There aren't many books that I read that I could honestly recommend. Of course there are the obvious choices that everyone would pick. What good is it for me to recommend Stephen King? You know he's a good read.
Instead I have recommended titles I have read that resonate with me. These books have had a lingering effect on my mind, and I can't soon forget them. I highly recommend each title, and have provided a link for purchasing each one through Amazon.
This novel is a work I'm very familiar with. I watched Dave create it in the mid-nineties. The book takes a unique slant on vampire fiction. It has a former U.S. President as one of the characters, and the action ranges all up and down California, even venturing into Disneyland (pre-California Adventure) and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride (pre-Johnny Depp). Plus, it has me as one of the main characters. What more could you ask for?
Buy Wasting the Dawn
Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez
Imagine a road trip with a cranky werewolf and a sappy vampire. Now add a teenage girl who wants to bring a Cthulhu style monster into our world. And all of the action takes place at the site of a road-side diner. This book made me laugh all the way through, yet I still couldn't put it down. The characters and pacing were amazing. Buy this book now and read it!
Buy Gil's All Fright Diner
Cold Skin by Albert Sánchez Piñol
This is the first novel written by this anthropologist, but don't let that turn you off. I devoured this book from the very first page. It follows a young man assuming a weather official's post on a postage stamp island somewhere in the Antarctic Circle. After the first night on the island, the young man is attacked by a savage group of creatures that come from the the frigid waters surrounding him. He must fight for his very life each and every day. Piñol elegantly depicts the rigor of survival, replete with desolation and despair. His commentary on war is carefully woven into the text.
Buy Cold Skin
The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier
Although Science Fiction is not my usual fare, this book captivated me. It takes place in the near future where a genetically designed disease does a good job at wiping out humanity. There are great bits with the Coca Cola Corporation dealing out some very Machiavellian advertising campaigns. The core of the book deals with life after dead. Brockmeier plays off an African concept of the living-dead and the truly dead. The living-dead are those who still have people alive to remember them. They inhabit a city and go about their regular routines until the last person who remembered them dies. Then they simply disappear. To where is the real question.
