100 Best Western(United States) Works of Fiction

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

San Francisco Chronicle, 100 Books

A list from the San Francisco Chronicle from 1999. 600 readers contributed to the list.

This list was originally published in 1999 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
658 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
1503 Sometimes a Great Notion Ken Kesey 1964 American English
230 The Call of the Wild Jack London 1903 American English
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
14985 Animal Dreams Barbara Kingsolver 1990 American English
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
347 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
197 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
142 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
10824 The Ox Bow Incident Walter Van Tilburg Clark 1940 American English
17166 English Creek Ivan Doig 1984 American English
9288 Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Tom Robbins 1976 American English
2075 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
41 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
853 Mc Teague Frank Norris 1899 American English
1097 My Name Is Aram William Saroyan 1940 American English
8922 A River Runs Through It Norman Maclean 1976 American English
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
17166 Coyote Waits Tony Hillerman 1990 American English
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
6216 The Monkey Wrench Gang Edward Abbey 1975 American English
4147 Vineland Thomas Pynchon 1990 American English
6285 Earth Abides George Rippey Stewart 1949 American English
17166 Crooked Little Heart Anne Lamott 1997 American English
5499 The Underground Man Ross Macdonald 1971 American English
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
2634 Tripmaster Monkey Maxine Hong Kingston 1989 American English
2517 L.A. Confidential James Ellroy 1990 American English
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
14232 Women in Their Beds Gina Berriault 1996 American English
14000 Rumors Of Peace Ella Leffland 1997 American English
17166 The River Why David James Duncan 1983 American English
886 Riders of the Purple Sage Zane Grey 1912 American English
6264 Shane Jack Schaefer 1949 American English
8838 Stones For Ibarra Harriet Doerr 1984 American English
14816 The Big Sky A. B. Guthrie 1947 American English
4172 Trout Fishing In America Richard Brautigan 1967 American English
2868 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
14984 The Milagro Beanfield War John Nichols 1974 American English
2179 The Love Of The Last Tycoon F. Scott Fitzgerald 1941 American English
16550 Oil! Upton Sinclair 1927 American English
4233 Mariette In Ecstasy Ron Hansen 1991 American English
1440 The Virginian Owen Wister 1902 American English
14985 A Yellow Raft In Blue Water Michael Dorris 1987 American English
1002 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
2176 Hawaii James A. Michener 1959 American English
469 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
2508 Mrs. Bridge Evan S. Connell 1959 American English
12250 The Golden Gate Vikram Seth 1986 Indian English
17166 Stones From The River Ursula Hegi 1994 German English
2126 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
17166 Rabbit Boss Thomas Sanchez 1973 American English
1507 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 1972 American English
2133 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
10170 Laughing Boy Oliver La Farge 1929 American English
17166 The Corpus Of Joe Bailey Oakley Hall 1952 American English
17166 Rose Martin Cruz Smith 1996 American English
14230 Fat City Leonard Gardner 1969 American English
10525 Montana 1948 Larry Watson 1993 American English
14985 Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down Ishmael Reed 1969 American English
17166 Tattoo The Wicked Cross Floyd Salas 1967 American English
14985 The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman Ernest J. Gaines 1971 American English
17166 Lying Low Diane Johnson 1990 American English
700 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
17166 Superior Women Alice Adams 1984 American English
6871 The Field of Vision Wright Morris 1956 American English
17166 Nobody's Angel Thomas McGuane 1981 American English
2367 Little Big Man Thomas Berger 1964 American English
17166 Budding Prospects T. C. Boyle 1984 American English
14985 The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Sherman Alexie 1993 American English
17166 Angel Fire Ron Franscell 1998 American English
17166 Cowboys Are My Weakness Pam Houston 1992 American English
1318 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
17166 Hondo Louis L'Amour 1953 American English
17166 Fools Crow James Welch 1986 American English
16939 The Vineyard Idwal Jones 1942 American English
17166 Fathers Herb Gold 1994 American English
800 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
16973 Paso Por Aqui Eugene Manlove Rhodes 1926 American English
17166 Mistress Of Spices Chitra Divakaruni 1997 American English
2702 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
17166 Rock Springs Richard Ford 1987 American English
17166 A Distant Trumpet Paul Horgan 1960 American English
5699 Tapping The Source Kem Nunn 1984 American English
1937 Ask The Dust John Fante 1939 American English
17166 Fup Jim Dodge 1983 American English
17069 Friendly Persuasion Jessamyn West 1945 American English
17077 The Splendid Idle Forties Gertrude Atherton 1902 American English
17166 The Carmen Miranda Memorial Flagpole Gerald Rosen 1977 American English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
17166 The Palace Thief Ethan Canin 1994 American English
17166 Confessions Of Madame Psyche Dorothy Bryant 1986 American English
17166 Making History Carolyn See 1991 American English
17166 The Living Annie Dillard 1992 American English
10900 After Many A Summer Dies The Swan Aldous Huxley 1939 British English
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English