Vol. 37, No. 1
March 2007

ARIZONA'S BIRTHDAY COMING!

As the 48th state to join the union, Arizona will mark 100 years of statehood in 2012, and the countdown has already begun.  You may have noticed that all the OneBook Arizona nominees are based on or include some Arizona history, and their consideration for OneBookAZ helps lead us toward the centennial celebrations.

We have many novels in our collection that are set in the Arizona Territory, including family sagas, pioneer stories, and westerns, although it is sometimes a very fine line that separates one genre from another.

Vanished Arizona (AZC 1940) by Martha Summerhayes is the recollection of a real Massachusetts woman married to a soldier who was posted to the Arizona Territory.  Her book reads like fiction but is in fact the true story of her experiences.  Filaree (RC 13820) presents a realistic portrait of a work-worn pioneer woman’s life from 1910 onward.  The author, Marguerite Nobel, who passed away January 1, 2007, was a resident of Payson and wrote Filaree when she was seventy years old.   These is My Words (AZC 2519) by Nancy Turner tells the story of a young woman who came with her family as a young girl to the area near present-day Sahuarita and follows her life as she grows from a young girl to marriage and motherhood.  Her story continues in Sarah’s Quilt (AZC 2850).

Other family stories are The Arizona Clan (RC 59829) by Zane Grey, A Veiled Reflection (RC 51117) by Tracie Peterson, and the three part Arizona Saga by J. P.S. Brown that starts with The Blooded Stock (AZC 1732) and follows the Cowden family as it battles Apache Indians and other ranchers.

There are also western stories that feature a young man caught up in a frontier struggle of one sort or another and a young woman ready to complicate his life.  A few of these are Cutting Stone (RC 35440) by Janet Burroway, Shadow on the Trail (RC 53332) by Zane Grey, Flint’s Gift (RC 47864) by Richard S. Wheeler, The Sergeant’s Lady (RC 58340) by Miles Hood Swarthout, and Arizona Bride (AZC 2101) by Rosanne Bittner.

The rough days of early Arizona form the setting for westerns with a lot of action.  Some books in this category are A Distant Trumpet (RC 38772) by Paul Horgan, Al Lacy’s Tears of the Sun (RC 52051), The Law at Randado (RC 40761) by Elmore Leonard, and the retelling of the shootout at the O.K. Corral in Loren D. Estleman’s Bloody Season (RC 27259).

The books mentioned here are only a few of the Arizona books available at the Library.  We also have many books, both fiction and non-fiction, about the native peoples of the region and about the many geologic wonders of Arizona.  Give your librarian a call to request whatever type of book you prefer.  Happy Arizona Reading!