Oh, fa-la-la! It’s that time of the year again and we can hear you hyperventilating all the way over here at Geeks of Doom HQ. Don’t sweat it. Your Geek brethren have got you covered with our annual gift giving guide for all those lovable geeks on your list. We make it so darned easy to get through that daunting list, you won’t even have to pull your face out of your favorite internet-capable device for a hot New York minute.

We’ve been posting our Gift Guides all month, so to round it out, a bunch of us book lovers got together and came up with some great reads for you to get for that book lover in your life. Whether your gift recipient prefers a physical book or reading via computer or ebook reading device, we’ve got you covered. Also, if you’re new to ebooks and are unsure on how to gift them, fear not! We’ve got you’ve cover there, too. See below for our Holiday Geek Gift Guide 2011: Books & eBooks.

Aloha From Hell
Hardcover | Kindle
A Sandman Slim Novel
Written by Richard Kadrey
HarperCollins Voyager
Release date October 18, 2011

Aloha from Hell is the third book in the Sandman Slim series from Richard Kadrey and it is one hell of a ride. Wise cracking antihero and nephilim (that’s half human, half angel to you) Jim Stark, A.K.A. Sandman Slim, has been to Hell before. In fact, he spent eleven years down there as a killing machine. He hasn’t been back in Los Angeles for very long before he’s called upon to help find a missing boy who’s possessed by an unknown demon, which is odd because Stark and his friends thought they knew all the demons already. He really doesn’t want the job, but when all signs in the case start pointing toward a personal vendetta against Stark, he knows who’s behind it and fully intends to put that guy out of business permanently with the help of the Kissi, another particularly fierce species which doesn’t quite belong anywhere and stink like vinegar.

Tough chicks who kick butt. The continued popularity explosion of paranormal YA. Male wizards. Hard-boiled detective stories with fantasy settings. These were the most dominant urban fantasy trends this year, and they’ll continue well into 2011.

Standouts include J.L. Bryan’s Jenny Pox about a girl who kills people with her touch. It’s a welcome change from the emo, vegetarian vampires that populate YA novels; highly recommended reading. Brandon Sanderson and Paul Hoffman showed us the darker side of epic fantasy, while Jocelynn Drake and Kelly Meding proved that their female protagonists kick just as much butt as the boys do. Thomas Sniegoski sent us on another adventure with angel-turned-human PI, Remy Chandler, and Joe Hill gave us another compelling protagonist with Ig, a human who grows horns.

My top pick, as with 2009, goes to Kill the Dead, the second volume in the Sandman Slim series. We continued Jimmy Stark’s foray into the gritty, noir-inspired Los Angeles of Kadrey’s fashioning, and this book featured a fantastic, Gaiman-esque interpretation of Lucifer. Let’s hope that the forthcoming title, Aloha from Hell, is even better.

Here’s my picks for the Top 10 Urban Fantasy and Horror Books of 2010.