Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a writer fascinated by landscape and history—and the American West is my magnet. I’ve set three books in the West. I can’t get enough of the place. An entire national myth is enshrined “where the deer and the antelope play.” Independence. Freedom from the past. Land we can supposedly call our own. The West is so beautiful and also so scarred. I love to read books that deepen my experience of the deserts, mountains, and rivers. I also love to learn about the people who were here before me, those who have hung on, and those who hope to heal the scars. These books are great stories about a bewitching place.


I wrote

Boleto

By Alyson Hagy,

Book cover of Boleto

What is my book about?

I’ve lived in the West a long time. I swore I wouldn’t write about cowboys. And then I did, with some…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of In the Distance

Alyson Hagy Why did I love this book?

Hernán Díaz’s first novel, In the Distance, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. The book is gorgeously written and meticulously researched. The West’s huge, startling landscapes loom on every page. But the real genius here is the novel’s “reverse epic” structure—how Díaz takes a young Swedish immigrant who gets off his ship at the wrong port (San Francisco) and sends him traveling east, against the migrant tides, in search of his brother. The journey doesn’t go as planned. Håkan makes friends and stymies enemies. Stereotypes warp and tumble as Håkan (and the reader) are forever transformed. The descriptions of California gold fields, science expeditions, questing Mormons, and other frontier communities delight and confound. You’ll never cross a Western desert the same way again.

By Hernan Diaz,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked In the Distance as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A young Swedish immigrant finds himself penniless and alone in California. The boy travels East in search of his brother, moving on foot against the great current of emigrants pushing West. Driven back again and again, he meets naturalists, criminals, religious fanatics, swindlers, Indians, and lawmen, and his exploits turn him into a legend. Diaz defies the conventions of historical fiction and genre, offering a probing look at the stereotypes that populate our past and a portrait of radical foreignness.

Hernan Diaz is the author of Borges, Between History and Eternity (Bloomsbury 2012), managing editor of RHM, and associate director…


Book cover of Woman of Light

Alyson Hagy Why did I love this book?

Fajardo-Anstine does many remarkable things in Woman of Light, but three of those things just blew me away. First, she anchors the novel in a city (Denver, 1930s). Cities are the forgotten truth of the American West, and they shouldn’t be. Second, she brings to life the “Lost Territories,” the Hispanic/Indigenous lands of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico, long-cherished homes overrun by white settlement in the 19th century. Third, she builds the entire compelling narrative around a suite of Chicana/Indigenous women—and they are the strongest, liveliest characters you’ll ever meet. They work, they love, they breathe loyalty, they seek justice. This novel is a stylish eye-opener from start to finish. And it’ll forever change what you think you know about the region.

By Kali Fajardo-Anstine,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Woman of Light as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A “dazzling, cinematic, intimate, lyrical” (Roxane Gay) epic of betrayal, love, and fate that spans five generations of an Indigenous Chicano family in the American West, from the author of the National Book Award finalist Sabrina & Corina
 
“Sometimes you just step into a book and let it wash over you, like you’re swimming under a big, sparkling night sky.”—Celeste Ng, author of Little Fires Everywhere and Everything I Never Told You
 
A PHENOMENAL BOOK CLUB PICK AND AN AUDACIOUS BOOK CLUB PICK

There is one every generation, a seer who keeps the stories.

Luz “Little Light”…


Book cover of Four Treasures of the Sky

Alyson Hagy Why did I love this book?

Historical records of the Chinese immigrant experience in the West are sparse or non-existent. Much has been erased. Yet powerful stories are there for the telling. Zhang begins this gripping novel in a politically troubled China where a young girl is kidnapped and trafficked to San Francisco for the brothels there. She escapes, but her American journey has only just begun. Wending its way from China to California to the rough-and-tumble mining towns of Idaho, where the Chinese are viewed with swelling suspicion, this novel is dramatic, beautifully imagined, and heart-rending. Its portrait of Lin Daiyu, who seeks only safety and independence, is beyond compelling. The book also features a remarkable (and remarkably fierce) ghost. And who doesn’t love a ghost?

By Jenny Tinghui Zhang,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Four Treasures of the Sky as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK · A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITOR'S CHOICE · REVIEWED ON THE FRONT COVER · INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

“Zhang’s blend of history and magical realism will appeal to fans of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ The Water Dancer as well as Amy Tan's The Valley of Amazement.” —Booklist (starred review)

"Engrossing...Epic" (The New York Times Book Review) · "Transporting" (Washington Post) · "Propulsive" (Oprah Daily) · "Surreal and sprawling" (NPR) · "An absolute must-read" (BuzzFeed) · "Radiant" (BookPage)

A dazzling debut novel set against the backdrop of the Chinese Exclusion Act, about a Chinese girl fighting to…


Book cover of Close Range: Wyoming Stories

Alyson Hagy Why did I love this book?

Annie Proulx is a genius with character, and she’s obsessed with how hard humans work to uphold their myths of identity and achievement even when the odds are stacked against them. Close Range is the best of her three very good story collections about the West. It’s famous, and rightly so, for the trail-blazing tale of cowboy queerness "Brokeback Mountain". But each story is taut with observation and image. “The Mud Below,” “The Half-Skinned Steer”—there’s more than one American classic in this book. Some Westerners aren’t fans of Proulx, but I am. She doesn’t pull her punches about what it’s really like to ranch, rodeo, fantasize about retirement, or care for family in a place with no safety net, extreme weather, and no neighbors around the corner.

By Annie Proulx,

Why should I read it?

3 authors picked Close Range as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning and bestselling author of The Shipping News and Accordion Crimes comes one of the most celebrated short story collections of our time.

Annie Proulx's masterful language and fierce love of Wyoming are evident in this collection of stories about loneliness, quick violence, and wrong kinds of love. In "The Mud Below," a rodeo rider's obsession marks the deepening fissures between his family life and self-imposed isolation. In "The Half-Skinned Steer," an elderly fool drives west to the ranch he grew up on for his brother's funeral, and dies a mile from home. In "Brokeback Mountain," the…


Book cover of News of the World

Alyson Hagy Why did I love this book?

Tom Hanks stars in the film version of News of the World. The book is even better than the movie. Jiles is a historian. The novel is chock full of fascinating information about post-Civil War Texas. That real history upends a lot of John Wayne cliches. But the book’s true strength lies in the fallibility of its hero, Captain Kidd, and its rendering of a white child who’s been “kipnapped” then “returned” by the Kiowa, a people she doesn’t want to leave. Jiles isn’t interested in classic good guys or bad guys. She writes about conflicted people of all races, classes, and behaviors—how they soldier on despite their deep sorrows and misgivings. Plus, there’s a kickass shoot-out scene just in case you’re missing John Wayne.

By Paulette Jiles,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked News of the World as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust. In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his…


Explore my book 😀

Boleto

By Alyson Hagy,

Book cover of Boleto

What is my book about?

I’ve lived in the West a long time. I swore I wouldn’t write about cowboys. And then I did, with some twists. I wanted to see if I could make the old story new—and different. Will Testerman’s a gifted horse trainer trying to make his way. Money’s tight. His mother’s sick. He sees his chance with a beautiful filly who might make his reputation on the cutthroat polo fields of California. And then come the hard choices.

The West has always been complex. Beautiful but harsh. Greedy yet healing. Boleto is about a good, if flawed, young man trying to care for a special horse in a world of privilege and indifference. It’s my homage to the complexities of the modern frontier.

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Twelve Palominos

By Joe Kilgore,

Book cover of Twelve Palominos

Joe Kilgore Author Of Misfortune’s Wake

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

In a previous career, I traveled extensively to many parts of the world. I always found new cultures, old traditions, strange languages, and exotic environments fascinating. Perhaps even more fascinating, were the expats I found who had traded in their home country for an existence far from where they were born and different from how they were reared. In many instances, I’ve attempted to incorporate—in Heinlein’s words—this stranger in a strange land motif in my work. It always seems to heighten my interest. I hope the reader’s as well. 

Joe's book list on expat adventures

What is my book about?

San Diego Private Investigator, Brig Ellis, is hired by a wealthy industrialist to help him acquire the final horse in a set of twelve palomino miniatures that once belonged to the last Emperor of China. What begins as a seemingly reasonable assignment quickly morphs into something much more malevolent.

The gumshoe has to deal not only with brigands, kidnappers, and commies, but also with the beautiful, enigmatic daughter of the industrialist whose involvement raises the danger level exponentially. As complications and the body count rise, Ellis tries to make sure this ill-fated job won’t be his last.

Twelve Palominos

By Joe Kilgore,

What is this book about?

San Diego Private Investigator, Brig Ellis, is hired by a wealthy industrialist to help him acquire the final horse in a set of twelve palomino miniatures that once belonged to the last Emperor of China. What begins as a seemingly reasonable assignment quickly morphs into something much more sinister. The intrepid gumshoe finds himself having to bargain with brigands, kibitz with kidnappers, clash with commies, and duel with a stone cold assassin incapable of feeling pain. All while navigating potentially deadly pitfalls instigated by his employer's beautiful but enigmatic daughter. Conflict and danger increase at warp speed as Ellis tries…


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Interested in Wyoming, Colorado, and China?

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China 630 books