Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Yellowstone is one of the most requested DVDs I’m asked about at the desks right now, and for which I get the most recommendations requests. So what ARE some watch- and read-alikes? Here’s a bunch of titles to further your exploration of the wild West and beyond from the comfort of our little town:

* A note for this blog post: due to the nature of Yellowstone (Television program) [unrated], most of these recommendations include some adult content, violence, drugs and alcohol, language, and/or dark/gritty storylines. 

Yellowstone 

Shows:

1883   Prequel to Yellowstone

Breaking Bad   Another hit TV show with a huge following and great acting, dark/gritty storyline

Deadwood    Gritty show about the brutality of life in the Old West

Dynasty    Feuding family members, constant drama

Firefly   Space, scifi, fantasy, western

Hell on Wheels   Western show taking place during the time of the building of the transcontinental railroad

Longmire    Western detective show set in Absaroka, WY, inspired by novels of Craig Johnson

Peaky Blinders   Gangster family epic set in 1919 England

The Son   Caught between two ways of life, Eli lives a lonely life fitting as neither what he was born into nor what he was raised into. Warning: Suicide, self-harm

Star Trek   Space is, after all, the final frontier - we had several staff members make an argument for this

Westworld   “A dark odyssey … exploring a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged.  No rules, no laws, no judgment. Live without limits.”

Movies:

Let Him Go

Montana Story

Wind River

Books:

Fiction:

Bad Moon Rising   |   Galligan, John

The Cold Dish   |   Johnson, Craig   -  Longmire Series of books

The Only Good Indians   |   Jones, Stephen Graham 

Open Season   |   Box, C.J.   -  Joe Pickett Series of books

Upright Women Wanted   |   Gailey, Sarah

Virgin River   |   Carr, Robyn   -  for something a bit softer, but still cut off from today’s city life/amenities, out in nature/small town

Nonfiction

A terrible glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn : the last great battle of the American West   |  973.82 D719  -  for general fans of the old west

The Compton Cowboys: the new generation of cowboys in America’s urban heartland   |   979.4 Thompson-Herna 2020

Saving Yellowstone: exploration and preservation in Reconstruction America   |  978.752 Nelson 2022  -  for general fans of the old west

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Heaven   |   289.33 K858  -  modern day with family and clan feuds and violence, which also has a colonizers vs natives layer as well

Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks | Fodor's Yellowstone and Grand Teton national Parks | Compass American guides (Series)   |   917.8752 Fodor’s 2021

Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks | Lonely Planet Yellowstone & Grand Teton National Parks   |   917.8752 Lonely 2019

Kanopy:

The American West [Great Courses]

"Hud" (1963)