# Good westerns?



## Alpha72 (May 9, 2012)

I just read my first western on Kindle, and I actually really enjoyed it. I'm now wondering if anyone has any other western recommendations?

Thanks!


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

I read Buffalo Bill's autobiography and enjoyed it a lot.  I'm also a big fan of a series of Western mysteries called the Holmes on the Range series, authored by Steve Hockensmith.  Also, I read Pat Garrett's account of pursuing Billy the Kid, and To Hell on a Fast Horse, by Mark Lee Gardner, which is a sort of dual biography of Garrett and The Kid.  In short, I recommend all of the above.  Detailed comments are in the "80 books" thread referenced in my signature here....


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)




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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

An enthusiastic second on Jeff's recommendation of _Lonesome Dove_.

If you haven't already, check out some of the many westerns available on Kindle from Louis L'Amour and Elmore Leonard. Richard Matheson, Bill Pronzini, and Max McCoy are worth a look too.


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## Loren DeShon (Jun 15, 2011)

Another highest-possible-recommendation for _Lonesome Dove_. It's on my All-Time-Best list. (Others think so too, including the Pulitzer committee.)

You might also try _The Virginian_, which is another great read.

On a different scale is _Comstock Lode_, one of Louis L'Amour's very much western-genre paperbacks, and one of his best (IMO).


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## Alpha72 (May 9, 2012)

Loren DeShon said:


> Another highest-possible-recommendation for _Lonesome Dove_. It's on my All-Time-Best list. (Others think so too, including the Pulitzer committee.)
> 
> You might also try _The Virginian_, which is another great read.
> 
> On a different scale is _Comstock Lode_, one of Louis L'Amour's very much western-genre paperbacks, and one of his best (IMO).


Lonesome Dove it is then!


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## Gone 9/21/18 (Dec 11, 2008)

Robert B. Parker's Appaloosa series.


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## history_lover (Aug 9, 2010)

I'm not big into westerns but really enjoyed


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

Alpha72 said:


> Lonesome Dove it is then!


When you're done with the book (best Western I've ever read), pick up the miniseries on DVD (you can get it for less than $10 on Amazon Marketplace):










It's almost as good as the book.

Which is a huge compliment.

Todd


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

I really enjoyed St. Agnes Stand by Tom Eidson, a lesser known book, also the novel made into the film The Missing. Lonesome Dove is an all-time classic, of course. Try some early Elmore Leonard westerns too, and Richard Matheson was a master at any form he tried.


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## MariaESchneider (Aug 1, 2009)

Camile LaGuire has a few Westerns.  I've only read her "Waiter there's a Clue in my Soup" which is short stories (some of which are Westerns.  The first one is not, but it was probably my favorite.)  The shorts were well-done so I would expect her novels to be also, but again, I haven't read them.


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## Stan R Mitchell (Feb 26, 2012)

I agree with a couple of the writers above. 

Lonesome Dove and Appaloosa are the two best Westerns I've ever read. 

And I often see people mention the Virginian, but I bought it and sadly only got a little ways through it. Just moved too slow for me, which is my number one complaint of most westerns.


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## brianjanuary (Oct 18, 2011)

Louis L'Amour, Max Brand, Zane Grey, Loren D. Estleman.


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## LauraB (Nov 23, 2008)

I read True Grit on kindle a few months ago. It was a good read.


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## Stan R Mitchell (Feb 26, 2012)

LauraB said:


> I read True Grit on kindle a few months ago. It was a good read.


Unfortunately I was an idiot and didn't know the movie was based on a book, so I've seen the movie and can't seem to make myself read the book yet. I hate getting it out of order that way, and saw the book a few months ago and started glancing at the first pages and it seemed pretty similar.

How similar did you find it to the movie?


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

Stan R Mitchell said:


> How similar did you find it to the movie?


In my opinion, the more recent movie with Jeff Bridges is truer to the book than was the John Wayne version.


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## LadaRay (Apr 6, 2011)

Try space westerns for a change of pace


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## LaRita (Oct 28, 2008)

LadaRay said:


> Try space westerns for a change of pace


Which brings the TV show Firefly to mind. Hmmm, time to rewatch!


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

Ralph Cotton is the best western author of our times...


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## gspeer (Nov 10, 2010)

Anything you can find by Elmer Kelton, Jory Sherman, Frank Roderus, or Richard S. Wheeler will never disappoint you in Westerns. Particularly Elmer Kelton, who wrote dead on historically accurate novels for years and won multiple Spur Awards. Spur Awards are the annual awards for professional excellence in writing across many categories for the year's best Westerns, presented by the Western Writers of America, http://westernwriters.org/.

In fact, you could do much worse than go to the Western Writers of America website and start a reading course of their Spur Award winning writers/titles if you want a good idea of what Westerns are all about. All a fine bunch of folks, too.

Gary


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## hamerfan (Apr 24, 2011)

Alpha72 said:


> Lonesome Dove it is then!


Smart move!


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## apbschmitz (Apr 22, 2011)

True Grit for sure. The oddly formal language of the book is aped in the movie. Also Patrick deWitt's The Sisters Brothers, a touching story about a pair of hired killers. And (look out! We're going back to the 60s!) Little Big Man by Thomas Berger.


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## Alpha72 (May 9, 2012)

Thanks everyone.


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## Vukovina (Mar 30, 2012)

If you like Sergio Leone, or spaghetti westerns in general, and don't mind bizarro books and a foot fetish, Jordan Krall's _Fistful of Feet_ is a wild read.


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## J.L. McPherson (Mar 20, 2011)

Casper Parks said:


> Ralph Cotton is the best western author of our times...


No doubt about it, Casper. Ralph Cotton is brilliant. I just finished _Midnight Rider_, and it was fantastic. One of his best yet.


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## Casper Parks (May 1, 2011)

Jason L. McPherson said:


> No doubt about it, Casper. Ralph Cotton is brilliant. I just finished _Midnight Rider_, and it was fantastic. One of his best yet.


He is a very nice and down to earth.


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## raychensmith (Jul 11, 2012)

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.  A cowboy novel like no other.  Every cowboy is a homicidal, racist maniac, and there are only degrees of evil.  The protagonist--"the boy"--is pretty bad but the chief villain, the Judge, is truly horrific (I would say he's one of the best villains I've ever encountered in a book).  Without a doubt, the most violent book I've ever read (I still remember the guys hung upside down over a fire so their brains would boil inside their skulls!) and one of the most well-written.  It throws the entire cowboy mythology on its head!  And the ending in the outhouse is something else (don't worry, I'm not spoiling anything here)!


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## Steve Hockensmith (Nov 8, 2010)

If you're in the mood for something a little quirkier, I recommend Little Big Man by Thomas Berger or The Hawkline Monster by Richard Brautigan. Both are Westerns, but they're funny and fairly odd. (I don't think it's a coincidence that both were written in the '60s/'70s.) I'd recommend True Grit and the Westerns of Elmore Leonard, too, but other folks beat me to it. (Including Harry Shannon. Hi, Harry!)

Oh, what the heck -- I will recommend an Elmore Leonard Western. Valdez Is Coming is really, really good.

And thank you to The Hooded Claw for recommending *my* books!

-Steve


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## CaitLondon (Oct 12, 2010)

Todd Trumpet said:


> When you're done with the book (best Western I've ever read), pick up the miniseries on DVD (you can get it for less than $10 on Amazon Marketplace):
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## CaitLondon (Oct 12, 2010)

William Johnstone is really good.

Note: In the pulp western period a lot of popular lines were handled by writers for hire.  Johnstone wasn't a writer for hire, so far as I know. He wrote other things, too. He had that gentleman flair shared by Robert DuVall's role in Lonesome Dove.

If you are from the country in which a western is set and the details are wrong, it's a real turn-off.


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## J.L. McPherson (Mar 20, 2011)

This one of my favorite westerns. One I've read many times since I was a kid. Shalako is one of L'Amour's more gritty stories and some of my favorite passages come from this book. Anyway, thought I would share it.


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## Jonathan C. Gillespie (Aug 9, 2012)

I've had several family members recommend "Smonk", but I haven't gotten to it yet.


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## ColinJ (Jun 13, 2011)

ellenoc said:


> Robert B. Parker's Appaloosa series.


Those are terrific entertainment. Very quick, easy reads.

Parker will be missed.


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## Steven Lee Gilbert (Mar 21, 2012)

Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, anything by: Zane Grey, Louis L'amour. And if you're looking for something more contemporary try, The Sisters Brother.

My favorite westerns though: Cormac McCarthy's The Border Trilogy and Blood Meridian.

Finally, if you've never read Far Bright Star by Robert Olmstead, check it out. Not western in the sense of Zane Grey, but still a great story set during the same time in the same terrain.


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## lynnfromthesouth (Jun 21, 2012)

I was actually curious if there were many westerns with kinda an ornery sense of humor, like the movies about Wild Bill or Calamity Jane? Seems like Western themes could lend itself well to humor. 

Probably completely off the path, but I didn't have any interest in Westerns instead I read Brandon Sanderson's Alloy of Law. It's fantasy with a western theme and a big dose of humor. Then, I've also read Patricia Wrede's Frontier Magic series. Since, I've watched a few Western movies. Now I want to read non-fantasy Westerns with a bit of humor.


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## ColinJ (Jun 13, 2011)

LynnBlackmar said:


> I was actually curious if there were many westerns with kinda an ornery sense of humor, like the movies about Wild Bill or Calamity Jane? Seems like Western themes could lend itself well to humor.
> 
> Probably completely off the path, but I didn't have any interest in Westerns instead I read Brandon Sanderson's Alloy of Law. It's fantasy with a western theme and a big dose of humor. Then, I've also read Patricia Wrede's Frontier Magic series. Since, I've watched a few Western movies. Now I want to read non-fantasy Westerns with a bit of humor.


Robert E. Howard wrote some great western yarns. His 'Breckenridge Elkins' series is fun and humorous.


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## Andre Jute (Dec 18, 2010)

I remember the versatile Glendon Swarthout, with whom I once shared a London publisher; his novels THE SHOOTIST and THEY CAME TO CORDURA were a revelation to me. Other excellent (non-Western) thrillers too; a writer who did his research meticulously and insightfully; he told the West like it was.

And we shouldn't forget some grand novelists who wrote a single Western, like Richard Condon with his highly amusing 
A Talent for Loving; Or, the Great Cowboy Race

And this is the real stuff, a vintage reality show: The Life of John Wesley Hardin by John Wesley Hardin. He was the hardest, meanest man in Texas, which means the world. What was the name of the movie in which a man steps off a train, and like wildfire it spreads through the menacing gunfighters that _this is John Wesley Hardin_ -- and, poof, they disappear like tumbling tumbleweeds!


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## Craig Halloran (May 15, 2012)

I love westerns and I am ashamed to say I have never read a single western book.  All movies and Gunsmoke for me.  I'm glad I found this thread because I'd really like to read a good western.  I looked into True Grit, but didn't want to pay the price for an eBook.  

I think I might look for a cheap paperback of Meridian on Amazon.


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## FrankZubek (Aug 31, 2010)

I agree with the addition of The Shootist on this overall list

And if you get a chance to see the John Wayne film its a great way to spend an afternoon. It was Wayne's last film and you can't even tell that he was having trouble during filming


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## KBoards Admin (Nov 27, 2007)

Great advice, good people. Thanks! We've selected this thread for highlighting in our blog: 
http://www.kboards.blogspot.com/2012/08/real-reader-recommendations-westerns.html


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## Jackson Burnett (Jul 30, 2012)

Elmer Kelton's The Day the Cowboys Quit is a recommended Western. The Day the Cowboys Quit Desperado's by Ron Hansen is a favorite. It's a cinematic telling of the story of the Dalton Gang, but it's not on Kindle. I'm currently reading Phil Truman's Red Lands Outlaw, The Ballad of Henry Starr. Red Lands Outlaw: the Ballad of Henry Starr So far, very good.

Here's the Amazon link for Hansen's novel: http://www.amazon.com/Desperadoes-Ron-Hansen/dp/0060976985/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1345312607&sr=8-6&keywords=ron+hansen

Jackson Burnett


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## Linda Acaster (May 31, 2010)

I'll vote with someone earlier in the thread re "St. Agnes Stand" by Tom Eidson, but also put out a holler for "The Big Sky" by AB Guthrie - alas print only as far as I can tell. Would love it on my Kindle. It was the first Western novel that I thought "wow!".


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