Just like it says on the tin. My father only reads western novels and has for years. Because of this, the local library is running out of books that he hasn't read.
His specifications are part of the issue. He doesn't like the intense cowboy-vs-Native fighting. He doesn't like super sappy romance. He doesn't like having to remember lots of names or dates. Ralph Compton and William Johnstone are some of his favorites.
He's (kind of) willing to branch out to other genres, but I'm not sure what to recommend. Any help is appreciated! No one else in my family likes westerns, so we don't know what to suggest. Thank you!
by intensitea
29 Comments
My grandfather, who would be 89 this year, recommended me *Buckaroo Heart* by Rick Steber not long before he died. Not my usual taste, but I really enjoyed it.
It’s a true cowboy story, and while it is definitely part love story, I wouldn’t call it “super sappy.” It’s an easy non-fiction read that takes place in Oregon in the 1930s-1960s. The book was charming and grounded, and I really felt connected to the characters and the land. I also sobbed my eyes out (though I am a big crier lol), so be prepared for that, I guess.
I’m assuming he’s already read Louis L’Amour and Zane Grey?
Here are some mystery/thriller series with western vibes:
The Joe Leaphorn/Jim Chee series by Tony Hillerman
The Joe Pickett series by CJ Box
The Longmire series by Craig Johnson
Some science fiction reads like westerns in space – do you think he would try that? I’m thinking in particular of some of the shorter “golden age” stuff Heinlein and others wrote, but there are also more modern space oper/space western books. Idk if your dad would think it’s too much of a stretch or not though
Is he willing to read ebooks? You could try getting him a non-resident card to a larger library for more westerns if so
The Cal Hooper series is kind of a modern Western, stranger comes to a rural town type story.
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie is fantasy/western
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones is horror/western
Has he read Elmer Kelton? Most of them are quick easy reads.
Last of The Breed by Louis L’Amor, fighter pilot who is half Native American gets shot down over Soviet Russia and has to escape a Siberian prison camp.
Larry McMurtry. Lonesome Dove series
Look into the Cork O’Conner series by William Kent Krueger. They’re private detective mysteries but includes a lot of plot around the Ojibwe people and Cork has a kind of old, dusty cowboy personal vibe. He’s a “disgraced” (not really but it feels that way) sheriff turned PI.
Maybe also the Leaphorn and Chee mysteries by Graham Roland. The main characters are members of the Navajo Police. Also the Netflix adaptation is fantastic.
Are you open to getting a non-resident library card (usually comes with a fee) at a nearby town? Is your dad or someone willing to drive to another library? Otherwise, the non-resident library card (and local card) grants access to audiobooks on the Libby app that your dad can listen to without needing to drive to the non-local library.
Most books by John Steinbeck, like Tortilla Flat, and Cannery Row, feel western-adjacent.
Shogun!
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
Whiskey When We’re Dry by Larison is excellent.
Less action, but Rick Bass’ novels are mostly set in the west and are beautiful with great characters.
The Sisters Brothers by deWitt
William Eastlake’s trilogy with The Bronc People is very good but might be out of print. I’m sure used copies are easy to come by.
McTeague by Norris is a classic
The Longmire mystery series if he hasn’t done that.
Also, the mystery series by Tony Hillerman
CJ Box’s Joe Pickett series is about a Wyoming game warden. Might be a good fit!
He might like the author Stephen Hunter. Stories revolve around a decorated WW2 sniper (and his son) trying to adjust to civilian life post war in rural Arkansas. Lots of guns. The first book is called Hot Springs. My fav was Pale Horse Coming.
My dad is a big only likes westerns and country music guy. He liked Old Man’s War.
Has he ever read anything by Elmer Kelton? His Ranger series consists of 9 books and covers about fifty years, the 1830s to 1880s.
Stand Proud is a great book that covers a guy’s life from when he was a young man during the Civil War to him being a rancher around the turn of the century.
Kelton has books that take place from the early 1800s all the way to the 1980s when they were written. He was the son & grandson of working cowboys and he worked for years as a stock reporter for the San Angelo, Texas newspaper.
In case you can’t tell, he’s probably my favorite author of all time.
And also I recommend “Incident at Big Sky” by Sheriff Johnny France & Malcolm McConnell
It’s about the abduction of an Olympic athlete in Montana in 1984 & the subsequent 5 month manhunt for the suspects, a father & son duo who literally lived in the remote & rugged mountains. The sheriff of the county that it took place in, Johnny France, literally arrested them completely by himself.
I love Longmire!
Nonfiction recommendation: Patriotic Treason by Evan Carton. Its biography of John Brown. He lived on the American frontier and moved from place to place. He was part of the Bloody Kansas period and then ultimately at Harpers Ferry. Super well written, reads almost like a narrative. There will be parts where it talks current political affairs of the time, mainly the issue of slavery. This books fires you up with a righteous zeal
The Dark Tower series by Steven King
Starts with The Gunslinger.
Stephen King’s Dark Tower series is kind of a western. There’s a gunslinger anyway.
Is he open to non-fiction? He might enjoy Killers of the Flower Moon.
American Hippo by Sarah Gailey is an alternative history where cowboys attempt ride hippos in the Mississippi delta. This failed and now a team has been assembled to do containment. It’s a fun adventure.
You’re getting good recommendations. I just wanted to add that you should see if his local library has an Inter-library loan system, where they can get books you request from other libraries for you to read. I use mine a lot, and they can get petty much anything. That’s not true of all libraries, but it’s worth asking. And may for his birthday get him a big box of used Westerns off E-bay by a author he hasn’t read very much. 🙂
There’s a series called Women Who Won the West, by Lee Davis Willoughby. That’s a pseudonym for a number of different writers, but I wrote one of them – Tempest of Tombstone. The central character is a highly fictionalized version of Josephine Marcus, who became Wyatt Earp’s fourth wife. You can probably find it, and others in the series, at a used book website like bookfinder.com.
Plainsong by haruf
The Dark Tower series is very western adjacent. The first one is a guy wandering the desert, the fourth is literally a western with magic, and the fifth is a take on the Magnificent Seven. He could start with number four (it’s a flashback to the MC’s youth, so okay to read out of order) and then tackle the rest of the series if he likes it
Has he read AB Guthrie books?
Big sky?
Those would be a great fit