The New Mexico Starter Library

New to New Mexico? Welcome to the wild west. This article is not specifically for kiddos, rather it is a list of recommended books for adults (we deserve some reading above the level of "Hop on Pop"!).

So without further ado, here is my recommendations for New Mexico books:

Be My Guest, Conrad Hilton Conrad Hilton grew up in San Antonio, just twelve miles south of Socorro. His dad ran a grocery store/hotel, then they moved to the "big town" of Socorro. The first half of this memoir is well worth reading. Conrad's father stands out as one of the few settlers of the wild west who refused to carry a gun. He claimed that carrying a gun meant that sooner or later either you or the person you pointed it at died. There's a harrowing scene of him talking a drunken cowboy down at gunpoint.

Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides This book is much bigger than Carson alone. It tells the rich and complex history of the "taming" of New Mexico and fills in the detail of the brutal campaign against the Navajos. The US Army (hopelessly unsuited to New Mexico) has the duty to protect the pueblos and the Hispanic settlers only lately inherited from Mexico. The governor and army desperately want a Napoleonic style war, with a single leader to negotiate with, and had no idea how to deal with raids carried out by small groups of young male Navajos...thus the tragedy of Bosque Rondondo. This book explained something I never understood -- why anyone thought that interning Apaches with Navajo was a good idea.

The Harvey Girls, Lesley Poling-Kempes If importing brides to the wild west leaves a bad taste in your mouth, don't worry, by the end of this book, you are left with the joy of being a young women in 1900, getting to leave home (with chaperon), travel west (live in a dorm), draw a salary, and transfer between Harvey Houses! I've written more extensively in my article about the Belen Harvey Museum.

The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest, Tony Hillerman If you like mysteries (or even if you can just only stand them) you should read all of Tony Hillerman's mysteries. They are set primarily in Arizona, but the country, and traditions are New Mexican -- Hopi and Navajo did not draw those state borders. This light book is from Hillerman's newspaper days, and is a "Prairie Home Companion" take on New Mexico. We are a small town at heart.

No Life for a Lady, Agnes Morley CleavelandThere are intertwining strands in the rope that makes up New Mexico, this book is about the strand made up of Anglo ranchers. The roughness of life on the frontier, the joy and the practical jokes are all described. The horse culture, where the only acceptable reason for being caught walking was chasing a horse, is described with energy.

The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols This fabulous book is a wonderful romp through small town New Mexico. I hate to say much about -- I don't want to give anything away. Hispanic farmers, innocent and well meaning university volunteers, land developers and ghosts cavort. It should be required reading for anyone who crosses the border. I wish I could recommend all the books in the trilogy, but they get rapidly weirder and more violent.