Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

In this sweeping adventure story, Stephen E. Ambrose, the bestselling author od D-Day, presents the definitive account of one of the most momentous journeys in American history. Ambrose follows the Lewis and Clark Expedition from Thomas Jefferson's hope of finding a waterway to the Pacific, through the heart-stopping moments of the actual trip, to Lewis's lonely demise on the Natchez Trace. Along the way,... (more)

Lonesome Dove

by Larry McMurtry

Bestselling winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize, Lonesome Dove is an American classic. First published in 1985, Larry McMurtry's epic novel combined flawless writing with a storyline and setting that gripped the popular imagination, and ultimately resulted in a series of four novels and an Emmy-winning television miniseries. Now, with an introduction by the author, Lonesome Dove is reprinted in an S&S... (more)

Comanche Moon (Lonesome Dove)

by Larry McMurtry

THE NATIONAL BESTSELLER The second book of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove tetralogy, Comache Moon takes us once again into the world of the American West. Texas Rangers August McCrae and Woodrow Call, now in their middle years, continue to deal with the ever-increasing tensions of adult life -- Gus with his great love, Clara Forsythe, and Call with Maggie Tilton, the young whore who loves him. Two proud... (more)

Blood and Thunder

An Epic of the American West

by Hampton Sides

Praise for Blood and Thunder “Kit Carson’s role in the conquest of the Navajo during and after the Civil War remains one of the most dramatic and significant episodes in the history of the American West. Hampton Sides portrays Carson in the larger context of the conquest of the entire West, including his frequent and often lethal encounters with hostile Native Americans. Unusually, Sides gives full voice to... (more)

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton: A Novel (Ballantine Reader's Circle)

by Jane Smiley

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Thousand Acres "Rousing . . . Action-packed . . . A gripping story about love, fortitude, and convictions that are worth fighting for." -- Los Angeles Times A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK "POWERFUL . . . Smiley takes us back to Kansas in 1855, a place of rising passions and vast uncertainties. Narrated in the spirited,... (more)

Gone the Dreams and Dancing

by Douglas C. Jones

Follows the adventures of Kwahadi, a Comanche chief desperately trying to save his people, and Liverpool Morgan, a tough and tender white man who struggles to understand the old ways while helping the tribe's transition. Reprint.

Great Plains

by Ian Frazier

National Bestseller With his unique blend of intrepidity, tongue-in-cheek humor, and wide-eyed wonder, Ian Frazier takes us on a journey of more than 25,000 miles up and down and across the vast and myth-inspiring Great Plains . A travelogue, a work of scholarship, and a western adventure, Great Plains takes us from the site of Sitting Bull’s cabin, to an abandoned house once terrorized by Bonnie and Clyde,... (more)

The Snowblind Moon (Dreams)

by John Bryne Cooke

On a remote cattle ranch in a peaceful Wyoming valley, in the hushed villages of beleaguered Indian tribes, among the government troops advancing through the bitter winter landscape, the time of the Snowblind Moon heralds the beginning of an apocalyptic clash between the Indians and the whites. And caught up in the tragedy are the men and women of the West, passionately committed to peace, seemingly helpless to... (more)

Journey of the Dead

by Loren D. Estleman

One of the men in this novel is an ancient Spanish alchemist, searching for the philopher's stone, looking for the secrets of the old gods. The other is Pat Garrett, still haunted by the friend he killed, Billy the Kid. Together they journey through time and history searching for answers.

The Real Wild West: The Mother Road 75th Anniversary Edition

The Real Wild West: The Mother Road 75th Anniversary Edition

by Michael Wallis

Winner of the Western Heritage Award from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame Oklahoma Book Award from the Oklahoma Center for the Book Spur Award from the Western Writers of America.

The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer (G K Hall Large Print Book Series)

by Douglas C. Jones

Suppose that George Armstrong Custer did not die at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Suppose that, instead, he was found close to death at the scene of the defeat and was brought to trial for his actions. With a masterful blend of fact and fiction, The Court-Martial of George Armstrong Custer tells us what might have happened at that trial as it brings to life the most exciting period in the history of the American... (more)

Perma Red

by Debra Magpie Earling

Louise White Elk dreams of both belonging and escape, and of discovering love and freedom on her own terms. But she is a red-haired, tough, and beautiful temptation, and at least three men, each more dangerous than the other, want to control and possess her: Police Officer Charlie Kicking Woman, who struggles between worlds; charismatic but scary Baptiste, who refuses to yield to anyone; and Harvey Stoner, who... (more)

The Time It Never Rained

by Elmer Kelton

To the ranchers and farmers of 1950s Texas, man's biggest enemy is one he can't control. With their entire livelihood pegged on the chance of a wet year or a dry year, drought has the ability to crush their whole enterprise, to determine who stands and who falls, and to take food out of the mouths of the workers and their families. To Charlie Flagg, an honest, decent, and cantankerous rancher, the drought of the... (more)

Aces and Eights

by Loren D. Estleman

Dead Man's Hand No one paid any mind to Jack McCall as he unloaded a .44 caliber slug into Wild Bill Hickok's brain at point-blank range. Deadwood's legendary gunslinging marshal was dead, holding a poker hand of aces and eights, a dead man's hand. The question the law wanted to know: was McCall a hired killer or did he kill Hickok to avenge his brother's death?

Panther in the Sky

by James Alexander Thom

"Thom shows how, in honest, capable hands, fictionalized biography can add verisimilitude to the life and times of this extraordinary America....The dialogue has the ring of reality about it....Thom is able to get into the thoughts and emotions of his characters...." DEE BROWN LOS ANGELES TIMES Rich, colorful and bursting with excitment, this remarkable story turns James Alexander Thom's power and passion for... (more)

Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed

Custer's Last Campaign: Mitch Boyer and the Little Bighorn Reconstructed

by John S. Gray

"Gray challenges many time-honored beliefs about the battle . . . (and) brings in as much as possible the testimony of the Indian witnesses . . . which generations of historians have dismissed. . . . The contrasts in (this) book . . . reinstate the basic components of what still attracts the imagination to the Little Big Horn."--Los Angeles Times Book Review.

The Day the Cowboys Quit

by Elmer Kelton

The time is 1883,the place is the Texas Panhandle. Cowboys refuse to be stigmatized as drinkers and exploited by the wealthy cattle owners who don't pay liveable wages. Those very same ranchers want to take away the cowboys' right to own cattle because this ownership, the ranchers believe, would lead to thieving. So, in 1883, the dictum is set: If you're a cowboy, you can't own a cow. When rumors of such... (more)

Slaughter

by Elmer Kelton

Although Crow Feather and his Comanche tribe rule the southern plains, Confederate veteran Jeff Layne and his party of desperate hide seekers, traveling from Dodge City, refuse to be turned back from their trek. Reprint. NYT.

The Far Canyon

by Elmer Kelton

Wanting a quiet life as a Texas rancher after years of fighting, Confederate veteran Jeff Layne is pursued by Comanche warrior Crow Feather, who refuses to surrender to the U.S. Army that is forcing his people toward reservation life. Reprint. K.

Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries

Cowboy Culture: A Saga of Five Centuries

by David Dary

A nationwide bestseller--with more than 65,000 copies in print since publication by Alfred A. Knopf in 1981, this fascinating chronicle of cowboy life and legend is now available in a trade paperback edition. It's the 500-year saga of the "real cowboy"--from fifteenth-century Mexico to the twentieth-century American West.

Shelfari Book Activity

Tags: spur award

Meriwether Lewis Thomas Jefferson and the Opening of the American West

by Stephen Ambrose

by Larry McMurtry

by Larry McMurtry

An Epic of the American West

by Hampton Sides

by Jane Smiley

by Douglas C. Jones

by Ian Frazier

by John Bryne Cooke

by Loren D. Estleman

by Michael Wallis

by Douglas C. Jones

by Debra Magpie Earling

by Elmer Kelton

by Loren D. Estleman

by James Alexander Thom

by John S. Gray

by Elmer Kelton

by Elmer Kelton

by Elmer Kelton

by David Dary