Mel Brooks’ son, Max Brooks, has undertaken the task of chronicling the first-hand accounts of the decade-long zombie war. From isolated attacks to full-scale military combat– the subtle, and not so subtle, jabs at various contemporary politicians, cultural icons and policies add considerably to the beauty of this skilled contribution to the zombie mythos.

Novellas once more– this time, four earlier works written under Stephen King’s pseudonym: Richard Bachman. The collection includes “Rage,” “The Long Walk,” “Roadwork,” and “The Running Man.” Whirl, the consummate Stephen King fan, recommended the collection to me, as I’ve never read any of these “straight” stories.

A literary murder mystery in mid-nineteenth century Boston. Matthew Pearl introduces a reluctant, elite group of American Dante scholars to catch the serial killer. My initial feelings on the book betray a certain discontent. Despite my interests in both the subject matter and the time period, I am not particularly compelled by Pearl’s execution of the story.

Returning to non-fiction I have picked up Ben Mezrich’s new book. To quote the back cover Busting Vega$ is a true story about a team of geniuses and a barely legal system for beating the blackjack tables: a riveting account of monumental greed, excess, hubris, sex, love, violence, fear, and statistics that is high-stakes entertainment at its best.

I have a theory that every bookstore in the world sells at least one book by Stephen King. On the Greek island of Sifnos, the little bookstore in Kameres sold three in English. I had not read this 900-page collection of novellas— I had read the other two choices. I am very glad I picked this up.

More Neil Gaiman for reading while on vacation in Greece. This time I have chosen his collection of short stories and prose poetry. “We Can Get Them for You Wholesale,” “Murder Mysteries” and “The Price” are three of my favorite selections from this rich body of work.

James Ellroy bases this classic crime-noir novel on a notorious, unsolved murder case. Passion, obsession, insanity and deceipt erupt in this the hard-boiled mystery. Ellroy breathes an uncanny life into the Los Angeles police department of the 1940s. I will catch the movie later; the power of Ellroy’s writing cannot be understated.

I have heard this book often compared to Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland series, or C.S. Lewis’ Narnia chronicles— comparisons primarily based upon the story’s alternate reality based plot. If you have read anything of Neil Gaiman you undoubtedly know such short-sightedness is rather off the point.

I have thoroughly enjoyed Vladimir Nabokov’s work over the years. Ada, or Ardor is high on my list of all-time favorite novels. This one has been compared to Franz Kafka’s work— another favorite author. This book embodies a vision of a bizarre and irrational world, and it has escaped my attention. I am rectifying the oversight.

Dan Simmons is a fan of the novella. I am, too. The novella is an intriguing literary form in that it straddles the distance between a short story and a full novel. This tenuous length requires an author to commit to the character depth and detail of a longer form and scrupulously apply an unapologetic editorial edge to the plot. This collection of five novellas includes “Orphans of the Helix”—a novella associated with the Hyperion Cantos—and the rare “Looking for Kelly Dahl.”