132 pages of excellent text, filled with beautiful color photos. This husband-and-wife naturalist team traces the geological creation of these giant stone sculptures, and explores the stunning evidence of humanity's struggle to survive in this hostile land.

Canyons of Color: Utah's Slickrock Wildlands (Genesis)

Nabhan, Gary Paul

Wilson, Caroline

Harpercollins

Canyons of Color: Utahs Slickrock Wildlands (Genesis Series)

By the winner of the John Burroughs Medal for nature writing. “Gary Nabhan went to walk in old Italy like a pilgrim. . . . This is a story about moving from sad uncertainty to part-time joyousness. It is a great book.”—William Kittredge “In part to ponder my Mediterranean roots and in part to learn of the land of my saint, San Francisco,” Gary Paul Nabhan, one of America’s finest nature writers and author of The Desert Smells Like Rain decided to walk the two hundred miles from Florence to Assisi. Along the way he met peasant farmers eager to share the love of their plants and seeds, recipes and customs. The fruit of this pilgrimage is writing that imaginatively traverses the boundary between nature and history. “Unusual but important . . . entertaining and informative . . . the book afford[s] an evening retreat as satisfying as a shot of grappa with a plate of anisette cookies.”—The New York Times Book Review

Songbirds, Truffles, and Wolves: An American Naturalist in Italy

Science & Math

Nature & Ecology

Penguin Publishing Group

Why does food taste better when you know where it comes from? Because history—ecological, cultural, even personal—flavors every bite we eat. Whether it’s the volatile chemical compounds that a plant absorbs from the soil or the stories and memories of places that are evoked by taste, layers of flavor await those willing to delve into the roots of real food. In this landmark book, Gary Paul Nabhan takes us on a personal trip into the southwestern borderlands to discover the terroir—the “taste of the place”—that makes this desert so delicious.
To savor the terroir of the borderlands, Nabhan presents a cornucopia of local foods—Mexican oregano, mesquite-flour tortillas, grass-fed beef, the popular Mexican dessert capirotada, and corvina (croaker or drum fish) among them—as well as food experiences that range from the foraging of Cabeza de Vaca and his shipwrecked companions to a modern-day camping expedition on the Rio Grande. Nabhan explores everything from the biochemical agents that create taste in these foods to their history and dispersion around the world. Through his field adventures and humorous stories, we learn why Mexican oregano is most potent when gathered at the most arid margins of its range—and why foods found in the remote regions of the borderlands have surprising connections to foods found by his ancestors in the deserts of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. By the end of his movable feast, Nabhan convinces us that the roots of this fascinating terroir must be anchored in our imaginations as well as in our shifting soils.

Desert Terroir: Exploring the Unique Flavors and Sundry Places of the Borderlands (Ellen and Edward Randall Series)

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Cooking by Ingredient

University of Texas Press

The Comcáac, or Seri Indians, are a native people living in the starkly beautiful and biologically rich desert of Sonora, Mexico. Reptiles of all kinds—lizards, crocodiles, snakes, and turtles—play a large role in Seri culture. Unfortunately, the long-term survival of the Comcáac and the future of many of these animals are uncertain. This book, written with Gary Nabhan's characteristic combination of lyricism and scientific insight, describes and preserves the richness of Seri knowledge about reptiles. Through stories, songs, photographs, illustrations of Seri arts, and discussions of Sonoran ecology, Nabhan demonstrates the irreplaceable value of this knowledge for us today. Singing the Turtles to Sea vividly describes the desert, its phantasmagoric landforms, and its equally fantastic animals. This book contains important new information on the origins, biogeography, and conservation status of marine and desert reptiles in this region. Nabhan also discusses the significance of reptiles in Seri folklore, natural history, language, medicine, and art. Winner of a MacArthur "genius" grant and the Burroughs Medal for nature writing, Gary Nabhan has had a long collaboration with the Comcáac and is uniquely placed to bring together the many voices that tell this story. The text is interspersed with his own lively adventures getting to know these indigenous people and with the insights of many individuals in their community. This book is a magnificent ethnobiology that also succeeds in linking the importance of preserving ecological diversity with issues such as endangered languages and human rights. Singing the Turtles to Sea ultimately points the way toward a more hopeful future for the native cultures and animals of the Sonoran desert and for the preservation of indigenous cultures and species around the world.

Singing the Turtles to Sea: The Comcáac (Seri) Art and Science of Reptiles

Politics & Social Sciences

Anthropology

University of California Press

Gary Paul Nabhan takes the reader on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space in this fascinating look at the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. Drawing on his own family’s history as spice traders, as well as travel narratives, historical accounts, and his expertise as an ethnobotanist, Nabhan describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade. Traveling along four prominent trade routes―the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate)―Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans demonstrates that two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict―Arabs and Jews―have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future.

Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey (Volume 45)

Gary Paul Nabhan takes the reader on a vivid and far-ranging journey across time and space in this fascinating look at the relationship between the spice trade and culinary imperialism. Drawing on his own family’s history as spice traders, as well as travel narratives, historical accounts, and his expertise as an ethnobotanist, Nabhan describes the critical roles that Semitic peoples and desert floras had in setting the stage for globalized spice trade.\nTraveling along four prominent trade routes―the Silk Road, the Frankincense Trail, the Spice Route, and the Camino Real (for chiles and chocolate)―Nabhan follows the caravans of itinerant spice merchants from the frankincense-gathering grounds and ancient harbors of the Arabian Peninsula to the port of Zayton on the China Sea to Santa Fe in the southwest United States. His stories, recipes, and linguistic analyses of cultural diffusion routes reveal the extent to which aromatics such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and peppers became adopted worldwide as signature ingredients of diverse cuisines. Cumin, Camels, and Caravans demonstrates that two particular desert cultures often depicted in constant conflict―Arabs and Jews―have spent much of their history collaborating in the spice trade and suggests how a more virtuous multicultural globalized society may be achieved in the future.

Cumin, Camels, and Caravans: A Spice Odyssey (Volume 45) (California Studies in Food and Culture)

Business & Money

International

Parables and photographs demonstrate and evoke the life that thrives in this apparent wasteland, a place where plants, animals, and people live in true symbiosis

Desert Legends: Re-Storying the Sonoran Borderlands

Klett, Mark

Henry Holt Co.

Argues that children care deeply about the natural world, and explains how contact with nature influences child development

THE GEOGRAPHY OF CHILDHOOD: Why Children Need Wild Places

Health, Fitness & Dieting

Trimble, Stephen

Psychology & Counseling

Beacon Pr

Counting Sheep: Twenty Ways of Seeing Desert Bighorn (Southwest Center Series)

Imagine sending a number of nature writers out into the same unrelenting stretch of Sonoran Desert. Then consider telling them to focus their attention on just one animal&#151Ovis canadensis, popularly called the desert bighorn or borrego cimarrón&#151and have them write about it. Have them write from makeshift blinds or from behind a gun barrel. Have them write while walking across the Cabeza Prieta at night, or while flying over it trying to radio-collar the creatures. Have them write from actual sightings of the animals or simply from their tracks and droppings. What would result from such an exercise is Counting Sheep, an unusual anthology that demonstrates the range of possibilities in nature writing. While ostensibly a collection of writings about these desert sheep that live along the U.S.-Mexico border, it also represents an attempt to broaden the scope of the natural history essay. Writers trained in a wide range of disciplines spanning the natural and social sciences here offer a similarly diverse collection of writings, with women's, Hispanic, and Native American views complementing those in a genre long dominated by Anglo men. The four sections of the anthology comprise pre-Anglo-American tradition, examples of early nature writing, varied responses by modern writers to actually counting sheep, and a selection of essays that place bighorns in the context of the larger world. Counting Sheep celebrates the diversity of cultural responses to this single animal species in its Sonoran Desert habitat and invites readers to change the way in which they view their relationship to wild creatures everywhere. It also shows how nature writers can delight us all by the varied ways in which they practice their craft.Contributors:Charles BowdenDavid E. BrownBill BroylesJulian HaydenWilliam T. HornadayPaul KrausmanDanny LopezEric MellinkMauricio MixcoGale MonsonGary Paul NabhanDoug PeacockKermit RooseveltHarley G. ShawCharles SheldonPeter SteinhartAnita Alvarez de WilliamsTerry Tempest WilliamsAnn Zwinger

Biological Sciences

University of Arizona Press

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Books by Nabhan, Gary Paul