Best Western books

[ChrisinHove]

I’m loving “The Virginian”

I told you so. It is so well written and a lot of that is how these guys acted. It has some really funny stuff in it. (Along with shoot outs and girls)

It really is an excellent book. I finished it wondering whether I have had a glimpse of the soul of America.

[Doc Dan]

I’m loving “The Virginian”

I told you so. It is so well written and a lot of that is how these guys acted. It has some really funny stuff in it. (Along with shoot outs and girls)

It really is an excellent book. I finished it wondering whether I have had a glimpse of the soul of America.

That is a good question and might need pondering some. It certainly is a rarely well written book and it does capture some of the independent spirit and rough humor we are famous for. It also captures the respect men and women used to have for one another and the importance of love and of doing what you need to do in spite of how you feel about it.

[z4vdBt]

Great thread. I ordered a copy of The Virginian.

[Doc Dan]

Great thread. I ordered a copy of The Virginian.

You'll love it. It is not like a lot of these modern Westerns. I like the American independent spirit showing through, as well as our love for practical jokes. The book has it all.

[ChrisinHove]

Nothing Like It in the World: The Men Who Built the Transcontinental Railroad 1863-69 by Stephen E. Ambrose 2001

Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, Marc Reisner 1986

Just finished the former. I like Ambrose’s writing, anyway, but this account is tremendous.

[ChrisinHove]

News Of The World by Paulette Giles.

My wife bought this for me for Xmas and I thought it a wonderful book.

A wandering, aging war veteran agrees to undertake a long, dangerous journey to return an orphaned, rescued Kiowa child captive to her relatives.

[p_atrick]

Another vote for Blood Meridian and Cormac McCarthy in general. James Carlos Blake is another author worth your attention. He was described to me as a "poor man's McCarthy". However, Blake is a very talented author in his own right; that description doesn't do him justice. I've read Borderlands (I'm a sucker for a good collection of short stories) and it tells several tales specific region of the US/Mexico border. The book goes in chronological order, so not all of the stories fall with in the Western time period. Blake also wrote In the Rogue Blood, arguably his best work (at least it has the most buzz). I haven't read it myself, but I hear good things. Apparently it is pretty violent and one of the characters has a wicked knife that is prominently featured.

Finally, the website Standard Ebooks is a great place to get free ebooks. Project Gutenberg is a project to digitize all of the works in the public domain. However, they are not putting that much effort into the ebook versions of these classic works. So Standard Ebooks is another project to take a subset of these works from Project Gutenberg and give them proper typesetting for an ebook reader. I don't recall any specific titles about Westerns, but you can find some great literary classics.

[z4vdBt]

Craig Johnson-Longmire series
C.J. Box-Joe Pickett series

Both awesome

Second this. I just finished the Joe Pickett series the other week - from the first to the last 2020 book. And I just started the Walt Longmire series also and am up to book #8.

[ChrisinHove]

I just saw News of The World is shortly being released as a film, with Tom Hanks. Can’t wait!

[z4vdBt]

Started reading Dee Brown - already finished a few great reads:

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee 1970
The Fetterman Massacre 2012
The Bold Cavaliers: Morgan's Second Kentucky Cavalry Raiders 2012
Killdeer Mountain: A Novel 1983

Have a few others lined up, but am looking forward to: Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow: Railroads in the West 1977.