100 Best New Mexico Books

The list of the 100 best New Mexico books was announced last week in anticipation of the State of New Mexico Centennial in 2012. I was surprised to see that I had only read seven of the books and also surprised that books I had enjoyed ages ago had a New Mexico connection.

Some are on my bookshelf awaiting quiet time to enjoy them. I noted that I have met four of the authors: the late, great Tony Hillerman (I am honored to have briefly met him and equally honored to now be able to call his daughter Anne a friend), Michael McGarrity (who I enjoyed interviewing for a radio show), and fellow Mesilla Valley residents Linda Harris and Denise Chavez. Another connection is that my husband, Brian, is a relative of General Lew Wallace, author of Ben Hur and one-time NM governor. Surprisingly, his book is not one that I have read, but of course I've seen the movie! We recently donated some books from Wallace's personal library to the New Mexico History Museum.

Perusing the list has encouraged me to make it a goal to read all 100 of them. Notice that I haven't given myself a time limit! I've put the books I've read in italics so you can see where I'm starting. Bud will also be reading some of them - he has read some I have not and vice versa. I'm not sure he's on board with going for all 100! Then we'll share our thoughts about them from time to time. Please feel free to share your reactions to those you've read - and other New Mexico books you enjoy!

- Posted by Cheryl Fallstead

100 BEST BOOKS IN NEW MEXICO

TOP TEN

"Bless Me, Ultima" - Rudolfo Anaya

"A Thief of Time" - Tony Hillerman

"Ben Hur" - Lew Wallace

"Death Comes for the Archbishop" - Willa Cather

"First Blood" - David Morrell

"House Made of Dawn" - N. Scott Momaday

"Lamy of Santa Fe" - Paul Horgan

"Milagro Beanfield War" - John Nichols

"Red Sky at Morning" - Richard Bradford

"The Rounders" - Max Evans

THE REST

"Alburquerque" - Rudolfo Anaya

"All the Pretty Horses" - Cormac McCarthy

"The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid" - Pat Garrett

"Black Mesa Poems" - Jimmy Santiago Baca

"Black Range Tales" - James A. McKenna

"The Blessing Way" - Tony Hillerman

"Blood and Thunder" - Hampton Sides

"Bloodville" - Don Bullis

"Bluefeather Fellini" - Max Evans

"Brothers of Light, Brothers of Blood" - Marta Weigle

"But Time and Chance" - Fray Angelico Chávez

"The Centuries of Santa Fe" - Paul Horgan

"Ceremony" - Leslie Marmon Silko

"Chaco Banyon: Sheriff of Lordsburg" - Fred Schmidt

"Chaco Canyon" - Robert Hill Lister

"Charlie Carrillio: Tradition & Soul" - Barbe Awalt and Paul Rhetts

"Coronado, Knight of Pueblos and Plains" - Eugene Bolton

"Cuentos" - Rudolfo Anaya

"Curse of the ChupaCabra" - Rudolfo Anaya

"Dance Hall of the Dead" - Tony Hillerman

"The Day It Snowed Tortillas" - Joe Hayes

"Delight Makers" - Aldolph Bandelier

"Ditch Rider" - Judith Van Gieson

"The Education of Little Tree" - Forrest Carter

"Eight Rattles and a Button" - Merle Blinn Brown

"El Gringo: New Mexico & Her People" - Josiah Gregg

"Face of an Angel" - Denise Chavez

"Fire on the Mountain" - Edward Abbey

"Forgotten People" - George I. Sánchez

"Great River" - Paul Horgan

"Hatchet" - Gary Paulsen

"Homesteading on Grasshopper Flats" - Etta Rose Knox

"The House at Otowi Bridge" - Peggy Pond Church

"I Fought with Geronimo" - Jason Betzinez & Wilbur Sturtevant

"An Illustrated History of New Mexico" - Thomas Chavez

"In the Days of Victorio" - Eve Ball

"Jemez Spring" - Rudolfo Anaya

"John Gaw Meem" - Bainbridge Bunting

"Journeys of Faith" - Lee Priestley

"Kiva, Cross, & Crown" - John Kessell

"History of La Mesilla & Her Mesilleros" - Lionel Cajen Frietze

"Land of Poco Tiempo" - Charles Lummis

"Las Cruces" - Linda G. Harris

"The Last Conquistador" - Marc Simmons

"The Leading Facts of New Mexican History" - Ralph Emerson Twitchell

"The Legend of La Llorona" - Rudolfo Anaya

"Lottie Deno" - J. Marvin Hunter

"Maria" - Alice Marriott

"Mayordomo" - Stanley Crawford

"Mimbres Painted Pottery" - J.J. Brody

"The Missions of New Mexico, 1776" - Fray Francisco Dominguez, edited by Adams & Chávez

"My Penitente Land" - Fray Angelico Chavez

"New Mexico: A Pageant of Three Peoples" - Erna Fergusson

"New Mexico Biographical Dictionary, 1540-2000" - Don Bullis

"New Mexico Style" - Nancy Hunter Warren

"New Mexico Tinwork" - Lane Coulter

"No Life for a Lady" - Agnes Morley Cleaveland

"Nobody's Horses" - Don Hoglund

"Origins of New Mexico Families" - Fray Angelico Chavez

"People of the Valley" - Frank Waters

"The Place Names of New Mexico" - Robert Julyan

"Popular Arts of Spanish New Mexico" - E. Boyd

"Pueblo Nations" - Joe Sando

"Riders to Cibola" - Norman Zollinger

"Rio Grande Fall" - Rudolfo Anaya

"River of Traps" - William duBoys & Alex Harris

"Roadside Geology of New Mexico" - Halka Chronic

"Sabino's Map" - Donald Usner "Saints of the Pueblos" - Charles M. Carrillo

"Santa Fe Design" - Elmo Baca

"Santa Fe on Foot" - Elaine Pinkerton Coleman

"Santa Fe Style" - Christine Mather "Santos & Saints" - Thomas J. Steele, S.J

"Scavengers" - Steven Havill

"Shaman Winter" - Rudolfo Anaya

"Slash Ranch Hounds" - Dub Evans

"Stolen Gods" - Jake Page

"Tularosa" - Michael McGarrity

"Villages of Hispanic New Mexico" - Nancy Hunter Warren

"Visions Underground" - Lois Manno

"When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away" - Ramon Gutierrez

"The Whole Damned World" - Martha Shipman Andrews

"Wind Leaves No Shadow" - Ruth Laughlin

"Winter in Taos" - Mabel Dodge Luhan

"The Wolf Path" - Judith Van Gieson

"The Woman at Otowi Crossing" - Frank Waters

"Works on Paper" - Georgia O'Keeffe & Barbara Haskell "Zia Summer" - Rudolfo Anaya

"Zuni Pottery" - Marian Rodee

Pardon Billy The Kid?

The Las Cruces Sun-News reported July 29, Gov. Bill Richardson is initiating an inquiry into the alleged pardon of Billy the Kid by then Gov. Lew Wallace. If the facts merit it, the Governor is said to have decided, he would pardon the legendary outlaw.

The life of Billy the Kid is wrought with legends and myths, making it difficult now ... after more than 125 years ... to sift fact from fiction. The facts are these: Billy was tried in Mesilla, convicted and sentenced to hang for the murder of Sheriff William Brady in Lincoln. He escaped and was a fugitive for some months. He was shot and killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett, who had been tracking him all those months. Billy did indeed write Gov. Wallace asking for his intervention. The letters are on display at the New Mexico Museum of History in Santa Fe and the museum in the L.G. Murphy store in Lincoln.

The questions are these: Was Billy the lone shooter of Brady or, as some historians believe, was he only one of several of Alexander McSween’s Regulators to have shot the sheriff? Were the Regulators a vigilante committee bent on revenge over the murder of John Tunstall, Murphy’s rival, or duly sworn deputies of the law? Some believe Brady has at least nine bullet holes in him delivered by at least six guns. So, was Billy the killer or just the scapegoat? Was Billy looking for his girlfriend in Fort Sumner and was he armed with a six-gun and not a turkey leg the night Pat Garrett shot the fugitive? Did Garrett fire in self-defense or did he simply execute Billy? Convicted murderers at the time could be captured dead or alive and returned for execution of sentence.

The ultimate question, of course, is what purpose does it serve to pardon a man who’s been dead 129 years? Will it separate legend from fact? Will it benefit descendants of Billy the Kid ... assuming he sired any? Will it “settle the score”once for all?

Register your vote: Should the governor pardon Billy the Kid? Yes? Or No?

Oh, by the way, Pat Garrett’s death on February 29, 1908 ... a Leap Year ... is cloaked in as much mystery as his shooting of Billy. But that’s another story!

Posted by Bud Russo