Month: January 2021

The Wild, Wild West – westerns

	Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams  William Andrews, a young fresh-faced Harvard student with stars in his eyes and Emerson in his pocket, joins a bison-hunting expedition in his quest to explore the American West. What could possibly go wrong, right? The transcendental experience hoped for is instead replaced by a grueling journey into an unforgiving wilderness marked by violence, brutality, cabin fever, cold and hunger. In this intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.  Book   Audio eBook
	The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt  Forget the movie. Just forget it. The book is much, much better. It’s 1851, and Charlie and Eli Sisters are both brothers and assassins, boys grown to men in a savage and hostile world. You’ll come to appreciate the advent of modern dental hygiene and the efficacy of tooth powder in mid-19th century America. You’ll also escape with a deeper understanding of the deadly family ties that sometimes bind us.  Book eBook  Audio eBook
	The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford by Ron Hansen  A poetic, carefully researched meditation on early cult-celebrity, this historical novel details the final days of Jesse James. Robert Ford was a young upstart torn between dedicated worship and murderous jealousy, the “dirty little coward” who coveted Jesse’s legend. The powerful, strange, and unforgettable story of their interweaving paths—and twin destinies that would collide in a rain of blood and betrayal—is a story of America in all her rough, conflicted glory and the myths that made her. Oh, and like the book, the movie is excellent.  Book eBook  Audio eBook
	The Revenant: A Novel of Revenge by Michael Punke  Brrrr….if you saw the movie, you likely stumbled out of a pre-COVID theater (ah, remember those days?) in a frigid adrenaline rush with a taste for raw bison liver. Not. Like the movie, the book is the true story (with modest embellishments) of fur trapper Hugh Glass and his near supernatural powers of physical endurance in an epic battle first for his life and then for justice.  Book  Audio eBook
	Doc: A Novel by Mary Doria Russell  Born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry Holliday arrives on the Texas frontier hoping that the dry air and sunshine of the West will restore him to health. Soon, with few job prospects, Doc Holliday is gambling professionally with his partner, Mária Katarina Harony. In search of high-stakes poker, the couple hits the saloons of Dodge City. And that is where the unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and a fearless lawman named Wyatt Earp begins. A great follow-up to this title is Russell’s Epitaph: A Novel of the O.K. Corral.  Book  eBook
	Deadwood by Pete Dexter  Did the American TV producer David Milch read Pete Dexter’s Deadwood before creating the 2004 HBO drama of the same name? Milch claims he didn’t, but readers of Dexter’s 1986 novel might find that hard to believe. Legendary gunman Wild Bill Hickcock and his friend Charlie Utter have come to the Black Hills town of Deadwood fresh from Cheyenne, fleeing an ungrateful populace. Fueled by liquor, sex, and violence, this is the real wild west, unlike anything portrayed in the dime novels that first told its story.  eBook
	The Son by Phillip Meyer  Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part unflinching portrait of the bloody price of power, The Son is an utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American West through the lives of the McCulloughs, an ambitious family as resilient and dangerous as the land they claim.  Book  eBook  Audio eBook
	Horseman, Pass By by Larry McMurtry  What Western booklist would be complete without a title by Larry McMurtry? This novel became the basis for the film Hud, starring Paul Newman. In classic Western style McMurtry illustrates the timeless conflict between modernity and the Old West through the eyes of Texas cattlemen. When first published in 1961, Horseman, Pass By caused a sensation in Texas literary circles for its stark, realistic portrayal of the struggles of a changing West in the years following World War II. Never before had a writer managed to encapsulate its environment with such unsentimental realism.  Book  Audio eBook
	The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter van Tilburg Clark  Set in 1885, The Ox-Bow Incident is a searing and realistic portrait of frontier life and mob violence in the American West. First published in 1940, it focuses on the lynching of three innocent men and the tragedy that ensues when law and order are abandoned. The result is an emotionally powerful, vivid, and unforgettable re-creation of the Western novel, which Clark transmuted into a universal story about good and evil, individual and community, justice and human nature.  Book
	Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy  An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America’s westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the “wild west.” Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennessean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indians are being murdered and the market for their scalps is thriving. Not for the squeamish, but it remains an unparalleled classic—you won’t soon forget the character of The Judge.  Book  eBook  Audio eBook

True Grit – frontier westerns

	True Grit by Charles Portis  Well, duh…what Western booklist focused on the theme of “true grit” would this be without this classic?  True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 cash. Filled with an unwavering urge to avenge her father’s blood, Mattie finds and, after some tenacious finagling, enlists one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, as her partner in pursuit, and they head off into Indian Territory after the killer.  True Grit is essential reading, an undeniable American classic as eccentric, cool, funny, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself.  Book eBook   Audio eBook
	News of the World by Paulette Jiles  Five years after the end of the Civil War, Capt. Jefferson Kyle Kidd crosses paths with a 10-year-old girl taken by the Kiowa people. Forced to return to her aunt and uncle, Kidd agrees to escort the child across the harsh and unforgiving plains of Texas. However, the long journey soon turns into a fight for survival as the traveling companions encounter danger at every turn — both human and natural. Exquisitely rendered and morally complex, News of the World is a brilliant work of historical fiction that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.  BONUS: the movie has just been released in theaters, soon to be streaming (hopefully).  Book  eBook
	The Diary of Mattie Spenser by Sandra Dallas  No one is more surprised than Mattie Spenser herself when Luke Spenser, considered the great catch of their small Iowa town, asks her to marry him. Less than a month later, they are off in a covered wagon to build a home on the Colorado frontier. Mattie’s only company is a slightly mysterious husband and her private journal, where she records the joys and frustrations not just of frontier life.  As she and Luke make life together on the harsh and beautiful plains, Mattie learns some bitter truths about her husband and the girl he left behind and finds love where she least expects it. This is an unforgettable story of hardship, friendship and survival.  Book  Audio eBook
	O Pioneers! by Willa Cather  No other work of fiction so vividly evokes the harsh beauty and epic sweep of the Nebraska prairies that Cather knew and loved. The heroine of O Pioneers!, Alexandra Bergson, is a young Swedish immigrant at the turn of the twentieth century who inherits her father’s windblasted land and, through years of hard work, turns it into a prosperous farm. Fiercely independent, Alexandra sacrifices love and companionship in her passionate devotion to the land, until tragedy strikes and brings with it the chance for a new life.   Book  eBook   Audio eBook
	Lean on Pete: A Novel by Willy Vlautin  Fifteen-year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year. But as the son of a single father working in warehouses across the Pacific Northwest, Charley’s been pretty much on his own. When tragic events leave him homeless weeks after their move to Portland, Oregon, Charley seeks refuge in the tack room of a run-down horse track. Charley’s only comforts are his friendship with a failing racehorse named Lean on Pete and a photograph of his only known relative. In an increasingly desperate circumstance, Charley will head east, hoping to find his aunt who had once lived a thousand miles away in Wyoming – but the journey to find her will be a perilous one.  Based on the book, the film is also outstanding.  Book  eBook   Audio eBook
	Dancing at the Rascal Fair by Ivan Doig  The central volume in Ivan Doig’s acclaimed Montana trilogy, Dancing at the Rascal Fair is an authentic saga of the American experience at the turn of this century and a passionate portrayal of the immigrants who dared to try new lives in the imposing Rocky Mountains.  Ivan Doig’s supple tale of landseekers unfolds into a fateful contest of the heart between Anna Ramsay and Angus McCaskill, walled apart by their obligations as they and their stormy kith and kin vie to tame the brutal, beautiful Two Medicine country.  Book  Audio eBook
	Plainsong by Kent Haruf  In the small town of Holt, Colorado, a high school teacher is confronted with raising his two boys alone after their mother retreats first to the bedroom, then altogether. A teenage girl—her father long since disappeared, her mother unwilling to have her in the house—is pregnant, alone herself, with nowhere to go. And out in the country, two brothers, elderly bachelors, work the family homestead, the only world they’ve ever known. From these unsettled lives emerges a vision of life, and of the town and landscape that bind them together—their fates somehow overcoming the powerful circumstances of place and station, their confusion, curiosity, dignity and humor intact and resonant.  Book  Audio eBook
	Half-Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeanette Walls  By age six, Lily was helping her father break horses. At fifteen, she left home to teach in a frontier town—riding five hundred miles on her pony, alone, to get to her job. She learned to drive a car and fly a plane. And, with her husband, Jim, she ran a vast ranch in Arizona. She raised two children, one who is Jeannette’s memorable mother, Rosemary Smith Walls, unforgettably portrayed in The Glass Castle. A spectacular memoir.  Book
	The Big Sky by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.  Originally published more than fifty years ago, The Big Sky is the first of A. B. Guthrie Jr.’s epic adventure novels set in the American West. Here he introduces Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers: traveling the Missouri River from St. Louis to the Rockies, these frontiersmen live as trappers, traders, guides, and explorers. The story centers on Caudill, a young Kentuckian driven by a raging hunger for life and a longing for the blue sky and brown earth of big, wild places. Caught up in the freedom and savagery of the wilderness, Caudill becomes an untamed mountain man, whom only the beautiful daughter of a Blackfoot chief dares to love.  Book
	Train Dreams: A Novella by Denis Johnson  This is the story of Robert Grainier, a day laborer in the American West at the start of the twentieth century—an ordinary man in extraordinary times. Buffeted by the loss of his family, Grainer struggles to make sense of this strange new world. As his story unfolds, we witness both his shocking personal defeats and the radical changes that transform America in his lifetime. Suffused with the history and landscapes of the American West, this novella by the National Book Award–winning author of Tree of Smoke captures the disappearance of a distinctly American way of life.  Book  Audio eBook

Shaken, Not Stirred – espionage/spy thrillers

	A Spy in the Struggle by Aya de León  Aya de León takes on issues of climate justice, corporate corruption, and government surveillance of marginalized activists in an electrifying story about a high-powered attorney who goes undercover to infiltrate a Bay Area activist group.  Book  eBook
	Casino Royale by Ian Fleming  Of course, we gotta include James Bond, the original smooth operator, on this list.  In the novel that introduced James Bond to the world, Ian Fleming’s agent 007 is dispatched to a French casino in Royale-les-Eaux. His mission? Bankrupt a ruthless Russian agent who’s been on a bad luck streak at the baccarat table. Taut, tense, and effortlessly stylish, Ian Fleming’s inaugural James Bond adventure has all the hallmarks that made the series a touchstone for a generation of readers.  Book  Audio eBook
	Vera Kelly is Not a Mystery by Rosalie Knecht  When ex-CIA agent Vera Kelly loses her job and her girlfriend in a single day, she reluctantly goes into business as a private detective. Heartbroken and cash-strapped, she takes a case that dredges up dark memories and attracts dangerous characters from across the Cold War landscape. Before it’s over, she’ll chase a lost child through foster care and follow a trail of Dominican exiles to the Caribbean. Forever looking over her shoulder, she nearly misses what’s right in front of her: her own desire for home, connection, and a new romance at the local bar.  Book  Audio eBook
	Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré  Nat, a 47-year-old veteran of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, believes his years as an agent runner are over. But with the growing threat from Moscow Centre, the office has one more job for him – one that will take him down a path of political anger that will ensnare those closest to him.  Book
	The Last Tourist by Olen Steinhauer  In Olen Steinhauer’s bestseller An American Spy, reluctant CIA agent Milo Weaver thought he had finally put “Tourists”–CIA-trained assassins–to bed.  A decade later, Milo is hiding out in Western Sahara when a young CIA analyst arrives to question him about a series of suspicious deaths and terrorist chatter linked to him.  Their conversation is soon interrupted by a new breed of Tourists intent on killing them both, forcing them to run.  As he tells his story, Milo is joined by colleagues and enemies from his long history in the world of intelligence, and the young analyst wonders what to believe. He wonders, too, if he’ll survive this encounter.  Book  Audio eBook
	At Risk by Stella Rimington  An ‘invisible’ is a terrorist who is an ethnic native of the target country, who can cross its borders unchecked and move about unnoticed – the ultimate nightmare. By the time they’re identified, it may be too late.  The intelligence operation that follows will test Liz to the limit. Who or what is the target? Where and who is the invisible? With each passing hour the danger increases.  But as Liz desperately sifts through the incoming intelligence, she finally realizes a truth that could prove deadly: her ability to get inside her enemy’s head is the only hope of averting disaster…  Book
	The Russian Pink by Matthew Hart  When “The Russian Pink”—a stunningly large rose-hued diamond—makes a surprise appearance around the neck of Honey Li, the wife of surging presidential candidate Harry Nash, Alex Turner, an investigator for the Treasury Department’s diamond division and former C.I.A. agent, finds himself spiraling down a seemingly endless rabbit hole.  A diamond like that always carries secrets, but the web of mystery behind “The Pink” is more complex than Alex could ever imagine.  Book  eBook
	Opium Prince by Jasmine Aimaq  Born to an American mother and a late Afghan war hero, Daniel Sajadi has spent his life navigating a complex identity. After years in Los Angeles, he is returning home to Kabul at the helm of a US foreign aid agency dedicated to eradicating the poppy fields that feed the world’s opiate addiction.  But on the drive out of Kabul for an anniversary trip with his wife, Daniel accidentally hits and kills a young Kochi girl named Telaya. He is let off with a nominal fine, in part because nomad tribes are ignored in the eyes of the law, but also because a mysterious witness named Taj Maleki intercedes on his behalf. Wracked with guilt and visions of Telaya, Daniel begins to unravel, running from his crumbling marriage and escalating threats from Taj, who turns out to be a powerful opium khan willing to go to extremes to save his poppies.  Book
	The Day of the Jackal by Frederick Forsythe  It is 1963 and an anonymous Englishman has been hired by the Operations Chief of the O.A.S. to murder General de Gaulle. A failed attempt in the previous year means the target will be nearly impossible to get to. But this latest plot involves a lethal weapon: an assassin of legendary talent. Known only as The Jackal, this remorseless and deadly killer must be stopped, but how do you track a man who exists in name alone?  Audio eBook
	Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia  Viridiana spends her days watching the dead sharks piled beside the seashore, as the fishermen pull their nets. There is nothing else to do, nothing else to watch, under the harsh sun. Three wealthy American tourists arrive for the summer, and Viridiana is magnetized. She immediately becomes entwined in the glamorous foreigners’ lives. They offer excitement, and perhaps an escape from the promise of a humdrum future. When one of them dies, Viridiana lies to protect her friends. Soon enough, someone’s asking questions, and Viridiana has some of her own about the identity of her new acquaintances.  Book  eBook

Lethal Attraction – Read a romantic suspense

	Verity by Colleen Hoover Are you ready for a creepy romance experience you didn’t see coming? Check out this genre-bending romantic thriller. A handsome and mysterious man hires a struggling writer to finish his injured wife’s famous book series. As she learns more about the woman and starts developing feelings for her employer, she begins to discover that all is not as it seems. Don’t read this one before bed. Book
	A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones Get ready to turn up the heat with small town New Mexico Sheriff Sunshine Vicram and her fiery hot US Marshall old flame. A kidnapper is on the loose, drama and danger lurk around every corner…oh, and there is a rooster named Puff Daddy. Book eBook Audio eBook
	When No One is Watching by Alyssa Cole This is a social thriller with a twist, about a woman who joins forces with her handsome neighbor to offer historic walking tours of their rapidly gentrifying neighborhood, only to begin investigating what’s really happening to her Black neighbors who are seemingly moving out of the neighborhood for the suburbs. Twisty and timely, this book will leave you sweating. Book eBook
	The Shape of Night by Tess Gerritsen Gothic, atmospheric, romantic, and suspenseful, this book has a one-hundred-and-fifty-year-old sea captain ghost, the food writer who is renting his home, and a murder mystery. What is real? Book
	The Darkest Hour by Maya Banks When an Ex-Navy SEAL learns that his wife, whom he believed is dead, is actually being held hostage in the South American jungle, he has no choice but to find and rescue her. Kiss kiss, bang bang! Book Audio eBook
	Phantom Evil by Heather Graham We’re getting spooky up in here! The first book in the Krewe of Hunters series, this story is set in the perfectly atmospheric city of New Orleans. A renegade paranormal investigator and a police officer work together to solve a strange death, and maybe fall in love in the process? There is a lot of mystery, a hint of voodoo, a plethora of phantoms, and plenty of romance. Book eBook
	Stalking Jack the Ripper by Kerri Maniscalo Jack the Ripper. A lady fascinated by forensic science. An arrogant young man, brilliant at deduction. Murder. Mayhem. Kissing? Read this YA romantic murder mystery to find out! Book
	Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier While not TECHNICALLY a romance, Rebecca is a classic with some elements of romantic suspense—and it’s super eerie, too. The unnamed narrator falls in love with a mysterious widower and soon finds herself living at Manderley, his beautiful estate in the countryside. What could go wrong? Maybe the fact that Manderley still resounds with the sinister echo of his late wife? Book Audio eBook
	Mr. Perfect by Linda Howard What do you do when the search for Mr. Right goes off the rails? When four best friends make a just-for-fun list of qualities they look for in the “perfect” man, they never expect it to go viral on the Internet (early 2000’s internet viral, anyway)…or result in one of their deaths. Linda Howard is a queen of romantic suspense, and this book does not disappoint. Book Audio eBook
	Say You’re Sorry by Karen Rose As the only woman to have encountered the serial killer and live to tell about it, a beautiful talk-radio host is exactly the person the handsome FBI Special Agent needs to help him find this monster. But as the two get closer to each other, the killer has found a new target: them. Book Audio eBook