Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey (Studies in the Life of Women)

Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey (Studies in the Life of Women)

by Lillian Schlissel

An expanded edition of one of the most original and provocative works of American history of the last decade, which documents the pioneering experiences and grit of American frontier women.

The Buckskin Line (Texas Rangers)

When his adoptive father is bushwhacked and killed in Texas in 1861, Rusty Shannon rides to fort Belknap on the Brazos River and joins the Texas Rangers. Mike Shannon's death haunts him; he owed his life to Mike, who rescued him from a Comanche War party when he was a child, and rusty thinks he knows the killer's identity. With Texas now in the throes of secession, Union sympathizers are regarded as traitors and... (more)

Upstairs Girls: Prostitution In The American West

Upstairs Girls: Prostitution In The American West

by Michael Rutter

By The Great Horn Spoon

by Sid Fleischman

It is 1849 and Jack Flagg stows away on a ship headed for the California gold fields where he plans to recoup his Auntie Arabella's fortune.

High Country Bride (McKettrick Cowboys Trilogy)

McKettrick

High Country Bride (McKettrick Cowboys Trilogy)

by Linda Lael Miller

One ranch. Three sons. Only one will inherit...and on one condition. Tired of waiting for his sons to settle down, Arizona-territory rancher Angus McKettrick announces a competition: the first son to marry and produce a grandchild will inherit Triple M ranch. Now, three distinctly different, equally determined cowboys are searching high and low for brides. If Emmeline Harding knows one thing, it's that she... (more)

Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends

Inventing Wyatt Earp: His Life and Many Legends

by Allen Barra

The gunfight at the OK Corrall was merely on e incident in the life of the most remarkable figure of the American West. In his 82 years, Earp was a buffalo hunter, d etective, prospector, saloon keeper and finally an advisor o n Hollywood Westerns. '

Desperadoes

by Ron Hansen

At age 65, Emmett Dalton, the sole survivor of the infamous Dalton gang makes a living by selling his outrageous adventure stories to Hollywood. Desperadoes details his memories of the murders, bootlegging and thievery he and his posse committed. The grit and excitement of these violent times are expertly evoked by the sharp pen and authentic voice of HarperCollins' bestselling author Ron Hansen.

The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West

The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West

by Patricia Nelson Limerick

"Limerick is one of the most engaging historians writing today." --Richard White The "settling" of the American West has been perceived throughout the world as a series of quaint, violent, and romantic adventures. But in fact, Patricia Nelson Limerick argues, the West has a history grounded primarily in economic reality; in hardheaded questions of profit, loss, competition, and consolidation. Here she... (more)

Faith and Betrayal: A Pioneer Woman's Passage in the American West

Faith and Betrayal: A Pioneer Woman's Passage in the American West

by Sally Denton

In the 1850s, Jean Rio, a deeply spiritual widow, was moved by the promises of Mormon missionaries and set out from England for Utah. Traveling across the Atlantic by steamer, up the Mississippi by riverboat, and westward by wagon, Rio kept a detailed diary of her extraordinary journey. In Faith and Betrayal , Sally Denton, an award-winning journalist and Rio’s great-great-granddaughter, uses the long-lost diary... (more)

The American West

by Dee Alexander Brown

The American West centers on three subjects: Native Americans, settlers, and ranchers. Dee Brown re-creates these groups struggles for their place in this new landscape and illuminates the history of the old West in a single volume, filled with maps and vintage photographs. In his spirited telling of this national saga, Brown demonstrates once again his abilities as a master storyteller and as an entertaining... (more)

The Outlaws of Mesquite

by Louis L'Amour

Ten classic short stories of the old West by the premier writer of Western fiction.

Tucket Adventures

Call Me Francis Tucket

by Gary Paulsen

Alone. Francis Tucket now feels more confident that he can handle almost anything. A year ago, on the wagon train, he was kidnapped from his family by a Pawnee hunting party. Then he escaped with the help of the mountain man, Mr. Grimes. Now that he and Mr. Grimes have parted ways, Francis is heading west on his Indian pony, crossing the endless prairie, trying to find his family. After a year with Mr. Grimes,... (more)

Billy the Kid: The Endless Ride

by Michael Wallis

From the best-selling author of Route 66 comes this long-awaited biography of one of America’s most legendary folk heroes. Award-winning historian Michael Wallis has spent several years re-creating the rich, anecdotal saga of Billy the Kid (1859–1881), a deeply mythologized young man who became a legend in his own time and yet remains an enigma to this day. With the Gilded Age in full swing and the ... (more)

The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West

The Harvey Girls: Women Who Opened the West

by Lesley Poling-Kempes

Interviews, historical research, and photos recreate the Harvey Girl experience of women who came to the west to work as waitresses, but many stayed and settled, founding cattle and mining towns.

Hummingbird

by Lavryle Spencer

A bandit and a gentleman both vie for the heart of pretty Abigail McKenzie--and force her to make a choice that no woman should ever have to make... This New York Times Bestselling Author... "will leave you breathless!" ( Affaire de Coeur ) "An enthralling book, with a love story as feisty and romantic as a Tracy/Hepburn movie."--Lisa Gregory "Bawdy, witty, touching, delightful."--Francine Rivers

The Tall Stranger

by Louis L'Amour

Rock Bannon rode a steel-dust stallion that was as stubborn and leather-tough as he was. Scouting for a wagon train full of high hopes, Rock saved the Eastern-bred settlers from a brutal Indian attack. But they paid him back with scorn when he advised against following a fast-talker named Morton Harper. Rock Bannon followed no man, so he left the settlers to their promised milk and honey--until they realized their... (more)

Doc Holliday: The Life and Legend

by Gary L. Roberts

Acclaim for Doc Holliday "Splendid . . . not only the most readable yet definitive study of Holliday yet published, it is one of the best biographies of nineteenth-century Western 'good-bad men' to appear in the last twenty years. It was so vivid and gripping that I read it twice." --Howard R. Lamar, Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University, and author of The New Encyclopedia of... (more)

Haunted Mesa Louis Lamour Collection

by Louis L'Amour

Chronicles the fate of the Anasazi, a race of pre-Navajo cliff dwellers who inhabited the ancient American Southwest and who vanished from the region centuries before the coming of white explorers. Reissue.

The Whistling Season

by Ivan Doig

"Can’t cook but doesn’t bite." So begins the ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper" that draws the attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. And so also begins the unforgettable season that deposits the noncooking, nonbiting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her font-of-knowledge brother, Morris Morgan, in Marias Coulee, Montana. When the schoolmarm runs off with an itinerant preacher,... (more)

Texasville

by Larry McMurtry

With Texasville, Larry McMurtry returns to the unforgettable Texas town and characters of one of his best-loved books, The Last Picture Show. This is a Texas-sized story brimming with home truths of the heart, and men and women we recognize, believe in, and care about deeply. Set in the post-oil-boom 1980s, Texasville brings us up to date with Duane, who's got an adoring dog, a sassy wife, a... (more)

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Browse Subjects: american west

Top Books

by Lillian Schlissel

by Elmer Kelton

by Michael Rutter

by Sid Fleischman

by Linda Lael Miller

by Allen Barra

by Ron Hansen

by Patricia Nelson Limerick

by Sally Denton

by Dee Alexander Brown

by Louis L'Amour

by Gary Paulsen

by Michael Wallis

by Lesley Poling-Kempes

by Lavryle Spencer

by Louis L'Amour

by Gary L. Roberts

by Louis L'Amour

by Ivan Doig

by Larry McMurtry