So, here are my ten favorite novels set in the Old West. All titles are linked to my reviews, unless I haven't reviewed that book yet. Yes, one selection is a trilogy, but it didn't seem fair to have only one of the books here, or have the books take up three slots, so I put them all together.
1. Shane by Jack Schaefer -- A lone gunman befriends a struggling family and saves a town, but at great cost.
2. Borden Chantry by Louis L'Amour -- An amateur lawman solves a series of killings to protect his town.
3. The Knights of Tin and Lead trilogy by Emily Hayse (These War-Torn Hands, The Beautiful Ones, In the Glorious Fields) -- The King Arthur legend retold as gently magical westerns.
4. The Light of Western Stars by Zane Grey -- A woman goes west and figures out who she really is inside while experiencing a series of adventures and meeting a variety of interesting characters.
5. True Grit by Charles Portis -- A teenage girl insists on accompanying a U. S. Marshal on the quest to bring her father's murderer to justice.
6. The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCulley -- A dashing aristocrat fights injustice and tyranny from behind two different disguises.
7. Sixteen Brides by Stephanie Grace Whitson -- Sixteen women go west to claim their own homesteads, start businesses, and/or get married.
8. Hondo by Louis L'Amour -- A Cavalry scout physically saves a family on a remote homestead, and they save him emotionally.
9. The Virginian by Owen Wister -- A frontier school teacher tries really hard not to fall in love with a nameless hero who saves her from a series of mishaps and disasters and calamities.
10. A Sidekick's Tale by Elisabeth Grace Foley -- A young woman tries to save her family's ranch by entering into a marriage of convenience, but comic mishaps keep derailing her plans.
Wow, you’re brave!
ReplyDeleteI’m going to assume that it would be okay to bring medication from our world on the journey as I have a couple of them that I really need to take on specific schedules for health reasons. If that was allowed, I’d love to see the old west for a little while, too. :)
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-set-in-a-place-id-love-to-visit/
Lydia, well, I have been researching this era for the past twenty-some years and I feel like I could handle it ;-) But I would probably like to tuck a bottle of Allegra in my pocket, and maybe some Tylenol too.
DeleteI'd love to live in the Western Territory, hanging out with Emily's characters. <333
ReplyDeleteI put a hold on Sixteen Brides at the library!
Eva, yeah, especially if I could hang out around a certain sharpshooter by the name of Selby...
DeleteI hope you find Sixteen Brides to be as fun as I do!
I love reading books set in the Old West, but I wouldn't want to visit there! I'm really not the roughin' it type! Ha ha.
ReplyDeleteHappy TTT!
Susan, that is totally fair! I love mysteries, but I wouldn't want to live inside one ;-)
DeleteI like how you rounded up all your books to cover one place. Great idea! I think I'd like to travel back to the Old West, too -- to the time of homesteading; but like you, I don't know if I'd cut it. LOL! I thought I'd see Letters of a Woman Homesteader on your list. And the only one I've started to read was The Virginian, and I need to finish it.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Ruth! It was a fun way to play with the prompt.
DeleteI focused this list on novels, so that's why Letters wasn't here. Maybe I can do a list of nonfiction set in the Old West one day!
Ah, got it.
DeleteI had no idea Shane the movie was based on a book - might have to check that out!
ReplyDeleteI doubt I would survive in the Old West, but it would be interesting to visit for a day! I like the sound of A Sidekick's Tale :)
ReplyDeleteRose, A Sidekick's Tale is really fun! I often recommend it.
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