100 Best Western(United States) Works of Fiction

This is one of the 743 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 almost 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
657 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
1502 Sometimes a Great Notion Ken Kesey 1964 American English
231 The Call of the Wild Jack London 1903 American English
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
14901 Animal Dreams Barbara Kingsolver 1990 American English
391 Death Comes for the Archbishop Willa Cather 1927 American English
346 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
143 The Maltese Falcon Dashiell Hammett 1930 American English
13744 The Ox Bow Incident Walter Van Tilburg Clark 1940 American English
17008 English Creek Ivan Doig 1984 American English
9266 Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Tom Robbins 1976 American English
2069 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
42 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
737 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
631 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
852 Mc Teague Frank Norris 1899 American English
1096 My Name Is Aram William Saroyan 1940 American English
8902 A River Runs Through It Norman Maclean 1976 American English
361 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
17008 Coyote Waits Tony Hillerman 1990 American English
463 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
6204 The Monkey Wrench Gang Edward Abbey 1975 American English
4140 Vineland Thomas Pynchon 1990 American English
6273 Earth Abides George Rippey Stewart 1949 American English
17008 Crooked Little Heart Anne Lamott 1997 American English
5489 The Underground Man Ross Macdonald 1971 American English
923 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
2630 Tripmaster Monkey Maxine Hong Kingston 1989 American English
2511 L.A. Confidential James Ellroy 1990 American English
290 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
14165 Women in Their Beds Gina Berriault 1996 American English
13947 Rumors Of Peace Ella Leffland 1997 American English
17008 The River Why David James Duncan 1983 American English
898 Riders of the Purple Sage Zane Grey 1912 American English
6252 Shane Jack Schaefer 1949 American English
8819 Stones For Ibarra Harriet Doerr 1984 American English
14729 The Big Sky A. B. Guthrie 1947 American English
4166 Trout Fishing In America Richard Brautigan 1967 American English
2862 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
14898 The Milagro Beanfield War John Nichols 1974 American English
2167 The Love Of The Last Tycoon F. Scott Fitzgerald 1941 American English
16415 Oil! Upton Sinclair 1927 American English
6478 Mariette In Ecstasy Ron Hansen 1991 American English
1440 The Virginian Owen Wister 1902 American English
14901 A Yellow Raft In Blue Water Michael Dorris 1987 American English
1082 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
2209 Hawaii James A. Michener 1959 American English
467 The Postman Always Rings Twice James M. Cain 1934 American English
2502 Mrs. Bridge Evan S. Connell 1959 American English
12222 The Golden Gate Vikram Seth 1986 Indian English
17008 Stones From The River Ursula Hegi 1994 German English
2117 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
17008 Rabbit Boss Thomas Sanchez 1973 American English
1505 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 1972 American English
2228 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
10148 Laughing Boy Oliver La Farge 1929 American English
17008 The Corpus Of Joe Bailey Oakley Hall 1952 American English
17008 Rose Martin Cruz Smith 1996 American English
14163 Fat City Leonard Gardner 1969 American English
10496 Montana 1948 Larry Watson 1993 American English
14901 Yellow Back Radio Broke-Down Ishmael Reed 1969 American English
17008 Tattoo The Wicked Cross Floyd Salas 1967 American English
14901 The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman Ernest J. Gaines 1971 American English
17008 Lying Low Diane Johnson 1990 American English
699 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
17008 Superior Women Alice Adams 1984 American English
6860 The Field of Vision Wright Morris 1956 American English
17008 Nobody's Angel Thomas McGuane 1981 American English
2358 Little Big Man Thomas Berger 1964 American English
17008 Budding Prospects T. C. Boyle 1984 American English
14901 The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven Sherman Alexie 1993 American English
17008 Angel Fire Ron Franscell 1998 American English
17008 Cowboys Are My Weakness Pam Houston 1992 American English
1316 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
17008 Hondo Louis L'Amour 1953 American English
17008 Fools Crow James Welch 1986 American English
16785 The Vineyard Idwal Jones 1942 American English
17008 Fathers Herb Gold 1994 American English
799 The Loved One Evelyn Waugh 1948 British English
16820 Paso Por Aqui Eugene Manlove Rhodes 1926 American English
17008 Mistress Of Spices Chitra Divakaruni 1997 American English
2698 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
159 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
17008 Rock Springs Richard Ford 1987 American English
17008 A Distant Trumpet Paul Horgan 1960 American English
5688 Tapping The Source Kem Nunn 1984 American English
1934 Ask The Dust John Fante 1939 American English
17008 Fup Jim Dodge 1983 American English
16911 Friendly Persuasion Jessamyn West 1945 American English
16919 The Splendid Idle Forties Gertrude Atherton 1902 American English
17008 The Carmen Miranda Memorial Flagpole Gerald Rosen 1977 American English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
17008 The Palace Thief Ethan Canin 1994 American English
17008 Confessions Of Madame Psyche Dorothy Bryant 1986 American English
17008 Making History Carolyn See 1991 American English
17008 The Living Annie Dillard 1992 American English
10868 After Many A Summer Dies The Swan Aldous Huxley 1939 British English
633 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English