Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Westerns for the New Millennium

Westerns conjure up images of daring adventures in the barren desert, cowboys and Indians, and outlaws and lawmen. Though there are few novels that fit our classic image of a Western being published today, readers will be pleasantly surprised to discover there are a number of novels with many familiar western themes.

In Holmes on the Range by Steve Hockensmith, the year is 1893 and two cowboys, inspired by their hero, Sherlock Holmes, put their detecting skills to work to uncover the truth about the murder of a cowhand on their Montana ranch.
Territory by Emma Bull finds late nineteenth century college student, Jesse, summoned by a magician friends to Tombstone, where he witnesses the supernatural powers of Doc Holliday and Wyatt Earp.
Set against the backdrop of the great California Gold Rush, The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt, is a darkly comic novel that follows the adventures of two hired guns, who under the orders of the mysterious Commodore, try to kill a man who gives them a run for their money.
In Leif Enger's Peace Like a River, eleven year old asthmatic Ruben chronicles his family's search for his older brother, Davy, who escaped from jail before he could stand trial for the killing of two marauders who came to their Minnesota farm to harm their family.

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Westerns for the New Millennium

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