Recommendation for readers, young and old.

I've recently talked to a few people who don't read fiction.

That eliminates the following wordsmiths

Charly Dickins
James Fenimoore Cooper
Edgar Allen Poe
Rudyard Kipling
Agatha Christie
Louis L'Amour
John Grisham
Dean Koontz
Kurt Vonnegut
Jimmy Lee Burke
Bobby Lewis Stevenson
Johnny Steinbeck
Ernie Hemingway
Tommy Wolfe
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Elmore Leonard
Stevie King
Jack London
James Michener
and
on
and
on
and
on.

Of all the above listed authors (and there are hundreds of more names that could and should be added to the list) I want to highly encourage an excursion into the world of
LOUIS L'AMOUR

The development of the Western United States before, during, and after the Civil War is one of the most intriguing periods in our history.

Generally people's knowledge of the West has been obtained through the art of Cinema and early television....which means John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Gunsmoke, Bonanza and the 1993 Tombstone film probably constitute most people's know how of how the West was developed.

Yeah...it reads know how of how.....deal with it.

Mr. L'Amour bio reads as follows:

Louis Dearborn L'Amour (/ˈluːi ləˈmʊr/; March 22 1908 –June 10 1988) was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work 'frontier stories'); however, he also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films and John Wayne once made the dubious assertion that L'Amour was the most interesting man in the world. L'Amour's books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was considered "one of the world's most popular writers".^[1][2]

His research into the time period is extensive and his naming of characters is unequaled.  For example
I just finished reading The Cherokee Trail and the hero's name is....Temple Boone.

The stories are generally 4 to 5 hour reads and I suggest reading every word and put your speed reading abilities on hold.

Take a break from present day social and political happenings....flop down in your easy chair, put your feet up, grab some green tea, dim the lights and be ready to envision yourself traveling to an unknown land with people whose entire existence was based on starting a new life while encountering other people who had lived on the continent for thousands of years.

We know how things turned out but we quite often forget or don't care how the process unfolded.

Well researched historic fiction is a genre that should not be overlooked.
And nobody does the genre of how the West evolved better
than
Louis L'Amour.

It will take your mind off of how the GOP is attempting to rewrite the future of America...if only for a few hours at a time.

Michael Timothy McAlevey