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YA Book Club POSTPONED! Due to unforeseen circumstances, we have had to cancel this Saturday's YA book club meeting. We will reschedule and post it here and on our social media as soon as we can.
Westerns
No one knows the dangers of driving a stagecoach better than Red Ryan. Especially when the passenger's a dead man, the payoff's a gold mine, and the last stop is death . . . SECOND RULE: WATCH YOUR BACK
Red Ryan should've known this job would be trouble. The first stop is a ghost town--in a thunder storm--and the cargo is a coffin. But things start to look a little brighter when Red and his stage guard Buttons Muldoon deliver the corpse to a ranch run by the beautiful Luna Talbot--and her gorgeous crew of former saloon girls. Luna asks the boys to help them find the Lucky Cuss Gold Mine, using a map tucked inside the dead man's pocket. Buttons can't refuse a pretty lady--or the lure of gold. But Red has a feeling they're playing with fire. Especially when the map leads them straight into crossfire of a ferocious range war, a 400-pound load of pure evil known as Papa Mace Rathmore--and his backwoods clan of sadistic, kill-crazy hillbillies . . . Live Free. Read Hard.
BLOOD IS THICKER THAN SLAUGHTER
Luke Jensen has seen some sorry looking bounties in his time, but this one takes the cake. A wanted poster is offering a reward of one dollar and forty-two cents--plus one busted harmonica--to capture Three-Fingered Jack McKinney. Turns out, McKinney's twelve-year-old son Aaron wants revenge on his daddy for abandoning him and his mom. The reward is all the money Aaron can scrape together. Luke can't say no to the poor boy--or his beautiful mother--so he agrees to go after McKinney and his bank-robbing gang. Good deeds, however, are like good intentions--the road to hell is paved with them. And when Aaron McKinney decides to tag along, it puts Luke in the middle of a father-and-son reunion that's life-or-death, blood-for-blood, and kill-or-be-killed. . . . Live Free. Read Hard.
The New York Times-bestselling Grand Master of suspense deftly displays the other side of his genius, with seven classic western tales of destiny and fatal decision . . . and trust as essential to survival as it is hard-earned.
Trust was rare and precious in the wide-open towns that sprung up like weeds on America's frontier--with hustlers and hucksters arriving in droves by horse, coach, wagon, and rail, and gunmen working both sides of the law, all too eager to end a man's life with a well-placed bullet. In these classic tales that span more than five decades--including the first story he ever published, "The Trail of the Apache"--Elmore Leonard once again demonstrates the superb talent for language and gripping narrative that have made him one of the most acclaimed and influential writers of our time.
In this explosive Hank Fallon thriller, the justice-seeking ex-con goes undercover and behind bars to expose a plot as big, as bold, and as deadly as the American Civil War . . .
GET OUT OF JAIL FREE--OR DIE Doing time in Texas is no picnic. But getting sent to The Walls in Huntsville is a fate worse than hanging. If the guards don't kill you, the prisoners will. And if it weren't for the fact that the man who framed Hank Fallon and murdered his family could be inside The Walls, Hank would never step one foot in that heinous helltrap--let alone go undercover as an inmate. But this isn't just another assignment. This is his chance for revenge . . . Inside The Walls, Hank quickly discovers who's boss--as well as judge, jury, and executioner. The only relief from the gang fights and guard beatings is a prison work program that allows inmates to leave The Walls to work for plantation owner J.J. Justice. Hank figures it can't be any worse than jail. But it is. Seems that Justice is ordering the men to commit robberies and murders. He's stockpiling weapons. Building an army. And planning to restart the Civil War--all in the name of Justice . . .
Live Free. Read Hard.
Life on the straight and narrow is easier said than done for a pair of crooks like Jimmy "Slash" Braddock and Melvin "Pecos Kid" Baker. But these reprobates are doing their damnedest to make an honest go of it. They've managed to safely deliver a church organ to a mountain parish when their sometime employerƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"Chief U.S. Marshal Luther T. "Bleed-'m-So" Bledsoeƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"recruits them for a job only fools would take.
Marshal Bledsoe wants them to pick up a shipment of gold in the mining town in the Sawatch Mountains. Here's the catch: Slash and Pecos's wagon is just a decoy. When a ruthless gang ambushes the real gold shipment, it's up to Slash and Pecos to go after the trigger-happy bandits. And they won't be alone. A lady Pinkerton, Hattie Friendlyƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"who is anything butƒ‚‚"ƒ‚‚€ƒ‚‚"survived the ambush and is hellbent on getting the gold back. Even if she has to team up with a pair of ornery old cutthroats like Slash and Pecos. . . .
The Cutthroats are back. The bad guys are history.
Bo Creel and Scratch Morton are lifelong drifters who keep one eye on the horizon, one finger on the trigger, and one foot out the door. Roaming the West is what keeps them young, or so Scratch tells Bo. But when they save the life of Cyrus Keegan--the owner of a matrimonial agency--they receive an unexpected proposal that's hard to resist. Keegan needs to deliver five mail order brides to a mining town in New Mexico Territory. All Scratch and Bo have to do is get these gals to the church on time--and alive, if possible . . . The job seems easy enough--and the brides-to-be are even easier on the eyes. Cecilia, Beth, Luella, Rose, and Jean all need good husbands. But their prospects look bad when the journey to the altar includes Mexican banditos, scheming silver robbers, and one overbearing rancher who won't take no for an answer. Bo and Scratch promised to keep the ladies safe--and keep their hands to themselves--but it could be the last vow they'll ever make . . . Live Free. Read Hard.
Mac Mackenzie has enough problems on his plate. He's got bounty hunters on his tail, no one on his side, and no place to hide. Just when he thinks it can't get any worse, he hears the rumbling of a cattle stampede--heading straight for his camp. Mac's got two choices: Get trampled like a weed or saddle up and help get the herd under control. At first, the traildrivers ain't too pleased to have a stranger help them out. But once they realize Mac's not a rustler, they ask him to join the team. Mac takes them up on the offer--especially after he meets the cowgirl Colleen--and quickly impresses everyone with his cooking skills. There's just a few more problems:
Mac's new employers are the real rustlers. And Mac's stepped out of the frying pan into the fire . . .
From Spur Award-winning author Charles G. West . . .
FIRST COMES BLOOD
Cole Bonner will never forget what happened to his family at Crow Creek Crossing. His wife, her parents, and their three young children--brutally slaughtered by outlaws. The horror of the massacre drove him into the wilderness. Drove him nearly mad. And drove him to seek an equally brutal revenge . . . THEN COMES CARNAGE
Now, against his better judgment, Bonner is returning to the place that almost destroyed him. While hunting in the mountains, he discovers that a man has been murdered and a woman abducted. He manages to track the killers and free her. But to bring the widow to safety, he will have to face his own demons. Return to his old homestead. And relive the violence--and the vengeance--of another massacre at Crow Creek Crossing . . . "Rarely has an author painted the great American West in strokes so bold, vivid, and true."
--Ralph Compton
Now a Major Motion Picture
National Book Award Finalist--Fiction
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 rootless, solitary existence.
In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows.
Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act "civilized." Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land.
Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember--strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become--in the eyes of the law--a kidnapper himself.
Bill Pronzini's riveting western mystery, The Peaceful Valley Crime Wave, takes on the modern world with old-fashioned violence--and his Peaceful Valley is anything but...
Nothing much happens in Peaceful Valley, Montana. And that's just how Sheriff Lucas Monk likes it. Aside from the occasional drunken brawl or minor disturbance out on the reservation, he hasn't had to resort to his fists or sidearm in years. That is, until mid-October, 1914, when the theft of a wooden cigar store Indian sets off a crime wave like nothing Lucas has ever seen. Teenager Charity Axthelm goes missing, Reba Purvis's housekeeper is poisoned with cyanide Reba is sure was meant for her, and Lucas's gut tells him that this is only the beginning. It's not long before the first corpse shows up, bringing the peace in the valley to a thundering end.
A blazing new series takes you back to the lawless frontier where every stagecoach was a moving target. Where every passenger needed protection. And where every hired gun who rides along better be fast on the draw--or be dead on arrival . . .
RIDING SHOTGUN
If anyone knows the road to purgatory, it's Red Ryan. As a stagecoach guard, he's faced holdups, ambushes, and all-out attacks from every kill-crazy outlaw, Indian, and prairie rat. But even he's a bit reluctant to take on his next job: riding shotgun with his driver Buttons Muldoon on a stage bound from Fort Concho, Texas, to Fort Bliss. Word has it, the Apaches are on the warpath. They're being led by the vicious war chief Ilesh, which means "Lord of the Earth." And this lord means business, as in slaughtering every Texan from here to El Paso. Red wants to postpone the stage. But an army major's beautiful but stubborn wife insists they leave--or she'll go it alone. So Red has no choice . . . Thus begins a nightmare journey into 400 miles of harsh, unforgiving terrain, blood-drunk killers, and one scheming devil who plans to paint the town of El Paso red--starting with Red's blood . . . Live Free. Read Hard.
An astounding debut that reimagines the classic Western through the eyes of a Chinese American assassin on a quest to rescue his kidnapped wife and exact his revenge on her abductors, and "declares the arrival of an astonishing new voice" (Jonathan Lethem).
Orphaned young, Ming Tsu, the son of Chinese immigrants, is raised by the notorious leader of a California crime syndicate, who trains him to be his deadly enforcer. But when Ming falls in love with Ada, the daughter of a powerful railroad magnate, and the two elope, he seizes the opportunity to escape to a different life. Soon after, in a violent raid, the tycoon's henchmen kidnap Ada and conscript Ming into service for the Central Pacific Railroad. Battered, heartbroken, and yet defiant, Ming partners with a blind clairvoyant known only as the prophet. Together the two set out to rescue his wife and to exact revenge on the men who destroyed Ming, aided by a troupe of magic-show performers, some with supernatural powers, whom they meet on the journey. Ming blazes his way across the West, settling old scores with a single-minded devotion that culminates in an explosive and unexpected finale. Written with the violent ardor of Cormac McCarthy and the otherworldly inventiveness of Ted Chiang, The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu is at once a thriller, a romance, and a story of one man's quest for redemption in the face of a distinctly American brutality. "In Tom Lin's novel, the atmosphere of Cormac McCarthy's West, or that of the Coen Brothers' True Grit, gives way to the phantasmagorical shades of Ray Bradbury, Charles Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao, and Katherine Dunn's Geek Love. Yet The Thousand Crimes of Ming Tsu has a velocity and perspective all its own, and is a fierce new version of the Westward Dream." --Jonathan Lethem, author of Motherless Brooklyn
From the bestselling author of Prayers for Sale, Sandra Dallas' Westering Women is an inspiring celebration of sisterhood on the perilous Overland Trail
AG Journal's RURAL THEMES BOOKS FOR WINTER READING Hasty Book Lists' BEST BOOKS COMING OUT IN JANUARY "Exciting novel ... difficult to put down." --Booklist If you are an adventuresome young woman of high moral character and fine health, are you willing to travel to California in search of a good husband? It's February, 1852, and all around Chicago, Maggie sees postings soliciting eligible women to travel to the gold mines of Goosetown. A young seamstress with a small daughter, she has nothing to lose. She joins forty-three other women and two pious reverends on the dangerous 2,000-mile journey west. None are prepared for the hardships they face on the trek or for the strengths they didn't know they possessed. Maggie discovers she's not the only one looking to leave dark secrets behind. And when her past catches up with her, it becomes clear a band of sisters will do whatever it takes to protect one of their own.
America's greatest Western storytellers take you inside the dangerous world of undercover agents--and one man's mission to hell and back . . .
BREAKOUT OF THE CENTURY
Hank Fallon used to be one of the best deputy marshals in the country. Then he got framed for a crime he didn't commit. Got sentenced to ten years in a federal penitentiary. And got out early for saving the life of the captain of the guards during a riot. When Fallon is released, a private detective is waiting for him. He wants to put Hank behind bars again--but this time, as an undercover agent . . .
The last thing Fallon wants is to return to jail. Especially a rat-infested hellhole like Yuma Territorial Prison. But if he wants to clear his name, he's got to take the job. Get himself arrested. Make friends with criminal mastermind Monk Quinn. Find out where he stashed a fortune in stolen money. And join Monk's gang for the biggest breakout in American history. If Hank succeeds, he'll be on the run with the deadliest cutthroats alive. That's when all hell will break loose . . . Live Free. Read Hard.