Great books for considering our strange western society

Authors read books? Why, yes! Here are a few good ones that raise some compelling questions about our society, with one that usefully explains how it got that way!

The Homesman by Glendon Swarthout

Swarthout is great at breaking Western genre tropes with his novels, and he doesn’t disappoint in The Homesman. Here, we learn of an untold history about the psychological costs of living on the frontier. Wolves, cold and disease take a toll on families out there. When a few wives go insane from the pressure, no one wants to take them back home to their families — except a tenacious woman named Mary Bee Cuddy. Delving into prejudice against the mentally ill, the novel moves quickly with colorful characters who stick with you long after the last page. If you like this, make sure you check out Swarthout’s The Shootist and other westerns on my list of favorites that inspired my novel, The Wanderer and the New West.

Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams by Philip K. Dick

A great entry into the work of Philip K. Dick, this book collects short stories adapted for the TV show of the same name. I haven’t watched the show, but found this to be a fun group of stories with compelling sci-fi ideas. As with any short-story collection, some tales are stronger than others, but all will leave one pondering the weird ways of society. The brevity of these stories forces Dick to get quickly to the point — and should be satisfying for those who struggle to find long periods of time to read. A couple of my favorites included “Exhibit Piece,” in which a future historian decides he prefers to live in the past, and “The Hanging Stranger,” a body-snatchers type tale in which no one in a town seems to be at all worried about a dead man hanging from a light pole. Dick’s work is definitely an influence on my novels, especially We, The Watched and Divided We Fall.

American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America by Colin Woodard

If you’ve ever wondered how America got that way, this is the history book for you. Woodard challenges the notion that we’re just a bunch of blue and red states. Rather, he theorizes that distinct cultures and histories in eleven regional nations of America explain why swing states go red in certain elections but blue in others, among other intriguing insights. I’m not always excited to read a history book, but this one felt very relevant to today’s political situation. I’m sure to refer back to it in my own news reporting and fictional writing about this land we call the United States.

Roughneck by Jeff Lemire

Enough America! Let’s talk about Canada. Roughneck is another masterpiece graphic novel by Jeff Lemire. Beautiful, expressive artwork matched with another haunting story. Reading Lemire’s books is like watching a great indie film. I also really like the Canadian framing of the story — a washed up hockey player, a run-down Canadian town, trapping and an indigenous history create a great atmosphere. Don’t miss it!

View all my reviews on Goodreads and let me know in the comments if you have any recommendations.