One of my favorite titles of the year was Pike by Benjamin Whitmer and it was published by the Switchblade line of PM Press. Looking at their catalogue made my eyes start to cross, even when I just focused on Switchblade, their crime fiction line - it was just that exciting - but I would be pleased, pleased, pleased to receive any of their other fiction titles, especially The Underbelly by Gary Phillips.
I've dropped the hints none too subtly about my lust for The Best American Noir of the Century edited by James Ellroy and Otto Penzler as well as Penzler’s follow up to The Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps, The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories, yet I still don’t have either. And speaking of Ellroy, I still haven’t picked up The Hilliker Curse. That’s a sure thing.
Benjamin Percy’s short stories are harrowing and bold, (check out his collection Refresh, Refresh), and I expect no less from his debut novel The Wilding. I picked it up at the library and had only a couple of extended turns through the pages before I had to get back to work. It looked like an extension of one of his short stories and I am really looking forward to getting to the bottom of this one, but y’know, kinda need a copy first.
Don Winslow’s Savages was the first of his titles I’d picked up in a long time. Not sure how, but he’d dropped off my radar. Now, it turns out he’d written a bunch of books I didn’t know about and I’ve started to catch up, but the one that everybody says is the must of the bunch is The Power of the Dog. Guess which one I haven’t picked up yet?
Charlie Stella is one of those names that’s been on the periphery of my consciousness for a long time. I’d read several short stories I’d found in anthologies, but had never pulled the trigger on a novel. Until this year’s Johnny Porno. Now I need to go back and catch up. Seriously, anybody want to help me out with some Stella backlist, I’d be eternally grateful.
A good pal from Joisey donated a bunch of comic books to me recently and thumbing through them I had to admit to myself that I love to have them in my hand and in boxes under my bed. I never had comic books as a kid, so I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Hands down my favorite ongoing series is Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera’s Scalped, and while I’ve read all six of the collected volumes, I’ve only bought the first. I now realize that this is not good enough for me. I need to have them at the ready. I need to be able to pick them up and check out those gorgeously gritty illustrations by Guera.
Alright, now you. What's on your gift list?
Jedidiah Ayres writes fiction and keeps the blog Hardboiled Wonderland.
