Anyone Have Any Westerns To Recommend?

[redbrunja]

Can anyone rec me good/enjoyable westerns (book-westerns not movie-westerns), ideally with strong female characters?

Comments

[hungrytiger11.livejournal.com]

Shane (both the book and movie) is suppose to be a perfect example of the Western Myth ( The" we must be violent/wild to create civilization but civilization can't be violent/wild" paradox). It might be worth a look though it does not have a strong female.

If you want biographies on strong female pioneers, I'd suggest looking at Ester Morris and Ella Watson (popularly misremembered today as "Cattle Kate").

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I think I actually read Shane a long, long time ago.

And I'll check out those ladies you mentioned.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I've never read the book, but if by some chance you haven't seen the movie, it's worth watching just to see how blatantly they're riffing on it in "Zuko Alone". ;)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Noted.

[sureasdawn.livejournal.com]

It's kind of a fantasy pseudo-western, but the Sharing Knife series by Lois Bujold is pretty good.

ETA:

Also, adding by recommendation not actually having read:

<http://search.barnesandnoble.com/these-is-my-words/nancy-turner/e/9780061458033/>These Is My Words, by Nancy Turner

Some other critically acclaimed female western writers you might want to check out - Barbara Kingsolver, Willa Cather and Annie Proulx.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've read the Sharing Knife series. Or at leas the first two books.

And These Is My Words sound quite interesting - I've put it on hold at the library.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I can't vouch for them directly myself, but Louis L'Amour is supposed to have quite a few strong female characters -- rachelmanija reviews one such title and gathers recs for more here (http://rachelmanija.livejournal.com/573882.html).

[iapetusneume.livejournal.com]

You beat me to Louis L'Amour. However, he did write a TON of stuff, so a guide would be helpful in that.

I do know that the short story "Riding for the Brand" has a wonderful female lead. It's one of my favorites by him.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

On my wishlist!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

And I did manage to snag one from book mooch.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Wishlist anything else that sounds good in the recs, I'd be surprised if more don't cycle through BookMooch pretty frequently.

(And you should friend me there, since I do swap away manga occasionally and that'd make it easier to see if you're looking for any of my old titles and reserve them for you!)

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I just friended you!

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

WOOT!

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Interestingly enough, I have read that very book she is reviewing. I'd love to reread it, but the library apparently lose the copy they had and haven't replaced it.

I'm currently going through the library's selection of L'Amours, but a ridiculous amount of them are either CDs or large print. *sigh*

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

IIRC, the few L'Amour books I read in HS had prominent women.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I've put a couple on hold - let's hope I get lucky.

[grimorie.livejournal.com]

Louis L'amour books are actually pretty good, I recall he wrote a book where the hero of the book is one of the Sackett girls and she was awesome I read that a long time ago but I remember loving that book.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

I think that was 'Ride the River.'

[(Anonymous)]

The L'Amour book with the female Sackett lead is Ride the River. Another one of his books with a strong female character is The Cherokeee Trail.

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I put that on my wishlist.