"Books for a trip to Arizona?" Topic

I'm off soon for 10 days in Arizona, checking out national parks and such. I've got Bury's history of the Roman Empire on my Kindle but was wondering what else you chaps might suggest as proper reading in Arizona? It might be about war but then it might just be about the local Indian tribes. It would help if it is available on Kindle. Thanks in advance.

"Books for a trip to Arizona?"

Long ones …

Agreed! Would you share what the long grass matting is? That's some of the best I've seen.

Hmm…not sure where the above response came from or where mine went but here it is again-

I'd recommend Edward Abbey's post-apocalyptic "Good News":

"In Good News, Edward Abbey's acclaimed underground classic, the West is wild again. American civilization as the twentieth century knew it has crumbled. In the great Southwest, a new breed or settler, white and Indians together, is creating a new way of life in the wilderness – a pastoral economy – with skills and savvy resurrected from the pre-industrial past. Meanwhile, in a last surviving bastion of urban life, the remnats of the power elite are girding their armed forces to reimpose the old order. This is a land of horses and motorcycles, high-tech weaponry and primitive courage, and the struggle for the American future is mounting in intensity. No quarter is asked or given, and the outcome hangs in perilous balance against a background of magnificent nature and eternal human verities."

or anything else by ole' Ed for that matter.

If I remember correctly, it's not set in Arizona, but New Mexico (well, it's the Southwest, right?), but I highly recommend Death Comes to the Archbishop by Willa Cather. It's about the early missions to that territory and really paints a powerful picture of the landscape, the Indians, the rancheros and the friars. It's a book I had to read some years ago and I haven't been able to forget it since. My wife just read it and felt the same.

So except for being set in the wrong state and being completely unmilitary, it might be worth a look!

A great Golden Oldie set in the Southwest is "A Canticle for Libowitz" by Walter M. Miller, Jr., first published in 1960.

Glenn E. Rice, Stephen LeBlanc, Deadly Landscapes: Case Studies in Prehistoric Southwestern Warfare.

Many of the studies focus specifically on Hohokam settlements in Arizona. This is the body of fieldwork that LeBlanc based his synthetic Constant Battles on.

I've been re-reading Tony Hillerman's Navajo police novels, starting with 'The Blessing Way' and 'The Dance Hall of the Dead." The sequence isn't vital, and many readers rate "Thief of Time" and "Skinwalkers" as his best novels.

I've read "A Canticle for Leibowitz" and "Dance Hall of the Dead", both really fine and quite different from each other.

I will check and see if "Deadly Landscapes" is on Kindle and "Death Comes to the Archbishop" too.

Or I might just pick up a Hillerman paperback in Arizona…

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

Hmm, Deadly Landscapes is hard cover only, and a reviewer says the Kindle "Death Comes" is full of typos and gives examples from the first few sentences. Sigh.

Try Googling the Superstition Mountains and the Lost Dutchman Mine. There's lots of fun stuff written about treasure hunting in the Supes.

Anything about Tombstone too.

If you haven't read Blood Meridian, that would be a good one for a Western
If you want post-apoc, you can't beat Nick Cole's Wasteland Trilogy:
link

Rich

Pleasant Valley War
A Little War of Our Own: The Pleasant Valley Feud
Blood and Thunder

Are good for a start.