Booklists: suggested reading

 

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Alex Awards: Gil's All Fright Diner
If You Like A. Lee Martinez Booklist

 

If you like cult favorites, fast paced books that cross genres (horror, etc. ), dark overtones often tinged with humor . . .

 

• Gil's All Fright Diner
  Author: Martinez, A. Lee
  Publisher: Tor $ 24.95 ISBN: 0765311437 Date: 2005
  PW
  Alex Award
  Bloodier than Fried Green Tomatoes! Funnier than The Texas Chainsaw Massacre! Welcome to Gil's All Night Diner, where zombie attacks are a regular occurrence and you never know what might be lurking in the freezer . . . - Publisher Marketing.
  Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
  Updated 3.21.05

These booklists include adult titles suggested for teens - not all books are suitable for all readers. Please use your judgement when considering these titles.

Annotations are from Advance, the Ingram Book Magazine, unless noted.

 

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• Zombie Lover
  Author: Anthony, Piers
  Publisher: Tor Books $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312866909 Date: 1998
  Kirkus
  A ghoulishly delightful Xanth escapade from the master of mischievous merriment. Brianna, a beautiful young black girl has a distracting dilemma: she has unwittingly attracted the affections of King Xeth, ruler of Xanth's zombies, who yearns to make her the Queen of the Dead.
• The Coyote Kings of the Space-Age Bachelor Pad
  Author: Azania, Malcolm & Minister Faust
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 14.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345466357 Date: 2004
  LJ Booklist
  Mix together two young slackers with a thirst for adventure, several dangerous characters seeking a mystical Egyptian artifact, a hearty dose of mysterious occurrences, and a rollicking plot, and one has Faust's pop culture/sci fi debut.
  Suggested Reading: Debuts
  Updated 6.15.04
• Dead Beat: A Novel of the Dresden Files
  Author: Butcher, Jim
  Publisher: Roc $ 23.95 ISBN: 0451460278 Date: 2005
  LJ
  In his first hardcover adventure in the national bestselling series, Harry Dresden must save Chicago from black magic and necromancy--all in a day's work for the city's only professional wizard.
  Suggested Reading: Cross Genres | Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 4.19.05
• Shadows in the Starlight
  Author: Cunningham, Elaine
  Publisher: Tor $ 23.95 ISBN: 0765309718 Date: 2006
  Kirkus
  Imagine Laurel Hamilton mixed with a liberal dose of Andrew Vachs, and osterized in a Tolkienesque blender with a young heroine that combines the best elements of both "Dark Angel" and "Alias" and you have Gwen "GiGi" Gellman of Changeling Detective Agency.
  Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
  Updated 11.9.05
• Kornwolf
  Author: Egolf, Tristan
  Publisher: Grove $ 25 ISBN: 080211816X Date: 2005
  Kirkus
  Tristan Egolf's new novel is a book about the return of an old curse -- the Kornwolf, a ferocious werewolf whose nocturnal rampaging becomes increasingly impossible to ignore. "Kornwolf" takes the reader for a good old-fashioned romp in the stubble -- a journey through the slums and honky tundra of rural Pennsylvania, where nothing quite passes for good or bad, sublime or dismal, discrete or brash. And then the monotony breaks. Something -- a freak of creation -- is running amok in the fields. To solve the mystery, three generations of prodigal sons -- a writer and hometown boy who swore he'd never come back to Penn's Woods; a middle-aged former pugilist who runs a decrepit boxing gym; and a misfit, mute, beaten-down Amish boy -- are brought together by the light of a blue moon, in a town called Blue Ball. On one level this is a masterfully orchestrated, hilarious, and compelling take on the classic horror yarn, on another, "Kornwolf is a social satire of suburban sprawl, closed minds, and all manners and varieties of self-satisfaction -- Amish, civilian, or... "other" -- in the best tradition of Tom Robbins and George Saunders. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 5.24.06
• Fat White Vampire Blues
  Author: Fox, Andrew
  Publisher: Ballantine $ 13.95 (paper) ISBN: 0345463331 Date: 2003
  Booklist
  If Dracula slept with A Confederacy of Dunces, this funny first novel about Jules, a feckless, overweight vampire would be the result. He's watched his neighborhood go to hell--and now, a new vampire is looking to drive him out. Jules must find a way to contend with life's hurdles--without getting a stake through the heart.
  Suggested Reading: New Orleans
  Updated 4.28.03
• Anonymous Rex: A Detective Story
  Author: Garcia, Eric
  Publisher: Villard List Price: $ 23 ISBN: 0375503269 Date: 1999
  PW
  Vincent Rubio, a Los Angeles private investigator, is down on his luck: He's out of work. His car's been reposessed. He's been banned from The Council. His partner has died under mysterious circumstances. And his tail just won't stay put.

  Somewhere between L.A. Confidential and Jurassic Park, you can find Anonymous Rex, one of the smartest, wittiest, and most entertaining debuts this side of the Ice Age. - From the Anonymous Rex web site.
  Suggested Reading: Humorous Mysteries | Debuts

• The Boys Are Back in Town
  Author: Golden, Christopher
  Publisher: Bantam $ 12 (paper) ISBN: 0553382071 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  Will James isn't looking forward to his tenth high school reunion. But what Will finds is a sort of alternative universe in which realities fade and "new" memories begin to block them out. This changed world of ever-shifting certainties threatens to remake the whole of the world--unless he can find a way to stop it.
  Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
  Updated 2.23.04
• Dead as a Doornail
  Author: Harris, Charlaine
  Publisher: Ace $ 22.95 ISBN: 0441012795 Date: 2005
  PW
  Sookie Stackhouse discovers that her brother Jason is about to turn into a were-panther for the first time. But her concern becomes fear when a sniper sets his deadly sights on the local changeling population in this "New York Times" bestseller.
  Updated 5.24.06
• Naked Brunch
  Author: Hayter, Sparkle
  Publisher: Three Rivers $ 13 ISBN: 1400047439 Date: 2003
  Annie Engel hasn't been feeling herself lately--a mousy secretary by day, she's been morphing into a werewolf at night. Think Buffy crossed with Bridget Jones, and get ready for a madcap chase through nocturnal New York, where no one seems to sleep and the scents of fear and desire are always in the air.
  Updated 5.24.06
• Already Dead
  Author: Huston, Charlie
  Publisher: Del Rey $ 12.95 ISBN: 034547824x Date: 2006
  PW
  The daughter of a prominent New York family is missing, and her Vampyre fascination makes Joe Pitt--private detective and Vampyre--the man for this most dangerous job.
  Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
  Updated 12.5.05
• Magic for Beginners
  Author: Link, Kelly
  Publisher: Small Beer $ 24 ISBN: 1931520151 Date: 2005
  PW
  Cult favorite Kelly Link unfurls a second engaging, funny, and magical selection of stories, with riffs on marriage, cannons, convenience stories, superheroes, zombies, and apocalyptic poker parties.
  Suggested Reading: Speculative Fiction for the Reluctant | Adult Books for Teens
  Updated 6.6.05
• The Rover
  Author: Odom, Mel
  Publisher: Tor $ 25.95 ISBN: 0312878826 Date: 2001
  Booklist
  Alex Award
  The Rover is the tale of a halfling whose life as a third-level assistant librarian is disrupted when he is shanghaied and sold into slavery in a far off land. From then on it's one adventure after another as he manages to save the day in a magically dangerous world.
  Suggested Reading: Librarian Stars | Adult Books for Teens
• Headstone City
  Author: Piccirilli, Tom
  Publisher: Spectra $ 5.99 ISBN: 0553587218 Date: 2006
  PW
  The multiple award-winning author of November Mourns delivers his most genre-bending novel yet, as one man faces down hitmen, supernatural forces, and the dark corners of his own past.
  Suggested Reading: Cross Genres
  Updated 12.27.05
• Burning Bright
  Author: Russell, Jay S.
  Publisher: St Martins $ 23.95 ISBN: 0312185456 Date: 1998
  After his acclaimed debut, Marty Burns is back in a new supernatural thriller. Former teen TV idol Marty Burns didn't just save his life by thwarting Hollywood's biggest demon...he also revived his moribund acting career. Fox is backing his P.I. show, Burning Bright, which promises to put their classic shows like Herman's Head to shame. But the words "Ultima Thule" intrude upon his life as Marty's touring London, and faster than you can say "syndication", Burns is back in the thick of trouble...to the great joy of the growing horde of fans of J. S. Russell's distinctive blend of comedy, horror, and thriller. - Publisher Marketing
  Updated 5.16.06
• Vamped
  Author: Sosnowski, David
  Publisher: Free $ 24 ISBN: 0743262530 Date: 2004
  LJ
  A hot beach read, Sosnowski's Vamped is the story of a very different world--one where vampires rule and humans are the near-extinct minority.
  Suggested Reading: Adult Books for Young Adults
  Updated 6.1.04
• Perfect Circle
  Author: Stewart, Sean
  Publisher: Small Beer $ 24 ISBN: 1931520070 Date: 2004
  Booklist
  A novel about Texas, ghosts and perfect pop songs.
  Suggested Reading: Contemporary Fantasy Stars
  Updated 6.10.04