6 essential desert reads

The connection “desert” suggests barrenness for many, but anyone who lives successful oregon adjacent 1 knows however rich, chaotic and analyzable it tin be. That’s arsenic existent of the champion books acceptable there. The wintertime months are the champion clip to question to the godforsaken — but tucking into 1 of these titles is timeless, of course. Here is simply a little enactment of immoderate of the champion godforsaken reads, aged and new, that enactment the Southwest astatine their center. Whether you’re readying a roadworthy travel oregon speechmaking from the comfortableness of home, get a glimpse of awe-inspiring vistas, rugged wildlife, tales of resilience and more.

“The Land of Little Rain”
By Mary Austin
Penguin Classics: 128 pp., $17
(1903; reprint 1997)

Arguably the archetypal postulation of lyrical effort penning astir the California desert, Austin drew connected her travels done the Owens Valley and environs, covering mining, the Shoshone tribe, upwind and water. The publication is thrilling successful Austin’s adjacent attraction to details, from the grasses to rivers and hard-trod trails. Here, she writes, “it is imaginable to unrecorded with large zest, to person reddish humor and delicate joys.”

“Desert Solitaire: A Season successful the Wilderness”
By Edward Abbey
Ballantine Books: 352 pp., $10
(1968; reprinted 1985)

Chronicling his stint successful Utah’s Arches National Park successful the precocious ‘50s, Abbey’s bestselling memoir revealed the quality and fragility of the Southwest to a wider American audience, depicting the punishing upwind and awe-inspiring vistas portion thundering against the masses of lookie-loos driving into the godforsaken lone to despoil it. It’s often likened to “Walden,” but Abbey’s flinty, darkly humorous dependable gave Western lit a code chiseled from East Coast gentility and folksy cowboy writing.

“Desert Oracle, Volume 1: Strange True Tales from the American Southwest”
By Ken Layne
Picador: 304 pp., $20
(2021)

Part handbook, portion folklore collection, portion tribute to the Southwest, Layne’s entertaining chronicle is built connected little chapters astir the outlaws, writers, singers and different characters who specify the region’s hardy reputation, from the way of Western plaything musicians from Texas to L.A. to UFO conspiracists who convene successful New Mexico, the Manson family’s trek to Death Valley, and beyond.

“The Deserts of California: A California Field Atlas”
By Obi Kaufmann
Heyday, 576 pp., $55
(2023)

Kaufmann’s lavishly illustrated tract usher to the state’s arid regions is wide-ranging some geographically (from the Great Basin to the northbound and the Sonoran and Mojave to the south) and successful presumption of the taxon covered, from bats to bobcats and chias to palo verdes. It’s built for some the backpack and extremity table, with elaborate descriptions alongside pleas for the land’s preservation.

“Mecca”
By Susan Straight
V: 384, $19
(2022)

A modern epic acceptable successful the Imperial Valley, Straight’s caller is simply a cross-section of godforsaken denizens — a motorcycle officer, a Palm Springs spa employee, a household rocked by a constabulary shooting — acceptable against the demands of godforsaken life. Encompassing COVID-19 and wildfires, it speaks to the contiguous portion exploring the region’s agelong history.

“Mojave Ghost”
By Forrest Gander
New Directions, 80 pp., $16
(2024)

“In this xeric topography / we fold ourselves into the condition of godforsaken foothills / chewed distant by leprosies, toothed winds, and / abrupt rains,” writes the Pulitzer-winning writer Forrest Gander successful this book-length poem astir his hike crossed the 800 miles of the San Andreas Fault aft the deaths of his wife, writer C.D. Wright, and mother. Though the penning is informed by the starkness of the landscape, helium writes beautifully astir the desert’s healing powers.

Athitakis is simply a writer successful Phoenix and writer of “The New Midwest.”