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If it wasn’t for skeletons and attempted bushwackings, Acting Lieutenant Jim Chee of the Navaho Tribal Police (NTP) would be reduced to chasing cattle rustlers- which is just a small cut above his boring new administrative job. Chee isn’t certain that he’s cut out to be an administrator anyway. When some local mountain climbers find the skeleton of another climber on the side of Shiprock Mountain, a sacred Navajo mountain, Chee jumps at the chance to find out if the deceased is related to another cold case from several years back. Chee’s former colleague, retired NTP Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, does find a link between the two. But as Leaphorn and Chee, working sometimes separately and sometime together, begin answering the “who, what, and why” questions surrounding the case, things start to move in a sinister direction and bullets are soon flying. Hillerman’s satisfying novel provides both a glimpse of Navaho life and a thoughtfully plotted little mystery. If you’re reading Tony Hillerman for the first time, you’ll be glad to know that the library has many of his other mysteries. 294 pages. M FIC HIL
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The Evertons, Richard and Sara, leave mid-twentieth century US to move to the tiny Mexican village of Ibarra- so far off the map that they finally must have a passenger in their car in order to find it. Richard plans to reopen the town’s silver mine which was once owned by his grandfather. Richard’s dedication to the project is propelled by the knowledge of his imminent death from a blood disease. The couple quickly becomes the town’s center of interest, particularly Sara. Life in Ibarra is a constant learning curve for them- everything from the quirky aspects of the local language to the living and working habits of the citizens. The locals are equally perplexed by what they term “half-disoriented” North Americans with their strange habits and rituals. It’s these intriguing stories of the town’s loves, losses, and misunderstandings that are the heart of this story. Elizabeth Doerr’s beautiful prose, which borders on the poetic, brings to life a town that, like Brigadoon, exists as much in imagination as in reality. Here’s a gem of a story that you won’t want to miss. 214 pages. FIC DOE
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Naturalist Alan Tennant wanted to do the impossible- to follow the flight path of peregrine falcons from Texas to Alaska. Tennant had been working on Texas’ Padre Island doing bird banding when he decided to find a way to follow the peregrine’s long northern flight path to the tundra. Teaming up with George Vose, an ex-flight instructor and stunt pilot whose old Cessna was the equivalent of a ‘60s Volkswagen, the duo piggy-backed on Army-initiated falcon research (they also made off with some Army radios). Neither man was truly “qualified” to do what followed which included near crashes, encounters with Canadian and Mexican police authorities, and a run-in at a smuggler’s airport. Despite all this, Tennant was able to add quite a bit of information on the peregrine’s habits and locations and also document how both chemicals and humans pose a severe threat to this magnificent bird. Part natural history, part great adventure story, On the Wing is a book that both entertains and informs. 304 pages. 598.96 TEN
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“The more things change, the more they are the same?” That, in essence, is what journalist and author Tony Horowitz wanted to find out. Several years before the Civil War, Frederick Law Olmstead (he of Biltmore fame) traveled across the South writing about what he saw for a New York newspaper. Olmstead’s South, already headed towards conflict, was a study in contrasts with racial animosity existing side-by-side with racial ambivalence. Tracing Olmstead’s path, Horowitz spent time talking with the locals, observing what had and hadn’t changed since Olmstead’s trips. His reporting reveals an updated version of the same dichotomy that Olmstead found- a region full of interesting people and interesting contradictions. Part travelogue, part sociology, part good old-fashioned journalism, readers will find a little bit of everything in this book. 476 pages. 917.504 HOR
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