Albuquerque Journal du lieu suivant : Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 52

BOOKS AB Qjoumal.com THE SUNDAY JOURNAL February 17, 2008 Mystery author has hot ticket in 'Wild' series DAVID STEINBERG witk, Of the Journal Sandi Ault 1' 11 signs, dis Attld cusses "Wild felae loor" 4 Inferno" 0 1 4, 7 p.m. Tues- it 11 day, Feb. 19, IIP at Book- Sandi Ault ot, i 1' in works, 4022 Rio Grande NW, and at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 20, at Borders, 3513 Zafarano Drive, Santa Fe.

-00 c.14 Ili 4000, 'f 7---, 7 Sandi Ault "Wild Inferno" by Sandi Ault BerkleyPrime Crime, $23.95, 287 pp. BY DAVID STEINBERG Journal Staff Writer Sandi Ault's second Jamaica Wild mystery, "Wild Inferno," is just out, but almost a year ago Ault began receiving great news about her debut novel. "I hit nine regional best-seller lists with 'Wild she said in a phone interview from her home in Pinewood Springs, Colo. "I was totally shocked. For a debut mystery that's just highly uncommon.

I had never counted on that. I figured you slowly build toward that." mystery, BerkleyPrime Crime is also publishing the first book in the series in a mass-market paperback edition. "Wild Inferno" has protagonist-firefighter Jamaica Wild risking her safety to get to a Ute man who wandered too close to a wildlife. A firestorm prevents her from reaching him. As Wild escapes she finds a burning member of a hotshot crew on the side of the road.

Before losing consciousness, the crew members mutters a cryptic message. As in her first novel, Ault injects her observations of Pueblo culture in this book. The wildfire in "Wild Inferno" also threatens an encampment of Pueblo people at Chimney Rock, including an elder of the fictitious Tanoah Pueblo and Wild's own wolf. See MYSTERY on PAGE F4 Screenings, signing set for Sidhwa Then Ault was hit with more good news: "Wild Indigo" was nominated for a 2007 Mary Higgins Clark Award. With this month's release in cloth of the second Lyrical writing for a dissonant era Ill "Names on a Map" by Benjamin Mire Sdenz I) li 1 A 7 i ILI I )11111t, 4...

i 1111- --at, Harper Perennial, 614.95, 426 pp. Science fiction writer's '92 novel arrives in movie theaters and produces prequel Jumper" by Steven Gould wr in pr Tor, $7.99, 344 pp. 1 OF, t.uu, .5,1 pp. "Jumper Griffin's Story" by Steven Gould Tor, $7.99, 286 pp. STORIES BY DAVID STEINBERG Journal Staff Writer Don't complain to Albuquerque sci-fi author Steven Gould that the feature film "Jumper" isn't an accurate adaptation of his novel of the same name.

Gould himself isn't upset. In fact, he's quite thrilled that a film adaptation has been made. "Frankly, my book is a first-person, very interior novel. It's not the sort of thing that will adapt exactly," he said. "Tens of thousands of people or more will read the book if not for the movie and all the advertising for it (and) will read exactly what I wrote.

That's good." The feature film opened this weekend in theaters in Albuquerque and across the 1 country. "Jumper Griffin's Gould $7.99, 286 pp. STORIES BY DAVID STE Journal Staff Writer on't complain t( author Steven rm ture film "Ju rate adaptation same name. Gould himsel In fact, hes quite thrill adaptation has been mad "Frankly, my book is a interior novel. It's not thE will adapt exactly," he sa "Tens of thousands of read the book if not for tl advertising for it (and) what I wrote.

That's good film opene The feature theaters in Albuquerque country. ITor, 0 1- r. I 11 17S 41 'N- 1 N. 1 IAt 0,: 7 1 ii -r. '11 11 filg, IP I It .1., eD -i; li 0.:,.1.

r. ,1 i. ze i ..5111 -''f-C: -Lir i. 't- I .1, 1 i h-o- 111 i '11: (Z. 3 N'I''''' l''' Houston-based Pakistani author Bapsi Sidhwa opens a weekend of activities with a book signing at 1 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 23, at Bookworks, 4022 Rio Grande NW. Sidhwa will autograph and discuss her books, which includes her recently republished debut novel, "The Pakistani Bride." It is the story of a tribal man who takes an orphaned girl for his daughter and brings her to the city of Lahore. Years SIDHWA: pass, and he returns Pakistani to his mountain author in village, promising Albuquerque the daughter in marriage to a fellow villager. But the young woman can't accept her fate of unquestioned obedience and backbreaking physical labor.

The second Duke City activity for Sidhwa happens later the same day the screening of the Deepa Mehta film "Earth," at 4 p.m. Saturday at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, 1701 Fourth SW. The film is based on Sidhwa's novel "Cracking India." .14 Then at 7 p.m. Feb. 25, Mehta's film 'S if "Water" will be shown in UNM's I) Woodward Hall.

411 Sidhwa's novel is nApst Fdni based on the film. The author will speak after the free screening of both films. TALK AT THE ATOMIC MUSEUM: Nancy Bartlit, co-author of "Silent Voices of World War II," talks about her work at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 23, at the national Atomic Museum, 1905 Mountain NW.

Her talk will cover the war-related topics of Japanese-Americans in New Mexico, the Navajo Code Talkers and the bombing of Hiroshima. Tickets are $15 for the general public, $10 for museum members. For reservations call 245-2137, ext. 114. Bartlit's talk is part of the museum's Meet the Author series.

ART CRITIC TELLS ALL: Wesley Pulkka, an artist and an art critic for the Journal, will give a talk on "So You Think You Could Write Criticism" at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19. Pulkka will discuss his experiences as an artist and critic and the elements that are involved in writing critically. It will be held at New Life Presbyterian Church, 5540 Eubank NE.

The talk is free and open to the public. LECTURES AT NHCC: The National Hispanic Cultural Center is presenting Robert J. in a two-day course on "The Revolt and Treason Trials of 1847." Torrez's lectures, which are free and open to the public, will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19, and Thursday, Feb.

21. The first lecture considers the events that led to the Mexican War in 1846. The second lecture covers the little-known 1847 insurrection in northern New Mexico against the United States' so-called "bloodless" conquest. The center is at 1701 Fourth SW. The series is titled "La Resolana." NEW BOOK ON UDALLS: The University of Oklahoma Press has just published L.

Boyd Finch's biography "Legacies of Camelot Stewart and Lee Udall, American Culture, and The Arts." Tom Udall, a member of Congress representing northern New Mexico, wrote the foreword of the book, which is about his parents. Stewart Udall, who served as secretary of the Interior under President John F. Kennedy, had the idea for Robert Frost to speak at Kennedy's inauguration. Lee Udall promoted young artists through Santa Fe's Institute of American Indian Arts and reopened the Interior Department's art gallery for exhibits of contemporary Indian art. The Udalls also arranged a series of evening programs in Washington, D.C., with such famous figures as poet Carl Sandburg, opera singer Marian Anderson and guitarist Andres Segovia.

Stewart Udall lives in Santa Fe. Lee Udall died in 2001. The title of the book and the film refers to a person who has the v-- ability to teleport. Think "Star Trek." What are the differences between "Jumper" the novel and "Jumper" the film? The 53-year-old Gould said the novel has the one teenage ar fil 1 Gm has REVIEW BY JULIE ANN VERA It's almost mind-blowing, especially to today's young people, that children in their late teens in the Vietnam era were forced to make a decision that could've meant life or death. For most young men, it wasn't a decision, it was simply the law: You were drafted, you went.

End of story. Others joined the military of their own volition. Some avoided the draft. We know the stories of Muhammad Ali and President Bill Clinton. In "Names on a Map" Benjamin Alire Sdenz la chronicles the perspective of a teenager who has to make peace with his own conscience when he faces the military draft and the prospect of going to Vietnam.

He's neither running scared nor a blind believer in his country, but a thinking boy who believes that the heart must rule above all. Gustavo Espejo and his parents, twin sister and little brother live in El Paso. The year is 1967, and the Vietnam War is the topic at every dinner table, high school campus and park bench. Gustavo is awaiting a draft card along with graduation. His father escaped Mexico during the revolution and is an educated, distant man whose bitterness for his lost home and nation seems projected onto Gustavo.

He believes Gustavo should serve his country. Gustavo prefers to use his education to argue that no part of war is beautiful. Sdenz has a different person speak in each chapter as the tension builds to Gustavo being drafted and his decision whether to report or flee. In some chapters, his omniscient mother shares her apprehension that eventually her son will have to go, though she doesn't know to where. In other chapters, Gustavo's twin sister, Xochil, struggles with her love for a boy who has joined the Marine Corps, and she doesn't believe he fully understands why he did.

Sdenz digs deeply into each characters' psyche, and there are myriad topics revolving like satellites around the war expatriates' relationship with Mexico, the conflict between father and son and wife and husband. Sdenz's prose, as usual, has a musical quality, and his turns of phrases, especially in dialogue, are perfect, almost too perfect, at times; readers might find themselves wishing all their conversations were filled with this level of wit and comebacks. A few of the characters seem extraneous and disjointed. Sdenz's novels rarely are joyful in theme and topic; they can be pretty heavy-duty stuff, and "Names on a Map" is no exception. The joy in reading a Sdenz work is in the unfolding of an idea in which nothing is left unexplored.

DEAN HANSONJOURNAL Albuquerque sci-fi writer Steven Gould is shown here with artwork from the original cover of his 1992 novel "Jumper." The book, which is the basis for a just-released feature film, has been reissued in a mass-market paperback as a film tie-in. DEAN HANSONJOURNAL Ibuquerque sci-fi writer Steven Gould is hown here with artwork from the original over of his 1992 novel "Jumper." The book, which is the basis See SCI-FI on PAGE F5 Praise, and a spot on banned list automatic cause-and-effect. He said these parents think if their kids read about something, it's going to happen to them; so if they read about attempted physical abuse in "Jumper," they're going to run away from home, he said. "I would much prefer that my kids learn about the possibility of such things from fiction than encountering them in the real world," said Gould, a married father of two. when "Jumper" was first published in 1992, the American Library Association named it a Best Book for Young Adults.

Ironically, the novel also made the ALA's Top 100 Banned Books for most of the 1990s. What did some readers find objectionable in it? The two most objectionable passages are within the few first pages of the book, said author Steven Gould. "Both of these are really bad things that are about to happen and cause the protagonist (Davy) to teleport for the first time," Gould explained. "First, the father is about to beat him with the buckle-end of a belt. The second is an actual attempted rape of Davy by a bunch of truckers after he's run away." The author finds interesting that, generally speaking, some parents object to passages in a novel because of what they perceive as an FICTION NONFICTION 1.

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St. Martin's. 7. "People of the Book." Geraldine Brooks. Viking.

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