After the first atomic bomb burst over the New Mexican desert in 1945 and as the Cold war developed, the American myth of the Wild West expanded to encompass atomic sheriffs saving the world for democracy.  Jon Hunner's brisk, engaging biography documents the emergence of the Atomic West and the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, who came to feel at home in the American West.  Against the backdrop of the physicist's life twining with the region's history, Hunner explores the promise and peril of the atomic age.

If there was ever a 'ring-tailed roarer' of the backwoods of New Mexico, he was Quentin Hulse, who lived and worked most of his life in the Gila River country of southwestern New Mexico - but his reputation spread far and wide.  Hulse led a lion hunt, witnessed a point-blank shooting, and appeared on a tourist postcard and souvenir license plate in the 1950s.  With compassion, Nancy Coggeshall tells the compelling biography of a rural western rancher constantly adjusting to the inroads of modernity in his traditional way of life.  She brings this unique westerner, and New Mexican to life.

Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools, is donating $5,000 of his books to APS libraries!  Bookworks will present his gift after a screening of Pennies for Peace, a short film about building girls' schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.  We'll also offer 10% off any of Greg's books and audiobooks during this event.  Join us and help continue Greg's message: Books - not bombs.

Join us for a slide show tour of sustainable meadow gardens throughout the US and discussion about creating a meadow garden in New Mexico with garden photography Saxon Holt and New Mexico native plant expert and garden designer Judith Phillips.

Like Alfred Nobel, Joseph Pulitzer is better known today for the prize that bears his name than for his contribution to history.  Yet, in nineteenth-century industrial America, while Carnegie provided the steel, Rockefeller the oil, Morgan the money, and Vanderbilt the railroads, Pulitzer ushered in the modern mass media.

James McGrath Morris traces the epic story of this Jewish Hungarian immigrant's rise through American politics and into journalism where he accumulated immense power and wealth, only to fall blind and become a lonely, tormented recluse wandering the globe - but not before Pulitzer transformed American journalism and politics forever. 

Join us for our monthly local author fair - the lineup is coming soon!

Mayan literature is among the oldest in the world, spanning an astonishing two millennia from deep pre-Columbian antiquity to the present day. Here, for the first time, is a fully illustrated survey, from the earliest hieroglyphic inscriptions to the works of later writers using the Roman alphabet. Dennis Tedlock--ethnographer, linguist, poet, and award-winning author--draws on decades of living and working among the Maya to assemble this groundbreaking book, which is the first to treat ancient Mayan texts as literature. Tedlock considers the texts chronologically. He establishes that women were among the ancient writers and challenges the idea that Mayan rulers claimed the status of gods. 2000 Years of Mayan Literature expands our understanding and appreciation not only of Mayan literature but of indigenous American literature in its entirety.

Volunteers for Samaritans, a humanitarian organization, Kathryn Ferguson, Dr. Norma Price and Ted Parks, and artist Debbi McCullough discuss the book Crossing with the Virgin: Stories from the Migrant Trail, which tells the stories of migrants treated and rescued by Samaritans on desert trails near the Arizona-Mexico border.  Art to be displayed was created by Debbi McCullough from items found on the desert - using Levis, shoes, wallets, photos and tuna cans she creates cloth books, sculptures and prayer wheels.

Steven Clevenger, a registered member
of the Osage tribe, has documented the role of Native American
soldiers in the war in Iraq, following them into battle and home
again. This book is an evocative collection of rare photographs and
personal interviews that records the warrior tradition and war
experience.

Excerpted:My name is Bill Cody Ayon. I'm Tsitsistas, Southern Cheyenne, a human being.  I was brought up and given language, customs, and songs
that honor those who have given their service to America's military,
to my tribe, and to all indigenous people.  It is with this
background I follow the military road-like my father, my uncles, and
my ancestors before me.  To serve my family, my tribe, and my
country is the greatest honor of all.  Tradition has mandated
this for me-from the echoes of warriors from the Little Bighorn to
Iwo Jima to the streets of Baghdad.

Jan Brett arrives at the Albuquerque Little Theater (224 San Pasquale Avenue SW) in her stylish artwork-decorated bus with Hedgie the Hedgehog to celebrate her new book The Easter Egg (Putnam, $17.99).

Everyone is invited to the event & will receive gorgeous signed bookplates for books purchased at Bookworks or at the event.

275 families who purchase the new book will get to meet Jan - tickets will be distributed at Bookworks beginning 3/27 at 9am (bring your receipts if you purchase The Easter Egg in advance).  

The first 100 ticketholders get a free signed poster!