The suggestions for books that enrich and expand an understanding of Southern Arizona keep rolling in.
Last month, we asked what books should be read to be “well read” from a Southern Arizona perspective. We offered a list of 18 books that capture and enhance readers’ understanding of the heart and soul of Southern Arizona and help establish a sense of place. Readers have added their suggestions to the list in the past several weeks. (Find the original list and readers’ suggestions at Tucson.com/bookfest.)
Our collection has a regional emphasis and we favored authors who’ve had a presence at the Tucson Festival of Books, and most of the reader-suggested books followed suit.
Some readers have offered books that go back decades and others suggested modern works. Some of the older books may be hard to find and we suggest checking Bookmans (bookmans.com) and Mostly Books (mostlybooksaz.com). We were able to find used copies of these books online.
recent suggestions
from Star readers:
- Patricia Mentz
- suggests three bilingual children’s books by local author
- Roni Capin Rivera-Ashford
- , a frequent Tucson Festival of Books participant: “My Nana’s Remedies/Los Remedios De Mi Nana” (Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press; bilingual edition, 2002), “My Tata’s Remedies/Los Remedios De Mi Tata” (Cinco Puntos Press, 2015) and “Hip Hip Hooray, It’s Monsoon Day!” (Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press; bilingual edition, 2007).
“Not only are they by a Tucson author, they all relate to our local culture,” says Mentz. “ ‘It’s Monsoon Day’ is particularly apt for this time of year.”
“Hip Hip Hooray, It’s Monsoon Day!” has won several awards including the 2007 Southwest Children’s Book Award, 2008 American Association for the Advancement of Science Children’s Book, and the 2008 OneBook Arizona.
- Debby Buchanan
- suggests another children’s book — “This House is Made of Mud/Esta casa esta hecha de lodo,”
- written by her husband,
- Ken Buchanan
- . Debby explains that Northland Publishing in Flagstaff originally published the book — a “Reading Rainbow” book — in 1991 and it was later acquired by Cooper Square. The bilingual edition first came out in 1994, she says.
During the 2003-2004 school year, former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano gave the book as a gift to every first-grader in the state — 80,000 copies, says Debby. It was Napolitano’s pilot program to promote literacy and was funded by Phelps Dodge and Southwest Gas, Debby says.
Disclosure note: Debby says she helped her husband with the publication of “This House is Made of Mud” and joined him in writing “Lizards on the Wall” (Roberts Rinehart Publishers; first edition, 1992) and “It Rained On the Desert Today” (Cooper Square Publishing, 1994).
- Reader
- Wynne Brown
- says “Another author for book-loving Southern Arizonans is
- Gayle Davies Jandrey
- (she also writes under G. Davies Jandrey).
“Her most recent book, ‘Journey Through an Arid Land’ (Fireship Press, 2015), is a vivid and well-executed novel about the complications of family and friendships in our borderlands,” Brown says.
“Her novel, ‘A Garden of Aloes’ (The Permanent Press, 2008), is an engaging and believable coming-of-age story set in Tucson’s Miracle Mile area,” says Brown. “Both are terrific reads!”
- Former Star book editor and Southern Arizona Authors columnist
- J.C. Martin
- suggests
- Ann Woodin
- ’s “In the Circle of the Sun” (Macmillan Publishing Co.; first edition, 1971). “It is every bit as good as “Home is the Desert,” which reader
- Melvina Strijdonk
- of Oro Valley suggested late last month.
- Woodin is a graceful writer, Martin said in recommending the book.
