Springfield-Greene County Library District discussion

Hello all,

This month, we're talking about westerns! In the comments, let us know:

What are your favorite westerns of all time?
What do you like about westerns?
If you read a western this month, tell us what you think!

If you're looking for a western to try, check out some of these lists:

Western fiction in print, large print, and audiobook CD from the Library
Western ebooks from Overdrive/Libby
Western audiobooks from Overdrive/Libby
Western ebooks from Hoopla Digital
Western audiobooks from Hoopla Digital

I've really enjoyed some westerns like Whiskey When We're Dry, True Grit, and News of the World. I also love the "weird westerns" I've read, like River of Teeth, Unbury Carol, and The Gunslinger.

I think one of my favorite thing about westerns is that there's always some kind of road trip-style quest happening, and usually there's a friendship between two main characters who are on this quest together and they have funny and charming banter. There's often a big exciting ending involving firearms.

I have two westerns on my to-read list and I'm hoping to read at least one of them this month for ReadUps. They're both written by women: How Much of These Hills Is Gold and Outlawed.

Miranda wrote: "I've really enjoyed some westerns like Whiskey When We're Dry, True Grit, and News of the World. I also love the "weird westerns" I've read, like [book..."

I also really enjoyed "True Grit" and "News of the World," and "Whiskey When We're Dry" is on my list so I'm excited to hear that you enjoyed it, Miranda. I am going to add those "weird" westerns to my list, too. [book:The Buntline Special|8253037] by Mike Resnick is a weird western that I really liked. It's a steampunk western about Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson's battle with criminals, a zombie gunslinger, and I think a mad scientist? It's been a few years since I read it, but I remember that it was a lot of fun.

I love mystery series, and my very favorite ones all have western/southwest settings. I recently found an author new to me, Allana Martin, whose mysteries are set on the western Texas/Mexico border. The first book, Death of a Healing Woman, was much better than I expected, with really colorful descriptions of the culture and landscape of the area. I love Michael McGarrity's Kevin Kerney series, as well as Steven Havill's Bill Gastner series, both set in New Mexico. I loved News of the World, too. There are so many others, I could go on for way too long!

Well, I warned you, here I am again on this topic of favorite westerns! Recently on the library shelves I found a book by Lisa Preston called The Clincher. I enjoy books that feature women breaking into nontraditional careers, and in this one the central character is just beginning her career as a horseshoer, and is living in Oregon. It's a mystery series, one I plan to continue reading.
I also have started another series set on the Mexico/Texas border. It is the Josie Gray series, where Josie is the chief of police in a small border town. The author, Tricia Fields, illustrates the horrible consequences of the drug trade/cartels, on both sides of the border. The first book in the series is The Territory.
C.J. Box has created a strong female lead character in his Cassie Dewell/Highway Quartet series. The first in the series, Back of Beyond, actually began featuring a male lead, Cody Hoyt, but by the second book Cassie is the center of the stories. The books are set in Montana and North Dakota.
Box's other series that I like features a game warden, Joe Pickett, and is set in Wyoming. The series starts with Open Season.
And speaking of Wyoming, I really like the Craig Johnson series that is set in the Bighorn Mountains. The central character is Walt Longmire, sheriff of Abasaroka County, and he is often accompanied by his best friend Henry Standing Bear, and their adventures often take them to the nearby Cheyenne reservation. There are two strong female characters in these stories, Deputy Vic Moretti, and Walt's daughter, attorney Cady. The stories, which start with the first book, The Cold Dish, often confront issues of racism, gender, and violence. There was a TV series, called Longmire, based on these books.

I wanted to ask if anyone has read Doc by Mary Doria Russell. I have it on my to-read list, but haven't gotten to it as yet. It is set in Dodge City, and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are central characters. I admire Russell as an author, and she writes across several genres.

Janice, that Lisa Preston series looks great! I've added it to my to-reads list. I love when a book has a really strong setting so books with a Western atmosphere are really fun to read. I started Open Season once and I liked what I read, but I didn't get very far because of the timing. I'll have to pick it up again sometime.

Recently I read Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon and I really enjoyed it. It follows a family as they travel west in 1853. It's character drive with romance and it really portrays the struggles of the journey.

A "weird western" that I really love is a YA novel called Texas Gothic by Rosemary Clement-Moore. I've probably read it 5 times by now and it's a fun story set in Texas where Amy, the only normal person in a family of magical women, agrees to look after her aunt's farm with her sister for the summer. She takes care of the goats (who have a habit of climbing trees), keeps running into an annoying cowboy, and has to deal with a ghost that is causing havoc. It has western, mystery and paranormal vibes and it's a book that I love more with each read.

Christina, I love novels that have a strong sense of place, as well as stories about pioneers--I grew up reading the Little House books at least once every year. I will check out Where the Lost Wander. Texas Gothic does sound fun, too.

So many good suggestions here--thank you, every one! I would like to try more westerns because I've really enjoyed the ones I've read, but I have a hard time finding some that look good to me, more so than other genres. So I appreciate these ideas!

Janice, I agree that a strong sense of place is really appealing. Little House on the Prairie is a great example. You feel like you're right there on the plains with the Ingalls family as you read.

Has anyone read a book that wasn't necessarily a western, but took place in the American west? One that comes to mind for me is Dread Nation by Justina Ireland. It's a young adult/horror/historical fiction novel about a zombie plague that occurs at the end of the Civil War. The protagonist is a young girl who attends a school where Black teens are trained as warriors to protect white people from the undead. Eventually she is sent to defend a new town in the west. I wouldn't call it a western, but it has a strong western setting and a pioneer feel. It has the tone of the weird westerns we've talked about. 

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey is set in Alaska in the 1920's. It is historical fiction, mixed with some magic/fantasy. A mysterious little girl appears at the farm of Maud and Jack, an older homeless couple, and becomes the center of their lives, making the arduous life there much more meaningful. The author writes beautifully, and there is definitely a sense of the setting.

Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya is the first in a trilogy that is a kind of autobiographical fiction. It tells of a young Hispanic boy growing up in rural New Mexico in the 1940's, and does a great job of illustrating the culture of that area. There is some magic/witchcraft in the story, too. During the Great American Read I learned that this book had been banned, in 2014 no less, by the Board of Education in Arizona, because it placed too much emphasis on Hispanic traditions and culture.

Grand Ambition by Lisa Michaels tells a fictionalized account of the real life couple Glen and Bessie Hyde, who set out in 1928 to spend their honeymoon rafting the rapids of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. This book has great descriptions of the canyon, the river and rapids, and their nightly campfires.

All the Land to Hold Us by Rick Bass is set in western Texas, and does such a magnificent job of describing that landscape. It is a novel about the land, the desert and the salt flats, the lack of water, but also some unique and intriguing characters. It touches on environmental issues, the oil industry, fossils, lack of water, and much more. It took me awhile to get into this one, but I was very glad I stayed with it.