America, New Mexico

Rating:
Summary: Humm...true?
Review: I was looking for a book that got into the heart and soul of New Mexico and discovered America, New Mexico at my local bookstore. It had a great title, a great cover, a writer who could write...and unfortunetly enough new age retoric that at one point I wanted to send the book back to the University of Arizona and ask why tax dollars were being spent on such endevours. So read at your own risk. At one point the author claims that the only reason Europe developed instead of Native Americans in North America was that gunpowder had accidently made its way to Europe first. Humm. Want a good book about the heart and soul of New Mexico try the Toby Smith's "Stay Awhile."

Rating:
Summary: Humm...true?
Review: Open your heart, your mind, and your ears to this almost lyrical work by Robert Leonard Reid as you explore beautiful and quite possibly unique New Mexico either firsthand or vicariously. Not as thoroughly exploratory, meticulous, and encyclopedic as Timothy Egan's Pacific Northwest book(s), not as critical and pessimistic as Robert Kaplan, and not as negative as Paul Theroux---Mr. Reid is of a different writing caliber. It is delightfully insightful, at times painfully verbose and overdescriptive, but his book on this different part of America is a pleasurable experience nonetheless for resident, visitor, or armchair traveler.

Rating:
Summary: Literary tribute to a "different America".
Review: Open your heart, your mind, and your ears to this almost lyrical work by Robert Leonard Reid as you explore beautiful and quite possibly unique New Mexico either firsthand or vicariously. Not as thoroughly exploratory, meticulous, and encyclopedic as Timothy Egan's Pacific Northwest book(s), not as critical and pessimistic as Robert Kaplan, and not as negative as Paul Theroux---Mr. Reid is of a different writing caliber. It is delightfully insightful, at times painfully verbose and overdescriptive, but his book on this different part of America is a pleasurable experience nonetheless for resident, visitor, or armchair traveler.

Rating:
Summary: Travelogue marred by gullibility
Review: This is a lyrical treatment of New Mexico, for the most part well-written and enjoyable. But it was marred for me by the gullibility of the writer, who says about the alleged UFO landing at Roswell that he "can testify without reservation that, yes, the extraordinary visitation took place". Unfortunately the Roswell "visitation" has long since been debunked as a weather balloon.

Reid says about the lack of photographs of Crazy Horse, "Perhaps the science of photography is inadequate for capturing certain images", as if the laws of physics and chemistry would magically have certain exceptions. Does Reid really doubt that a functioning camera would have succeeded in taking a picture of Crazy Horse? This is mysticism at the expense of believability.

Reid describes a friend who claims that certain Native Americans can really take to the sky and fly like birds. He is my friend, Reid says, and I believe him. But why? If this event has never been captured on film, if humans simply lack the muscle power and lift necessary to fly, if Native Americans continue to take jets like everyone else to get around, isn't it far more plausible that Reid's friend was lying, or pulling his leg? We *know* with certainty that people lie and indulge in practical jokes. We *don't* know with certainty that they can fly like birds. Reid needs to get his Occam's razor sharpened up a bit.

Nevertheless, if you can overlook this New Age silliness, the book is enjoyable, even beautiful in places.

Rating:
Summary: Travelogue marred by gullibility
Review: This is a lyrical treatment of New Mexico, for the most part well-written and enjoyable. But it was marred for me by the gullibility of the writer, who says about the alleged UFO landing at Roswell that he "can testify without reservation that, yes, the extraordinary visitation took place". Unfortunately the Roswell "visitation" has long since been debunked as a weather balloon.

Reid says about the lack of photographs of Crazy Horse, "Perhaps the science of photography is inadequate for capturing certain images", as if the laws of physics and chemistry would magically have certain exceptions. Does Reid really doubt that a functioning camera would have succeeded in taking a picture of Crazy Horse? This is mysticism at the expense of believability.

Reid describes a friend who claims that certain Native Americans can really take to the sky and fly like birds. He is my friend, Reid says, and I believe him. But why? If this event has never been captured on film, if humans simply lack the muscle power and lift necessary to fly, if Native Americans continue to take jets like everyone else to get around, isn't it far more plausible that Reid's friend was lying, or pulling his leg? We *know* with certainty that people lie and indulge in practical jokes. We *don't* know with certainty that they can fly like birds. Reid needs to get his Occam's razor sharpened up a bit.

Nevertheless, if you can overlook this New Age silliness, the book is enjoyable, even beautiful in places.