Skip to main content

Posts

The Sunday Post, Issue #8: First Edition Western Gems from the Flea Market

Happy Sunday, Everyone!  I visited a large antique flea market in the city this past Saturday, marking my first trip there in at least a year and a half. It’s such a sprawling place that it takes a long time to see everything, so I’m sure I missed quite a few treasures along the way. In short, I ended up buying quite a few Westerns from the store. One booth caught my eye with a collection of older Zane Grey hardcovers, likely all first editions, each priced at a reasonable $6. Sadly, all except for two were in such fragile condition that I knew my book repair skills wouldn’t be enough to fix them. I didn't go for them, which I kind of regret, but I’d rather save my money for better copies down the line. Nonetheless, I did pick up the first edition of Under the Tonto Rim , pub. in 1926, and The Lost Wagon , pub. in 1936. At another booth, I found the first edition of The Thundering Herd , pub. in 1925, for $13, which I gladly bought. There was also a first edition of Riders of the ...
Recent posts

The Friday 56: Guns, Glamour, and a Green Dress - A Taste of Stagecoach Station 1!

Every Friday, I have the pleasure of sharing a snippet or two from my reading adventures—whether it’s from a book I’m currently diving into, a future pick waiting on my shelf, or a delightful surprise from my library. I’ll link this post to The Friday 56 meme, hosted by My Head Full of Books .  Today, I'm sharing an entire paragraph from Stagecoach Station 1: Dodge City , published in October 1982 by Bantam Books , written by D. B. Newton (1916-2013) under the pseudonym Hank Mitchum. There were 52 books in the series. I found the first book, Dodge City , at an antique store earlier this year. I haven't read it yet, but it's on my horizon. Burt Channing lowered the gun without holstering it as he studied her. She was dressed for the street—and rather well dressed, Channing thought. She had jet-black hair, combed away from her forehead to a mass of curls, carefully arranged, at the back of her head. The dress, some rather shiny green material, was drawn in at the waist and...

Is The Buffalo Hunter Hunter a Vampire Tale or Historical Horror?

THE BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones Saga Press, 2025 ★★✰✰✰ A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over a series of confessional visits. This is an American Indian revenge story written by one of the new masters of horror, Stephen Graham Jones. Dear Western Readers, Someone asked me if The Buffalo Hunter Hunter was a vampire tale, and while I initially thought it wasn't—since I hadn’t started reading it yet—the answer turned out to be yes... no... sort of! At its core, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is a horror historical novel that delves into the grim realities of the Marias Massacre and the near extinction of the buffalo. The narrative unfolds from three distinct perspectives: a Blackfeet man named Good Stab, a Lutheran pastor,...

The Sunday Post, Issue # 7: From 'Around Our House' to Western Classics

Happy Sunday, Everyone!  This past week, I had the pleasure of sharing my thoughts on Janice Holt Giles's memoir,  Around Our House , and I also featured Tom Clavin's Bandit Heaven . Next week is shaping up to be quite busy for me. I'm still working my way through The Buffalo Hunter Hunter , and I promise to have a review ready by Wednesday—come what may! Just a heads up, it might go up a little late that night, so keep an eye out for it. On Friday, I plan to share a snippet from Stagecoach Station 1: Dodge City by Hank Mitchum during Friday 56 .  In my reading list, I’m still reading Bandit Heaven next.  On the new acquisitions front, I stumbled upon a treasure trove of older books at the thrift store. Here’s what I found: The Man From Shadow Ridge by Brock & Bodie Thoene, The Water is Wide by Pat Conroy, Man Without a Star by Dee Linford, Big Bend by Richard Meade, Proud New Flags and Blue Hurricane by F. Van Wyck Mason, Each Bright River by Mildred M...

The Friday 56: A Glimpse into the Outlaw World via 'Bandit Heaven'

Every Friday, I have the pleasure of sharing a snippet or two from my reading adventures—whether it’s from a book I’m currently diving into, a future pick waiting on my shelf, or a delightful surprise from my library. I’ll link this post to The Friday 56 meme, hosted by My Head Full of Books .  I'm sharing something a bit different this week: a one-sentence sneak peek from the nonfiction book Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West by Tom Clavin. I borrowed it from the library and will begin reading it very shortly. Well, that is the conventional story, and there is some truth to it. But Bob Parker's outlaw days began—albeit unintentionally—well before he became Butch Cassidy. ╌ page 56, Bandit Heaven ⁓B.J. Burgess

'Around Our House': Janice Holt Giles' Journey Through Love, Writing, and Family Bonds

AROUND OUR HOUSE by Henry & Janice Holt Giles Houghton Mifflin Co., 1971 ★★★★★ In A Little Better than Plumb , Henry and Janice Giles gave us the story of the building of their log house and the threat that hung over it. Now, in Around Our House , they tell what came before they built the house and how they saved it from destruction. The warm and revealing story of the Gileses' daily lives covers the years from 1954, when they left the farm described in 40 Acres and No Mules , to 1970, when Janice published her book about the Second World War, The Damned Engineers . Around Our House is a patchwork quilt of the old and the new. Janice tells how she came to write her books and what each one meant to her. Henry describes the precedent-shattering project of moving the log house and how determination and ingenuity accomplished the apparently impossible. We share their delight in the visits of three lively grandsons and learn something of the joys and problems of the creative writer...

The Sunday Post, Issue #6: Lone Wulff, Buffalo Hunter Hunter, and Upcoming Memoir Review

Happy Sunday, Everyone! This Past Week... I shared my insights on Lone Wulff , the latest book by William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone. I also highlighted Stephen Graham Jones' The Buffalo Hunter Hunter  in my Friday 56 post. Coming Up Next Week…   This week will be a bit different for me. I’m going to review the memoir Around Our House b y Henry & Janice Holt Giles, which was published in 1971. While it’s not a Western, Mrs. Giles talks about her experiences writing frontier stories, including one of my favorites, Six-Horse Hitch . For the Friday 56, I’ll be sharing an excerpt from a nonfiction book titled Bandit Heaven , written by Tom Clavin, which dives into the legendary outlaw gangs of the Wild West. Bookmarked…    Tonight, I plan to start reading The Buffalo Hunter Hunter and will share my thoughts on it next week. After that, I’ll dive into Bandit Heaven .  New to the Bookshelf…  I haven’t had much luck finding old Western books at thri...