The New York Times gives high marks to Tucson author Lydia Millet's new novel, Sweet Lamb of Heaven. Laura Lippman's review begins:

It’s not bragging if it’s fact: Few ­novels surprise me. This is not because I’m a genre writer, but because I’m a genre reader, sampling broadly — crime, horror, romance, speculative, dystopian and, more often than not, literary fiction. (Yes, honey, you’re a genre too.) When I teach creative writing, I ask my students to experiment with their television remote controls. Mute the sound and scan the channels, landing on a film or television show heretofore unknown to you. ­Normally, it takes only seconds to identify, by shot composition alone, whether we are watching a comedy or a drama, a soap opera or a police procedural. We have intuited each world’s rules even if we’ve never articulated them.

But Lydia Millet’s “Sweet Lamb of Heaven” confounded me, delightfully so. After serving as a judge for the 2015 National Book Awards’ fiction category, I have little patience with literary novels that claim to have the propulsive momentum of a thriller, yet Millet pulls it off. About 80 pages in, I scrawled on the title page: I don’t know where I’m going. Then, a few pages later: How do we leave ourselves behind when we read? The main character’s well-earned paranoia infected me; I felt as if Millet had mined my metadata: mom, concerned citizen, conspiracy skeptic, overwhelmed social media user. But I also sensed that Millet was asking me to transcend my own narrow interests, to open my mind to the possibility of a world I had not — possibly could not — imagine.

Read the whole review here.

Amy Goodman, the host of radio show Democracy Now!, will be making a Tucson appearance to talk about her new book, Democracy Now!: Twenty Years Covering the Movements Changing America.

Goodman, whose show airs on KXCI, 91.3 FM, will talk to fans from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, April 28, at the TCC Leo Rich Theatre, 260 S. Church St.

The talk is a benefit for KXCI community radio. Tickets are $16, with kids 16 and younger allowed in free as long as they’re accompanied by an ticket-carrying adult.

A Rocky Mountain Poll showing Hillary Clinton beating Donald Trump in Arizona is getting attention in the national media.

Politico notes that "Trump Could Put Arizona in Play." The Hill reports that "Clinton Beats Trump." PoliticsUSA's headline is "Arizona Could Turn Blue As Both Hillary Clinton And Bernie Sanders Lead Donald Trump." 

It's certainly possible that Trump could lose Arizona, given that he's one of the most unpopular people to seek the presidency. (And it looks increasingly likely he'll win the GOP nomination after yesterday's big wins.)

But Rocky Mountain polls don't have a great track record in predicting the spread in presidential races. In April 2012, the Rocky Mountain Poll had Barack Obama ahead of Mitt Romney by 2 percentage points. In October 2012, the firm had Obama ahead of Romney by 2 percentage points. Romney won Arizona by 10 percentage points, so this week's survey should probably come with about a pound of salt.

After five years as the head of the UA's Institute for LGBT Studies, Susan Stryker announced on her Facebook page today that she is leaving the position.

Perhaps one of Stryker's biggest accomplishments at the UA is the formation of the world's first-ever transgender studies degree. Most recently, Stryker had also been in talks with the UA administration and the state about how to provide inclusive health care options for transgender faculty, staff and their family members. 

In her Facebook post, Stryker says she will continue to teach gender and women's studies at the university in the future, but she will take a one-year leave of absence to continue working on a book about how gender has changed in the U.S. since the 19th century. 

I feel extremely fortunate that I have the privilege not only of being adequately compensated for doing work that I find meaningful, but of prioritizing what dimension of that work I'm most led to do at a particular moment. At this moment, I need to express more and administer less. I'm very much looking forward to the year ahead, which promises to be a refreshing mix of working from home in San Francisco where I'll get to spend more time with my sweetie and less time commuting back and forth to Tucson, some fun international travel, and some opportunities for secluded writer's retreats. 

Doug Ducey loves to say Prop 123 is a "first step." That phrase has become a mantra for Ducey and others supporting Prop 123. The question Ducey won't answer is, if Prop 123 is the first step, what's the next step?

"First step" is one of those vague, Rorschach-test statements politicians love which allow voters to deduce the meaning based on their own desires. If you're a pro-education-funding voter, you're supposed to imagine it means the next step is to put more money in public education. If you think our "government schools" are wasting money on administration and we're "throwing money" at "failing schools," then you can imagine the next step has nothing to do with increasing funding. It's about firing administrators, defunding "government schools," especially those with lots of poor and minority kids, and increasing funds for "school choice" — meaning plenty of money for charter and private schools.

Ducey agrees with the second group. Prop 123 is a way of getting the public off his back without putting any new money for education in the state budget. He and his surrogates have made it clear, they want to keep education funding low while shifting money toward high rent school districts, charters and private schools. But he can't say that out loud right now. Prop 123 needs the votes of people who know our schools are desperately in need of more funding and want the state to increase what it spends on education. His oft-used "first step" statement is designed to leave the impression he's on their side without making a commitment he might be expected to live up to later.

Ducey can show he agrees our schools need more funding by adding education spending to the budget he and Republican legislative leadership are hammering out. Instead, it looks like they're going to push for a net loss of $21 million in state education money. That means if Prop 123 passes, the first $21 million dollars will go toward bringing state funding up to this year's abysmally low level, not to adding money for schools. If it fails, our schools will be $21 million poorer.

The gang at Hotel Congress have assembled quite a celebration of the thorny succulent that gives us the sting of tequila.

The debut Agave Heritage Week starts Tuesday, May 3, and includes some sumptuous meals, live music, guest speakers and more, all built around the humble agave.

You can find the whole schedule here, but check out this dinner that Janos Wilder is preparing at his new Carriage House on Friday May 6:

Passed Hors D’oeuvres
Local Beef Cheek Mini Tacos
Smoked Poblanos and Mushroom Flautas
Cocktail: Blanco tequila, raspberry, habanero shrub, sparkling wine

First

Ceviche Blanco
Wild Mexican shrimp, pickled nopalitos, local chiles, mizuna greens, Anita’s corn tortillas
Agua Amarga: Blanco Tequila, Apple Almond Orgeat, Lime, Averna

Second

La Codorniz Con Tequila
Tequila and lime cured quail, agave chiltepin glaze, mesquite smoked beef tongue, roasted pan patty squash, garlic confit, prickly pear and yucca root puree.
John Rose: Reposado Tequila, Demerara syrup, lemon, AZ Red Malbec, salt

Hi, I'm Buddy!

I'm a 2-year-old little boy and I'm looking for a home. I'm really strong and need a home where I can get a lot of attention, love and exercise.

I would do great in an active home but I also want to live indoors and be a snuggle dog for your family. If you have other dogs or little kiddos bring your whole family over to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona to do a meet and greet!

Stop by HSSA Main Campus at 3450 N. Kelvin Blvd. to see if we're a perfect match!

Lots of love,
Buddy (824004)

Seeing the Best of Tucson winners list is always a lot fun—a vetted list of where to grab a drink, where to ride your bike and which shows to see.

But Best of Tucson is also there for more practical advice: Who is the best handyman? Which dealership should you go to when buying a used car? Where should you take that car when the "check engine" light comes on?

Best Of is a Tucsonan-approved guide to the entire city, and you should keep that in mind when you're voting. Get in there, fill out your ballot, and remember some poor new-to-Tucson soul is going to be counting on your advice when their laptop crashes one week into their new job.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has until November 2017 to have a comprehensive recovery plan for Mexican gray wolves. The court settlement comes nearly two years after several environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the federal agency.

Earthjustice—a coalition of environmental organizations including the Center for Biological Diversity—sued Fish and Wildlife in November 2014 to challenge the agency's "delay" in completing a recovery plan for the Mexican gray wolf, the Center for Biological Diversity says in a press release. 

Fish and Wildlife developed what they called a recovery plan for the wolf back in 1982, but "the Service itself admits that this document was incomplete, intended for only short-term application, and 'did not contain objective and measurable recovery criteria for delisting as required by [the Endangered Species Act],'" the press release says.

Most importantly, the 34-year-old document did not provide the necessary science-based guidance to move the Mexican gray wolf toward recovery. Without a recovery plan in place, the Service’s Mexican gray wolf conservation efforts have been hobbled by insufficient releases of captive wolves into the wild population, excessive removals of wolves from the wild, and arbitrary geographic restrictions on wolf occupancy of promising recovery habitat.

The Service in 2010 admitted that the wild Mexican gray wolf population “is not thriving” and remains “at risk of failure,” and further admitted that “failure to develop an up-to-date recovery plan results in inadequate guidance for the reintroduction and recovery effort.”

In September 2015, a federal judge in Tucson rejected Fish and Wildlife's efforts to get the case dismissed. In January of that year, the environmental groups filed a notice of intent to pressure Fish and Wildlife to act on the issue. 

As of the end of last year, there are only 97 Mexican gray wolves in the U.S. wild, and fewer than 25 in Mexico, making the animal one of the most endangered mammals in North America, the press release says. 

I missed this when it came out a few weeks ago, but with the proposed Arizona state budget being revealed in dribs and drabs this week, it seems like a good time to talk about the assessment by ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) regarding Arizona's economic outlook. It's excellent! We're Number 5! We're Number 5! We're Number 5! You can read all about it in the ALEC-Laffer, 2016 Rich States, Poor States publication. It's called the ALEC-Laffer report, by the way, because the lead researcher is Arthur B. Laffer, who, according to his bio in the report, has often been called “The Father of Supply-Side Economics.” You know, trickle down economics, and the Laffer curve that explains it all. The co-authors: Stephen Moore, who was "the founder and president of the Club for Growth and founded the Free Enterprise Fund"; and Jonathan Williams, "the vice president for the Center for State Fiscal Reform at the American Legislative Exchange Council." It's a like-minded group.

The top magic pony states, the ones that most closely adhere to the doctrine that low taxes and minimal regulations bring prosperity, are, in order, Utah, North Carolina, North Dakota, Wyoming and Arizona: the world beaters driving our national economy. The bottom states — I guess all you'll find there is magic pony poop — are California, Connecticut, New Jersey, Vermont and New York: the loser states where nothing much ever happens economically. I remember Ducey talking about California's imminent economic demise in his State of the State address, which I guess is why Arizona's U Haul lots are full to bursting with trailers and trucks from California carrying businesses from that "economic outlook" loser to this "economic outlook" winner. Oh, the lots aren't full? Maybe all those businesses just hopped a ride on a magic pony heading our way.