Mysteries and Miracles of New Mexico: A Guide Book to the Genuinely Bizarre, in the Land of Enchantment

I am born and raised here in Albuquerque New Mexico and I really enjoyed this book. I learned a lot of history about my home. I am actually going to be scheduling some weekend road trips to visit some of the sites mentioned in this book. For anyone who likes reading about history or likes reading about strange happenings, this is definitely the book for you.

This is a terrific little book on some of the more bizarre people, places, occurrences in New Mexico. Of course there is a chapter devoted to Roswell (actually there are 3 UFO related chapters including the chapter on cattle mutilations). Then there are the stories about stashed gold and money, Native American women warriors, mystery inscriptions on rocks, spirit world windows (worthy of Keel himself), New Mexican witches, and the mystery surrounding Billy the Kid. It's a smallish book (217 pages) and would be highly suited for an "in-flight" read the next time you fly the friendly skies. It definitely makes you want to visit all the places mentioned within the book.

As a New Mexico resident, explorer, and fan, this book had immediate appeal to me. It's regarded as a sort of regional cult classic, and after reading it I can see why. Every one of its chapters addresses a specific topic or story, and at the end of every chapter the book gives directions to whatever it was talking about, and also recommends other sources for further reading on the same subject. The book's topics range from bizarre cattle mutilations to UFOs to supernatural witchery to miracle churches. By the time you've read this entire book, not only will you have a good idea of the state's weirdness, but you'll have a good idea of the state's overall history. The writing is simple and plain, without frills or poetry, but it does what it's supposed to. If the book has faults it's that some of its chapters address topics that don't seem all that miraculous or mysterious, and there are occasionally features that the author won't give directions to but that I want to see. Overall though this is a great book--a fast, informative, interesting read. At times it's even scary. Also, there are some great topics the book doesn't address--such as skinwalkers, el chupacabra, and a few great treasure stories--but maybe those topics are addressed in this book's follow-up, "More Mysteries & Miracles of New Mexico," a book I now plan on buying.

Although some of these stories can never be verified, they are very interesting to read. I like that there are directions included at the end of each story for those that would like to see where these events happened. I also like that there is a bibliography at the end of each chapter so that the reader can further explore those stories that interest him/her. The pictures are few and far between and are black and white. However, the pictures that are included are relevent to the text. A vern interesting book.