Tony is taking over the blog this week! Enjoy the dude version of Heels in the Hills, kicking off with July’s Book Club pick: “The City of Mirrors” by Justin Cronin, the third book in “The Passage” trilogy…

Alright dudes, my dad and brother have always ribbed me because I didn’t LOVE reading like they did. I just didn’t. I love action movies, loud music, and anything that’s shiny and makes noise. I’m pretty much like a narcoleptic puppy. However, I fell in love with reading when I started picking up Tony Hillerman books. I’m a sucker for history and mystery combined. I highly recommend any of his books, as they were my doorway into the joy of reading.

Nowadays I like to sink into books that get me jacked. Anything scary or thriller… I’m in! If you’re anything like me, you secretly watch the Twilight movies when they’re on TV, you loved the first three seasons of True Blood, and you desperately want to kill zombies with Brad Pitt in World War Z OR you just desperately want to be Brad Pitt.

Well, about two years ago Annie turned me onto an amazing author, Justin Cronin (Harvard stud) who really crushes the horror genre. His books “The Passage” and “The Twelve” tell of a zombie/vampire race that threatens the entire human existence. These aren’t the slow moving groaners that we are all used to. No way. These badass bad guys are bloodsucking/mind-reading undead, whose former selves were the worst death row inmates the world had ever seen. A series of government tests accidentally created these monsters and their millions of minions. Cronin really takes the time to craft his characters into heroes you truly root for and the worst enemies you can imagine (yes, worse then Meryl in DWP).

There’s a catch though; these novels are epic. I mean, it takes me a month to get through one of these bad boys. As I said before, I have the attention span of a Ritalin riddled 10-year-old, but these books hook me and I can’t put them down. Back in January, my brother and I listened to “The Passage” on our cross-country road trip and still did not finish the whole thing (granted, mainly because we wasted a lot of time talking about our high school exploits… Both of us won “best hair” for our senior superlative. I was a legacy).

This is the perfect time to pick up the series as the final book in the trilogy, “City Of Mirrors,” was just released after a 4-year wait! I can’t wait to sink my teeth into it and if you’re an adrenaline-chomping, horror-head like me, then you’re gonna love it.

Make sure to check back in this week at Heels In The Hills for a week-long TONY TAKEOVER!