'If you read only one western in your life, this is the one' Roland Smith, author of Peak He rode into our valley in the summer of 1889, a slim man, dressed in black. 'Call me Shane,' he said. He never told us more. There was a deadly calm in the valley that summer, a slow, climbing tension that seemed to focus on Shane. Seen through the eyes of a young boy, Bob Starrett, SHANE is the classic story of a lone stranger. At first sight, the boy realises there is something unusual about the approaching man, but as Bob gets to know Shane, he realises that there is an inner sadness in him. SHANE is the story of a gunfighter who tries to hang up his gun but is drawn to the side of the boy's family and other homesteaders in their struggle to keep from being forced off their land.

Hailed as one of "the best novels ever set in America's fourth largest city" (Douglas Brinkley, New York Times Book Review), All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers is a powerful demonstration of Larry McMurtry's "comic genius, his ability to render a sense of landscape, and interior intellection tension" (Jim Harrison, New York Times Book Review). Desperate to break from the "mundane happiness" of Houston, budding writer Danny Deck hops in his car, "El Chevy," bound for the West Coast on a road trip filled with broken hearts and bleak realities of the artistic life. A cast of unforgettable characters joins the naive troubadour's pilgrimage to California and back to Texas, including a cruel, long-legged beauty; an appealing screenwriter; a randy college professor; and a genuine if painfully "normal" friend. Since the novel's publication in 1972, Danny Deck has "been far more successful at getting loved by readers than he ever was at getting loved by the women in his life" (McMurtry), a testament to the author's incomparable talent for capturing the essential tragicomedy of the human experience.

This emotional, hopeful, contemporary cowboy romance is perfect for readers looking for: A military hero determined not to let an injury get the best of himA compassionate heroine who would do anything to care for her familyWounded veterans finding purpose and camaraderie on a working ranchRescue dogs getting a second chance at a forever homeMarcus Talbott is a soldier through and through, and he's not going to let an injury keep him from his Army unit. Sure, his last mission nearly broke his back, but that's nothing his positive attitude and work ethic can't fix, right? In the meantime, he's got a place on the board at the Big Chance Dog Rescue, and flirting with his best friend's sassy sister, Emma, is a welcome distraction. Emma Stern is barely scraping by while working and caring for her elderly grandfather, but she's running out of options?and hope. The last thing she has time for is Marcus and his flirting, sexy as he might be. But every time Emma thinks she's reached the end of her rope, Marcus is there to lend a hand. Maybe there's more to the handsome playboy after all... Praise for Big Chance Cowboy: "A real page turner with a sexy cowboy you can root for, a sassy heroine you can fall in love with, and an ugly dog that brings them together."-CAROLYN BROWN, New York Times bestselling author "Love...and puppies... Be prepared to fall in love with this cast of characters and this book."-JENNIE MARTS, USA Today bestselling author of the Cowboys of Creedence series "Big Chance Cowboy is a tail-wagging good read. I was hooked from start to finish."-DEBBIE BURNS, acclaimed author of the Rescue Me series "Inspiring... Stanley hits the mark with wonderfully complex, caring characters; catchy dialogue; and lessons in self-esteem, loyalty, and forgiveness."-Publishers Weekly

Oakley Hall's legendary "Warlock" revisits and reworks the traditional conventions of the Western to present a raw, funny, hypnotic, ultimately devastating picture of American unreality. First published in the 1950s, at the height of the McCarthy era, Warlock is not only one of the most original and entertaining of modern American novels but a lasting contribution to American fiction.
"Tombstone, Arizona, during the 1880's is, in ways, our national Camelot: a never-never land where American virtues are embodied in the Earps, and the opposite evils in the Clanton gang; where the confrontation at the OK Corral takes on some of the dry purity of the Arthurian joust. Oakley Hall, in his very fine novel Warlock has restored to the myth of Tombstone its full, mortal, blooded humanity. Wyatt Earp is transmogrified into a gunfighter named Blaisdell who . . . is summoned to the embattled town of Warlock by a committee of nervous citizens expressly to be a hero, but finds that he cannot, at last, live up to his image; that there is a flaw not only in him, but also, we feel, in the entire set of assumptions that have allowed the image to exist. . . . Before the agonized epic of Warlock is over with--the rebellion of the proto-Wobblies working in the mines, the struggling for political control of the area, the gunfighting, mob violence, the personal crises of those in power--the collective awareness that is Warlock must face its own inescapable Horror: that what is called society, with its law and order, is as frail, as precarious, as flesh and can be snuffed out and assimilated back into the desert as easily as a corpse can. It is the deep sensitivity to abysses that makes "Warlock" one of ourbest American novels. For we are a nation that can, many of us, toss with all aplomb our candy wrapper into the Grand Canyon itself, snap a color shot and drive away; and we need voices like Oakley Hall's to remind us how far that piece of paper, still fluttering brightly behind us, has to fall." --Thomas Pynchon

John Russell was raised as an Apache, and even served as a member of the tribal police. Now the time has come for him to leave the San Carlos reservation far behind and live again as a white man. The stagecoach passengers he's traveling with want nothing to do with this man they call "Hombre," forcing him to ride in the boot with the driver. But they change their tune when outlaws ride down on them. Suddenly they all must rely on Russell's guns and his ability to survive in the desert. They shunned John Russell, and now they must follow him . . . or die.

Al Rosen was doing just fine, hiding out in Israel--until he decided to play Good Samaritan and rescue some elderly tourists from a hotel fire. Now his picture's been carried in the stateside press, and the guys he's been hiding from know exactly where he is. And they're coming to get him--crooked lawyers, men with guns and money, and assorted members of the Detroit mob who are harboring a serious grudge. Playtime is officially over. Rosen's a million miles from home with a bull's-eye on his back, and his only ally is a U.S. embassy marine who's been looking for a war . . . and who's damn well found one.

Left with little back in Missouri, Kevin Hunt takes his younger siblings on a journey to Wyoming when he receives news that he's inheriting part of a ranch. The catch is that the ranch is also being given to a half brother he never knew existed. Turns out, Kevin's supposedly dead father led a secret and scandalous life. But danger seems to track Kevin along the way, and he wonders if his half brother, Wyatt, is behind the attacks. Finally arriving at the ranch, everyone is at each other's throats and the only one willing to stand in between is Winona Hawkins, a nearby schoolmarm. Despite being a long-time friend to Wyatt, Winona can't help but be drawn to the earnest, kind Kevin--and that puts her in the cross hairs of somebody's dangerous plot. Will they all be able to put aside their differences long enough to keep anyone from getting truly hurt?

What happens when a two-headed cowboy, a high school dropout who longs to be a scholar, and a poet who claims to have been abducted by aliens come together in 1970's Moab, Utah? The Scholar of Moab, a dark-comedy perambulating murder, affairs, and cowboy mysteries in the shadow of the La Sal Mountains.

Young Hyrum Thane, unrefined geological surveyor, steals a massive dictionary out of the Grand County library in a midnight raid, startling the people of Moab into believing a nefarious band of Book of Mormon assassins, the Gadianton Robbers, has arisen again.

Making matters worse, Hyrum's illicit affair with Dora Tanner, a local poet thought to be mad, ends in the delivery of a premature baby boy who vanishes the night of its birth. Righteous Moabites accuse Dora of its murder, but who really killed their child? Did a coyote dingo the baby? Was it an alien abduction as Dora claims? Was it Hyrum? Or could it have been the only witness to the crime, one of a pair of Oxford-educated conjoined twins who cowboy in the La Sals on sabbatical?

Take a rollicking ride with Hyrum LeRoy Thane, the Lord's Chosen Servant and Defender of Moab. His short rich life spans the borderlands of magical realism where geology, ecology, philosophy and consciousness collide, in Steven L. Peck's rip-roaring tale The Scholar of Moab.

Before he brilliantly traversed the gritty landscapes of underworld Detroit and Miami, the incomparable Elmore Leonard wrote breathtaking adventures set in America's nineteenth-century western frontier--elevating a popular genre with his now-trademark twisting plots, rich characterizations, and scalpel-sharp dialogue.

There is a moment when obsession, rage, and destiny come together at the end of a shotgun barrel--when wrongs, actual or perceived, are addressed with violence, and the awesome power of life or death rests in a trigger finger. In seven magnificent stories of sins, crimes, conscience, and savage retribution, the New York Times-bestselling master carries us back to an untamed time and place where a simple transgression most often proved fatal . . . and the only true justice lived in the hands of the gunman.

Harold Bell Wright tells an inspiring story of self-discovery that takes place on a ranch out west. A mysterious stranger comes walking into town, determined to become an employee of the Cross-Triangle Ranch. Cross-Triangle Ranch is run by Dean Baldwin and his crew. Among these men are the caretaker Phil Acton, the wise-cracking Curly Elson, Dean's son Little Billy, and his wife Stella. This stranger goes by the name Honorable Patches. It is obvious to the other employees of the ranch that he is hiding his past and trying to create a radically different future. The men Patches encounters on his journey through Williamson Valley are taken aback by the fact that he has walked the entire way, revealing his inability to ride a horse. Riding a horse is a sign of a country man, so it is easy to see that Patches is from a city and has entered a world that is completely new to him. Yet, Patches shows that he has a strong desire and will to learn. The men of the ranch are mystified and intrigued by him. Patches must prove himself and learn how to be the kind of man who works at Cross-Triangle. What the reader sees throughout the novel is that Patches is a fast learner and a true man. The story is filled with triumph, camaraderie, and appreciating the simple things in life. By leaving the culture and elitism of the city, Patches is able to understand what it means to be a man.

Shortlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Gold Crown A gritty and lyrical American epic about a young woman who disguises herself as a boy and heads West. In the spring of 1885, seventeen-year-old Jessilyn Harney finds herself orphaned and alone on her family's homestead. Desperate to fend off starvation and predatory neighbours, she cuts her hair, binds her chest, saddles her beloved mare, and sets off across the mountains to find her gun-slinging fugitive brother Noah and bring him home. A talented sharpshooter herself, Jess's quest lands her in the employ of the territory's violent, capricious governor, whose militia is also hunting Noah - dead or alive. Wrestling with her brother's outlaw identity, and haunted by questions of her own, Jess must outmanoeuvre those who underestimate her, ultimately rising to become a hero in her own right. Told in Jess's wholly original and unforgettable voice, the story brims with page-turning Western action, but its approach is modern and nuanced, touching on powerful issues from gender and sexuality to family and identity. In the sweeping storytelling tradition of Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove and Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain, Whiskey When We're Dry transcends the straight-and-narrow Western to land among the classics.

The refereed proceedings of the International Symposium on Parallel and Distributed Processing and Applications, ISPA 2003, held in Aizu, Japan in July 2003.

The 30 revised full papers and 9 revised short papers presented together with abstracts of 4 keynotes were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on applications on Web-based and intranet systems, compiler and optimization techniques, network routing, performance evaluation of parallel systems, wireless communication and mobile computing, parallel topology, data mining and evolutionary computing, image processing and modeling, network security, and database and multimedia systems.

An enormously entertaining classic, THE WAY WEST brings to life the adventure of the western passage and the pioneer spirit. The sequel to THE BIG SKY, this celebrated novel charts a frontiersman's return to the untamed West in 1846. Dick Summers, as pilot of a wagon train, guides a group of settlers on the difficult journey from Missouri to Oregon. In sensitive but unsentimental prose, Guthrie illuminates the harsh trials and resounding triumphs of pioneer life. With THE WAY WEST, he pays homage to the grandeur of the western wilderness, its stark and beautiful scenery, and its extraordinary people.

Colt Stafford's winner-take-all personality clashed with his father's similar temperament and led Colt to pursue his own success far from the Double S ranch. The opportunity came in private equities once he earned his way to a desk on Wall Street. But timing is everything and Colt's financial demise coincided with his father's illness. God's perfect timing doesn't always seem all that perfect, but Colt needed a job, the Double S needed Colt and Sam sent his prodigal son a ticket...and Colt came home. He rediscovers his love for ranching, for Washington and for the great outdoors. His father's change of heart seems surreal, and by the time Colt realizes he belongs with his family, he's lost his heart to a Latina cop whose gone undercover to protect her child and her mother. Through the accidents of timing, God has brought multiple facets together at the Double S, just in time for healing, hope and home. - Publisher

The fifth book in bestselling author Kelly Elliott's Cowboys and Angels series. Harley and I had our whole lives planned out, until her plans changed, and those plans didn't include me. After years spent trying to get the love of my life out of my head and repair my too-damaged heart, I thought I was finally moving on . . . but life sure has a funny way of letting you know when those best-laid plans are about to be turned upside down. My entire world was rocked when Harley unexpectedly moved back to Oak Springs. Every miserable moment I'd spent trying to get over her and every hour I'd wasted trying to erase her from my life came back to haunt me the minute she walked into my office, fear in her eyes, and asked me for help. Would I . . . or better yet, could I walk away from her this time after all that she had put me through? What I really needed to know is would I be able to forge ahead with the future I had so meticulously planned -one that didn't include Harley - or will her return finally open my eyes to a future full of endless possibilities? Cowboys & Angels series: 1. Lost Love 2. Love Profound 3. Tempting Love 4. Love Again 5. Blind Love 6. This Love 7. Reckless Love

A nameless rider plods through the desert toward a dusty Western town shimmering on the horizon. In his latest novel, Robert Coover has taken the familiar form of the Western and turned it inside out. The lonesome stranger reaches the town -- or rather, it reaches him -- and he becomes part of its gunfights, saloon brawls, bawdy houses, train robberies, and, of course, the choice between the saloon chanteuse or the sweet-faced schoolmistress whom he loves. Throughout, Robert Coover reanimates the Western epics of Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, infusing them with the Beckettian echoes, unique comic energy, and exuberant prose that have made him one of the most influential figures in contemporary American literature. It is, as The Washington Post Book World put it, "a fast-forward, ribald vision of the American West, a free-for-all that slides from surreal to ridiculous like a circus-goer's grin through a funhouse mirror ... a heady frisson, a salon entertainment, one helluva ride."

A thrilling collection of twelve powerful and action-packed stories that celebrate the legendary Texas Rangers from Louis L'Amour, the world's greatest Western storyteller, Rod Miller, and many more. Explore the proud heritage of the elite Texas Rangers in these exhilarating, white-knuckled stories. From historical tales of outlaws and rustlers to modern thrillers of tracking serial killers with the latest technology, Lone Star Law is an outstanding collection of stories about delivering justice the Texan way.

An old elk hunter has set up an isolated camp in the Big Horn Mountains of northeastern Wyoming a week ahead of the opening of rifle season for a little "quiet time" before the rest of his "family" shows up. Alois, Ace, Gronsky and his dog Dozer are sucked into events that swirl around their idyllic setting, as teams of suspicious strangers set up three camps in separate locations in the vicinity. Not only are the strangers unfriendly, they are downright hostile to anyone snooping around. Little wonder; they plan to shoot down Air Force One on its way back from Jackson Wyoming. Five Jihadists are broken out of the new prison in nearby Wesley Montana and given the equipment they believe will shoot down the president's plane. The jihadists are purposely set up for failure. Air Force One goes down. The "home grown" Wyoming Militia, with collusion from corrupt law enforcement, wipe out the Jihadists, and the government manipulated media tells the world that the POTUS (the President of the United States) and his family are dead while those responsible have been destroyed. Ace has rescued his kidnapped Indian friend from the Jihadists and they witness the shoot-down of Air Force One and two escort fighter jets. They also witness the deployment of the president's escape pod and the pilot ejected from one of the fighters. If things were not bad enough already, Ace, his friend, Billy Black Stone, and fighter pilot Melanie, Yaz, Yasulevicz, must protect the first family from the teams bent on finishing the job, and battle winter conditions in the mountains of northern Wyoming. Despite the snow, things really heat up during the climax of this tale.

In his National Book Award-winning novel Augustus, John Williams uncovered the secrets of ancient Rome. With Butcher's Crossing, his fiercely intelligent, beautifully written western, Williams dismantles the myths of modern America.
It is the 1870s, and Will Andrews, fired up by Emerson to seek "an original relation to nature," drops out of Harvard and heads west. He washes up in Butcher's Crossing, a small Kansas town on the outskirts of nowhere. "Butcher's Crossing "is full of restless men looking for ways to make money and ways to waste it. Before long Andrews strikes up a friendship with one of them, a man who regales Andrews with tales of immense herds of buffalo, ready for the taking, hidden away in a beautiful valley deep in the Colorado Rockies. He convinces Andrews to join in an expedition to track the animals down. The journey out is grueling, but at the end is a place of paradisal richness. Once there, however, the three men abandon themselves to an orgy of slaughter, so caught up in killing buffalo that they lose all sense of time. Winter soon overtakes them: they are snowed in. Next spring, half-insane with cabin fever, cold, and hunger, they stagger back to Butcher's Crossing to find a world as irremediably changed as they have been.

Nobody was more surprised than Mattie herself when Luke Spenser, considered the great catch of their small Iowa town, asked her to marry him. Less than a month later, they are wed and setting off in a covered wagon to build a home on the Colorado frontier. Mattie's only company, aside from a taciturn and slightly mysterious new husband, is her private journal, where she records the joys and frustrations not just of frontier life, but also of marriage to a handsome but distant stranger. As Mattie and Luke make a life together on the harsh and beautiful prairie, battling the fierce odds imposed by weather, illness, and lawlessness, Mattie learns some bitter truths about her husband and the woman he left behind, and finds love where she least expects it.