Ilove a Western.

Maybe it’s because my dad had old movies playing on the TV throughout my childhood, or maybe it’s because I grew up in rural California, where it was easy to imagine cowboys and campfires.

Nowadays, I gravitate toward what I would call “modern literary Westerns,” with their strong sense of place and complex look at the issues and ethics in how this side of America was built. Plus, they’re usually good yarns.

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What follows are novels, but I’ll add a non-fiction recommendation, too: One of the themes in these books concerns aging lawmen, soldiers or Texas Rangers who lament the things they’ve done for pay or progress. A non-fiction companion that gave me some perspective, e

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