2023 Southwest Books of the Year

"A stunning new novel from the author of A Children's Bible, a National Book Award finalist and one of the New York Times 10 Best Books of 2020. Over twelve novels and two collections Lydia Millet has emerged as a major American novelist. Hailed as "a writer without limits" (Karen Russell) and "a stone-cold genius" (Jenny Offill), Millet makes fiction that vividly evokes the ties between people and other animals and the crisis of extinction. Her exquisite...

"Late one July night in 2020 in Portland, Oregon, armed men, identified only by the word POLICE stitched onto their uniforms, began snatching people off the street and placing them in unmarked vans. The people targeted were legally protesting as part of a nationwide Black Lives Matter movement. More arrests soon followed. These actions were not done by a group of right-wing terrorists, or the FBI or CIA. They were common practice maneuvers conducted...

"Rita Todacheene is a forensic photographer working for the Albuquerque police force. Her excellent photography skills have cracked many cases-she is almost supernaturally good at capturing details. In fact, Rita has been hiding a secret: she sees the ghosts of crime victims who point her toward the clues that other investigators overlook. As a lone portal back to the living for traumatized spirits, Rita is terrorized by nagging ghosts who won't let...

"In the summer of 1922, Aldo Leopold traveled on horseback up into the headwaters of New Mexico's Gila River and proposed to his bosses at the Forest Service that 500,000 acres of that rough country be set aside as roadless wilderness. Thus was born America's first--and the world's--first designated wilderness. A century later, writer-activists come together to celebrate this vast, rugged landscape and argue for its preservation. First and Wildest...

"A shocking massacre in 2019 sparks a probing investigation into the strange, violent history of a polygamist Mormon outpost in Mexico. A harmless, unassuming caravan of women and children was ambushed by masked gunmen in northern Mexico on November 4, 2019. In a massacre that produced international headlines, nine people were killed and five others gravely injured. The victims were members of the La Mora and LeBaron communities-fundamentalist Mormons...

The Mexican Chile Pepper Cookbook is the first book to explore the glories of Mexican regional cooking by focusing on this single, but endlessly variable, ingredient.

"Based on a true story, the tale of one girl's perilous journey to cross the U.S. border and lead her family to safety during the Mexican Revolution"--

""A grandmother explores her special garden with her granddaughters. Wonder grows everywhere but Grandmother especially loves to show it in her story garden. She invites her granddaughters to join her there in a sweet meditation on the treasures she's brought to that magical place--the rocks, the shells, the crystals, the meteorites : how they came to be, how they were formed, how they each have a story to tell"--Provided by publisher.

"One girl sets out on a journey across the treacherous Arizona desert to rescue a young pilot stranded after a plane crash in this gripping story of survival, friendship, and rescue from a bestselling and award-winning author. Twelve-year-old Jolene spends every day she can at the library watching her favorite livestream: The Desert Aviator, where twelve-year-old "Addie Earhart" shares her adventures flying an ultralight plane over the desert. While...