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Fiction read in the calendar year of 2019, A.D.
Once upon a time, I would have contrived a clever title for a post such as this, but tonight is New Year’s Eve and I have a cold, my wife just got over a cold, our oldest daughter has an ear infection and threw a cup of mango juice at lunch, and our youngest daughter is hooked up to a nebulizer because she has pneumonia. “Auld Lang Zine” will be preceded by an amoxicillin toast, and while we await that beautiful moment *sniff* the fiction read in the calendar year of 2019 in the order that it was read *sniff*:
Celeste Ng’ Little Fires Everywhere (2017)
Reese recommends it. My mother-in-law recommends it. My wife recommends it. My mom is currently reading it. And yes, I technically read most of it in 2018 and included it on that year’s list, but I need it here to link one culminating work with another. Click here to see the books read last year in a calendar year.
Paul Howarth’s Only Killers and Thieves (2018)
This novel involves a conflict of innocence versus experience. It is about virtue and corruption. Its events take place on a rugged frontier. A drought is in the air and in the soil. The rains must be paid for in blood or the good, haunted earth shall remain a tinderbox. A murder will take place. Vengeance will be sought. This novel echoes the source material of John Ford’s The…
