ALAMOSA — The popularity of Western novels has its own lengthy history in the U.S., dating all the way back to James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans”. First published in 1826 and set in the perilous wilderness during the French and Indian War, it’s an extraordinary tale of frontiersman Hawkeye and his adoptive Mohican father, Chingachook, and Mohican brother, Uncas, who, together, rescue two daughters of a British colonel from Magua, deceptive Huron who seeks revenge against the British for the loss of his daughter.
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ALAMOSA — The popularity of Western novels has its own lengthy history in the U.S., dating all the way back to James Fenimore Cooper’s “The Last of the Mohicans”. First published in 1826 and set in the perilous wilderness during the French and Indian War, it’s an extraordinary tale of frontiersman Hawkeye and his adoptive Mohican father, Chingachook, and Mohican brother, Uncas, who, together, rescue two daughters of a British colonel from Magua, deceptive Huron who seeks revenge against the British for the loss of his daughter.
Since then, Westerns, often characterized by similarly evocative storylines, have continued to hold their own place in popular fiction. Admittedly sometimes more popular than others, Westerns have always held a place whether it’s as an epic sweeping novel like Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove” or an edgy, heartbreaking story like Cormac McCarthy’s “All the Pretty Horses”. Western literature has persevered, even enjoying small resurgences now and then.
That appears to have happened in the Alamosa Public Library (APL). According to Maria Kramer, library manager, westerns were the library’s third most popular genre in 2024 behind graphic novels and horror.
With that in mind, the Valley Courier asked Kramer to recommend some western titles for people to read. As is her style, she came back with a list of fascinating, diverse titles appealing to broad range of readers.
In these books, an Irish-American private investigator is hired to find out the truth about incidents involving Indians in the west. The third book in the series - "Small Light of Discretion" - won the New Mexico - Arizona Book Awards and deals with the expulsion of the Ute from the San Luis Valley.
“These are exhaustively researched books,” Kramer says. “I got to hear the author talk about her research process and it was incredible”
On Hell’s Bottom Ranch, a section of land below the Front Range, there are women like Renny, who prefer a “little Hell swirled with their Heaven,” and men like Ben, her husband, who’s “gotten used to smoothing over Renny’s excesses.” There is a daughter who maybe plays it too safe and a daughter plagued by only “half-wanting” what life has to offer. The ranch has been the site of births and deaths of both cattle and children, as well as moments of amazing harmony and clear vision. And it is where, after raising their children, Ben and Renny have moved to opposite ends of their acreage.
“This book was her debut novel, I believe, and won the Milkweed National Fiction Prize and the PEN USA Award.”
New Mexico Territory, 1890 In a hidden cavern, a treasure trove of gold sits alongside an ancient relic. To find her treasure-hunting brother, Lottie Durham enlists the help of an easygoing lawman. When a mysterious woman known only as Ma asks her to join the relic's guardians, Lottie's world spins. Should she take on this solemn obligation? Twill, leader of the mysterious guardians, has sworn a vow to protect the centuries-old religious relic. Regrets bedevil him and his dedication to his oath is repeatedly tested. If he breaks his promise, he'll fail Ma, the one person he's never wanted to let down. Will a looming raid by a band of determined killers be the end of the guardians, the gold, and the relic?
“He has also written other westerns,” Kramer says. “Mike gave an author talk a couple years ago and I loved how he talked about what defines a Western. He said the landscape has to be a character in its own right, and that the characters have to be engaged with the behavioral honor code of the West.”
The story of a “half-blood” girl caught between the worlds of Anglo ranchers and full-blood reservation Indians; between the craven and false-hearted easterner Alfred Densmore and James LaGrinder, a half-blood cowboy and the best rider on the Flathead; between book learning and the folk wisdom of her full-blood grandmother.
“This is one of the first published novels by a Native American woman, written in 1927.”
Garrett Kohl has traveled the world--and fought in most of it--but it's the High Plains of northwest Texas he calls home and dreams of returning to one day. Kohl is in the middle of an assignment in Afghanistan when his commander orders him back to Texas on a short mission expected to take a week at most. But Kohl is unsettled to discover that he's moved from one kind of war to another.
“This is a modern Western thriller.”
Step into the heart of a Chihuahua cantina on the eve of el Día de Los Muertos, where a storm rages outside, and inside, eight men find themselves bound together by fate. Some are strangers, some acquainted — all seeking refuge from the tempest that surrounds them.
Emboldened by pulque and cerveza, the men engage in a ritual of shared tales, unveiling the haunting memories of women who linger in their thoughts. By morning, one of them is dead, and the lives of the others are forever changed.
It's the spring of 1877 and sixteen-year-old Bridget is already disillusioned. She's exhausted from caring for her ne'er-do-well alcoholic father, but when he's killed by a snakebite as they cross the Kansas prairie, she knows she has only her wits to keep her alive. She arrives penniless in Dodge City, and, thanks to the allure of her bright red hair and country-girl beauty, is soon recruited to work at the Buffalo Queen, the only brothel in town run by women. Bridget takes to brothel life, appreciating the good food, good pay, and good friendships she forms with her fellow "sporting women."
Then Spartan Lee, the legendary female gunfighter in the region, rides into town, and Bridget falls in love.
“This is the only LGBT Western I am aware of in our collection,” Kramer says.
Maria Kramer has worked in Libraries for sixteen years, starting when, as a high school teacher, she took it upon herself to improve the library of the alternative school where she worked. After that, she was in love! Most of Maria's time in libraries has been spent working with youth, as a teen librarian and then a youth services manager in Pueblo, Colorado. Maria loves libraries. “They are a place where dreams can become real, and people are only limited by their imaginations,” she says.
