Book Review: A Good Goodbye

While Explore! New Mexico focuses on the Land of Enchantment and while we travel the state, exploring the people, places, history, and culture of New Mexico, there is one journey we all make ... the journey at the end of life.

New Mexican author Gail Rubin has written a book certain to inform, enlighten, and guide every one of us on this final journal. She has taken on society’s last taboo, producing a readable and practical guidebook with a light touch.

Entitled A Good Goodbye, the book details funeral planning for those who don’t plan to die. Its dozen chapters outline aspects of funerals that create a meaningful memorial, avoid stress at a time of grief, incorporate funeral traditions for major faiths, utilize new trends, and more. The family has that much more comfort in saying goodbye and celebrating the decedent’s life, when many of the decisions are made well in advance of death.

Gail Rubin is an event planner specializing in funerals and memorial services. A breast cancer survivor, she is a member of the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the cemetery committee for Congregation Albert in Albuquerque, and a member of the Chevra Kaddisha, a volunteer organization that ritually prepares the bodies of Jews for burial. More information is available at www.agoodgoodbye.com.

Book Review: Seven Cities of Mud

As we have traveled New Mexico we have made friends with writers who live in and write about New Mexico. From time to time, we’ll offer you a review and our impressions of their stories. And we’ll encourage you to explore New Mexico through its many authors who bring their own images of our Land of Enchantment to life.

Seven Cities of Mud

By Florence B. Weinberg

Published 2008 by Twilight Times Books

ISBN: 1-933353-46-5

Strong-willed Franciscan Fray Augustin organizes an entrada from Mexico into New Mexico a half century after Coronado, intent of converting Native Americans to Christianity. He recruits two other friars and eight soldiers. The entourage, with servants and livestock, embarks on a journey that carries them as far north as Taos and into the complexities of reconciling European culture with that of the Puebloans. Meanwhile, Poli, a pueblo woman whose husband suspiciously falls to his death soon after their marriage, is confronted by the arrogant, powerful, and cruel Makta, whose only desire is to possess her. Needless to say, the soldiers are there for treasure and complicate the situation. Priests, warriors, and Puebloans are in conflict the moment they are joined. Weinburg weaves a fascinating tale, integrating the history of Spanish conquest in a satisfying, nonintrusive way. Not only did I read a marvelous tale, I learned a bit more about my adopted home state.

Seven Cities of Mud is one of a series of historical novels set in the American Southwest and was a 2008 finalist for the New Mexico Book Awards.

- Book review by Bud Russo

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