Beverly, a retired military officer and keen enthusiast, offers over 1,350 entries in this well-organized review, and includes everything from the formula Westerns to Native American mysteries (such as those of Hillerman), contemporary novels (Erdich and Abbey) and the works that have entered the canon from such as Cater and Stegner. Beverly includes trailblazers, wagon-drivers, the military, lawmen and outlaws, ranchers, Native Americans, church-goers, settlers, extractors, transporters, the Civil War, Spanish forces, the really far West (Alaska and Western Canada), rodeo practitioners, livestock, the modern West, and the dreamy-eyed romantic West. Great fun, and rigorous. Annotation 2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
