western novels

In 2005, 50-year old Bernice Ende wanted to find out what kind of horsewoman she was, so she set out on a 5,000-mile ride.  Atop an 8-year old thoroughbred mare named Honor, Ende traveled from her home in Trego, Montana, to New Mexico.  Adorned in a broad-brimmed cowgirl hat and accompanied by her dog Claire,...

On August 2, 1972, a movie starring Steve “the King of Cool” McQueen entitled Junior Bonner premiered.  Directed by Academy Award nominee Sam Peckinpah, the film was about a veteran rodeo cowboy who stayed too long in the saddle, but still clung to the determination to succeed in the sport.  The screenplay was written by...

Rae DelBianco’s debut novel Rough Animals:  An American Western Thriller is equal parts charming, strange, unpredictable, and genuinely horrifying.  Wyatt Smith and his twin sister Lucy are the central figures in the gripping tale.  They live alone on a ranch in Utah where they tend to the cattle that serves as their income.  While out...

The Principles of Posse Management: Lessons from the Wild West for Today’s Leaders is a collection of tales that reveal what Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Bill Tilghman, and other legends of the Old West knew about leadership.  That’s a clever twist on the classic shoot-em-up, black-hats-vs-white-hats story. In nearly every Western film prior to 1950, you’ll...

What’s better than a good, old-fashioned murder mystery?  A famous cowgirl helping to solve a good, old-fashioned murder mystery.  That’s the premise of author Kari Bovee’s book Girl With A Gun.  When sharpshooter extraordinaire Annie Oakley’s Indian assistant is poisoned, she decides to investigate and find the culprit who took the life of the beloved...

Enjoy these romance novels that are perfect to read by the beach this summer. Texas Fierce by Janet Dailey (Kensington) He came home to sell his family’s failing ranch, but once twenty-year-old Bull Tyler sets foot on the Rimrock, he’s determined to tame the rugged land and make it his own. Then Bull sets eyes on...

If your thirst for knowledge equals you thirst for spirits, then the book by authors Sherry Monahan and Jane Perkins entitled The Golden Elixir of the West:  Whiskey and the Shaping of America is the perfect read.  The golden elixirs that were made in copper stills by emigrants and served in saloons and dance halls...

Long before the screen placed the face of Mary Pickford before the eyes of millions of Americans, this girl, born August 13, 1860, as Phoebe Anne Oakley Moses, had won the right to the title of “America’s Sweetheart.” Having grown up learning to shoot game to help support her family, Annie won first prize and...