QUERENCIA by Stephen Bodio (Clark City...

QUERENCIA by Stephen Bodio (Clark City Press: $12.95). The title of this haunting memoir comes from the Spanish term for the area of the ring a charging bull uses as its home base; hence, a personal, secure niche that constitutes home in the truest sense of the word. A noted journalist and expert on falconry, Bodio recounts his offbeat love affair with writer Betsy Huntington. Together, they established a quirky yet cozy household in the barren country near Magdalena, N. M., where they shared their passions for literature, the outdoors and animals. The story of their life together is intimately bound to the rugged New Mexico landscape and its arid beauties, which they explored with their motley assortment of hunting dogs. In finely crafted yet spare prose, Bodio presents an understated elegy to a highly unconventional but obviously fascinating woman, and to the life they shared.