Path of the Puma. We live in Mountain Lion country here in north-central New Mexico. In the twenty-five years we’ve been here we’ve seen three, one big one and two smaller. We have been extraordinarily lucky. Some people, even those given to lots of hiking in the back country may never see one in their lifetime that’s why some call these elusive animals “ghost cats”. But they DO see us. If you are in mountain lion country you can bet you are being watched, not as prey, they much prefer deer, but certainly as presence.
    Jim Williams book is a great read, all about the puma, panther, catamount, mountain lion in all its beauty and its importance to the survival of the entire Wild in both North and South America. This book is another worth-your-time read with very fine photography to boot. It follows the mountain lion’s range from Canada to Patagonia and tells the story well. Don’t pass it up.

    "What are you reading?" asked a friend of mine, knowing that I'm doing a lot of it these days (in order to avoid the writing I SHOULD be tending to). "Biography, usually of political figures, and animals." I replied. Not totally true as you can see by the list here, BUT! I just finished one that I really didn't think would be as good as it turned out to be. It was "As Far As the Eye Could Reach, Accounts of animals along the Santa Fe Trail, 1821-1880"" by Phyllis S. Morgan. This is a fascinating book and an easy read and includes chapters on Buffalo, Horses, Mules, Burros, Prairie Dogs, Prairie Chickens, Dogs, Pronghorns, a "Brief Note About Cats", Bears, Coyotes, and many more. (Did you know that oxen are just cattle trained to pull a wagon?) Lots of really good information here about travel with animals along the Santa Fe trail before the iron horse took over. (No chapter on the Puma who didn't appear in the open. You will have to read about those in the book above.)

    "Since the start of his presidency, Barack had asked his correspondence staff to include ten letters or messages from constituents inside his briefing book, selected from the roughly fifteen thousand letters and emails that poured in daily. He read each one carefully, jotting responses in the margins so that a staffer could prepare a reply or forward a concern ton to a cabinet secretary. He rad letters from soldiers. From prison inmates. From cancer patients struggling to pay health-care premiums and from people who'd lost their homes to foreclosure. From gay people who hoped to be able to legally marry and from Republicans who felt he was ruing the country. From moms, grandfathers, and young children. He read letter from people who appreciated what he did and from others who wanted to let him know he was an idiot.
    "He read all of it, seeing it as part of the responsibility that came with the oath. He had a hard and lonely job–––the hardest and loneliest in the world, it often seemed to me ––– but he knew that he had an obligation to stay open, to shut nothing out. While the rest of us slept, he took down the fences and let everything inside. " (p.350)    

    This is a quote from Michelle Obama' book "Becoming". No wonder it's a best seller. Her style is open and accessible, just as she is. This is a marvelous read and a sad reminder at the same time –––– knowing what we had compared to what we have now.....well, what can be said?

    "If we remember Major General Smedley Darlington Butler for nothing else, we owe him an eternal debt of gratitude for spurning the chance to become dictator of the United States––––and for making damned sure no one else did either." " The last paragraph taken from the most important book (almost) no one has read. Jules Archer's "The Plot to Seize the White House".
    No, this didn't take place in the 1800's....it was the mid 1930's and we came quite close to losing it all, and guess who the plotters were....names we are STILL seeing and who are STILL trying to steal our government by, for, and of the people away. (Hint; friends of Donny.)
    I almost passed this one up on the library shelves. It looked like just one more (imagined) conspiracy book, another paperback with a lurid cover designed to reel in the fearful (as if the news isn't bad enough). I stopped, looked more closely and decided to give it a try.....and it turned out to be about something NOT "imagined" at all.
    No, it won't leave you feeling worse for having read it. What is written about here IS worth knowing about. I DO wish it was information that could be found in our history books. THAT would be useful!

    Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments, Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval is a rare blend of prose poetry and history, specifically the history of black women from about 1870 to around 1935. In other words, from the end of slavery into the middle of the jazz age…..an escape from the violence of the South to the oppression of the North.
    It’s an unblinking look at the officially sanctioned and unsubtle racism that black people seeking freedom from the overt racism of the South found in places like New York and Detroit, the escape from the plantation to continued subjugation ……an examination of the foundations that were laid, despite best intentions, for the construction of black ghettos. About how poor equals crook in the minds of cops, judges, social workers*, and politicians and how black people in particular were, and are, set up as targets of suspicion and mistrust. 
    Saidiya Hartman is the author and she is a genius when it comes to story telling, touching your heart, and telling it how it is. (A black specialty as far as I’m concerned.)
    *This is also still going on. (One of these times I'll tell my experience of a local, New Mexico, food stamp office visit.)


    "...........the truly American story is the lives of its discontents. We need to discard that image of the city shining on a hill, because it is populated by a pure and uncontaminated chosen people cleaving to doctrine. Our city does not shine. It is messy. It is the nature of a free society. We are castaways in the twenty-first century, where we must salvage what is valuable from the old world and adapt to the new. Each new generation must remake its sovereignty by pledging mutual consent, for we are always marooned." This is a quote from the conclusion of Joseph Kelly's Marooned, the story of Jamestown and the quite UN-settled beginnings of what was to become the foundation of America....and those beginnings were very "messy" indeed. Forget the Pilgrim "fathers", it was in the disregard of them and their "doctrines" that the seeds of freedom were sown.


    “Everyone loved sunsets. The light lost its sanity as it fell over the hills and into the pacific¬––––it went red and deeper red, orange, and even green. The skies seemed to melt, like lava eating black rock into great bite marks of burning. Sometimes all the town stopped and stared west.” (p-129 in “House of Broken Angels”) Who wouldn't love to have written that paragraph.....and that's just a tiny taste of the kind of writing Luis Alberto Urrea produces time after time in his masterful works of both fiction and non. Of those I've only read, Hummingbird's Daughter, Queen of America, & The Devil's Highway (couldn't finish that one, too painful). Urrea is one of our great masters.

    It's such a drag that we lost Ivan Doig. He left us in 2015 and left behind in incredible legacy of wonderful writing that always leaves me wondering at his skill as a prose-poet and wondering why I even try to write anything. (Yes, I know I shouldn't do this destructive-to-my-own-writer-skill thing, but.....I mean Ivan Doig was someone apart from any ol' writer, and I read a lot of them.
    Here's just a tiny example taken from "Mountain Time" (1999) His main character is meeting a woman at the airport. (Her name is "Mariah" by the way.) so he writes, "There. Announced by the hair." Now any other writer would have said something like, "Then he spotted her." or "He couldn't miss her red hair in the crowd." But not Doig. In just five words we can guess she's probably a red head with a massive amount of hair.
    In the next paragraph he says, "Mariah, all footwork and grin, cut a sharp angle through the concourse crowd." We already know a lot about her just with that little description.
    Doig. An amazing writer.
    I first came upon him in "The Whistling Season" and then, "This House of Sky". I haven't read all of his stuff (his Bartender's Tale was just so/so) but these last two are certainly tops!
    Frankly it's hard to enjoy another read after one of his. Have to take a bit of a breather so as not to be let down by what may be a "flat prose" writer.


    I found myself getting irritable the other day and couldn't determine the source until I realized I was reacting to what I was reading at the time, John Kerry's "Every Day is Extra". I was taking on his irritation with his having to deal with the incredible amount of stupid self-sabotage, actually sabotage of our country (and the world) by those who had (and have) agendas that were valued above what made sense. i.e. Let's not pass anything that will make (fill in the blank here) Obama, the Palestinians, the Jews, the Democrats, et. al. look good.
    I can't say this is an uplifting read, but Kerry does an incredible job of shining the light on what goes on behind the scenes in the Senate and in international diplomacy when self-interest is valued above the potential for a good outcome. Peace in the Middle East? Good luck. Reasonable discourse in the Congress? Ditto.
    It's a good read, informative, frustrating.....but left me wanting no more of politics for awhile which is where Kerry's at right now.
.....and, I must add, Kerry's book does NOT end on a down-note. he writes: ".....there's nothing wrong with America and the world today that can't be fixed by what's right with our citizens and with people around the globe." and he quotes JFK here, "Our problems are man-made–––––therefore they can be solved by man."
    He ends with, "Onward."


    Just finished David McCullough's "Truman". What a contrast to today's insult to our country (and the World). I wonder how long we have to wait for the final chapter to this pathetic and nightmarish "joke".......(we've had enough of the punch line.)


    After the politics of Truman I was ready for something totally different.....I found it in Fredrick Backman's, "Britt-Marie Was Here"! It's a novel which begins with;
    "Forks. Knives. Spoons. In that order. Britt-Marie is certainly not the kind of person who judges other people. Far from it. But surely no civilized person would even think of arranging a cutlery drawer in a different way from how cutlery drawers are supposed to be arranged. We're not animals are we?"
    Etc.
    And this is the way this wonderfully strange book ambles along....and then moves in another beautiful direction....or directions.
    You will love this one. (Even if you're not a dedicated novel reader.)


    You can’t tell a book by it’s cover is, of course, a phrase, a warning, useful for all kinds of circumstances. But in this particular case, it was the cover of the book I’m about to tell you about that almost caused me to not pick it off the library "Good Reads" shelf and, once I did, to put off reading it for a couple of weeks. I had selected two potential good reads. The first was an overview of the FDR administration, “Nothing to Fear” by Adam Cohen. I was already aware of most of the information Cohen wrote about, the fight for Social Security, the New Deal programs like the CCC, the WPA and so on. But this book has many of the important stories about the movers and shakers of the time, who, like Francis Perkins, played huge roles behind the headlines to get much of the New Deal rolling. The kinds of opposition that had to be overcome were no different than the sorts of push back against any progressive programs that have been offered since the 40’s. A good book and an informative read.


    It was the second book I struggled with. Not the reading of it, just the getting myself to read it in the first place. Why? Well, the cover showed a picture of a line-up of white males displaying the stars and stripes next to the Nazi swastika and the lot of them making fascist salutes. The title; "Behold America" put me off as well. I thought this was going to be a long diatribe about how we are going down the tubes. I’ve had enough of this kind of scare stuff from social media and hysterical-headlines from Huffington Post.
    The subtitle of the book is “The entangled history of ‘America First’ and ‘The American Dream” (as concepts) and the author is Sarah Churchill. But I decided to dive in and swim with it for a while to see what she had to say. The answer? Plenty!
    What she has done is to have researched newspaper clips and speeches made across America, even from the most obscure news sources, that go back to 1900 and forward to today that reference the use and meanings of the terms “America First” and “The American Dream”.
    The first has most often been linked up with anti-immigration and racist views (and the KKK, the Nazis, white-supremacists, etc.) while the second has moved between ideas of ethics and morals and dreams of social mobility, and monetary gain. The former has been quite inflexible, the latter dependent upon the malleable definitions of the time.
    I can’t do this book justice in a simple “review”. I will take a moment to quote just a few important lines from the Coda where Churchill quotes an observation made by Dorothy Thomson, a political columnist back-in-the-day (I’ll add to that in a moment). Thomson is describing a party where she says she can determine who is a “natural born Nazi”. She describes person A as being “right-leaning”, person B as a “fellow-traveler” etc. till she get to person D. This is what she says, “D is the spoiled son of a doting mother. He has never been crossed in his life. He spends his time at the game of seeing what he can get away with. He is constantly arrested for speeding and his mother pays the fines. He has been ruthless toward two wives and his mother pays the alimony. His life is spent in sensation-seeking and theatricality. He is utterly inconsiderate of everybody…”
    Sound like anyone we know? This observation was made in 1941.
    Churchill writes, “Americans need to restore belief in the social contract, our sense of society as a moral economy and there is much good reason to do so in the name of a reclaimed American dream. There is no good reason to do so in the name of America first.”
    What a piece of scholarship this is.
    Yes, get and read this one, despite the cover.

    I came upon this little gem of a book, "The Day The Sun Rose Twice, The Story of the Trinity Site Nuclear Explosion, July 16, 1945" by Ferenc Morton Szasz. It opens with this; "In December of 1945, the Indian pueblo of San Ildefanso, New Mexico prepared to celebrate its annual deer dance. That year they invited a square-dance club from nearby Los Alamos to join them." There follows a description of the celebration which then ends with, "Finally to the unusual accompaniment of accordian and Indian drums, the two groups danced together."
    World War II had just ended months before and this was the first Christmas in four years that would be observed in peace. (Wish we could have another invitation like that from the Pueblos so that we could all dance together again this time for both peace and harmony.)
    The book ends with this, "What happened at Trinity Site....evolved into the most crucial issue of the twentieth century." One of the Los Alamos scientists said, "Forty years ago we meant so well.....but it did not turn out so well."
    In between this opening and closing is the story of the people who worked to create "The Bomb". This is a very interesting piece of work.


    Just a short look at the third book I finished this week (this is why I'm not getting any of my own writing done....but I AM trimming trees after all so it's not like I'm slacking off). This book is Red Cloud, a bio of the Sioux Chief by Robert W. Larson. It's a good read and a very clear description of the times (mid 1800's to early 1900's) and this important Sioux presence.
    By the way, I also want to plug any book by Mari Sandoz who was a genius of a writer about so much in the west and the Great Plains....and the Indians of course. Read anything by her and she will take you there both in time and in language. Some readers back in her day (mid 20th Century) didn't like the fact that she did not romanticize the Old West...quite the opposite. Another writer whose work is worth your time.


    "Pandora's Lab, Seven Stories of Science Gone Wrong" by Paul A. Offit, MD. A really good read about stuff we thought was really a good idea which have turned out to be quite the opposite. (Like getting rid of DDT which then promoted alternatives which are not effective and REALLY harmful to us and the environment.....yes, Rachel Carson was wrong about this.)


    I haven't read much about  WW1, just never got into what has been written about it.....till now, and that's because "To End All Wars" by Adam Hochschild is one of those fine, rare pieces of writing that will grab you from the first paragraph. It's a combination of the best Civil War accounts like The Killer Angels by Shaara and the movie The Fog of War. Of course Shaara's book is fiction, this is not. But the truth of WW 1, how it began (NOT with the assassination in Sarajevo) and how it was prosecuted, is not. Hochschild is very clear about how crazy it was to get into the nightmarish mess to begin with, and how the madness deepened as it went on year after year with the slaughter of young men seemingly endless, and truly pointless. I couldn't put this one down, and I wanted to, but the human drama, the basic human insanity Hochschild writes about so well wouldn't permit it because, of course, it, WE haven't gotten much more sane. It was amazing, for example, to read about how people who strongly opposed the war were, as the losses mounted, inexorably drawn into it and began to support it because it became about COUNTRY and survival. I wondered if much has changed given the times we live in now......100+ years later. Yes, I know a LOT has changed and in fact, the odds the world will ever be plunged into a major war like I & II are much slimmer than ever.


    Here is a very important read; "How to Change Your Mind, What the new science of Psychedelics" teaches us about Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence. (Michael Pollan)
    Do NOT pass this one up! The title might seem to predict a dry read about self-help tricks, but that is not the case at all. This one is well written, a first person narrative about how to change how we both perceive and experience what we keep believing is reality. If you invest time in reading anything over the next few weeks, make it this one!

    My own book, "Becoming Coyote, A Journey of Enlightenment (Mostly)" is not quite as "important" as Pollen's BUT! it's NOW available and is it worth the read? After 14 edits I never want to see it again.......however, you might like it and my writer-editor-publisher daughter (Winter) says it's "...really good." and it DID get good "reviews" from a couple of pre-publish readers....so there you go.
    It's thick enough (400+ pages) to make a good door stop and has a very nice cover.....which, for some obscure reason, I can't get to load here....? It beats any over-the-counter sleep aid and has no horrible side effects. (so far)
     Anyway; it's $20, which will cover book, envelope, and postage. (No, not available in a "Kindle" edition or on Amazon so rare to begin with....and I'll sign it too!)


    "The Wolves at the Door", by Judith L. Pearson subtitled; "........America's Greatest Female Spy" is about a well-to-do, 20 something woman becoming one of the best spies in WW II. Talented, clever, strong, determined....she could not parachute into France because she had a wooden leg so she went by boat.....twice (even after being identified by the Gestapo and betrayed by a double agent). A master of disguise, multi-lingual, a crack shot, a planner, organizer....well; it all reads like a great novel...but it ISN'T! Virginia Hall did it all and it's a better story than any 007 tale (even without the car chases). This was an amazing woman who never wanted any publicity lest her underground activities be compromised. A very good read and should have been a movie!


    If you can find it (at Amazon or your local library) get ahold of "New Mexico: Voices in an Ancient Landscape" by Douglas Kent Hall. I read it and found three as gifts for other NM lovers. This is a classic! First published in '95 it's a bit dated when it comes to some of the views of the people interviewed, but it's a fine piece of NM and Southwest history.

I recommend "The Vaccine Race" by Meredith Wadman for a comprehensive history of vaccination and the evolution of the search for vaccines that have held off, and in some cases done away with some of the scourges of humanity. (They wiped out small pox and have just about done the same with polio.)
    This book is so good when it comes to explaining how vaccines are made and delivered that as I finished it I actually considered that I might have become a vaccine researcher if I’d just been less unsure of my ability to tackle the field of biology.
    Talk about challenging! What I found really exciting about the field was the quest, the problem solving, the mysteries, the challenges, the determination to defeat an equally determined “enemy” (a virus). This is really fascinating stuff.
    Don’t get me wrong; it ‘s not an easy read. Wadman cites many names and many issues, and some of the unconscionable choices that have been made in testing some of the vaccines while in pursuit of knocking out some of these diseases…..as in, who gets sacrificed in order to achieve a final victory.
    I’m not going to go into all the detail about this in this short review except to say, mistakes were made and there have been unintended consequences BUT, this is not the stuff of conspiracy as some critics have proposed. And understanding this and all of what researchers are up against …..well, perhaps that’s the main reason to read this book.


    “In the absence of fact, myth rushes in, the kudzu of history.” What a great line. It was written by Stacy Schiff of whom it is said, “Even if forced at gunpoint, Stacy Schiff would be incapable of writing a dull page or a lame sentence.” For proof read her "Cleopatra, a Life". What an epic work! This is not a book you can rush through, not if you want the full benefit of Schiff’s hard won knowledge about this “last empress” (as described by Schiff).


    Winter Desiree's book "Matchbook" is detective-fiction.....not a genre I usually read...BUT! this is one fine piece of reading and as one of the comments on the back cover notes, "You will not be able to put it down."...well, that's for sure. Don't pass this one up, my daughter has written one FINE story and YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO PUT IT DOWN....i.e., I read it in one day, Raven took two. We have 'em so to get a hard copy contact us. Cost is $10 + shipping (probaby $2) read and pass the word, this is a good one.
    Here’s what the late Elroy Bode, author of eight books (among them; Commonplace Mysteries, To be Alive, Texas Sketchbook) said of Matchbook; “…the details, the perfect rendering of people and places…sentences that shine, words, phrases like jewels.”
    He quotes one line, “During the last three years I had submerged the memory of Ella in a river of alcohol, watched as she sank below the turbulent surface of my mind.”  and comments; “There is not a writer alive who would not be proud to have written that sentence.”

PS, She just finished a second, not a sequel, and it's every bit as good as Matchbook.
 She's on a roll. That book, When I Knew You, is now available too.

    The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio with Julianne Moore and Woody Harrelson is a winner. It's the true story of a woman who kept her family of 10 kids and husband (played by Woody) fed, clothed and housed just by winning jingle contests (before the age of lotteries). Really well done (why Moore didn't even get nominated for this one is a mystery). It's hard to watch, given the raging alcoholic Woody plays (full out), but the up-side makes it worth it.