Poetry, memoirs, trail guides and more books from Southern Arizona authors

You can get more than a little attached to the hero of Catherine Wells’ sci-fi “Eagle” series — Enrique Aguilar — the scrawny but charming Puerto Peñasco beach kid who yearned to fly in “Aztec Eagle,” and learned to fly in war in “Crystal Desert.” He made a name for himself as a fearless pilot for the rebels on the colonized planet Alpha, but he was betrayed and chose to abandon the cause and return to Earth.

Which is where we find him in “Eagle Unbound.” Back in Rocky Point, 21 years old and underemployed, he gets a call: go undercover to work as a bodyguard for a diplomat attending a meeting on a potential second “terraformed” (Earth-colonized) planet, Beta. He’d get paid to fly cool planes.

Someone among the attendees has plans to assassinate the diplomat — a characterful plus-sized, colorful paraplegic who resists taking orders — and Enrique is tasked with foiling the plot. His remarkable “psi” powers will serve him well in sensing what others are thinking and doing, but he’ll need to call on his gifts as the Aztec Eagle to confront this enemy.

Wells keeps the action alive — both flying and fighting and romantic (Enrique’s still irresistible and unresisting), and she identifies issues like ethical dilemmas in colonization. You hope this volume doesn’t close the book on the Aztec Eagle series.

— Christine Wald-Hopkins

“Pivot Points: Life Transitions That Made All the Difference” by the Writers and Poets of Quail Creek. Linda Beal, editor. Independently published. 157 pages. $8.

The 19 stories in this collection reflect the population of the Quail Creek 55-plus, gated “resort community” near Green Valley: of a certain age, they are looking back on the life paths they’ve followed.

From the group’s website — but unfortunately not in the volume itself — you see bios of retirees that are educated and comfortable, and glad to share pivotal moments in their lives. Many reach back to influential teachers and coaches, or to lessons from sports that impacted their professional lives. Some write about change or moves late in life (it is a retirement community, after all). They’re nice enough stories to share with their group.

The ones with appeal to outside readers, however, move beyond that: not second-guessing what might have been, or a recitation of achievements, or elderly romance, but encountering unexpected glitches in life, or bringing some humor to the tales.

Carl Rohne’s “When Carl Met Sandra,” for instance, while falling into the dreaded “elderly romance” category, is a delightful self-deprecating tale of bumbling — potentially dangerous — online dating and courtship.

Annabelle Winfrey relates an affecting story of grandparenting a child with a serious birth defect (“There’s This Boy”), and, in “Forgotten Fifty-six,” Jan Naslund tells a compelling tale of using her own neuro-psycholinguistic studies to attempt to diagnose her personal reduction in brain function. I won’t give away the diagnosis here, but it’s worth wading through the others to find out.

— Christine Wald-Hopkins

“Work of a Poet: Selected Poems 1968–2023” by Richard Tavenner. Chax Press. 190 pp. $20.

Anyone misguided enough to think that poetry is just for the effete and the elite ought to take a look at this collection by Richard Tavenner, poet and electrician. Tavenner writes that he has been a poet since 1968 and an electrician since 1987 — “each,” he writes, “ a one-man shop” — and he “built this book, poem by poem.”

“Work of a Poet” consists of nearly 200 poems composed over 55 years, and it feels like a memoir in verse. You see his family, his home, a little of his job, his artistic impulses, philosophical and spiritual musings, tributes to friends.

Believing that “poetry, at its best, is our primal language,” for years, he helped organize a poetry festival that introduced fine poets to Tucson and encouraged young writers.

And now, samples of his voice:

From the section “Lovers”: “During the first rain, / After many months of none, / The stones by the path / Where we walk each day, my love, / Undress in all their colors.”

From “Out the Front Door” (work): “Ladder in a closet against a shelf, / A sheet over the people’s clothes, / A small scuttle hole overhead, / Another tight attic to crawl. / First the arms, head and torso / Like diving up, fold and flatten. / Inch along a beam and / Pull the hips up and in, and rest.”

From “Home and Child”: … “O, my family and friends, if after my race / I have won your hearts, circle round / And as you read my poems aloud / Lay this wreath of words on me ….”

The electrician as poet is definitely worth a look.

— Christine Wald-Hopkins

"Antonee's Anthology of Remarkable Children's Tales" by Sharon R. Takerer. Wheatmark. 104 pages. $44.81.

Tucson author and illustrator Sharon Takerer’s newest offering for kids takes the form of a series of short stories set in a variety of favorite locales (including a stop in Tucson).

Antonee, a bibliophile ant, leads the tour, kicking off each story with a bit of background and a brief vocabulary list of tricky words before launching into each bite-sized adventure.

There are some useful takeaways for kids built into these little narratives — "practice makes perfect" comes to mind — but the overarching theme here is kindness.

From the swarm of insects that come to the rescue of a butterfly caught in a spider’s web to the canine buddies who regularly visit an elderly dog pal, each tale offers an example of caring for others. Of special note is the summer camp chef who works hard to make meals kids will love, including “Cream of Giggle Soup.” Recipe included!

With so much food for thought and conversation, it’s a perfect bedtime read-aloud. Takerer, whose colorful artwork enlivens each story, has authored six previous books for kids. 

— Helene Woodhams 

"Each Trail Has Its Own Story: Thirty-Five Years of Exploring the Grand Canyon" by Dave DeGroot. Published by the author. 348 pages. $28.95.

Part memoir, part trail guide, and 100% unadulterated outdoor enthusiasm, these elements blend seamlessly in Dave DeGroot’s remarkable account of his 35 years leading hiking expeditions into the Grand Canyon. 

A Master Naturalist, DeGroot is quick to point out that this is not a guidebook. Rather, his purpose is to convey what the Grand Canyon feels like — the experience of a thunder clap and the sizzle of a lightning bolt, the effect of being bathed in starlight on a moonless night, the humbling, majestic wonder of it all — and to share a hiker’s thoughts along the trail which he does ably, based on years of his extensive diaries.

The book opens with a map of 16 trails and references to the chapters in which they can be found; couched in each trail’s story hikers will find useful navigational information. But it’s personal for DeGroot, so the stories are based on his own adventures and misadventures and include hiking companions and other memorable characters, weather observations and lessons learned the hard way (don’t be ambitious in July and never forget the electrolytes!). 

The trail stories also serve as a taking-off point for DeGroot to share his encyclopedic knowledge about all things Grand Canyon: history, prehistory, geology, plant life and critters are all grist for his mill. He even provides recipes for meals on the trail.

There’s lots of reading pleasure here for hikers and armchair travelers alike. DeGroot, who is retired from teaching, lives in Tucson.

— Helene Woodhams

"Ricigliano: The Sequel to 'Remember Love's Smile'" by Nick Pintozzi. BentDaiSha Publishing. 194 pages. $15.99.

Ricigliano, a small town in the Campania region of Italy, is the setting for this charming sequel to author Nick Pintozzi’s first novel.

High school teacher Tony Romano and his new wife are spending a two-week vacation enjoying Ricigliano to its fullest, along with his mother-in-law and his Zia, an engaging elderly woman with an Italian aphorism for every occasion.

Their trip is filled with good food, much local color and side trips to tourist destinations, all described in enthusiastic detail by Pintozzi, who is clearly a lover of all things Italian. Importantly, they gather with friends and family who are delighted to party with their American cousins. There’s even a vecchia capra (literally, an old goat) who wins Tony’s heart.

But it’s not all festivals and dancing — for the American travelers, this is a time to hit the refresh button and think about the future. They each travel with secret hopes and have faith that the answers they seek will be revealed with the inspiration and support of loving family members.

As Pintozzi observes, “La Famiglia è tutto!” (The family is everything).

Now retired, Tucson resident Pintozzi was a copy editor at the Arizona Daily Star for more than 20 years.

— Helene Woodhams

"Wrinkles and the Bank: The Adventure of a Psychic Dog" by Renee Christian. Independently published. 124 pages. $12.99. Kindle $5.99.

Following in his law-enforcement footsteps, Shelby Burns made her dad, Jake, proud when she was promoted to detective on the Kayak, Kentucky police force. But their excitement is short-lived when Jake is murdered in the aftermath of a bank robbery, his killing part of a tangled web of crime and mayhem with no clear motive and not a lot of clues.

Although blind, Jake’s dog Wrinkles proves he has a nose for crime and a sixth sense that makes him a top-notch investigative pooch. The plot takes plenty of twists and turns, but luckily Wrinkles knows where the secrets are buried, and Shelby is perceptive enough to follow his tail-wagging lead to get to the bottom of the case.

Tucson author Renee Christian is the author of several books for kids and adults, including another outing for Wrinkles, “The Antics of a Psychic Dog — A Yuppy Puppy.” 

— Helene Woodhams