Greetings to all from the Black Range Museum Bookshelf!
By Kathleen Blair.
In our Gift Shop we carry about 100 titles to offer for an interesting selection to feed your curiosity. We emphasize books relevant to the Hillsboro Historical Society’s mission statement and topics developed in our museum displays. Local authors are also featured. We have many titles on the people and events that have impacted our region of the southwest including Native Americans, mining, ranching, local community development, significant places, and historical events, as well as natural history. We also keep books on more current activities such as hiking and camping, field guides, a children’s section, our giftshop artist skills, and a few southwestern classics and fiction just for a good, thoughtful read! In these periodic notes, I will try to keep abreast as new tiles are acquired and favorites revisited. Remember, with your membership you receive our Quarterly Journal filled with interesting articles as well. Just a note – in order to keep prices down and books out of landfills, many of the books we offer are used, though still in good condition.
Although we are an historical society and try to be fact based, sometimes history becomes most memorable as a good story that makes the people of a time and place understandable and interesting. In that vein, I thought this month I would showcase some of our fiction choices! Here are a few titles we enjoyed and recommend. Many are classics in New Mexico literature that touch a deep chord in this land of Enchantment.
This Month's Selected Titles
Bless me Ultima. 1972. Anaya, R. One of Godfathers of New Mexican and, particularly, Chicano literatures, his first book deeply evokes the many generations of Hispanic cowboys, farmers, curanderas, and sheepherders of the llano Estacado of northeastern New Mexico. His warmth illuminates the rich culture of the people he knows so well.
Silver Hill, Mora, J. 2017. The mythical town of Silver Hill and events were (loosely!) based here in Hillsboro. A young Boston fellow come to find out about a failing family mine and becomes entangled in a local stage coach robbery and the fates of the sheriff and the accused cowboy.
Rimfire, Diamond, T. 2004. The lives of the Warm Springs Apache fighting for their families and way of life, settlers, miners and ranchers trying to establish new lives and prosperity, and the cavalry between the two intersect in the southern Black Range where Tom Diamond spent his life steeped in these people and their histories.
Death Comes for the Archbishop. W. Cather, 1927. Well, here is a New Mexico classic! Taking place in Santa Fe, and much of central and Northern New Mexico in the 1800s, the story of how the simple Father becomes the Archbishop of Santa Fe and falls in love with the place and its people. Beautifully written by one of American’s iconic authors, this is perhaps one of her most beloved and well-known books.
Josanie’s War, Schlesier, K.H. 1998. The Apache Wars meticulously created through the eyes and cultural history of the less known side of the conflict. The author’s excellent research on the ecology, anthropology, battle sites, individuals, and events are a fascinating perspective.