Albuquerque History: Overview
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The One Stop Shop for All Things Albuquerque History!
History of Albuquerque
Albuquerque History
The region around Albuquerque traces its history back over 10,000 years to when the first native peoples settled in the area. Albuquerque’s history is long and fascinating. Let’s take a look at just a few of the significant periods of the Duke City:
1706 Foundation of Villa de Alburquerque
From the founding documents: “I, don Francisco Cuervo y Valdez, Knight of the Order of Santiago, Governor and Captain General of this Kingdom and the province of New Mexico … certify … That I have founded a Villa on the margin and meadows of the River of the North in a place of good fields, waters, pastures, and timber, … calling it and naming it the Villa of Alburquerque.”
During the 18th and early 19th century, Albuquerque served as a trading center on the El Camino Real.
1821 Mexico Acquires New Mexico
On May 5, 1821, Mexico acquired New Mexico as part of its independence from Spain
1846 Albuquerque Under U.S. Control
In 1846, the New Mexico became a territory of the U.S.
1880 Railroad Arrives
With the railroad’s arrival in 1880, settlers began moving to Albuquerque in large numbers. New Albuquerque sprang up east of Old Town.
1885 Albuquerque, Incorporated
Albuquerque was incorporated as a town in 1885. In 1891, it was incorporated as a city. Old Town remained separate.
1912 New Mexico Joins the United States
In 1912, New Mexico was admitted to the U.S. as the 47th state.
1928 Airport Opens
In 1928, Albuquerque entered the age of air travel with the opening of its airport.
1937 Route 66 Re-routed
The original Route 66 (1926) ran north and south along 4th Street. The route was changed to run east to west along Central Avenue.
1940 High-Tech Era
With the opening of Kirtland Air Force base and Sandia National Labs, Albuquerque became an important technology center.
1949 The City of Albuquerque annexed Old Town - the two towns became one
Irene Fisher, in her booklet Old Albuquerque: Past and Present, describes “How the Villa has come to its Own a second time; how it was courted and Wed to the New Town after Seventy years of Separation; and how the Twain, made one again, revel in the Antiquity and Quiet and Peace of the place so full of History and Memories of Days Gone By.”
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Picture This Podcast
Take a deep dive into the stories behind some of the Albuquerque Museum's most enigmatic images in their photo archives collection. Digital Archivist Jill Hartke narrates. More episodes are available on the museum's website!
Local History Resources
Local History Resources
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Modern Albuquerque Modern Albuquerque is a New Mexico non-profit organization dedicated to the documentation, promotion, preservation, and education of the public about the presence of modernist architecture and art in the city of Albuquerque and State of New Mexico!
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Advanced Map Viewer - City of Albuquerque See a 1959 aerial view of the city!
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Historic Preservation - City of Albuquerque Includes historic maps and development resources.
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Plans, Growth, and Development
Describes archival holdings that illustrate Albuquerque's growth and development from 1883 - 1960. Most materials are from the 1940s and 1950s.
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Railroads in New Mexico
Railroads have an important place in New Mexico's history. When the railroad arrived from the north it immediately took up rapid transport of goods and passengers such as had previously come in along the Santa Fe Trail, fueling a new prosperity and growth in the Territory. A wider variety of people more readily moved into the area, including homesteaders. Learn all about it here!
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Albuquerque Historical Postcards
Albuquerque Historical Postcard Collection at the Special Collections Library includes more than 2,000 postcards published throughout the 20th Century.
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A Brief History of Albuquerque Bernalillo County Library
Albuquerque Residents have been able to visit their public library since 1901! The 19 branches of the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Library have a fascinating history, and you can learn about it here.
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The History of the Public Library Albuquerque Bernalillo CountyTake a trip through time and explore the fascinating history of your Public Libraries!
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Local History Collections available at the Special Collections Library
The Special Collections Library houses the Public Library's research collections on Albuquerque history and New Mexico history and culture. From popular treatments of ghosts and aliens to scholarly publications on history, anthropology, archaeology, religion, language and art, the collection covers a wide range of interests. Although the primary focus is on the greater Albuquerque and Bernalillo County area, excellent resources for researching the pre-Entrada, Spanish Colonial, Mexican, Territorial, and Statehood eras of New Mexico and the greater southwest are readily available.
Local LibGuides
Local Interest
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ABQpedia An encyclopedia of Albuquerque's people, places, history, culture, institutions, and attractions, with links to library resources and beyond.
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Albuquerque Progress Albuquerque Progress was published by Albuquerque National Bank from 1934 to 1965. During this period, the city's population grew from approximately 30,000 to over 200,000 people. Albuquerque Progress was designed to record Albuquerque's growth and to promote the city to potential investors and residents. The magazine’s black and white photos are often the best visual record we can locate of individual structures at the time they were first built. In addition to documenting building permits, new businesses, renovation and infrastructure projects (e.g., Route 66), Albuquerque Progress published topical issues. Issues devoted to the State Fair, winter sports, Boys Ranch, Albuquerque churches, local industries and manufacturers provide state-of-the-city snapshots of the era.
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New Mexico AuthorsThis guide presents an ever-growing list of New Mexico Authors, writers who have lived in New Mexico or who have strong ties with the Land of Enchantment.
ABQ history
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Albuquerque: Feliz Cumpleaños - Three Centuries to Remember
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Albuquerque's historical saga,replete with blood and passion, peril and dedication, conquest and defeat, commoners and kings, oxcarts and atomic energy, flags of different nations. Key roles have been played by haughty conquistadors, native warriors, brash Anglos, covered wagons and steam locomotives and hot-air balloons, by tuberculosis, by writers and artists and dreamers, by nuns and missionaries, by frontier photographgers, by All-American athletes, by doctors, by a strip of asphalt named Route 66. And by people whose names are forgotten. Published by Ana Pacheco, Gran Via, Inc.
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A Boy's Albuquerque, 1898-1912
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Published in cooperation with the Albuquerque Historical Society.
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Albuquerque Remembered
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Albuquerque Remembered is an informative and entertaining history of "The Duke City." Under the flags of Spain, Mexico, the United States, and for a brief period, the Confederate States, Albuquerque grew from a small farm and ranch village in the northern reaches of New Spain to the thirty-fifth largest city in the United States. Howard Bryan devotes special attention to some of the colorful characters who have populated the city's history, and also includes business and civic leaders who helped shape the city's growth and character. Humorous episodes and anecdotes, as related in early newspapers, are scattered throughout the text to balance some of the dramatic and often violent events that occurred in Albuquerque over the years. "Mayo E. Hickey, superintendent of schools from 1898 to 1902, reported to the Board of Education in 1900 that he had administered twelve whippings, most of them for violations of his strict rule against smoking on school properties. He admitted with some embarrassment, however, that two of his victims had been whipped by mistake. "When two young men were seen lighting up cigarettes at the edge of the high school grounds at Third and Lead, some teachers grabbed them and rushed them to Hickey's office where they were both paddled. Only then was it learned that the two were not students, or even Albuquerque residents, but passengers on a Santa Fe Railway train that had paused for a lunch break at the depot a few blocks away. Out for a short walk to stretch their legs, they picked the wrong place to light up."--from Albuquerque Remembered
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Italians in Albuquerque
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The close-knit Italian-American community has been a strong presence in Albuquerque, New Mexico since the transcontinental railroad first arrived in the city in 1880. In this new book, Nicholas P. Ciotola relays the journeys, struggles, and triumphs of these immigrants, from their hometowns in Italy, to their treacherous journey to the feet of Lady Liberty, and finally across the vast distance of America to make their new home in Albuquerque. Told in their own words and showcased in nearly 200 vintage images, these are the stories of the families who established a foundation for the growth and development of a vibrant Italian community in New Mexico's largest city. Readers will recognize names like Alessandro and Pompilio Matteucci, Antonio and Cherubino Domenici, Ettore Franchini, and Orseste Bachechi, who is known as the "Father of the Albuquerque Italian Community." Also included are images of Colombo Hall, the city's first Italian-American organization, and the Italmer Club, founded in the late 1930s. Collected largely from members of the Italian-American community, these photographs also document integral aspects of the immigrant experience including work, leisure, religion, and family life.
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Albuquerque
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Compiled as the city celebrates its Tricentennial, Albuquerque: Portrait of a Western City celebrates the city's rich history and culture while helping visitors and residents become aware of what makes the city and its attractions unique. Part I begins with a historical/cultural retrospective, including illuminating contributions from historians and representatives of museums and cultural centers, a fascinating short history of Old Town, historical and economic summaries, and an introduction to the city's various neighborhoods. Photographs and other illustrations show the city as it was. Part II provides a travel guide to the various destinations that make Albuquerque a special place. Visitors will find plenty to do for the whole family, including museums, cultural centers, outdoor recreation sites, nature and wildlife centers, sporting events, arts and crafts fairs, casinos and nearby areas of interest, including Santa Fe, Taos and nearby Indian Pueblos.
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Albuquerque Then and Now
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Part frontier town, part cosmopolitan city, Albuquerque has a proud heritage more than 300 years in the making. Named to honor a Spanish Duke, Albuquerque is New Mexico's largest city and the new star of the best-selling Then and Now series. * Albuquerque has been home to Navajo Indians, a U.S. Army outpost during the Mexican-American war, a thriving wool and lumber center, and a key stop on the Atlantic-Pacific railroad line. * Side-by-side then-and-now photographs showcase landmarks like Kistler's department store (demolished to make way for new construction), the Old Bernalillo County Courthouse (rumored to be haunted), and the beautiful California Mission-style Alvarado Hotel, considered the finest railroad hotel of its time (it had electricity!). * Images of San Felipe de Neri Church, the first building erected in the settlement, show how much Albuquerque has changed and how much it has stayed the same. The original adobe chapel has been enlarged and rebuilt many times, but its thick adobe walls remain. * From Old Town across the tracks to New Town, you'll discover a thriving, modern city filled with remarkable architecture and culture.
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Albuquerque
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This impassioned book, both a loving description and a critique, defines urban values in a milieu that is rarely recognized as a city. Updated more than ten years after its initial publication, it is more relevant than ever to Albuquerque's future. A new chapter describes Albuquerque's recent development, placing it in the context of urban growth in the West.
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Albuquerque Trivia
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Albuquerque Trivia is a compilation of information about the city of Albuquerque presented in a question and answer format. This collection of facts and figures is an easy to read guide. The book is divided into sections to make it easier and faster to locate information. A few of the section titles are: The Diversity of Albuquerque, Entertainment and Fine Arts, Albuquerque at the Turn of the Century, and Albuquerque Sports. The data gathered regarding people, places, and events throughout Albuquerques 300 year history is not always serious reading. The sometimes humorous discussion is intentional. The authors hope to share what is unique and special about the city of Albuquerque through Albuquerque Trivia.
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Wonders of the Weavers
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An exhibition presented as part of the City of Albuquerque's Tricentennial celebration. For the Hispanic settlers of 19th century New Mexico, weaving was an important part of everyday life. Featured are thirty-seven of the Museum's most notable examples of Hispanic weavings including jergas, colchas and frazadas. Although originally made to serve a utilitarian function, these works reveal the artistic vision and attention to detail that characterizes fine craftsmanship. Includes a review of the historic collection by noted contemporary New Mexico weavers Irvin and Lisa Trujillo. Technical data for each weaving includes fiber and dye analysis. Additional discussion of looms, dyes, sheep industry, and tourism.
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Albuquerque in Our Time
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Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city astride a great river, celebrates its teicentennial with thirty of its most colourful citizens sharing in their own words memories of a place and time after the second world war, when a modern city's character and landscape were being shaped. Stop in for a meal at Duran's Pharmacy, Wander down Central to the corner of First, the city's historic centre. Visit the creaky memories of Old Town and smell the coffee in Las Barelas. Stroll the winding street of Martinez Town or thrill to a rise in a hot-air balloon at the State Fair. Nob Hill in the south-east heights, circa 1940, imagined itself out of the desert scrub. By 1950 housing subdivisions began to crawl toward the Sandias, and downtown saw its heyday along with the inevitability of its decline. Preservation and conservation found their way onto the city stage, and today a revitalisation movement has breathed new life into old town and downtown.
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For Me, The Sun: The Autobiography of Roy A. Stamm, An Early Albuquerque Business Leader
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Published by the Albuquerque Museum
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Ernie Pyle in the American Southwest
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Ernie Pyle ranks with Richard Harding Davis, John Reed and Edward R. Murrow as one of the greatest war correspondents in American history. But he was different from all the correspondents who went before him or followed him in the combat zones of the world. While the others reported on the big picture of troop movements and massive battles, Pyle wrote about the fighting soldier and his plight on the front lines. It was said that Pyle's daily columns gave nothing more and nothing less than a worm's eye view of World War II. Richard Melzer does for Ernie Pyle what Ernie Pyle did for thousands of average G.I.s overseas: he describes Pyle's joys and struggles from Ernie's perspective, in candid, straightforward terms. The result is a focused biography, rich in detail and broad in appeal, just as Ernie would have liked it. "Book News" reported: "A well-written and researched slice of the famous war correspondent's peripatetic life." * * * * Richard Melzer is a professor of history at the University of New Mexico-Valencia Campus. He is an award-winning author of many books and articles about New Mexico, including two grade school textbooks for New Mexico's 2012 centennial celebration of statehood. Sunstone Press has published three of his previous books, including "Buried Treasures, Famous and Unusual Gravesites in New Mexico History," "Breakdown: How the Secret of the Atomic Bomb was Stolen during World War II," and "When We Were Young in the West: True Stories of Childhood."
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Seldom Disappointed
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In this affectionate and unvarnished recollection of his past, Tony Hillerman looks at seventy-six years spent getting from hard-times farm boy to bestselling author. Using the gifts of a talented novelist and reporter, Hillerman draws brilliant portrait not just of his life, but of the world around him.
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Forgotten Albuquerque
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In 1706, Spanish colonists founded the Villa de Alburquerque on the wooded banks of the Rio Grande. Three hundred years later, that once quiet farming community has grown to become Albuquerque, the largest city in the state of New Mexico. Over the centuries, this fascinating city's identity has metamorphosed many times. In 1862, it briefly became the western capital of the Confederate States of America, before Confederate hopes for the territory were destroyed at the Battle of Glorieta Pass. In 1880, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad brought industry and wealth from the east, as well as tuberculosis-infected "lungers" who came by the thousands to seek a cure in "the Heart of Health Country." Then, in 1926, Route 66 transformed the city into a neon-decked oasis for automobile travelers journeying through the newly accessible West. Though many of these identities have faded, their legacy lives on in the beating heart of an ever-changing city.
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A History Lover's Guide to Albuquerque
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This tour of New Mexico's largest city goes beyond the traditional guidebook to offer a historical journal through an area rich with diverse cultures and their fascinating past. The journey through time starts with the settlement of Native Americans in pueblos along the Rio Grande and then initiatives by Spain to settle and convert the region. Visit Old Town Plaza, where trade from the El Camino Real and Santa Fe Trails flourished. Look around lesser-known sites, including railroad depot facilities, major military landmarks and nostalgic Route 66. Join author and local history lover Roger Zimmerman as he carefully curates an expedition through each era of Albuquerque's history and its most beloved sites.
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Imagine a City That Remembers
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Imagine a City That Remembers grew out of a series of articles and photographs published in the Albuquerque Tribune in 1998 and 1999. This expanded and updated collection revisits Albuquerque nearly twenty years after the original articles were written. It juxtaposes historic and contemporary photographs of Albuquerque to show diverse moments in the city's history and development. The authors, ardent defenders of the vitality of Albuquerque's past, contend that the city is still small enough to be in touch with its history and argue that what makes Albuquerque a great place is the continued presence of its strong traditions. They further believe that preserving Albuquerque's natural and cultural heritage is critical to the city's future. Throughout, both express a deep understanding for this complicated, beautiful, and often misunderstood place.
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Legendary Locals of Albuquerque
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Spanish settlers founded Albuquerque in 1706, making it the third of only four villas (towns) in colonial New Mexico. Located in the Rio Abajo along a wide turn on the Rio Grande, the settlement developed from a small farming community into New Mexico's largest, most modern city. Many notable men and women participated in this remarkable growth, lending their talents and sacrificing their time, energy, and sometimes their very lives. Dozens of these legendary figures are portrayed in this unique book, with chapters devoted to those who played important roles in politics and diplomacy; the military; law and order; religion and education; art and literature; culture and entertainment; business and tourism; health, science, technology, and space; and sports. A final chapter describes several of Albuquerque's sung and unsung heroes. The result is a collage of a Western city filled with diversity, tradition, and cultural pride.
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Visualizing Albuquerque
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Visualizing Albuquerque is a comprehensive overview of twelve thousand years of artistic activity in the central Rio Grande Valley. From sophisticated Paleo-Indian spear points to Pueblo pottery, from the Spanish and American Colonial periods to the city finding its true voice after World War II, Visualizing Albuquerque reveals the vibrant creativity spawned by the encounter with this unique region. While to the north Santa Fe and Taos built reputations largely based on a retrospective nostalgia, Visualizing Albuquerque demonstrates that Albuquerque has often acted as the more vital art center. Throughout the twentieth century the city became a haven for modern artists who looked eagerly forward, rather than toward an idealized, mythic past. Albuquerque's role as a hub for commerce and cutting-edge technology inspired decades of artistic innovation and activity. Artists in Albuquerque continue to directly confront the city's unique factors of geography, ethnicity, and complex history to overcome divisions, and in doing so they discover political, aesthetic, and spiritual solutions to difficult problems in challenging times.
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New Mexico Filmmaking
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The moderate climate and majestic western landscapes of New Mexico make it an enchanting locale for the motion picture industry. Thomas A. Edison's crew shot the very first film in the state at the Isleta Indian Pueblo in 1897. Silent-era icons like directors Romaine Fielding and Tom Mix shortly followed to take over the small town of Las Vegas, setting the stage for an explosion of western movies. Today, New Mexico's generous incentive programs and quality facilities make it one of the top filming destinations in the country, attracting big projects like the Academy Award-winning No Country for Old Men and AMC's critically acclaimed television series Breaking Bad. In this comprehensive volume, local author and film historian Jeff Berg explores the history and legacy of New Mexico on the big screen.
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Between Two Rivers
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How an Hispano community maintained its identity over four centuries Located in Albuquerque's south valley, Atrisco is a vibrant community that predates the city, harking back to a land grant awarded in 1692. Joseph P. Sánchez explores the evolution of this parcel over the four centuries since the first Spanish settlers arrived. He tracks its transformation from an individual to a community grant, peeling away the layers of historical events that have made Atrisco the last piece of undeveloped real estate in a growing metropolitan area. Sánchez examines the creation of Atrisco as a frontier community during the Spanish and Mexican periods and shows how it maintained its identity and land ownership into the American era. He describes the historical processes of colonization, land tenures and transfers, and social and economic activity. He also assesses the transfer of the land grant to a private corporation and its subsequent fate, and considers Atrisco's role in the future of Albuquerque. Today more than 30,000 New Mexicans are descended from the early settlers of Atrisco; and because few places in the United States have retained their Spanish and Mexican influences as have the New Mexican land grants, the history of Atrisco offers a unique perspective. Sánchez's study preserves Atrisco's origins as part of that area's Hispano heritage, depicting people who learned to defend their culture against outside challenges and embedding local history in a larger regional saga.
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ABQ Blues
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"[A] powerhouse of a novel....It reads as if Haruki Murakami rewrote The Day of the Jackal." - Locus Magazine "Editor's Choice" New York Times Book Review "The Most Anticipated Crime Books of 2019" CrimeReads "Most Anticipated Books of 2019" Lit Hub "This Winter's Best Thrillers" Chicago Review of Books "Best Books of the Year" Apple A fantastical crime novel set in an alternate Seoul where assassination guilds compete for market dominance. Behind every assassination, there is an anonymous mastermind--a plotter--working in the shadows. Plotters quietly dictate the moves of the city's most dangerous criminals, but their existence is little more than legend. Just who are the plotters? And more important, what do they want? Reseng is an assassin. Raised by a cantankerous killer named Old Raccoon in the crime headquarters "The Library," Reseng never questioned anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read. But one day, Reseng steps out of line on a job, toppling a set of carefully calibrated plans. And when he uncovers an extraordinary scheme set into motion by an eccentric trio of young women--a convenience store clerk, her wheelchair-bound sister, and a cross-eyed librarian--Reseng will have to decide if he will remain a pawn or finally take control of the plot. Crackling with action and filled with unforgettable characters, The Plotters is a deeply entertaining thriller that soars with the soul, wit, and lyricism of real literary craft.
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The Legacy of la Luz
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This history of La Luz, a planned development on Albuquerque, New Mexico's near west side, that celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2018, presents it as a model for architectural and planned community design. Included on the New Mexico Register of Cultural Properties, La Luz exemplifies the spirit of ecosophy--ecological harmony--contributing to the spiritual and physical health of its residents. Featured are interviews with Ray A. Graham, III, its developer, renowned architect Antoine Predock, and others initially involved in this project. Included are descriptions of the community governance and the spirit of its residents with a look ahead to the challenges of sustaining this community in a changing environment.
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Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
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From its humble beginning in 1972 when 13 hot-air balloons ascended from an Albuquerque shopping center parking lot to a stunning annual gathering of 500-plus aeronauts, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta lives on as the most-photographed air show on the planet. As you page through this book, imagine yourself going along for the ride and soaring to new heights. Or if you prefer to keep your feet on the ground, imagine yourself strolling among hundreds of swaying giants, seemingly lost in a dizzying kaleidoscope of color. Join in the camaraderie that draws pilots and fans to Albuquerque from all over the world. You will find yourself mesmerized by the Balloon Fiesta's signature events and its spirited competition among hot-air balloon pilots. As an added attraction, step back in time to when hydrogen-gas balloons once graced Albuquerque skies and enjoy the fascinating world of silent flight, the America's Challenge Gas Balloon Race.
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A Life in the Law
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In 1949, when attorney Mary M. Dunlap moved her law practice and her young children from urban Denver, Colorado to their new home in Albuquerque, New Mexico she had no idea what was waiting for her, starting literally at the first stoplight in town. Her career would span more than forty years, bringing her into daily contact with crafty politicians, pueblo Indians, justices of the peace, and an improbable cast of clients-from nuclear scientists and Ziegfeld Follies stars to arsonists, hoboes, and petty criminals. And, to make life more interesting, she and her husband and their children ran a small farm at the same time. The days started early, the work was hard, and then it was time to go to the office, where the day was long, the work was hard, and then it was time to go home. She recalled that she was challenged by men who said that she couldn't be a real lawyer because she was a woman, or had calluses on her hands or because she drove a pickup. They all changed their minds once they got into court. Mary Kay Stein, the oldest daughter of Mary M. Dunlap, is president of MD Communications, in Tucson, Arizona. She is a longtime medical writer and editor and also is owner of Desert Light Photography, also in Tucson. Mary Kay is the author of continuing education textbooks for nurses, including "Caring for the AIDS Patient; Child Abuse; The Spectrum of HIV Infections"; "Lifetime Weight Control"; Substance Abuse: Guidelines for Professionals"; "AIDS: A Short Course for Nurses"; and "Cardiovascular Disease, Evaluation and Prevention." Her poetry appears in Arizona: 100 Years, 100 Poems, 100 Poets. Mary Kay grew up in Corrales, New Mexico and met and knew many of her mother's fellow attorneys and clients.
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Education in Albuquerque
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A mix of cultures unique to any space in North America funneled into the Albuquerque, New Mexico, area after Spanish invaders stumbled in through the south in 1506. For centuries, indigenous Americans had established ways of knowing and transmitting learning to their young, but colliding old and new cultures left the area's learning communities irrevocably changed. Subsequently, other native tribes and more European, South American, and Asian cultures proudly ported their perceived best practices concerning educating youth into the area. In 1880, the railroad, bolstered by powerful Anglo economic forces, blasted into Albuquerque, carrying new cultures clinging to the railcars: Greeks, Italians, Germans, Jews of many heritages, English, Easterners, Southerners, a host of cowboys, farmers, merchants, and more--all shadowed by motivated politicians. The founding, unfolding, and evolution of educational systems in Albuquerque weaves a crazy-quilt story regarding public, private, and parochial schooling--as well as regrettably ill-founded systems that wronged natives.
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Duke City Diamonds
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Duke City Diamonds is the definitive depiction of baseball thats been played in Albuquerque, going back to the short-lived 1915 pro team to the playoff-bound exploits of the 2012 Albuquerque Isotopes. Capsule summaries on every pro team, highlights, the team records and managers and photos highlight the first three chapters, while the rest are dedicated to the managers and coaches of the professional teams that played here, exhibitions and all-star games, the top high school players of the past few decades in the metro area, the all-time best Lobos and an exhaustive chapter on the 100-best pro ballplayers of all-time. Did you know old "Gashouse Gang" catcher Bill DeLancey managed the Albuquerque Cardinals for a few seasons? If you like baseball, and especially if you follow the game in the Duke City - and probably have fond memories of the old Sports Stadium - this is the book for you ABOUT THE AUTHOR Author Gary Herron is a lifelong baseball fan, from his earliest memories of following the Detroit Tigers when he was growing up in the suburbs of Detroit. That love for the national pastime came with him when he moved to New Mexico in 1975 and adopted the Albuquerque Dukes as the team to follow ... and, thanks to his knowledge of the game and its rules, began filling in as an Official Scorer for the Pacific Coast League at the Albuquerque Sports Stadium in 1983. He became the full-time O.S. for the Dukes at the mid-point of the 1985 season, and just about "scored" every Dukes home game through the 1999 season - more than 1,000 games. When the Isotopes began playing at brand-new Isotopes Park in 2003, Herron was the O.S. for their debut and although others share the O.S. duties, he had worked 360 Isotopes games by the end of the 2012 season. I have known Gary for more than 30 years and have, at times, shared a game in the press box with him. I have known him as a colleague, friend and fan of the game. He has been scorekeeper, historian, storyteller of good deeds done and those which have fallen short. His writing keeps the flame of the game alive in the hearts of young readers and those of us who are young at heart. But beyond stories well-told with prose well-written I have come to know Gary for who he is; a good friend to the game. - Terry McDermott, a former Albuquerque Duke and Los Angeles Dodger Gary Herron is a go-to resource for historical information on the history of Albuquerque baseball. Ive known Gary for more than a decade and have found him to be a veritable encyclopedia when it comes to baseball in our community. - John Traub, General Manager, Albuquerque Isotopes
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Atrisco to Zena Lona
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Want to know something about the story behind Albuquerque's street names- Who are they named for and why? How do you pronounce the names? What do they mean? What's the largest street name in Albuquerque's history? Many people were interviewed for this book; research began when the author was a columnist for a local newspaper. People would call to ask for the origin of one street name or another. This provided the germ for this book. Research continued with further interviews of developers and others responsible for naming streets. In addition to stories of street names, the book lists certain categories of street names, such as animals, birds and flowers. There is a concise explanation and pronunciation of Spanish names. This "snappy survey of selected Albuquerque street names" is not a doctoral dissertation, but rather fun reading for anyone living in or visiting New Mexico's biggest city. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Judy Nickell, a professional writer, began her career as a reporter for the Albuquerque Tribune. There she covered a variety of beats. She wrote the Q&A column from the 1970s through the 1980s, where this book originated. She also wrote a garden column. She is a Master Gardener and a Certified Arborist. Her book, Enchanted Gardening, is out of print. Bilingual from childhood, Judy is often bothered by improper use of Spanish on street names.
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A Spy's Guide to Santa Fe and Albuquerque
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When thinking of New Mexico, few Americans think spy-vs.-spy intrigue, but in fact, to many international intelligence operatives, the state's name is nearly synonymous with espionage, and Santa Fe is a sacred site. The KGB's single greatest intelligence and counterintelligence coups, and the planning of the organization's most infamous assassination, all took place within one mile of Bishop Lamy's statue in front of Saint Francis Cathedral in central Santa Fe. In this fascinating guide, former CIA agent E. B. Held uses declassified documents from both the CIA and KGB, as well as secondary sources, to trace some of the most notorious spying events in United States history. His work guides modern visitors through the history of such events as the plot to assassinate Leon Trotsky, Ted Hall's delivery of technical details of the atom bomb to the KGB, and the controversial allegations regarding Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist Dr. Wen Ho Lee's contacts with China. Held provides background material as well as modern site locations to allow Cold War enthusiasts the opportunity to explore in a whole new way the settings for these historical events.
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Albuquerque's Parks and Open Space
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Albuquerque is a city of crossroads and cultures. Located at the southern end of the Rocky Mountains, at the edge of the Great Plains, and in the high desert along the banks of the Rio Grande, it is the junction where historic Camino Real crosses venerable Route 66. Although officially founded as a Spanish Colonial villa in 1706, native people have lived in the Albuquerque area for over 10,000 years. Thousands of ancient petroglyphs are testimony to the endurance of today's pueblo peoples. Explorer Francisco Vazquez de Coronado overwintered his famed expedition here in 1540-1542. Albuquerque has been a boomtown several times, from the coming of the railroad to its role as a health mecca, and from postwar urban growth to recent sunbelt immigration. This mile-high city has always attracted outdoor enthusiasts, as this chronicle of its parks and magnificent open space system attests. Contributions of Aldo Leopold, Clyde Tingley, Harry Kinney, and many community activists have melded with native and Hispanic traditions to create a place unlike any other.
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1908-2008: The First 100 Years Presbyterian
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Selected as a Most Anticipated title by People, Parade, Bustle, CrimeReads, She Reads, and more! An electrifying work of literary suspense from internationally bestselling author Katrine Engberg, The Tenant--heralded as a "stunning debut" by #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs--follows two Copenhagen police detectives struggling to solve a shocking murder and stop a killer hell-bent on revenge. When a young woman is discovered brutally murdered in her own apartment with an intricate pattern of lines carved into her face, Copenhagen police detectives Jeppe Korner and Anette Werner are assigned to the case. In short order, they establish a link between the victim, Julie Stender, and her landlady, Esther de Laurenti, who's a bit too fond of drink and the host of raucous dinner parties with her artist friends. Esther also turns out to be a budding novelist--and when Julie turns up as a murder victim in the still-unfinished mystery she's writing, the link between fiction and real life grows both more urgent and more dangerous. But Esther's role in this twisted scenario is not quite as clear as it first seems. Is she the culprit or just another victim, trapped in a twisted game of vengeance? Anette and Jeppe must dig more deeply into the two women's pasts to discover the identity of the brutal puppet-master pulling the strings. Evocative and original, The Tenant promises "dark family secrets--and a smorgasbord of surprises" (People).
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Martineztown, 1823-1950
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"[A] tantalizingly disturbing debut...As enthralling as it is thought-provoking." -New York Times Book Review Bustle Best Books of Fall 2020 Publishers Weekly Top 10 Mysteries & Thrillers of Fall 2020 She ReadsMost Anticipated Books of Fall 2020 A woman held captive finally escapes--but can she ever really get away? Gone Girl meetsRoom in this page-turning, #1 internationally bestselling thriller from one of Germany's hottest new talents A windowless shack in the woods. A dash to safety. But when a woman finally escapes her captor, the end of the story is only the beginning of her nightmare. She says her name is Lena. Lena, who disappeared without a trace 14 years prior. She fits the profile. She has the distinctive scar. But her family swears that she isn't their Lena. The little girl who escaped the woods with her knows things she isn't sharing, and Lena's devastated father is trying to piece together details that don't quite fit. Lena is desperate to begin again, but something tells her that her tormentor still wants to get back what belongs to him...and that she may not be able to truly escape until the whole truth about what happened in the woods finally emerges. Twisty, suspenseful, and psychologically clever, Romy Hausmann'sDear Child is a captivating thriller with all the ingredients of a breakout hit. "Chilling, original and mesmerizing." --David Baldacci
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A Bigger Boat
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A Bigger Boat chronicles the Albuquerque Slam Poetry scene's growth and success at the 2005 National Poetry Slam competition, which it hosted and won. This collection of poems and personal memories explores Slam from the voices of the poets who began developing the Albuquerque scene in 1990 to poets who witnessed and celebrated the 2005 hometown victory. Despite Slam's big city origins and arguments that smaller urban areas could not garner enough community interest to host national events, the Albuquerque event proved skeptics wrong. The swell of excitement so exceeded expectations that Danny Solis urged fellow organizers, "We need a bigger boat!" The editors of A Bigger Boat gathered the works of well-known local and national poets to provide a window into the world of competitive poetry, where verse meets performance. A CD with performances by many of the poets recorded at Albuquerque poetry slam events is included.
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Historic Albuquerque
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One of Japan's greatest classic murder mysteries, introducing their best loved detective, translated into English for the first time In the winter of 1937, the village of Okamura is abuzz with excitement over the forthcoming wedding of a son of the grand Ichiyanagi family. But amid the gossip over the approaching festivities, there is also a worrying rumour - it seems a sinister masked man has been asking questions around the village. Then, on the night of the wedding, the Ichiyanagi household are woken by a terrible scream, followed by the sound of eerie music. Death has come to Okamura, leaving no trace but a bloody samurai sword, thrust into the pristine snow outside the house. Soon, amateur detective Kosuke Kindaichi is on the scene to investigate what will become a legendary murder case, but can this scruffy sleuth solve a seemingly impossible crime?
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Overhaul
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In Overhaul, historians Richard Flint and Shirley Cushing Flint present the largely forgotten story of Albuquerque's locomotive repair shops, which were the driving force behind the city's economy for more than seventy years. In the course of their study they also document the thousands of skilled workers who kept the locomotives in operation, many of whom were part of the growing Hispano and Native American middle class. Their critical work kept the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe's steam trains running and established and maintained Albuquerque's unique character in the region. Including a generous selection of historic photographs, Overhaul provides a glimpse into the people, places, culture, and special history found in Albuquerque's locomotive shops during the boom of steam railroading. The Flints provide an engaging and informative account of how these shops and workers played a crucial role in the formation and development of the Duke City.
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Albuquerque Beer
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Albuquerque's commercial brewing scene dates back to 1888, when the Southwestern Brewery & Ice Company was launched. It later churned out thirty thousand barrels of beer per year and distributed throughout the region. Nearly thirty years later, Prohibition halted brewing save for a brief comeback in the late 1930s. In 1993, the modern era emerged with a handful of breweries opening across the city. However, Marble Brewery's 2008 opening revived Albuquerque's dormant craft beer scene. Since its opening, the city has welcomed dozens of breweries, brewpubs and taprooms. Writer Chris Jackson recounts the hoppy history of brewing in the Duke City.
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Albuquerque's North Valley
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For centuries, a strand of settlements was built along the Rio Grande by the ancient Pueblo peoples, many of which disappeared before and during the Pueblo Revolt in 1680. In the 1700s, when the Spanish returned, they built villages along the Rio Grande, not only what is now Old Town but many others. To bring to life the history of the North Valley more fully, an effort is made to examine this area and its small villages separately from a general history of Albuquerque. The North Valley provides a unique tapestry of Hispanic, Anglo, and other ethnic groups, rural and urban, historic and modern, old and new architectural styles, and a successful integration of traditional and modern ways of living. The two volumes are intended to appeal both to those readers who have a long history in Albuquerque's North Valley and remember a previous time, and, also, those who do not remember the North Valley as it once was, but now appreciate its unique character. The new book is Albuquerque's North Valley and it is two volumes -- Los Griegos & Los Candelarias (Vol. I) and Alameda & Los Ranchos (Vol. II)
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Wicked Albuquerque
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Albuquerque's early lawless reputation rivaled that of Dodge City and Tombstone. Its red-light district was known as Hell's Half Acre. Brothel owner Lizzy McGrath once had a local church demolished to build her new bordello. Milt Yarberry, the town's first marshal, was hanged for murder. And the controversial Elfego Baca, who had the gall to face Pancho Villa, survived a thirty-six-hour gunfight unscathed. Author Cody Polston presents the tales of those who slipped through the cracks of morality.
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Sanatoriums of New Mexico
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Tuberculosis, also known as consumption, the White Plague, or simply TB, was the number-one killer in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Many physicians of the era advised their patients to chase the cure for tuberculosis in the Southwest, where the region's clean, dry, fresh air, high altitude, and sunshine offered relief for most and recovery for some. New Mexico, called the "well country," was particularly eager to promote itself as a mecca for lungers with the coming of the railroad to the territory in 1880 and the creation of many new hospitals, known as sanitariums or sanatoriums ("sans"), which specialized in the treatment of TB. This is a brief history of New Mexico's sans, their patients, and the doctors, nurses, and staff who served them during the golden age of the TB industry, from the turn of the 20th century to the eve of World War II.
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Albuquerque's Huning Castle Neighborhood
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As a 21-year-old German immigrant, Franz Huning could not have envisioned his future in New Mexico when, in 1849, he signed on as a "bull whacker" for a wagon train heading down the Santa Fe Trail. From his beginnings as a clerk in Albuquerque's Old Town, Huning's entrepreneurial talents flourished over the next half-century. He took on the roles of merchant, flour mill operator, and land speculator, helping to secure Albuquerque as a division point with a depot, offices, and major repair shops for the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway. Huning's 700-acre estate, home to the once-legendary but now-demolished Castle Huning, fronted Albuquerque's main thoroughfare midway between Old Town and the bustling new downtown one mile east. It was a front-row seat to the city's development after the flood-prone Rio Grande was stabilized. Huning's former estate is now home to fine, diverse homes near the Albuquerque Country Club, as well as historic Route 66, Tingley Beach, the zoo, the Little Theatre, and a Christmas Eve luminaria tradition.
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Ghosts of Old Town Albuquerque
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Old Town Plaza has been the center of Albuquerque community life since the city was founded in 1706 by Governor Francisco Cuervo y Valdez. Historically known as the crossroads of the Southwest, and reflecting an amalgamation of Spanish, Mexican and Native American cultures, Old Town Plaza has been home to many of New Mexico's proud ancestors--and still is. Ghosts of Old Town Albuquerque presents the evidence of their specters wandering the shadows, gathered by author Cody Polston, president of the Southwest Ghost Hunter's Association. Having tracked spirits for three decades, including in such landmarks as the Bottger Mansion and Casa de Ruiz, Polston vows that pragmatism still can't explain away many of Old Town Plaza's eerie wraiths.
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Albuquerque Deco and Pueblo
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Albuquerque's response to Modernism--the architectural avant-garde of the first half of the 20th century, of which the Art Deco movement of the 1920s and 1930s is an important component--was complex and varied. The growing city looked to the new as well as the mythic past characterized by the Santa Fe style. The result was rarely restricted to one cultural tradition. Influences include forms and motifs from a variety of intermixed cultural and social collisions. The result can be sophisticated, as with the Albuquerque Indian Hospital, or homespun, like the Shaffer Hotel in Mountainair. This book celebrates the cultural mixing of various Native American, Hispanic, and 19th- and 20th-century Anglo American forms and motifs unique to Albuquerque during the first half of the 20th century.
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Old Town Albuquerque
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For centuries, Old Town, Albuquerque, has been the crossroads of the American Southwest. It was formed in the traditional Spanish pattern of a central plaza surrounded by church, places of business, and homes. This book gives a concise history of events that shaped the unusual village that was first settled in 1706.
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Top 25 Checkouts
2020's Top Circulating Books about Albuquerque (Fiction & Non-Fiction)
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Top 25 Circulating Books about AlbuquerqueThis list is both printable and contains links to the catalog.
ABQ fiction
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Alburquerque
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"Alburquerque is a rich and tempestuous book, full of love and compassion, the complex and exciting skullduggery of politics, and the age-old quest for roots, identity, family. . . . There is a marvelous tapestry of interwoven myth and magic that guides Anaya's characters' sensibilities, and is equally important in defining their feel of place. Above all, in this novel is a deep caring for land and culture and for the spiritual well-being of people, environment, landscape."--John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War: A Novel ". . . Alburquerque portrays a quest for knowledge. . . . [It] is a novel about many cultures intersecting at an urban, power-, and politics-filled crossroads, represented by a powerful white businessman, whose mother just happens to be a Jew who has hidden her Jewishness, . . . and a boy from the barrio who fathers a child raised in the barrio but who eventually goes on to a triumphant assertion of his cross-cultural self."--World Literature Today "Alburquerque fulfills two important functions: it restores the missing R to the name of the city, and it shows off Anaya's powers as a novelist."--Alan Cheuse, National Public Radio
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First Grave on the Right
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First Grave on the Right is the smashing, award-winning debut novel that introduces Charley Davidson: part-time private investigator and full-time Grim Reaper. Charley sees dead people. That's right, she sees dead people. And it's her job to convince them to "go into the light." But when these very dead people have died under less than ideal circumstances (i.e., murder), sometimes they want Charley to bring the bad guys to justice. Complicating matters are the intensely hot dreams she's been having about an Entity who has been following her all her life...and it turns out he might not be dead after all. In fact, he might be something else entirely. This is a thrilling debut novel from Darynda Jones, an exciting newcomer to the world of paranormal romantic suspense. First Grave on the Right is the winner of the 2012 Rita Award for Best First Book.
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Kepler's Dream
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A young girl makes her fractured family whole again with the help of a very special book When eleven-year-old Ella's mother has to be hospitalized to undergo a dangerous cancer treatment, Ella spends the summer at "Broken Family Camp" with her eccentric grandmother, whom she's never met. The situation is hardly ideal for either of them. Ella is scared her mother may die, but her grandmother seems to care more about her library full of books than she does about her very own granddaughter. But when a rare and beloved book, Kepler's Dream of the Moon, is stolen from her grandmother's amazing library, Ella and her new friend Rosie make up their minds to find it. Finding the beautiful book her grandmother loves so much could even be the key to healing Ella's broken family. An affecting and beautifully written story of family, forgiveness and the wonder of the stars, Kepler's Dream is a sparkling and memorable debut.
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All His Pretty Girls
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Detective Alyssa Wyatt is hunting a serial killer. She doesn't know that he's hunting her. A woman is found naked, badly beaten and barely alive in the New Mexico mountains. The shocking discovery plunges Albuquerque Detective Alyssa Wyatt into a case that will test her to the limit. It appears that Callie McCormick is the latest plaything of a shadowy psychopath that leaves a long shadow on the streets of New Mexico--an individual linked to a string of deaths but leaving no evidence. But when Alyssa makes a breakthrough that just might reveal the killer, she unknowingly puts herself in the crosshairs of a brutal maniac--one with an old score to settle. Because the killer knows Alyssa very well, even if she doesn't know him. And he's determined that she'll know his name--even if he has to extract his deadly revenge on her and everything she loves. The launch of a dark, gripping, completely unputdownable crime thriller series, All His Pretty Girls introduces New Mexico detective Alyssa Wyatt. Fans of Kendra Elliot, Melinda Leigh, and Angela Marsons will be utterly engrossed.
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The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras
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First in the lively, laugh-filled series featuring a New Mexico pottery dealer with a side job as an amateur sleuth. A dealer of ancient Native American pottery, Hubert Schuze has spent years combing the public lands of New Mexico, digging for artwork that would otherwise remain buried. According to the US government, Hubie is a thief--but no act of Congress could stop him from doing what he loves. For decades, Hubie has worn the title of pot thief proudly. Outright burglary, though, is another story. But an offer of $25,000 to lift a rare pot from a local museum proves too tempting for Hubie to refuse. When he sees how tightly the relic is guarded, he changes his mind, but the pot goes missing anyway. Soon a federal agent suspects that Hubie is the culprit. After things take a turn for the serious, Hubie knows he must find the real thief quickly, or risk cracking something more fragile than any pot--his skull. The Pot Thief Who Studied Pythagoras is the 1st book in the Pot Thief Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order.
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Monkey Man
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What would happen if America's greatest dead celebrity weren't really dead? What if Elvis faked his death so he could escape the public eye? What if the King of Rock 'n' Roll was on the run?
In "Lonely Street," low-rent private eye Bubba Mabry is hired by what appears to be the living Elvis, long after the King had gone to that big concert in the sky. Pretty soon, people are turning up dead and Bubba is all shook up.
"Lonely Street" was the basis for the 2009 Hollywood film of the same name, starring Jay Mohr, Robert Patrick and Joe Mantegna.
Tony Hillerman called the book "a wonderful new entry in the private eye field."
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Small Towns Can Be Murder
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When Thomas Paine Kydd, a young wig-maker from Guildford, is seized and taken across the country to be part of the crew of the 98-gun line-of-battle ship Duke William, he must learn the harsh realities of shipboard life quickly. Despite all he goes through, amid dangers of tempest and battle, he comes to admire the skills and courage of his fellow seamen, taking up the challenge himself to become a true sailor and defender of Britain at war.
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North of the Border
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On one side of the border, a murder; on the other, a killer. In between stands Neil Hamel, a woman with a passion for the truth. "Don't worry, Chiquita" was the Kid's answer to almost everything, and right now Neil Hamel missed the Kid--her part-time lover and car mechanic. Neil had gone to Mexico as a favor to a man she shouldn't be doing favors for, and what it got her was a face-to-face meeting with a corpse, a Mexican lawyer with a diamond pinky ring and a throat slit from ear to ear. Returning home to Albuquerque, Neil couldn't let go of the tangled scheme she had uncovered. Looking for the truth, she finds human predators. "Neil Hamel is the best thing to happen to criminal investigation since Father Brown. . . . Van Gieson is a classy writer."--Tony Hillerman
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American Saint
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After his miracles go viral, one man's crisis of faith puts everything in doubt, erasing the line between memory, reality, and truth. Raised in a poor neighborhood in Albuquerque by his mother and curandera grandmother, Gabriel Romero grows up fervently religious, privately conflicted, and consumed by what he's certain is the true will of God. A radical activist determined to enlighten the consciousness of a country losing its way, Gabriel starts his own church. His slogans go viral. His protests make him either a hero or an anarchist in a polarized America, and his miracles--if we believe what we see--cast him as either a charlatan or a saint. But Gabriel knows that, above all, to ensure lasting faith he must do something truly memorable. For that, he will see his divine mission to its startling end. In this visionary novel framed as a hagiography, the ruminative, subjective memories of Gabriel's witnesses--spiritual, familial, romantic, and political--converge to make sense of the man's confounding works and message. As they do, a surprising portrait develops...not only of the deepening mystery of Gabriel Romero himself but also of a country in conflict and the faith it takes to fight the suspicion and fear that divide us.
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The Block Captain's Daughter
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Guadalupe Anaya, a waitress, is pregnant. She is also the newly elected block captain of Sunflower Street, in charge of raising awareness of safety in her southeast Albuquerque neighborhood. Her campaign platform: God helps those who help themselves. While she waits for the baby, Lupe writes letters to her unborn child, whom she names Destiny. It is Lupe's dream that her daughter will be a writer, pushing a pen instead of a broom. In this highly imaginative work of fiction by the acclaimed author of Mother Tongue, Demetria Martínez weaves a portrait of six unforgettable characters, whose lives intertwine through their activism as they seek to create a better world and find meaning in their own lives. At the center of this circle of friends is Lupe, and her heartfelt letters to Destiny punctuate the narrative. Until she crossed the border alone and without papers, Lupe worked in a maquiladora in Mexico. Rescued by strangers, she has made a family for herself among the kindhearted friends, swept up in various causes, who will be her daughter's godparents. Deftly alternating between first-person and second-person narratives, conscious states and dream states, The Block Captain's Daughter is full of delightful surprises, even as it deals with universal themes of desire and risk, death and birth, and the powerful ties that bind us all together.
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Duke City Tales
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Horatio Hornblower, only seventeen years old, gets his sea legs in this "absolutely compelling" (San Francisco Chronicle) first installment of C. S. Forester's classic naval adventure series. The year is 1793, the eve of the Napoleonic Wars, and Horatio Hornblower, a seventeen-year-old boy unschooled in seafaring and the ways of seamen, is ordered to board a French merchant ship and take command of crew and cargo for the glory of England. Though not an unqualified success, this first naval adventure teaches the young midshipman enough to launch him on a series of increasingly glorious exploits. This novel -- in which young Horatio gets his sea legs, proves his mettle, and shows the makings of the legend he will become -- is the first of the eleven swashbuckling Hornblower tales that are today regarded as classic adventure stories of the sea. "I recommend Forester to every literate I know." --Ernest Hemingway
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The Flamenco Academy
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Bird captures the staccato passion of flamenco in a rapturous love triangle. -People The Flamenco Academy opens so boldly . . . that you have to wonder how Sarah] Bird can sustain such high drama. But it quickly becomes apparent that she's mapped her novel's treacherous terrain and planned accordingly, building characters sturdy enough to stand firmly, even when their emotions are spinning out of control. -The New York Times Book Review The first commandment of flamenco is Dame la verdad-Give me the truth. But for Cyndi Rae Hrncir, a shy seventeen-year-old, the truth is too painful to share. When Rae becomes infatuated with the devastatingly handsome flamenco guitarist Tomas Montenegro, she and her best friend, Didi, immerse themselves in the exotic world of the Gypsy dance and in the spellbinding stories told by their legendary teacher, Dona Carlota, Tomas's great-aunt. Locked in a volatile triangle and driven by obsession-Didi with fame, Rae with Tomas, and Tomas with the mystery of his origin-the three sharpen their performances, while danger, longing, and betrayal pulse beneath each step. When a heartbreaking longheld secret comes to light, Rae is duty-bound to honor the laws of flamenco and finally reveal the truth. The stuff bestsellers are made of . . . The Flamenco Academy is] funny and beautifully structured to create anticipation and suspense, with lush moments of romance and a surprisingly sturdy backbone. -Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Good conflict makes good fiction, and that's what gives The Flamenco Academy such irresistible energy and narrative drive. . . . A heady brew of a novel, lushly romantic at one turn, wryly and wittily observant at the next. -Houston Chronicle A deft exploration of love, desire and jealousy told against the backdrop of that most complex of dances, flamenco. -Baltimore Sun
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The Husband Habit
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Why does Vanessa keep falling for married men? Not that she knows she does. At least not at first. But every man who seems like he might be the one turns out to be someone else’s. So maybe the right thing to do is take a vow to stay single, to keep away from all men, until she can figure things out. At least work is a bright spot: It’s an anchor to be so good at something, to lose yourself in your job, and Vanessa is a whiz of a chef, so good she makes her grandstanding boss, Hawk—of Albuquerque’s chic Nuevo American restaurant hawk—look good. After all, it’s his name on the awning above the door. If only her friends and family would get on board with Vanessa’s plan and stop trying to fix her up. If she can’t fix her life, nobody else is going to get the chance to try—not her parents, not her friends, and certainly not her ultra-well-meaning but just-not-getting-it sister, Larissa. And nothing could be more with the plan than helping out at her parents’ house—gardening, keeping them fed, getting them organized with her loyal pet Red Dog by her side. Red Dog is all the companionship she needs. Until Vanessa meets Paul, her parents’ neighbor—he’s all wrong on paper, but he’s got great manners and certainly seems safe. Not bad in the kissing department, either. But just when Vanessa’s guard goes down, the red flag goes up: Could Paul be yet another married man? Bursting with Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s trademark wit and originality, The Husband Habit introduces a rich and complex heroine in chef Vanessa. You’re not going to want to leave her world when the novel comes to an end.
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The Pawnbroker
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Charlie Henry is the proud new owner of the Three Balls pawnshop, having recently returned Stateside from special-ops work in Iraq. The transition back to normal life seems to be going smoothly for him and his Army buddy and co-owner of the shop, Gordon Sweeney--until Gina, Charlie's childhood friend, gets shot in a transaction for information from the previous owner of Three Balls. Gordon rushes to help Gina as she bleeds on the sidewalk, while Charlie roars off on a chase to catch the shooter. The shooter gets away, and as they dig deeper, they find that the shooting has to do with Howard Baza, the previous owner of the pawnshop, and his rather questionable morals. The Albuquerque Police Department reluctantly lets the two ex-soldiers lend a hand with the investigation. Along the way they get tangled up in gang rivalries and led astray by false identities. They discover that nothing is what it seems, and almost no one is who they appear to be. InThe Pawnbroker by Aimee and David Thurlo, Charlie and Gordon must use their skills to track down the killer and find out what happened--and why.
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The Missing Person
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When art history grad student Lynn Fleming finds out that Wylie, her younger brother, has disappeared, she reluctantly leaves New York and returns to the dusty Albuquerque of her youth. What she finds when she arrives is more unsettling and frustrating than she could have predicted. Wylie is nowhere to be found, not in the tiny apartment he shares with a grungy band of eco-warriors, or lingering close to his suspiciously well-maintained Caprice. As Wylie continues to evade her, Lynn becomes certain that Angus, one of her brother’s environmental cohorts, must know more than he is revealing. What follows is a tale of ecological warfare, bending sensibilities, and familial surprises as Lynn searches for her missing person.
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The Oddity
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This dramatic philosophical novel spans more than half the twentieth century in Albuquerque and Los Angeles. The story centers on Hana Nicholas, a liberated woman ahead of her time who is the center of a circle of devoted friends in Albuquerque's North Valley. Her eccentric world comes to a sudden end in the early 1950s, and Lowell Briscoe, her young prot g , is haunted for the rest of his life by the rude destruction of Hana and her home. From New Mexico Christmas celebrations to the riots that shook Los Angeles in 1992, from psychotherapy to the courtroom, The Oddity is a heartfelt tribute to the ecumenical mixture of cultures that makes New Mexico unique. It is also a timely examination of issues that concern many Americans at the dawn of the twenty-first century, bringing to life conflicts between individual rights and institutionalized justice, spirituality and conformity, love, and fear. "This is a novel about meaning and the spiritual sickness that comes from searching for meaning and finding nothing that makes any sense."--from the Introduction
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One of the Boys
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A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A "gripping and heartfelt" (The New York Times Book Review) story about two young brothers contending with the love they have for their abusive father, One of the Boys is a stunning, compact debut by a major new talent. The three of them--a twelve-year-old boy, his older brother, their father--have won the war: the father's term for his bitter divorce and custody battle. They leave their Kansas home and drive through the night to Albuquerque, eager to begin again, united by the thrilling possibility of carving out a new life together. The boys go to school, join basketball teams, make friends. Meanwhile their father works from home, smoking cheap cigars to hide another smell. But soon the little missteps--the dead-eyed absentmindedness, the late night noises, the comings and goings of increasingly odd characters--become worrisome, and the boys find themselves watching their father change, grow erratic, then dangerous. Set in the sublimely stark landscape of suburban New Mexico and a cramped apartment shut tight to the world, One of the Boys conveys with propulsive prose and extraordinary compassion a young boy's struggle to hold onto the pieces of his shattered family. Tender, moving and beautiful, Daniel Magariel's masterful debut is a story of resilience and survival: two foxhole-weary brothers banding together to protect each other from the father they once trusted, but no longer recognize. With the emotional core of A Little Life and the speed of We the Animals, One of the Boys is among the most remarkable debut novels you'll ever read.
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Summer of Hate
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Baudrillard meets Breaking Bad in this stark and bleakly hilarious novel about a descent into an underclass world of born-again Christianity, self-help, and crack. "In his journal, Paul liked to make lists: What he ordered from Commissary (shaving cream, toothpaste, deodorant, the transistor radio he had for a week before the guards took it away). The books he picked off the cart (The Bible, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Codependent No More.) What phone calls he made and received; also, Bible Study certificates, letters and cards, his workout routines and his moods (Anxious, Nervous, Trusting in God, but mostly Depressed). Paul has a record of every push-up he did while he was in prison but he cannot remember shit about what happened before his arrest." --from Summer of Hate Waking up from the chilling high of a near-death sex game, Catt Dunlop travels to Albuquerque in 2005 to reinvest some windfall real-estate gains and reengage with something approximating "real life." Aware that the critical discourse she has used to build her career as a visiting professor and art critic is really a cipher for something else, she hopes that buying and fixing slum buildings will bring her more closely in touch with American life than the essays she writes. In Albuquerque, she becomes romantically involved with Paul Garcia, a recently sober ex-con who has just served sixteen months in state prison for defrauding Halliburton Industries, his former employer, of $873. Almost forty years old, Paul is highly intelligent but has only been out of New Mexico twice. He has no information. With Catt's help, he makes plans to attend UCLA, only to be arrested on a ten-year-old bench warrant en route. Caught in the nightmarish Byzantine world of the legal system, Catt and Paul's empathic attempts to save each other's lives seems doomed to dissolve. Summer of Hate is a novel about flawed reciprocity and American justice, recording recent events through the prism of a beleaguered romance. As lucid and trenchant as ever, Kraus in her newest novel reminds us that the writer can be a first responder of sorts when power becomes invisible, or merely banal.
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You Who Enter Here
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A beautifully rendered, brutally realistic Native American gang novel.
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Las Acequias
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Albert is young boy growing up in Albuquerque NM after the Second World War. His parents and grandparents often tell him stories based on Spanish and Mexican folklore. He and his friend Remy are very close and do everything together. Then one day Albert is forced to make a choice, a choice that will haunt him until his 30th birthday.
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The Tombstone Race
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A teenager accused of homicide finds little support from his family or community. A woman in a conservative town must find ways to protect her gay brother from their militaristic mother. A graduate student discovers that his research has been stolen, probably by the same street gang he has been studying. A former police officer, fired for shooting a deranged man, patrols his own neighborhood. Set in places as diverse as Fort Sumner, Taos, Chimayó, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Clovis, the fourteen stories in The Tombstone Race explore the surprising connections and disjunctions between rich and poor, urban and rural, old and new, ugly and beautiful. Based in part on the author's experiences as a Spanish/English interpreter in the criminal courts of New Mexico, Skinner's stories navigate the state's changing cultures with humor and heart.
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Daughters of the West Mesa
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This novel is based on a true story. In 2009 eleven female remains and an unborn fetus were discovered on the West Mesa outside of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Irene Blea has synthesized what she experienced while living in the region and introduces us to Dora, a single mother, and her two daughters, Luna and Andrea. Luna has been missing for several months. The police, Dora, Andrea and members of the community have searched for Luna with no success. Dora struggles to endure not knowing about her missing daughter, Andrea's emotional distance, and adjusting to the recent purchase of a new house next to a one hundred acre field when a human bone is found in the field. She watches the investigation of the bone and the discovery of many more bones on television. Dora's physical, emotional and spiritual well-being decline while she awaits notice that Luna is, or is not, buried in the field. Irene Blea has personal experience with the dark side of the city and women like Dora, whose daughters frequent nightclubs and bars among drug addicts and prostitutes. She also draws from Mexican American culture. Blea developed and taught Mexican American Studies for twenty-seven years and has written several articles, poetry, and textbooks for university classroom use. The author retired from California State University-Los Angles as a tenured, Full Professor and Chairperson of Mexican American Studies in 1998.
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Tengo Sed
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The Trauma ICU of a Level 1 trauma center is the setting for this thought-provoking novel, which reveals the ruthlessness of medical education and practice. James Fleming recounts a day in the life of a resident in emergency medicine at an urban teaching hospital. The novelâ??s title, which translates loosely as â??I thirstâ?? echoes the Christ of St. John. Tengo Sedâ??s protagonist, however, known only as Hovercraft because he is â??always around, always feeling on edge,â?? is not a savior but a hapless resident with a tendency toward mysticism. Through HovercraftÃ?¢ââ??‰â??¢s sleep-deprived eyes we see patients and their families, doctors, and nurses, and we share Hovercraftâ??s increasingly nightmarish perceptions of a world in which things are not going right. â??The story is remarkably raw and honest, full of mystery instead of certainty, failure instead of success, and humanity instead of science.â??--Frank Huyler, author of Right of Thirst â??A brutal and beautiful book. I read it straight through in one sitting, totally absorbed, deeply touched and frightened at the same time. The writing is taut, edgy, and original with not a wasted word . . . James Fleming has written a small, tough masterpiece.â??--John Nichols, author of The Milagro Beanfield War â??Stripped-down, elemental, and willing to explore feelings of alienation and rebellion felt by a significant minority of medical students, interns, and residents.â??--Paul Linde, author of Danger to Self: On the Front Line with an ER Psychiatrist
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Rio Grande Stories
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The seventh-grade class at Rio Grande Middle School in Albuquerque is a unique group. Coming from schools all over the city, the students are facing new challenges and wondering how they'll fit in. When they are asked to raise money for the school, the kids decide to write and sell a book. They will all contribute something about their heritage that is personal and important. Filled with stories, traditions, and recipes, the book is a big success. Best of all, the kids learn something--about themselves and about one another. Includes a new author's note and a glossary.
Call Number: Children's -
The Brave Cowboy
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From acclaimed author and literary genius Edward Abbey comes this classic novel that inspired the motion picture Lonely Are The Brave--a stirring and unforgettable tribute to the American hero and the American West. The Brave Cowboy is a classic of modern Western literature. It follows Jack Burns, a loner at odds with modern civilization. He rides a feisty chestnut mare across the New West--a once beautiful land now smothered beneath airstrips and superhighways. An "anarchist cowboy," he lives by a personal code of ethics that sets him on a collision course with the keepers of law and order. After a prison breakout plan goes awry, he finds himself and his horse, Whisky, pursued across the desert towards the mountains that lead to Mexico, and to freedom. With local law enforcement, the feds, and the military on their tails, the cowboy and his horse race towards their destiny.
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The Vampire Tapestry
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Edward Weyland is far from your average vampire: not only is he a respected anthropology professor but his condition is biological -- rather than supernatural. He lives discrete lifetimes bounded by decades of hibernation and steals blood from labs rather than committing murder. Weyland is a monster who must form an uneasy empathy with his prey in order to survive, andThe Vampire Tapestry is a story wholly unlike any you've heard before.
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Killing Mr. Griffin
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From beloved author Lois Duncan comes a frightening novel about a group of students who set out to teach their malicious teacher a lesson -- only to learn that one of them could be a killer. Mr. Griffin is the strictest teacher at Del Norte High, with a penchant for endless projects and humiliating students. Even straight-A student Susan can't believe how mean he is to her crush, Dave, and to the charismatic Mark Kinney. So when Dave asks Susan to help a group of students teach Mr. Griffin a lesson of their own, she goes along with them. After all, it's a harmless prank, right? But things don't go according to plan. When one "accident" leads to another and people begin to die, Susan and her friends must face the awful truth: one of them is a killer.
Call Number: Young Adult Fiction -
The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing
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NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE BOSTON GLOBE, KIRKUS REVIEWS, BUSTLE, AND EMILY GOULD, THE MILLIONS For fans of J. Courtney Sullivan, Meg Wolitzer, Mona Simpson, and Jhumpa Lahiri comes a winning, irreverent debut novel about a family wrestling with its future and its past. With depth, heart, and agility, debut novelist Mira Jacob takes us on a deftly plotted journey that ranges from 1970s India to suburban 1980s New Mexico to Seattle during the dot.com boom. The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing is an epic, irreverent testimony to the bonds of love, the pull of hope, and the power of making peace with life's uncertainties. Celebrated brain surgeon Thomas Eapen has been sitting on his porch, talking to dead relatives. At least that is the story his wife, Kamala, prone to exaggeration, tells their daughter, Amina, a photographer living in Seattle. Reluctantly Amina returns home and finds a situation that is far more complicated than her mother let on, with roots in a trip the family, including Amina's rebellious brother Akhil, took to India twenty years earlier. Confronted by Thomas's unwillingness to explain himself, strange looks from the hospital staff, and a series of puzzling items buried in her mother's garden, Amina soon realizes that the only way she can help her father is by coming to terms with her family's painful past. In doing so, she must reckon with the ghosts that haunt all of the Eapens. Praise for The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing "With wit and a rich understanding of human foibles, Jacob unspools a story that will touch your heart."--People "Optimistic, unpretentious and refreshingly witty."--Associated Press "By turns hilarious and tender and always attuned to shifts of emotion . . . [Jacob's] characters shimmer with life."--Entertainment Weekly "A rich, engrossing debut told with lightness and care."--The Kansas City Star "[A] sprawling, poignant, often humorous novel . . . Told with humor and sympathy for its characters, the book serves as a bittersweet lesson in the binding power of family, even when we seek to break out from it."--O: The Oprah Magazine "Moving forward and back in time, Jacob balances comedy and romance with indelible sorrow. . . . When her plot springs surprises, she lets them happen just as they do in life: blindsidingly right in the middle of things."--The Boston Globe "This is an effortlessly gorgeous and rich book. Its prose is lovely and precise, alternately luminous and direct; its observations of people and families and the physical world are poignant and a delight. The dialogue is sharp, funny, and true. This is a triumphant debut!"--Jonathan Ames, author of Wake Up, Sir! "Comparisons of Jacob to Jhumpa Lahiri are inevitab≤ . . . both write with naked honesty about the uneasy generational divide among Indians in America and about family in all its permutations."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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Murder in the Sunshine
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Albuquerque's old Sunshine Theater harbors a deep, dark secret from its vaudeville/silent movie days. But Millie and Andy Milliken don't have a clue when they lease the theater so that Andy's garage band will have a place to play for under-21 audiences. The theater is a mess, but the Millikens manage to clean it up and get it opened. Then they are plagued by a series of near catastrophes: a fire in the balcony is narrowly averted...a huge disc shaped lighting fixture falls from the vaulted ceiling during a grunge show. Fortunately, it lands in the unoccupied balcony rather than the mosh pit so no one is hurt. Millie and Andy are beginning to think someone does not want them to succeed. But Millie suspects someone or something is helping to keep the situation from getting out of hand. She believes the theater may be haunted and that, strange as it may seem, a ghost is acting as a kind of guardian angel. She nicknames the ghost BG for "benevolent ghost," unaware that those initials also stand for Bettina Gaylord, a silent movie star who mysteriously disappeared from the theater in 1928 and was never found. Although Bettina's ghost is unable to prevent a second murder, that of a particularly obnoxious road manager during a big grunge rock show, she does help Millie determine who the killer is. She also leads Millie to her hidden bones. But not before an unarmed Millie faces the killer on the theater's dangerously rickety old wooden fly grid, suspended more than sixty feet above the stage floor.
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Lautrec
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After agreeing to represent a man who was caught burying the corpse of a fashion model, Albuquerque lawyer Jack Lautrec uncovers a conspiracy of silence and lies lurking behind the supposedly open-and-shut case.
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Five o'Clock Shadow
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Newlywed Pauly Caton watches, horrified, as the hot air balloon-the one she should have been riding in-falls from the sky. She races to the wrecked basket to discover both the pilot and her husband Randy dead in the fiery crash. The lone survivor appears to be an unknown child, who runs from the scene, naked and fearful, and disappears from sight. Shocked, Pauly turns to her Grams, a flashy grande dame and carnival owner, and a source of comfort for her pain. During the ensuing weeks, Pauly learns that nearly everything she knew about her new husband was based on lies and deception. As Christmas approaches, she attempts to pick up the pieces of her life and uncovers a host of other surprises about Randy-things that make her question everything about her choice to marry him. She senses she can trust no one, not even the police, and learns that there are secrets which threaten to put her own life in danger.Praise for Susan Slater's previous mystery novels:The Dan Mahoney series:"Flash Flood is just what it sounds like-a fresh, surprising, adrenaline-rush whitewater ride. It's also funny. Susan Slater can flat-out write." -Don Winslow, New York Times bestselling author "Slater's excellent sequel to Flash Flood takes insurance investigator Dan Mahoney to tiny Wagon Mound, New Mexico ¿ Readers will be glad they're along for the ride."- Publishers Weekly (starred review)"There'll be much, much more, with whispers of everything from alien experiments to voodoo, before Slater closes out this lively, surprising case, first of a series." - Kirkus Reviews"Dan Mahoney is an appealingly resilient character, a welcome addition to the roster of sleuths that make the Southwest a hotbed of current mystery fiction." -Publishers WeeklyThe Ben Pecos mystery series:"Solid, suspenseful narrative and colorful glimpses of Native American life ... strongly recommend." -Library Journal"A series to watch." -Booklist"¿ Ben Pecos-raised far from New Mexico's Tewa Pueblo-could become as lasting a fictional presence as Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee." - Chicago Tribune
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Typical Pigs
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In a group home for adults with severe developmental disabilities, where the staff is underpaid and unqualified, what's the worst thing that could happen? Ask Kenneth Godwin, who's on a quest to learn what's the worst thing he could do.
