Recommended Reading! These are the books that we like best in all the world, with a link to amazon.com for those still in print, and a link to Alibris for those that are out-of-print.

• Perfume: the Story of a Murderer - Patrick Suskind. Meet Jean Baptiste, one of the creepiest characters in fiction. Here is a man whose nose provides him with an instant smellometric analysis of any substance. He becomes obsessed with extracting the odors from everything, even glass. He figures out that people find him revolting because he has no odor of his own, so he sets out to formulate his very own scent...
• A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole. Ignatius J. Reilly, an extraordinarily obnoxious and enormous eccentric with a masters degree in Medieval History, leads a one-man crusade against the twentieth century, which he says is lacking in theology and geometry. The novel takes place in New Orleans and includes a remarkable set of characters who come together at the beginning, go their separate ways, and come together at the end for the grand finale. The scenes of Ignatius in the movie theater and Ignatius trying to adopt a cat can make me laugh no matter how many times I read them. People are evenly split on who they hate more, Ignatius or his mother. Read it once to laugh, then read it again to see what it's really about.
• More Homer Price - Robert McCloskey. It's out of print again, and that's really too bad. This is actually a children's book, containing three surreal stories about Homer Price. Just what is Experiment 13 and how does it threaten national security? How can a simple record be so malevolent? And does Ever-So-Much-More-So really work, or have they all been suckered? You can check alibris for this title by clicking on Search by Title below. They usually have several copies available.

Search by Title : More Homer Price




• Mrs. Caliban - Rachel Ingalls. A housewife has an affair with a giant refugee lizard...
• The Lives and Times of Archy and Mehitabel - Don Marquis. Archy is a free verse poet who dies and is reincarnated as a cockroach. He records his thoughts by leaping onto the keys of Don Marquis's typewriter at night. Mehitabel is Archy's disreputable cat friend. "Toujours gai" is her motto, kid. This is a collection of newspaper columns originally published in the 'teens and 'twenties. Some of the most quotable lines ever written come from the writings of Archy!
• The Cockroaches of Stay More - Donald Harington. This is like Watership Down, only with cockroaches instead of bunny rabbits. The highlight of the book, for me, is the part where the male roach is describing a beautiful roach babe...
• The Gormenghast Novels: Titus Groan, Gormenghast, Titus Alone - Mervyn Laurence Peake. This surreal, dark, gloomy trilogy is about the self-obsessed kingdom of Gormenghast, its stifling rituals, and its tormented denizens with the wonderful names: Titus Groan, Lord Sepulchrave, Sourdust the Lord of the Library, Rottcodd, Dr. Prunesquallor, and the most malevolent Steerpike. If you have ever lived on an island or any other community cut off from the outside world, this story will have unsettlingly familiar elements...
• Prostho Plus - Piers Anthony. This is science fiction, but not the usual kind. It is the tale of a dentist kidnapped by aliens and forced to practice dentistry under very peculiar circumstances. Eventually, against great odds, he makes it to galactic dental school. If you are a dentist, you have got to read this! If you are not a dentist, you should get a copy for your dentist!
• Geek Love - Katherine Dunn. Oh, but this is a nasty book! Do you know what a geek really is? It's a sideshow performer whose act consists of biting the heads off live chickens. That should give you an idea.
• Dirty Weekend: a Novel of Revenge - Helen Zahavi. This is the wonderful story of a mousy woman who decided that she wasn't going to let guys push her around anymore. This book feels so good!
• The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood. Imagine a world where the Christian right reformats the United States according to its desired specifications. Well, there you have it. Very creepy!
• The Road to Wellville - T. Coraghessan Boyle: Do food faddists and health nuts bug you as much as they bug me? If so, then you'll love this book!  By the way, if you have read our Star Trek Parodies, and were grossed out by Fletcher Paste Mammal Extract -- this book is the inspiration.

 

• Fats Waller - Maurice Waller and Anthony Calabrese: This fascinating biography of Fats Waller, written by his son Maurice, gives us an inside look into the world of music in Harlem at the beginning of this century. Particularly interesting are the various ways that Fats used to educate himself about the piano, how he composed his music, and how the musicians interacted with each other and with the people in control of the entertainment industry. Everyone who loves jazz should read this wonderful book!
• Bass Line: The Stories and Photographs of Milt Hinton - Milt Hinton and David Berger: Milt Hinton was not only a great musician (bass player for Cab Calloway), but is also famous for his beautiful and intimate photographs of his colleagues in the jazz world, many of which are included in this volume. This is a well-written and fascinating autobiography. Read about Milt's upbringing in Chicago and marvel at the rich musical environment that prevailed there.
• Of Minnie the Moocher and Me - Cab Calloway and Bryant Rollins. This book is out-of-print, unfortunately, but is a sensitive and revealing autobiography of one of America's great musicians and band-leaders. (Okay, I know it's fashionable to say that Cab was just a showman and not a musician, but just listen to his music and reconsider. Besides, don't vocalists qualify as musicians?) Anyway, this book gives us another look at early 20th C African-American culture and music in the northeast United States. We only wish we could have been there...   You can search for this and other publications by Cab Calloway at alibris by clicking on Search by Author below. They usually have several copies of this book available.

Search by Author : Cab Calloway

• Ragtime Tumpie - Alan Schroeder and Bernie Fuchs (Illustrator) This gorgeous picture book is a children's book about Josephine Baker, the great jazz entertainer of the early part of this century. The warm, vibrant illustrations and moving story  make you want to dance along with Tumpie! This book is a good way to introduce a child to the spirit of jazz.

• Two Bad Ants - Chris van Allsburg. The beautiful sepia-tone drawings in this book lead us on an adventure through an ant's world, from the worldview of an ant. Children find the misadventures of the two ants hilarious, and especially like the drawing of the cavernous mouth.
• Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Judi and Ron Barrett. This is a great story with all kinds of implications that children love to discuss. This is a story that sticks. After reading about the town where food and drink fall out of the sky like rain and snow, children ask questions about it for days afterwards. As for the illustrations, you'll notice something new every time you look at this book!
• Animalia - Graeme Base. This is the most lush and gorgeous alphabet book ever created. Adults will enjoy it as much as the children, maybe even more so, with its subtle literary references and hidden pictures.

Updated 3/10/01.

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