Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. This week, you are diving into the Wild West and finding a western book to read. If you need to make it a bit easier, you can look for a book that has traditional western tropes but is set somewhere else (e.g., Australia) or in a modern setting (e.g., contemporary cowboy romance).

The New Western Canon: https://www.insidehook.com/article/bo...
23 Best Western Books: https://www.businessinsider.com/guide...
16 Best Darn Western Books of All Time: https://earlybirdbooks.com/12-best-we...
10 Great Westerns You've Never Read: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/b...
7 Modern Westerns for the Wandering Soul: https://www.bustle.com/articles/77298...
28 of the Best Western Books for your TBR: https://bookriot.com/best-western-books/

ATY Listopia: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

What are you reading for this prompt? Do you have any recommendations?

I highly recommend Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison. I loved this book so much (and I’m not much of a fan of the western genre).

Whiskey When We're Dry is one I have penciled in for this. The others are Upright Women Wanted or Outlawed, both of which I've heard good things about.

I’m really struggling with this prompt and I’ve already used by WC. So I’m feeling really upset right now because I really want to finish the challenge. Gosh I hate this genre

How about this Thomas? I haven’t read it, but it sounds like a retelling of Snow White in the Wild West. Six-Gun Snow White: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

Tracy- will look it up

Thomas - I highly recommend “Doc” by Mary Doria Russell. It’s one of my favorite 5 star reads. Or, if you like you children’s lit, there is “Bad News for Outlaws: The Remarkable Life of Bass Reeves, Deputy U.S. Marshall” by Vaunda Michaeux Nelson. It won 2 awards, so there’s that! It’s my option for my grandson’s challenge. I plan to read the classic “The Shootist” by Glendon Swarthout and then watching the movie.

Thanks guys, luckily I have found something for NPR so I can WC western

If you'd like a KIS option/prefer contemporary fiction, I highly recommend Walks Away Woman. It's set in the present day, so not a true Western, but it's definitely highly inspired by Western tropes, and Western books and movies play a role in the story. It's about a housewife in Arizona who decides to walk out into the Sonoran Desert to die, but quickly changes her mind. I really quite enjoyed it - it's beautifully written and has a very unique style.

I found Cold as Hell on Kindle Unlimited this year and ended up really enjoying it - the supernatural elements are strong, but it's set in the Wild West and very much reads like a Western

Book 2 in the series is due out early next year, so will probably do that one Vein Pursuits

Emily, I love the book lists! This is turning out to be one of my favorite new prompts.

I really enjoyed:
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901 - this could also work for the Booklovers prompt.
News of the World
Lonesome Dove
The Round House by Louise Erdrich- listed as a western (North Dakota), Native American

For a western setting without macho tropes:
Canyon Solitude: A Woman's Solo River Journey Through the Grand Canyon. There are many other books about the Grand Canyon and white water rafting trips.
Song of the Lion by Anne Hillerman, or earlier books by Tony Hillerman. Native American mystery series.
I might try: The Adventures of China Iron - Argentina Western - Queer Feminist take on Martin Fiero
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I want to read:
Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon - Subsue the Shelf
Oh Pioneers! or another novella by Willa Cather StS?
Brokeback Mountain -short story by Annie Proulx
other possibilities
Angle of Repose
The Orchardist
Outlawed
The Ox-bow incident - great film,
The Colour of Lightning - Subdue the Shelf
In the Distance - Herman Diaz -author list
Days without End - PBTmod 15 candles
Doc
Wounded - Percival Everett - on my Authors-to-read list

Willa Literary Award winner: (Named for Willa Cather)
The Glovemaker
The Flicker of Old Dreams

Pam wrote: "Thomas - I highly recommend “Doc” by Mary Doria Russell. It’s one of my favorite 5 star reads. ..."

I agree.

Thomas wrote: "Thanks guys, luckily I have found something for NPR so I can WC western"

The Last Cowboy is a modern western.

I'm a huge fan of C.J. Box who writes about a game warden in Wyoming. If you like crime novels, this should be up your alley. They are considered Westerns, and Box has won several awards in that genre.

Since this prompt was announced I keep stumbling over new SFF western sounding books:

The Nightland Express - YA, LGBT+, Pony Express with a fantasy element.
Hel's Eight - Adult space western, from author of Nunslinger: The Complete Series.
Frontier - Adult, LGBT+, space western.
Tread of Angels - Adult fantasy set in a western style mining town.

This wasn't a prompt that thrilled me, so I decided to cheat a bit and read a book from my TBR list, Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, since Wilder's books have a Western setting.

Then I found Farewell Cowboy for the return home prompt, which I think will also fit this. I'm going to read both books and see if they will swap prompts.

Western related books that I have read and enjoyed: Cold Mountain, All the Pretty Horses, The Son, Pretty-shield: Medicine Woman of the Crows.

Ellie wrote: "Since this prompt was announced I keep stumbling over new SFF western sounding books:

The Nightland Express - YA, LGBT+, Pony Express with a fantasy element.
[book:Hel's Eight|6196..."

I was just going to post and ask for ways to tweak the prompt into a sci-fi western direction. Like Thomas, I absoutely hate western as a genre and have nothing even remotely fitting on my TBR. But I did enjoy "Firefly", which was commonly described as a "space western", so I'm hoping to find something in that direction without feeling too much like a cheat^^

Every year in the planning stage there always seems to be talk about suggesting a western, so when I saw The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt in my second hand bookshop for a dollar a few years ago I got it just in case, and now its time has arrived!

Westerns aren't something I usually choose to read, but I did listen to the audiobook of News of the World last year and enjoyed it, so that would be my only recommendation.

Some western-ish suggestions I've enjoyed:

Doc Holliday - nonfiction; really readable biography of Doc Holliday.
The Collected Works of Billy the Kid - bit of an oddity; an imagined memoir of Billy the Kid.
The Great Train Robbery - fantastically fun heist romp by Michael Crichton; has a very western feel, but takes place in London 1855.
My Antonia - the last book in Willa Cather's Great Plains trilogy, but I read it without reading the previous two and it was lovely. More coming of age than western, but again the feeling is there.

I personally will be reading Zorro by Isabel Allende for this prompt, because I am fascinated that Allende wanted to write a Zorro novel.

I'm planning on Open Season by C.J. Box.

I also recommend:
The Lonesome Dove books
Craig Johnson's Longmire books
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
An Easy Death by Charlaine Harris

I have no interest in stereotypical westerns, but I've found so many other great feminist, queer, and/or multicultural books that fit and look forward to finding more!

Chrissy wrote: "I have no interest in stereotypical westerns, but I've found so many other great feminist, queer, and/or multicultural books that fit and look forward to finding more!"

The adventures of china iron would fit that.

Conny wrote: "I was just going to post and ask for ways to tweak the prompt into a sci-fi western direction..."

Yeah, in the strictest definition of the genre, it's a specific bit of American history that I have very little interest in. I do have How Much of These Hills Is Gold on my TBR if I feel like reading about that period, but I'm most likely going to read something set in a made up place.

If you are interested in nonfiction, there's Massacred for Gold: The Chinese in Hells Canyon about the murder of 30 Chinese gold miners in 1887, Skookum: An Oregon Pioneer Family's History and Lore, and Yours for Liberty: Selections from Abigail Scott Duniway's Suffrage Newspaper

I have several non-fiction books about women in the old west that I might put in this prompt, or I might read Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx

Found this today during my commute home https://bookriot.com/best-western-books/

Heresy by Melissa Lenhardt sounds fun. A gang of women outlaws that the newspapers think are men

I recently read North of Laramie by William W. Johnstone and really enjoyed it.

I am thinking of doing a western mystery like The Range Detectives, Holmes on the Range or The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave.

I have a collection of "Weird West" titles on my kindle that I'll likely mine for this. Western/Steampunk, Western/Eldritch, Western/Fantasy... But I also just stumbled over Cowboy Feng's Space Bar and Grille and it is tickling my fancy.

I strongly recommend The Devil's West series by Laura Anne Gilman - book one: Silver on the Road

I recommend these 2 by Louis L'Amour:

DOWN THE LONG HILLS
Hanging Woman Creek

Long Hills features two kids against the odds.
The movie was good and I wanted to read the book.
I read Hanging Woman because I loved the title.

would a space western work? like Big Damn Hero or Cowboy Bebop, Vol. 1?

My grid of top twelve possibilities.

These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901
Days Without End
A Thousand Moons
Open Season

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder or Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

In the Distance - most unusual and perhaps best weestern I have read.
Calico Palace and Jubilee Trail both by Gwen Bristow
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
The Sisters Brothers

Theresa- Thanks for the suggestion of In the Distance! I didn’t realize it was considered a western. I just picked up a copy at our library book sale so I am slotting it here!

Do you think I could get away with Barkskins for this one? Really struggling to find one to fit this prompt - I do have Open Season, but would rather double up with some of my other challenges I'm doing next year, and Proulx would work better for this.

I truly hate western stuff but watched some great movies, so let's see if I'll like one of the following:

The Gunslinger by Stephen King
Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson
Ghosts of Wyoming by Alyson Hagy
Open Season by C.J. Box
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
Whiskey When We're Dry by John Larison
Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey

I also read a graphic novel a few years ago called Stage Dreams by Melanie Gillman. Those who hate westerns can try this one, it's short and easy to read.

For this prompt, I read:
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams - 4* - My Review

Trying to read a bit in order this year, but this one sprung up for other reasons, so...#39 for me is The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. The best kind of western--set in the West with life lessons that could apply to any place in the world.

Sara wrote: "Trying to read a bit in order this year, but this one sprung up for other reasons, so...#39 for me is The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark. The best kind of w..."

It's great to hear that. I saw the film when I was young and never forgot it. Thanks for the reminder to look for the book.

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I just picked up Whiskey When We're Dry in an Audible 2 for 1 sale

I'm currently reading The Eagle's Heart by Hamlin Garland. Good writing, evocative of the old west, published in 1900.

Another western I read for a different prompt (5 Ws in title) is Where the Lost Wander by Amy Harmon.

EDIT: Actually ended up using The Fire and the Ore by Olivia Hawker for this prompt. It follows a family of Latter Days Saints on their journey to Salt Lake City.

I read The Unforgiven by Alan LeMay, apparently a classic. Pretty much hated it. But ah well, another prompt box ticked off!

Theresa wrote: "In the Distance - most unusual and perhaps best weestern I have read.
Calico Palace and Jubilee Trail both by Gwen Bristow
[book:Riders o..."

My book group read Riders of the Purple Sage a few years ago and I was shocked at how much I liked it. I thought Westerns were something my grandpa read.

I'm looking for a Native writer western. There has to be one I've not read

If you want some horror with your Western, the new Victor LaValle's book Lone Women counts here. Western horror, that's a cross genre (I'm not a horror fan but I'm a LaValle fan so I might read this)

I read Light Changes Everything by Nancy E. Taylor. I like this author, and I particularly recommend the first book in this series about an amazing pioneer woman: These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901.

I read Country Gold by Heatherly Bell. I received an email giving me a free copy of the audio version so decided to give it a go. It is tagged as western on goodreads as well as amazon (#44 in Western Romance (Kindle Store) - Australia and #51 in Western Romance (Kindle Store) - US). I don't feel like it was really western...there was a country music star(s) and they were in a rural location. But that said, I don't want to read a western (or another or a real one), so given I only read (listened) to this one as it was tagged western, I'm counting it!

What are you reading for this prompt?
I read News of the World by Paulette Jiles

I would normally keep away from any book described as a western, but this book has changed my mind. I loved it.

I read Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine, a book of short stories based on indigenous Latina women in Colorado. A beautiful book that I highly recommend.

I just finished In the Distance by Hernan Diaz. It’s definitely an unforgettable tale of survival in the Old West!

The Violent Land by Jorge Amado.

Swapping this from another prompt, as it fits this one so well.

It isn't set in the USA, but in tropical Brazil in the late C19th/early 2C20th. However, it reads like a western with all the ingredients of one, if you swap cocoa plantations for cattle ranches. Land is appropriated, families feud, there are vendettas, gun fights, dance hall girls etc.

An excellent read.