2025 February Reading Challenge

[Elizabeth]

Hello everyone,

For February, your challenge is to read either a Western, or a nonfiction title about the West. There are a lot of great books that can be considered for this, you can go with a classic and read something by Louis L'Amour, or Zane Grey, or even the very first book considered a Western The Virginian.

Or you might be interested in some more contemporary western fiction like Leaving Independence, On the Wrong Track, Marshaling Her Heart, or even The Good, The Bad, & The Uncanny: Tales of a Very Weird West.

You might enjoy reading a book about the west like Where the Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs, or Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West, or Finding the Wild West: The Great Plains: Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, or American Dude Ranch: A Touch of the Cowboy and the Thrill of the West (WFC).

Why am I highlighting the West this month? On Monday, February 24 at 7 pm the library is hosting a Virtual Lecture | The Life and Legend of Frontier Marshal Bass Reeves. Deputy U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, a former enslaved man, became a legendary lawman of the Wild West. Art T. Burton will discuss the facts and myths of this remarkable 19th-century peace officer.

You can register to watch online here:
thecountylibrary.org/LectureSeries

Also in February only, the library is hosting a Winter Reading Challenge. If you pick up a paper Reading Record from a branch, you'll need to set your own reading goal and finish it 20 times during February. You can also sign up online in beanstack, and choose either to do a minutes challenge, or a book challenge.
Check out more info here:
thecountylibrary.org/WinterReading

Good luck, and happy reading!

[Elizabeth]

As an aside, whenever I look back on tv history, I'm always really surprised about how long Westerns dominated the tv airways. I mostly ended up seeing reruns, and wasn't too invested in the shows, besides Little House on the Prairie. Does anyone else have a fond memory of a wildly popular Western tv show?

Also, it's super interesting to me that it's kind of coming back into style.

[Linda]

My dad always watched Gunsmoke

[Em]

I will read American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee. Completed 2/13.

[Teresa]

I've read everything by and about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her family. I wanted to read a woman's journal about the pioneer experience. I found one about the Kansas prairie and another about southern Colorado mining towns. I've researched ancestors in both places. I can't find those books.
I'm reading Brave Hearted, from Elizabeth's suggestion.
A couple of books I already read and liked: the girl who played Nellie Oleson in the Little House TV series wrote a memoir about it. The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin is fascinating.

[Teresa]

Edit: I've read almost everything about Laura Ingalls Wilder and family.

[Greg]

I read Shot All to Hell: Jesse James, the Northfield Raid, and the Wild West's Greatest Escape by Mark Lee Gardner.

2 of 2 for 2025

[Audrey]

My mom was really into the show "Wild Wild West." I got into the Little House books but not the TV show. I've been meaning to read On the Way Home.

[Debbie]

For me, the shows were 1) The Cisco Kid (I was about 4 and I called him the Crisco Kid). 2) Maverick, 4) Have Gun, Will Travel, 5) (and best) Bonanza. Our folks did not let us watch Gunsmoke because, in the early days, Matt Dillon was a drunk and Miss Kitty was a prostitute. At least that was what they told me was the reason when I was older. You never see reruns of those early episodes when Dennis Weaver was Matt Dillon's deputy.

[Debbie]

I read this year's Caldecott winner for this challenge. Chooch Helped: by Andrea L. Rogers ( Review ) is about a Cherokee family and the role of a 2 year old in messing up traditional Cherokee activities, to the consternation of his older sister.

[Greg]

Elizabeth wrote: "Hello everyone,

For February, your challenge is to read either a Western, or a nonfiction title about the West. There are a lot of great books that can be considered for this, you can go with a cl..."

I think the subject line of this string should include the word February.

[Elizabeth]

Greg wrote: "Elizabeth wrote: "Hello everyone,

For February, your challenge is to read either a Western, or a nonfiction title about the West. There are a lot of great books that can be considered for this, yo..."

Thanks, fixed!

[Teresa]

I started Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West.
Content warning: violence, child death










After the second child was brutally murdered by their parent on the Oregon Trail, I stopped reading it.

[Teresa]

I'm still curious about the people and events from the book, minus the graphic descriptions of violence, so I'm reading articles online. I've read 'The Kelly-Latimer Train: One of Many Murders on the Oregon Trail' by Janelle Molony, and 'Matilda and Elizabeth Sager, the Oregon Trail' from the National Park Service website. I still have 'Frontier Doctors: Medicine Along the California Trail' from the California Trail Interpretive Center website, Doctors of the Frontier' from the American Heritage magazine website, and 'What Life Was Like For Doctors In the Wild West' from grunge website on my tbr.

[Linda]

I am reading Sarah's Quilt by Nancy E. Turner . This is the 2nd book in the Sarah Agnes Prine series.

Edit: I finished this book. 5 stars. If you haven't read the first book in the series, These Is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901, you really should read it first.

[Elizabeth]

Teresa wrote: "I started Brave Hearted: The Women of the American West.
Content warning: violence, child death..."

Oh no! That's so sad.

[Audrey]

I read News of the World. Set in the 1870s in Texas.

[Deborah]

I read A Trail So Lonesome for this challenge.

[Linda]

Do we have a new challenge? I can't believe it is already March.

[Elizabeth]

Em is our prize drawing winner for February's reading challenge for reading American Wolf: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee.

Congratulations!