photos and a few drawings is a credit to 3: A Taos Press for embracing with clarity and grace an indigenous culture. Early incorporates Keresan words into his poems to “heighten the vocal tonality” which works if you are familiar with the language. His poems alternate with prose vignettes that include a typical day in Laguna in the pursuit of the elk that “rampaged” the cornfield. At dusk the young men pursue more exotic game at the local bar, but the girls get away. Some of his most poignant poems are about picking piñon or shaping the clay from which he fashions his pots. Family photos alternate with photos of elegant Native pottery decorated with fine geometric designs. Among his awards is a Native American Community Scholar Appointment from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
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GRANDPA LOLO’S MATANZA: A NEW MEXICO TRADITION By Nasario Garcia 2017, 54 glossy pages, $24.95 Rio Grande Books 505-344-9382; www.LPDPress.com Matanza is a ritual celebration of butchering a hog to feed the family—or sometimes the whole village—for the winter. It harks back to the days when every family knew exactly where their meat came from—the farm. Junie is an eight-year-old boy who was born and raised on the farm. The hog is named Bruno. He has been well cared for by the family for a year. Looking at Bruno over the fence, Junie has a moment of sadness. But remembers what his mother said: “Animals must die for us to put food on the table.” The older children watch the whole butchering process and often help with the small details. The story is completely straightforward, told in Spanish on the opposite page. The illustrations are simple and appropriate, but the story is long with many details and might be too much for the three-to-eight-yearold set.
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