This is one of the best audiobooks I’ve ever found. The dialogue is burst-out-loud funny, and the writing is spectacularly visual. I’d heard the name Lonesome Dove many times over the years, and I finally dove in after a friend mentioned that it’s his all-time favorite book. Here’s the description: “A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize-winning classic, Lonesome Dove, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Two retired Texas Rangers, Captains Woodrow Call and Augustus ‘Gus’ McCrae, lead a cattle drive from the small town of Lonesome Dove to the unsettled Montana territories. On their grueling journey, they are joined by Joshua Deets, a Black scout and former Ranger; Jake Spoon, a fugitive; and Newt Dobbs, a 17-year-old boy who may have family ties to Call.”

Even if you end up reading the text, listen to 30–60 minutes of the audiobook for narrator Lee Horsley’s accents and performance. Warning: Gus can be high-volume, as he’s a loudmouth in the book, and there is one tough stretch via audio about one-third in. I was tempted to put it down briefly, as was a friend, so just power through or switch to text. It evens out after that and simply gets better and better with each short chapter.