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| This bibliography was compiled by the members of the Adult Reading Round Table Steering Committee. |
- Shortgrass Song (1994)
Blakely, Mike
- Youngest of three brothers, and fiercely protected by his anxious mohte, Caleb Holcomb turns to music, mastering the fiddle, banjo, and harmonica under the instruction of his father's Negro ranch manager. Generous-spirited Buster Johnson, an escaped slave, becomes a surrogate father to Caleb when his mother is killed and his father blames the innocent boy. This estrangement drives Caleb away from the ranch as a young man to drift along trail rides, trapping expeditions, and through peace and war with the Arapaho and Comanche tribes. Wherever he goes, his music brings him temporary friendship and applause, but the longing for home drives him to return every year to Holcomb Ranch, trying to make peace with his father. An engaging portrait of an alternately charismatic and shy young man coming of age in the 1860's, paired with details of the cowboy's daily life. (RJ)
- Stone Song: A Novel of the Life of Crazy Horse (1995)
Blevins, Wiin
- The complex story of the life of Crazy Horse. Scorned because of his pale skin and light curly hair, Crazy Horse ultimately leads his people to victory in many battles, the most famous being at Greasy Grass (known to many readers as Little Big Horn). Blevin's fictionalized account of Crazy Horse's life explores his deep connection with his spirit, Hawk, and how this guides him. Strong character development and historical content for those interested in Native Americans and the effect ot the "white man" on their cultures. (PL)
- Lily (1992)
Bonner, Cindy
- It's frontier Texas and fifteen-year-old Lily is caught in the middle- she's old enough to keep house for her widowed father, take care of her younger siblings and work in the fields, but she's too young for boyfriends. When she falls madly in love with Marion, brother of the outlaw Beatty Boys, her father and the respectable townsfolk are shocked, forcing her to decide between respectability and love. (VM)
- Death Comes for the Archbishop (1927)
Cather, Willa
- This classic novel is set in the American Southwest in the middle of the 19th century. Two French missionaries, the sophisticated Jean Marie Latour, newly appointed Vicar of New Mexico, and his friend, the feisty byt fragile Father Joseph Vaillant, travel to an area with over 30 different tribes of Indians and Mexicans who are clining to the rudimentary faith instilled in them 300 years ago by intrepid Franciscan missionaries. It will be a journey for life for these two men as they fight the elements, meet people they will cherish, bring peace and dignity to the inhabitants, and build a presence for the Church, while accommodating the various native cultures. (RN)
- The Trail of the Spanish Bit (1980)
Coldsmith, Don
- Deftly blending elements of family saga and adventure story, this first installment in an ongoing series introduces the Elk-Dog People, a tribe of Great Plains Indians who owe their special talents in part to their chance encounter with Juan Garcia, (renamed Heads Off), a young Spanish officer whose riding mishap forces him to join the tribe for protection, and later for companionship, mutual respect and kinship. Beautifully written, with reverence for the ways of the People, this book explores the shared experiences of seemingly diverse cultures while telling a captivating story. (DW)
- Redeye (1995)
Edgerton, Clyde
- Edgerton, known for his unique novels set in rural North Carolina, shifts his focus to the American West. Set in Colorado at the turn of the century, the plot is based on a historical incident. (In 1857, Mormons attacked a wagon train of pioneers near Salt Lake City.) With a sharp eye for detail and a dark and unusual sense of humor, Edgerton puts his own spin on the tale. A mute grandmother; an anthropologist and his mummy; a Mormon bishop and his wives; a philosopher Indian; and a crazy bounty hunter and his talking pit bull. Redeye, are just a few among his colorful cast of characters. (MCB)
- The Big Sky (1947)
Guthrie, A. B. Jr.
- Boone Caudill's journey west, begun in 1830, transforms a young man into a mountain man in this detailed, realistic adventure of the land west of the Missouri River and the white men and Indians who explored and settled it. First in the Big Sky series. (JS)
- The Gates of the Alamo (2000)
Harrigan, Stephen
- In 1911, 91- year old Terrell Mott participates in San Antonio's Battle of the Flowers parade and remembers his defense of the Alamo when he was 16. In 1835, Terrell and his mother Mary worked their frontier inn near the Gulf Coast. There they met Edmund McGowan, an American botanist commisssioned by the Mexican government to survey the plant life of Texas, rebel William Travis, and Texas leader Sam Houston. Pursuing his emotionally distressed girlfriend, Terrell ends up in San Antonio at the Alamo, as Santa Anna attacks the mission. As the battle rages and the Alamo defenders are killed, the lives of the Americans and Mexicans who are involved are inexorable changed in this panoramic retelling of the battle of the Alamo that blends fictional and real characters. (MJ)
- The Gates of the Mountains (1963)
Henry, Will
- President Jefferson appoints Lewis and Clark to explore the 1803 Louisiana Purchase land, map the area, and stake America's claim. This is the adventure-filled story of that expedition, from its base near St. Louis, via the Missouri River by keelboat and canoe more than 2,000 miles to the Rocky Mountains. Told by a young French-Canadian boatman, Francois Rivet, the story gives a vivid account of the daily hardships in an unknown country, the life or death suspense of meeting with hostile chiefs and battling Indians, and the role played by Sacajawea. (DB)
- Railroad Schemes (1997)
Holland, Cecelia
- Lily Viner, avid reader, longs for the civilized world of Jane Austen. Instead Lily tramps across the West in the wake of her father, a petty thief. When a stage robbery in Virginia City goes bad and her father is killed, Lily is forced by ruthless outlaw King Callahan to go with him to the Mexican-American city of Los Angeles. Eventually, Lily feels that she has a home there and begins to settle in, but when Brand, the dogged Southern Pacific Railroad agent from the Nevada stagecoach robbery shows up. Lily's life is once again thrown into turmoil. (DW)
- Snow Mountain Passage (2000)
Lansdale, Joe R.
- Jim Melghue and his Army buddy Bob Bucklaw are half-heartedly mining for gold in the Rockies when they get a better offer: stick up a train and collect gold the easy way. But the robber goes sour, and the stylish leader of the gang, a former Confederate officer, murders his cohorts and leaves Jim for dead. Nursed back to health by one of the last mountain men, Liver-Eatin' Johnston, Jim is temporarily joined on his quest for revenge by an outcast Crow warrior, a claim jumper named Honest Roy, and Wild Bill Hickock. Beautifully illustrated with pen and ink drawings, this "lost Lansdale" blends a classic shoot-em' up with historical characters and places for a memorable read in the L'Amour tradition (RJ)
- Seize the Sky (1991)
Johnston, Terry C.
- Part of the Son of the Plains trilogy, this beautifully written fictional account relates George Armstrong Custer's attempt to end the Indian Wars. Set in 1870's Montana. Civil War hero General Custer and his Seventh Cavalry attack a Sioux village on the Little Bighorn- unaware that Custer's Cheyenne mistress and their child are in the village at the time of the attack. Brimming with historical characters, this novel captures the events with incredible detail from both sides of the battlefield. (BK)
- Season of Yellow Leaf (1983)
Jones, Douglas C.
- The world of the Comanche is presented in vivid and authentic detail in this harrowing story of a ten-year old white girl captured by an Indian war party in 1838 and raised by the tribe to become a wife and mother. Time passes, and the girl, now renamed Chosen, adjusts to her strange new life. But at some point, will her own people come to reclaim her? (TB)
- Deadville (1998)
Jones, Robert F.
- Dillon and Owen Griffith seek their fortunes in the 1800's West. Owen's passion for gold leads them to tragedy and costs Owen his freedom, and that of his love, Pine Leaf, who is sold to the Apaches. When the brothers meet again, Owen is obsessed with revenge of the man who stole his mine and will do anything, including taking Kellon's son, for vengeance. Told from Dillon's melancholy perspective as he looks back on the passing of the Old West, this story is filled with vivid descriptions of the landscape and the characters range from real historic figures, to mountain men, to Native Americans. A plot with plenty of action, descriptions of scalpings, massacres, ambushes and shoot-outs. (JH)
- Cache Canon (1998)
Paine, Lauran
- An old legend holds that Spanish conquistadors buried a treasure chest of gold long ago, way above Rock City in the Colorado highlands. Cache Canon, as the region is called, may also be the hideout of several renegade Indians who steal cattle from the ranch of Frank and his hotheaded brother Judah P. Terwilliger. When three strangers come to Cache Canon to survey land for a railroad, murder and robbery ensue. Up until the arrival of the surveyors, local Constable Charley Bent has enjoyed the peace and quiet of this thriving little town. Now the townspeople and ranchers are frightened for their lives and cattle, and they despise the idea of a railroad coming through their town. They prevail upon their laconic peace officer to bring a posse into the highlands, where what they discover is a bit more than was expected. (MC)
- The Winter Wolf (1996)
Parry, Richard
- For Wyatt Earp, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a turning point. He left the Old West to find a new, quieter life for himself and his wife Josie in Alaska. One young man, however, would not let Earp forget. Nathan Blaylock is the son Earp never knew he had. Mattie Blaylock had been common-law-wife to Earp in those days in Tombstone, but addiction to laudanum and her turn to prostitution drove Earp away before Mattie could tell him a baby was coming. Nothan spent most of his life in an orphanage and has just learned of his inheritance: $20,000, but first he must kill Wyatt Earp. (JE)
- Prophet Annie: Being the Recently Discovered Memoir of Annie Pinkerton Boone Newcastle Dearborn, Prophet and Seer (1999)
Recknor, Ellen
- In 1881, 22 year-old Annie Pinkerton leaves Iowa to marry Arizona millionaire Jonas Newcastle. Annie finds herself suddenly widowed when her 76 year-old groom drops dead on their honeymoon. Unwilling to leave such a pretty young bride, Jonas lingers, speaking through Annie to predict the future- from flying machines to the importance of Echinacea. Annie joins P.T. Barnum's circus, with Navajo chef (yes, chef) chaperone and tame African cheetah in tow. She puts on a good public show, but in private she battles diving birds, a lecherous dead husband, and a lobster-armed kidnapper. When a dangerously good-looking outlaw catches her eye, Annie and the late Mr. Newcastle disagree on how a "widow" ought to be wooed. (KK)
- Against All Odds: The Lucy Scott Mitchum Story (1997 )
Riefe, Barbara
- Lucy and Noah Mitchum, with their young daughter Lynette, join a small group of emigrants heading west by wagon train in 1849. Noah, enthusiastic about the move, hones his survival skills as Lucy, less enthusiastic but supportive, holds the family together as the small group faces danger and hardships which only increase for the Mitchums as they split from the rest of the group and head to the Sacramento Valley and the Gold Rush. The wrench of leaving family, friends, and possessions, and the hardships faced along the trail- weather, rattlesnakes, lack of water, dust, and Indians- are vividly described. (SO)
- Sierra: A Novel of the California Gold Rush (1996)
Wheeler, Richard S.
- It takes sturdy individuals to survive on the American frontier. This narrative follows the adventures of two such yourn men, one an Iowa farmer seeking gold, the other a soldier who joined the aarmy for a plot of land in California. Wheeler uses a mix of historical persons and fully realized fictional characters, as well as vivid descriiptions of the brutal conditions on the westward trails and in the gold mining camps and details of early settlement in California to protray this exciting period in American history. (MLM)
- The Train to Estelline (1987)
Wood, Jane Roberts
- Schoolteacher, Lucinda Eliza Richards has always longed for adventure. On August 17, 1911, she begins her journey to be the new schoolteacher in small town Estelline, Texas. Written in epistolary form, Lucinda pours out her heart and experiences as she encounters poverty, generosity, racism, chauvinism, and respect. She learns the value of friendship and grows to have a deeper understanding of the small community in which she lives. (DH)
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