I’m really interested in reading books with desert settings this year. They can be anything desert related, but bonus points for the American Southwest. Can be fiction or non. If you have any critique of any of the entries on my list below I am open to that feedback! Only criteria is that I want a significant portion of the book to take place in the desert.
Currently reading: Animal Dreams by Kingsolver
Already Read: Dune books, Monkey Wrench Gang, Desert Solitaire, Fire on the Mountain
Possible options on the list: The Bean Trees, The Little Prince, The Alchemist, The Gunslinger, No Country for Old Men, Blood Meridian, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Death Comes for the Arch Bishop, The Martian Chronicles, The Martian, In a Sunburned Country, Bird on Fire
by Chapelhillperson
12 Comments
For a classic, Beau Geste by P. C. Wren
Law of the desert born by Louis l’amour.
The Sand series by Hugh Howey.
Inland by Téa Obreht
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Refuge by Terry Tempest Williams
The Joe Leaphorn mysteries by Tony Hillerman
House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer
Everett Ruess: A Vagabond for Beauty & Wilderness Journals by W.L. Rusho and
Everett Ruess
The Secret Knowledge of Water by Craig Childs
The Milagro Beanfield War, by John Nichols
The Lost Man by Jane Harper might be of interest (it’s mainly set on a station in the Australian Outback)
Edward Abbey is your guy here. Desert Solitaire, The Monkey wrench Gang, and others are very much desert set.
For nonfiction, The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea is set in the Sonoran desert
A graphic novel: Jim Henson’s Tale of Sand
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Death Valley by Melissa Broder is fantastic
Cadillac Desert
Snake Eater by T Kingfisher meets your description. It came out in December.