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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Byrons_Ghost" data-source="post: 1505517" data-attributes="member: 7396">For Historical Fiction, the first thing that immediately popped into my mine was The Killer Angels by Michael Shea. It's the book that the film Gettysberg was based on. It's very well done, not too heavy on the military history aspect of things, and probably represents parts of US history that wouldn't be known to them.There's also the possibility of mixing the historical and mystery stuff. Joe Lansdale's last few books have been set in the thirties or fifties. Lansdale's books are sort of uniquely American, it's the kind of thing they'll either love or hate. I'm not aware of any mass-market editions, so you may not find them in any used bookstores.The same goes for James Ellroy, who sets all his books in the 1950s and 1960s- there's very few mass market editions. If you can find American Tabloid, that dealt with a lot of Kennedy-era history such as the Bay of Pigs and the assassination, all from a criminal underworld standpoint. Again, not for everyone.Otherwise, they might be interested in the original mysteries from the era, such as Dashiel Hammet or Raymond Chandler.For horror- definately Cthulhu. There's so much Lovecraft influence in things like anime and video games that I doubt they're aware of how pervasive it is (I read an online account somewhere from a guy who took the original Romero films over for some Biohazard fans that he knew. They had no idea the games were derived from American movies). The Shirley Jackson books are good suggestions, especially since they mirror the sort of traditional Japanese ghost stories (more emphasis on atmosphere and character). Also in a similar vein, some Peter Straub books such as Ghost Story will probably be easy to find used.For truly weird horror, Thomas Ligotti is your best bet. Alas, he's also very hard to find in mass-market editions (I'm starting to notice a trend with my favorite authors...  :\ ) Clive Barker might be a good one (again, Lovecraft/anime type connections), especially shorter works like the Books of Blood or Cabal. I generally prefer short stories to novels in horror, and I think these will have more stuff in line with recent Japanese movies like Ringu or Uzumaki. There was a series of books called Borderlands put out a while ago that had a lot of good stuff, I think they might still be in print.Wayne reminded me that I forgot all about Matheson. I Am Legend is the basis for pretty much the entire survival horror genre, assuming your friends like Res Evil and similar games.</blockquote>

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