(TUCSON, Ariz.) – A favorite for readers who stay up late devouring the best of Southwest-themed books, the Library’s 46th annual Southwest Books of the Year is now available online, and at libraries and local bookstores.
Of the books, panelist praise included such remarks as, "Winsome prose makes it a treasure," "a must-read that is difficult to put down and hard to forget," and "the lyrical flow of prose weaves effortlessly with ethereal and hypnotic artwork."
Here are the Top Picks selected by the eight panelists, all voracious consumers of Southwest literature:
Fiction
- Dinosaurs by Lydia Millet
- Mecca by Susan Straight
- Marlowe's Revenge by Dan Stuart
- Sinking Bell: Stories by Bojan Louis
Art & Photography
- Feels like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands by Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes
- Michael Chiago: O'odham Lifeways Through Art by Michael Chiago Sr. and Amadeo M. Rea
History
- Nobody is Protected: How the Border Patrol Became the Most Dangerous Police Force in the United States by Reece Jones
Memoir
- Solito by Javier Zamora
Children & Young Adult
- Barefoot Dreams of Petra Luna by Alda P. Dobbs
- Chances in Disguise by Diana J. Noble
- The Sonoran Desert School Gardener's Almanac by the University of Arizona College of Social & Behavioral Sciences: Community & School Garden Program
- Tumble by Celia C. Pérez
- Where Wonder Grows by Xelena González
There are many more books waiting to be discovered in the full publication, including titles in poetry, nature and science, history, and cooking!
Southwest Books of the Year is published by Pima County Public Library in partnership with the Friends of the Pima County Public Library. This is the 46th annual edition. The publication was begun by the Arizona Daily Star and continued by the Library in 2000. Southwest Books of the Year is made possible by a gift from the Friends of the Pima County Public Library and by the Arizona State Library, Archives, and Public Records, a division of the Secretary of State, with federal funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.
Our gratitude goes out to the amazing Southwest Books of the Year selection committee:
- Mark Athitakis, writer, editor, critic, blogger, reporter, essayist
- Ann Dickinson, retired Pima County Public Library librarian
- Gregory McNamee, writer, editor, and photographer
- Mary Margaret Mercado, a bilingual public librarian for over 40 years specializing in children's and Latinx services and programming
- Lydia Millet, author of more than dozen books of literary fiction, including A Children's Bible
- Lydia Otero, author of La Calle and In the Shadows of the Freeway
- Margie Trujillo-Farmer, Literary Arts Librarian at Pima County Public Library, and Southwest Books of the Year project coordinator
- Tom Zoellner, National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author of Island on Fire
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