Suggested Reading for Fiction Lovers
(Note: RC = Recorded Books; BR = Braille; DB = Digital Books)
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Fiction of the West
A Country Called Home by Kim Barnes
Driven by youthful idealism, Thomas Deracotte and his pregnant wife, Helen, leave upper-crust Connecticut for a utopian adventure in the Idaho wilderness, purchasing a dilapidated local farm and optimistically setting up housekeeping with the help of a local boy.
Platte River by Rick Bass (RC38751)
Three novellas--"Mahatma Joe," "Field Events," and "Platte River"--explore the relationship of humankind with the natural world and the struggles of the human heart in the context of nature and its wonders.
Three Novels by Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop: (RC15290, RC56535, BR14859, BR00816, DB15290, DB56535)
The archbishop in Santa Fe aids in the growth and development of the Southwest.
My Antonia: (RC13491, BR11320, DB13491)
Antonia works as a servant for her neighbors after her father's death, elopes, and then returns to marry a Bohemian farmer.
O Pioneers: (RC47646, RC17056)
Swedish farmer John Bergson's daughter Alexandra encourages the family members to help keep his dream alive after his death.
The Ox-Bow Incident by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
When cattle rustlers murder a citizen of Bridger's Gulch, others form a posse and illegally lynch them.
Shavetail by Thomas Cobb
Fleeing a shameful past, seventeen-year-old Ned Thorne joins the U.S. Army and, in 1871, is sent to the dangerous Arizona territories, where he joins his captain and a ragtag troop in the search for a missing woman supposedly kidnapped by the Apache.
The Floor of the Sky by Pamela Carter Joern (BR17158)
The inner worlds of characters isolated by geography and habit are revealed in a novel, set in the Nebraska Sandhills, about an aging widow on the verge of losing her family's ranch and her sixteen-year old pregnant granddaughter who visits her for the summer.
The Plain Sense of Things by Pamela Carter Joern
The interwoven stories of three generations of a western Nebraska family illuminate its resilience and dignity amid hardship and change, from a farm wife struggling to support her children in the wake of her husband's death, to the devastating tragedy of World War II, to a family grieving over a failing farmstead.
The God of Animals by Aryn Kyle
Based on the author's short story titled "The Foaling Season," the tale of rancher's daughter Alice Winston finds her helping to support the family business by boarding the horses of rich neighbors and leaving behind the innocence of her youth.
On the Night Plain by J. Robert Lennon (RC57072, DB57072)
Wracked by guilt over the death of his brother while fighting in World War II, Grant Person abandons his family's Montana ranch to pursue life as an Atlantic fisherman, until the death of his mother and the disappearance of his father draws him back home to accept his birthright as part of a hard-luck sheep-ranching family.
All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (RC34043)
At sixteen, John Grady Cole is forced to leave his old life behind him and sets off for Mexico with two companions on a journey of danger and self-discovery. This well-written coming-of-age story and exploration of the myth of the American West won the National Book Award for Fiction.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy (RC63028, BR10635, DB63028)
A 15-year-old runaway travels west and joins killers who have a contract for Apache scalps.
The Work of Wolves by Kent Meyers (RC630221, DB63021)
Carson Fielding is well respected for his ability to train horses, but after reluctantly agreeing to work for a wealthy rancher he despises, he finds his loathing supplanted by his growing desire for his employer's wife.
Sky Bridge by Laura Pritchett
A sister's promise to raise a child fathered out of wedlock turns her life upside down as she struggles to protect herself and the baby in the small town where they live.
Giants in the Earth: a saga of the prairie by Rølvaag, O. E. (1929)
Per Hansa and his wife come to the Dakota prairie from Norway, each having a different reaction to the open expanse of land.
In Open Spaces, The Watershed Years by Russell Rowland
The drowning death of rising baseball star George Arbuckle has a profound and devastating impact on the Arbuckles as they struggle to preserve their Montana ranch and their family in the face of tragedy.
The God of War by Marisa Silver
The year is 1978. Ares Ramirez, age 12, lives with his mother, Laurel, and his younger brother Malcolm in a trailer at the edge of the Salton Sea, an unintentionally man-made body of water in the middle of the Southern California desert. It is a desolate, forgotten place, whose inhabitants thrive amidst seemingly impossible circumstances. Ares' struggle with the burden of responsibility -- to himself and to others -- draws him into a world of drugs, violence, and sex that he is not prepared for, launching him into a very personal battle for his own identity, one that has a lethal outcome.
The Fruit of Stone by Mark Spragg (BR14836)
Presents the story of two men who follow the strange, fateful journey of one woman across the state of Wyoming.
An Unfinished Life by Mark Spragg (RC56246, DB56246)
Seeking to escape her brutal boyfriend and hoping to introduce her daughter, Griff, to the grandfather she has never met, widow Jean Gilkyson seeks refuge in her late husband's Wyoming hometown with her estranged father-in-law.
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner (RC54215, RC15186, DB54215, DB15186)
Susan and her engineer husband live rough lives in mining camps during the late 19th century, and their marriage cannot survive.
The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint by Brady Udall (BR14084)
Half-Apache orphan Edgar is taken from his home on an Arizona reservation after he is run over by a mailman, which sets in motion a journey from the hospital to a school for delinquents to a Mormon foster family and his eventual, unexpected return home.
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (RC66656, DB66656)
A tale reminiscent of "Hamlet" that also celebrates the alliance between humans and dogs follows speech-disabled Wisconsin youth Edgar, who bonds with three yearling canines and struggles to prove that his sinister uncle is responsible for his father's death.
The summaries were taken from NoveList, an EBSCO Research Database …available at your local library.
Resource Archive for past RARI selections