2017 western recommendations from True West magazine

Western history and fiction publishers have had an outstanding year across all genres and categories. With the growth in electronic and audio books, as well as in self-publishing and Internet sales in new and used books, readers, collectors and listeners have more choices and more opportunity to read, learn and relax with a Western-genre book.

As we approach the end-of-the year holiday season, I offer our True West readers a review and sampling of Western books from the year that will satisfy the most particular interests as you consider gift-giving to loved ones—or even to yourself!

The American epic': Hollywood's enduring love for the western

“The movie has us re-examining the self-evident truths of America,” Thompson says, tackling subjects like poverty’s multi-generational stranglehold, the lingering impact of domestic violence; casual racism and even the pros and cons of a state loaded with guns. But it does so amid a landscape of bank robberies and getaway cars, stakeouts and shootouts.