Desert Time

New Englander Diana Kappel-Smith explored the great deserts of the American West over an 18-month period. Traveling largely alone through the Southwest and parts of Idaho and Oregon, she logged 25,000 miles and discovered facets of the desert--and its human inhabitants--that may surprise even long-time residents. "You come to trust her company and to savor her observations: she is the sort of guide who gestures at what you would otherwise step across--or on--without noticing. She calls her collection 'an introduction to particulars.' These she infuses with radiance." --Los Angeles Times Book Review "With prose that is both lyrical and down-to-earth, Kappel-Smith makes readers aware of the fragility of the desert and the necessity to preserve these wonderful, alien and mysterious places." --San Francisco Chronicle "We glimpse moments of experience, rendered both in words and in conscientious line drawings. The book has a gentle, meandering tone. It consciously refuses to manufacture dramatic events." --Christian Science Monitor