“Oh, them’s just words.” She twirled her finger at the stars. “Men is all the time hiding behind words.” Lonesome Dove meets Calamity Jane in John Larison’s gunslinging spark of a western, and I couldn’t be more smitten. Whiskey When We’re Dry (Viking 2018) shimmers with an unexpected brilliance, the echoes of McMurtry kissing theContinue reading “WHISKEY WHEN WE’RE DRY – John Larison”
Tag Archives: Western
THE BULLET SWALLOWER – Elizabeth Gonzalez James
“I think a person knows when their parents are gone for good, when the people that brought them into existence have gone out. I think the air gets heavier or the light changes, something like that. I haven’t seen the sun get dimmer yet.” One of my highly anticipated 2024 releases was an early releaseContinue reading “THE BULLET SWALLOWER – Elizabeth Gonzalez James”
LONE WOMEN – Victor LaValle
Larry McMurtry meets Stephen King in Victor LaValle’s genre-bending Lone Women (One World 2023), and I couldn’t put it down. The novel opens with 31-year-old Adelaide Henry fleeing her family’s farm and heading to Montana. She has a travel bag, a locked steamer trunk, and plans for a fresh start under the Homestead Act. She’llContinue reading “LONE WOMEN – Victor LaValle”
WOLVES OF EDEN – Kevin McCarthy
Kevin McCarthy is an Irish thriller writer, so I was quite intrigued when I read the blurb for Wolves of Eden (W.W. Norton & Company 2019), a novel set in the American West during Red Cloud’s War. The novel is a war story and a mystery. It is brutal and brilliant. And it isContinue reading “WOLVES OF EDEN – Kevin McCarthy”
The Last Kind Words Saloon – Larry McMurtry
“We don’t rent pigs.” Larry McMurtry is the man who, without knowing who I am, gave me one of the sweetest gifts when he wrote LONESOME DOVE. Published when I was toddler, the book was turned into a TV mini-series in 1989. My father recorded it, and those old VHS tapes were likely the mostContinue reading “The Last Kind Words Saloon – Larry McMurtry”
A Girl Named Tommi 