Apple-Obsessed Author Fella

In Which I Recommend Two Books And Then It’s Your Turn

madeofvultures

It’s vital for you to realize that I do not recommend books unless I really like them. I also don’t blurb books unless I really like them. Folks have occasionally described a blurb-sharing universe that is at best morally corrupt, where agents and editors and authors trade blurbs in back alleys for, I dunno, exotic pets or fancy Japanese sneakers or multidimensional designer drugs. I have never received these things. I talk about books I love — and I’ll blurb ’em, too — because I need you to trust me. I can’t just go blurbing any ol’ hunk of monkeyspunk — that’s regardless of whether you’re a friend or someone I’ve never met.

So, right now I’m going to recommend a pair of books, each by a close friend, but I want you to realize that my recommendation is in no way corrupted by this fact.

I loved both of these books, and you may, too.

First up: Lila Bowen’s Wake of Vultures. It’s a wonderfully weird-ass supernatural Western. It has shapeshifters and monsters and monster-hunting. It has knives. It has harpies. It tackles issues of identity and gender and objectification. It’s violent and funny. (I might recommend it, actually, to folks who like my Miriam Black books.) Nettie Lonesome is your new jam. Thing about this book though that really struck me is the way it was written — it’s sodden with voice. Just drips with it. The prose stomps right up to the edge of almost too damn much and then stops and stays there, and it’s just fucking perfect. (Reminds me a little of Pretty Deadly, in fact.) So, hell, mount up and take the ride, will you? (Indiebound | Amazon)

Next: Adam Christopher’s Made to Kill. This is another book where the genres kind of bleed into another a little bit — it’s a Raymond Chandlerian story set in the 60s with a robot “detective” (cough cough assassin) at its heart. He loses his memory every day due to his tapes erasing. He’s got a cantankerous AI named Ada in his head. He takes on a job from a young girl who might be the damsel in distress or might be the femme fatale or who might be something else entirely — and in classic noir fashion, the story everyone thinks they’re getting is really just the tip of the sinister iceberg. It straddles the line between silly and serious, and it’s a lean book with nary an ounce of fat on it — Adam’s writing is forthright and no-nonsense and quick as the stick of a switchblade. (Indiebound | Amazon)

So, I’ve named two books I liked recently.

I’m asking you to name just one.

Go into the comments, talk about a book you read within the last few months that you really liked. Tell us why you liked it. Tell us why we should read it.