The changes seem to happen overnight: Even under the stifling lid of late-summer days, September's dusk begins to come on cool, its mornings curling at the edges with damp chill like the pages of a book. Along the ditches and river, the cottonwood leaves are first to drop, scattering the ground with gold. Tea becomes a staple. The worn armchair in the corner beckons.
But what best to stack close at hand for the quiet hours of fall and winter? We've gathered some of the most intriguing recent and upcoming Western titles, listed below in alphabetical order by author, for your consideration.
Among them, there's the memoir Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness, wherein Wyoming's Alexandra Fuller entwines her mother's, her father's and her own histories, from Scotland and England to civil war-torn Africa; and Billy the Kid and Other Plays, a collection of several dramatic works by New Mexico's renowned Rudolfo Anaya.
There are also some notable debut novels. Publishers Weekly describes Bonnie Nadzam's Lamb -- a tale of a misguided middle-aged man who abducts an unpopular preteen for a roadtrip to the Rockies -- as a "21st century spin" on Lolita. Meanwhile, Anna Solomon's page-turner about a Ukrainian mail-order bride who lands in frontier South Dakota, The Little Bride, has earned her comparisons to Alice Munro, Amy Bloom and Willa Cather.
And don't miss Dave Madden's The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd & Obsessive World of Taxidermy, which plumbs our sometimes-weird relationship with animals and takes readers all the way to the Taxidermy World Championships.
(NOTE: If a book is currently available, no publication month is shown)
FICTION
Billy the Kid and Other Plays: Rudolfo Anaya, University of Oklahoma Press, December
Rock Bottom: Sarah Andrews, Minotaur Books, November
Other Desert Cities: Jon Robin Baitz, Grove Press, November
Back of Beyond: C.J. Box, Minotaur Books
Emory's Gift: W. Bruce Cameron, Forge Books
The Last Mountains: Rick Craig, Geyser Books
The Territory: A Novel: Tricia Fields, Minotaur Books, October
Before the End, After the Beginning: Dagoberto Gilb, Grove Press, November
The Great Leader: Jim Harrison, Grove Press, October
Secrets of the Wolves: A Novel: Dorothy Hearst, Simon & Schuster
Contents May Have Shifted: A Novel: Pam Houston, W. W. Norton & Company, February
Train Dreams: A Novella: Denis Johnson, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Luminous Airplanes: A Novel: Paul La Farge, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Solomon's Oak: A Novel: Jo-Ann Mapson, Bloomsbury USA
Mother Lode: Mark Maynard, Torrey House Press, December
Lola, California: A Novel: Edie Meidav, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Ghost Lights: A Novel: Lydia Millet, W.W. Norton & Company, October
Further Interpretations of Real-Life Events: Stories: Kevin Moffett, Harper, January
Lamb: Bonnie Nadzam, Other Press
The Buddha in the Attic: Julie Otsuka, Knopf
The Scholar of Moab: Steve L. Peck, Torrey House Press, October
Suffer in Silence: A Novel of Navy SEAL Training: David Reid, St. Martin's Press
The Little Bride: Anna Solomon, Riverhead Trade
Monstress: Stories: Lysley Tenorio, Ecco, January
The Plume Hunter: Renee Thompson, Torrey House Press, December
Black Thunder: An Ella Clah Novel: Aimee Thurlo and David Thurlo, Forge Books, October
The Barbarian Nurseries: A Novel: Héctor Tobar, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
We the Animals: A Novel: Justin Torres, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Liberty Lanes: Robin Troy, University of Nevada Press
Blue Heaven: Willard Wyman, University of Oklahoma Press
NONFICTION, BIOGRAPHY, MEMOIR
The Glimpse Traveler: Marianne Boruch, Breakaway Books
An Autobiography of Theodore Roosevelt: Stephen Brennan, editor; Skyhorse Publishing, October
Where the Tall Grass Grows: Becoming Indigenous and the Mythological Legacy of the American West: Bobby Bridger, Fulcrum Publishing
Prophet's Prey: My Seven-Year Investigation into Warren Jeffs and the Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints: Sam Brower, Bloomsbury USA
Deep Trails in the Old West: A Frontier Memoir: Frank Clifford, University of Oklahoma Press, October
Arctic Autumn: A Journey to Season's Edge: Pete Dunne, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness: Alexandra Fuller, The Penguin Press
Skyjack: The Hunt for D.B. Cooper: Geoffrey Gray, Random House
Rainbow Bridge to Monument Valley: Making the Modern Old West: Thomas J. Harvey, University of Oklahoma Press, October
Historical Atlas of Washington and Oregon: Derek Hayes, University of California Press, November
Back to Bizkaia: A Basque-American Memoir: Vince J. Juaristi, University of Nevada Press, October
Calexico: True Lives of the Borderlands: Peter Laufer, University of Arizona Press
Faith of Cranes: Finding Hope and Family in Alaska: Hank Lentfer, The Mountaineers Books, October
The Authentic Animal: Inside the Odd & Obsessive World of Taxidermy: Dave Madden, St. Martin's Press
Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World: Emma Marris, Bloomsbury USA
Following the Last Wild Wolves: Ian McAllister, Greystone
Rough-Hewn Land: A Geologic Journey from California to the Rocky Mountains: Keith Heyer Meldahl, University of California Press, November
The Grand Canyon Reader: Edited by Lance Newman, University of California Press, October
The Slums of Aspen: Immigrants vs. the Environment in America's: Eden Lisa Park and David Pellow, New York University Press
All Indians Do Not Live in Teepees (or Casinos): Catherine C. Robbins, University of Nebraska Press, October
The White Dove of the Desert: Edna San Miguel, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press, November
Answer Them Nothing: Bringing Down the Polygamous Empire of Warren Jeffs: Debra Weyermann, Chicago Review
Wet Britches and Muddy Boots: A History of Travel in Victorian America: John J. White Jr., Indiana University Press, December
Don't Shoot the Gentile: James C. Work, University of Oklahoma Press, October
Everybody Loves Our Town: An Oral History of Grunge: Mark Yarm, Crown Archetype
A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America: Tom Zoellner, Viking Adult, December
Sex on Six Legs: Lessons on Life, Love, and Language from the Insect World: Marlene Zuk, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
