Books with title New Mexico: The Land of Enchantment

"[A] thoughtful and compelling elegy to a troubled man, a broken love, and a broken dream of the west."—Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy ExamsAn MSN Best Book of 2016Set against the stark and surreal landscape of New Mexico, Land of Enchantment is a coming-of-age memoir about young love, obsession, and loss, and how a person can imprint a place in your mind forever. When Leigh Stein received a call from an unknown number in July 2011, she let it go to voice mail, assuming it would be her ex-boyfriend Jason. Instead, the call was from his brother: Jason had been killed in a motorcycle accident. He was twenty-three years old. She had seen him alive just a few weeks earlier.Leigh first met Jason at an audition for a tragic play. He was nineteen and troubled and intensely magnetic, a dead ringer for James Dean. Leigh was twenty-two and living at home with her parents, trying to figure out what to do with her young adult life. Within months, they had fallen in love and moved to New Mexico, the “Land of Enchantment,” a place neither of them had ever been. But what was supposed to be a romantic adventure quickly turned sinister, as Jason’s behavior went from playful and spontaneous to controlling and erratic, eventually escalating to violence. Now New Mexico was marked by isolation and the anxiety of how to leave a man she both loved and feared. Even once Leigh moved on to New York, throwing herself into her work, Jason and their time together haunted her.Land of Enchantment lyrically explores the heartbreaking complexity of why the person hurting you the most can be impossible to leave. With searing honesty and cutting humor, Leigh wrestles with what made her fall in love with someone so destructive and how to grieve a man who wasn’t always good to her.

New Mexico is well known for its beautiful and unique landscape, but it is also has a rich and varied history. Readers will visit Native American monuments and the Very Large Array, walk the Billy the Kid Trail, and look inside the Carlsbad Caverns—all without leaving their seats. Gorgeous, full-color photography captures the icons of New Mexico, while engaging text tells the tales that will make students want to learn more about the fascinating Land of Enchantment.

New Mexico is well known for its beautiful and unique landscape, but it is also has a rich and varied history. Readers will visit Native American monuments and the Very Large Array, walk the Billy the Kid Trail, and look inside the Carlsbad Cavernsall without leaving their seats. Gorgeous, full-color photography captures the icons of New Mexico, while engaging text tells the tales that will make students want to learn more about the fascinating Land of Enchantment.

"[A] thoughtful and compelling elegy to a troubled man, a broken love, and a broken dream of the west."—Leslie Jamison, New York Times bestselling author of The Empathy ExamsAn MSN Best Book of 2016Set against the stark and surreal landscape of New Mexico, Land of Enchantment is a coming-of-age memoir about young love, obsession, and loss, and how a person can imprint a place in your mind forever. When Leigh Stein received a call from an unknown number in July 2011, she let it go to voice mail, assuming it would be her ex-boyfriend Jason. Instead, the call was from his brother: Jason had been killed in a motorcycle accident. He was twenty-three years old. She had seen him alive just a few weeks earlier.Leigh first met Jason at an audition for a tragic play. He was nineteen and troubled and intensely magnetic, a dead ringer for James Dean. Leigh was twenty-two and living at home with her parents, trying to figure out what to do with her young adult life. Within months, they had fallen in love and moved to New Mexico, the “Land of Enchantment,” a place neither of them had ever been. But what was supposed to be a romantic adventure quickly turned sinister, as Jason’s behavior went from playful and spontaneous to controlling and erratic, eventually escalating to violence. Now New Mexico was marked by isolation and the anxiety of how to leave a man she both loved and feared. Even once Leigh moved on to New York, throwing herself into her work, Jason and their time together haunted her.Land of Enchantment lyrically explores the heartbreaking complexity of why the person hurting you the most can be impossible to leave. With searing honesty and cutting humor, Leigh wrestles with what made her fall in love with someone so destructive and how to grieve a man who wasn’t always good to her.

Moving is never easy. Especially when you are about to turn thirteen, forced to leave a lush paradise for a barren wasteland and afflicted by a know-it-all-smart-aleck for a brother. With an old lady for her new neighbor and parents who think looking at rocks is fun, Micay has only her geeky brother to console her. At least he understood that beach bunnies were not meant to be desert rats.Though she is determined to remain miserable in her new life, little does she know that her neighbor is more than meets the eye and will set her on a grand and ancient adventure that challenges all her preconceived ideas. Land of Enchantment is a fresh take on an old adage, don't judge a book by its cover, and showcases the little known grandeur of the truly enchanting state of New Mexico (yes, it really is a part of the United States).About the author – Every choice we make changes our story and the stories of countless others interconnected with us. That fascinates me, and it drives me to ask, what if? That ever fluctuating potential of possibility is my Muse, and writing is my mode of exploration. Delving into the mystery of what if and putting it into words is what I want to do for the rest of my life.The hobbies and activities I enjoy reflect my philosophy of writing. I explore, I adventure and I discover. I practice Wushu, a graceful and acrobatic martial art that is always a challenge. I rock climb to keep my body and spirit strong. I am happiest traveling and discovering new places of beauty. I love being in nature and communing with it, so hiking and camping are regular activities for me. I also enjoy relaxing and reading a good book or watching a good movie. I can often be found at a board game night reveling in the company of loved ones.I truly believe that we should pursue our dreams with dogged determination. Yes, we may have to slave away at thankless jobs to do it, but if we never give up, we can achieve them. After 5 years of dealing with chronic health problems (which are now thankfully resolved) and writing and traveling for research whenever I could, I am now finally able to present my debut novel, Land of Enchantment. I have a BA in Communicative Arts with a focus on English Literature and a minor in History. I've taught both middle school Language Arts and high school English Literature. I took and graduated from the Children's Literature course at the Institute of Children's Literature and was invited back to take the advanced course which I have since graduated from also. Land of Enchantment is the novel I chose to write as my project for the advanced course, so now I'm honored to be able to publish it. Lastly I have worked as a professional editor for a small publishing company as well as for individual authors. In the near future, I hope my career will consist of writing about what I love.Keywords: Tween, Adventure, Archaeology, Mystery, Discovery, Imagination, History, Artifacts, Moving, Self-Discovery

Evil tidings have their own trick of spreading abroad. You cannot bury them. The news which had come secretly to Venice was known from the Giudecca to Madonna dell'Orto in two hours. Before noon it was in Murano.Young Zuan Gradenigo, making his way on foot from the crowded Merceria into the Piazza di San Marco, ran upon his friend, the young German captain, whom men called Il Lupo—his name was Wölfart—and learned, what almost every other man in the city already knew, how Lewis of Hungary, taking excuse of a merchant ship looted in Venetian waters, was on his way to a second invasion, and had given over the Dalmatian towns to the ban of Bosnia to ravage.The two men were still eagerly discussing the matter and its probable outcome, half an hour later, standing beside one of the gayly painted booths which, at this time—the spring of 1355—were clustered about the foot of the great Campanile, when a servant in the livery of the doge touched young Zuan's arm and, in a low tone, gave him a message.Gradenigo turned back to the German."My uncle wishes to see me at once in the palace," he said. "If you are not pressed, go to my house and wait for me there. I may have important news for you." Then, with a parting wave of the hand, he went quickly across the Piazzetta and under the gateway to the right of St. Mark's.At the head of the great stair two men were awaiting him, and they led him at once through a narrow passage with secret sliding-doors to an inner cabinet of the private apartments of the newly elected doge, his uncle, Giovanni Gradenigo.The doge sat alone in a great carven chair before a table which was littered with papers and with maps and with writing-materials. From a high window at one side colored beams of light slanted down and rested in crimson and blue splashes upon the dark oak of the table and what lay there, and upon the rich velvet of the doge's robe, and upon his peculiar cap of office. He was not a very old man, but he was far from strong. Indeed, even at this time he was slowly wasting away with the disease which carried him off a year later, but as he sat there, bowed before the table, he looked old and very worn and tired. His face had no color at all. It was like a dead man's face—cold and damp.And yet, although he was ill and seemed quite unfit for labors or duties of any sort, he was in reality an unusually keen and shrewd man, capable of unremitting toil. There burned somewhere within the shrunken, pallid body an astonishingly fierce flame of life. He had been elected to office hard upon the Faliero catastrophe partly because his name was one of the very greatest in Venice—two others of his house had worn the cap and ring within the century past—but chiefly because his sympathies were as remote as possible from the liberal views of the poor old man who had preceded him. He was patrician before all else, and fiercely tenacious of patrician rights—fiercely proud of his name and possessions...

Evil tidings have their own trick of spreading abroad. You cannot bury them. The news which had come secretly to Venice was known from the Giudecca to Madonna dell'Orto in two hours. Before noon it was in Murano. Young Zuan Gradenigo, making his way on foot from the crowded Merceria into the Piazza di San Marco, ran upon his friend, the young German captain, whom men called Il Lupo—his name was Wölfart—and learned, what almost every other man in the city already knew, how Lewis of Hungary, taking excuse of a merchant ship looted in Venetian waters, was on his way to a second invasion, and had given over the Dalmatian towns to the ban of Bosnia to ravage. The two men were still eagerly discussing the matter and its probable outcome, half an hour later, standing beside one of the gayly painted booths which, at this time—the spring of 1355—were clustered about the foot of the great Campanile, when a servant in the livery of the doge touched young Zuan’s arm and, in a low tone, gave him a message. Gradenigo turned back to the German. "My uncle wishes to see me at once in the palace," he said. "If you are not pressed, go to my house and wait for me there. I may have important news for you." Then, with a parting wave of the hand, he went quickly across the Piazzetta and under the gateway to the right of St. Mark’s. At the head of the great stair two men were awaiting him, and they led him at once through a narrow passage with secret sliding-doors to an inner cabinet of the private apartments of the newly elected doge, his uncle, Giovanni Gradenigo.