Book Rec of the Day 2/8/08-2/13/08

LIZARDO AND FRIENDS

“Kotzwinkle fans will find sharply resonant moments as well as pointed humor and insight into human nature at its worst and best.”—Publishers Weekly

Suspend your disbelief, engage your sense of humor, and indulge yourself in this over-the-top space opera. Space pirate Jockey Oldcastle has heard about a project to bring immortality and enlightenment to the human race. Not a bad idea, but unfortunately the subjects, instead of becoming immortal, end up as crystal artifacts. Oldcastle, with his navigator, one Lizardo, and botanist Adrian Link decide to find out why. Their quest is filled with twists, turns, extradimensional beings, and some unusual technology.

THE AMPHORA PROJECT, by William Kotzwinkle (Grove Press, 2005)

SEX, DRUGS, ETC.

Here it is, everything you ever wanted to know about the sex film industry but somehow never got around to asking. Written from interviews with the major players in porn from the ’50s to the ’90s, the book has just about everything: sex, drugs, the FBI, the Mafia, money, celebrities, rock stars, and murder. Was Linda Lovelace forced to perform in the legendary Deep Throat, or was everyone else lying? Was Traci Lord a victim of child pornographers, or did she mislead them about her age and use the resulting scandal to further her own career? This other Hollywood turns out to be just about as fascinating and sleazy as the real Tinseltown.

THE OTHER HOLLYWOOD: THE UNCENSORED ORAL HISTORY OF THE PORN FILM INDUSTRY, by Legs McNeil, Peter Pavia, and Jennifer Osborne (ReganBooks, 2005)

Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show comes to Green Town, Illinois, bringing with it Mr. Dark, Mr. Cooger, Mr. Electro, and the Dust Witch, among other devious characters. Two 13-year-old boys, Jim Nightshade and Bill Halloway, are fascinated by the carnival and innocent of its evil. Bradbury’s classic story is as much a coming-of-age tale as it is one of good versus evil.

SOMETHING WICKED THIS WAY COMES, by Ray Bradbury (1962; Avon, 1998)

Something Wicked This Way Comes, which has not been out of print since its publication in 1962, makes a wonderful pairing with Bradbury’s sweetly nostalgic Dandelion Wine, about a 12-year-old boy’s experience of a near perfect summer.

MORE INCONVENIENT TRUTH

“If you are not already addicted to Tim Flannery’s writing, discover him now: this is his best book yet.”—Jared Diamond, author of Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed

Most of us get our information about global warming and climate change in bits and pieces from the popular media. Here, Flannery brings all the science together and lays it out for the general reader, allowing us to fully comprehend what we human beings are doing to our planet and what individuals might do to make a real difference.

THE WEATHER MAKERS: HOW MAN IS CHANGING THE CLIMATE AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR LIFE ON EARTH, by Tim Flannery (Atlantic Monthly Press, 2006)

FINE ROMANCE
Evanovich and Hughes add another wild confection to their Full series. In Full Scoop, the denizens of Beaumont, South Carolina, are up to their bangs in romance and mischief. Maggie Farnsworth’s ex-con ex-boyfriend has escaped prison and is looking for her. FBI agent Zack Madden is there to intercept him and stirs up some unwanted feelings in Maggie. A hound dog named Fleas seems to have very wanted feelings for Butterbean, a pygmy goat. And what is the romantic destiny of Destiny, the town psychic-slash-astrologer? Then there are the Elvises and the ice-cream parlor. Evanovich and Hughes have concocted another big yummy sundae of laughs and romance.

FULL SCOOP, by Janet Evanovich and Charlotte Hughes (St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 2006)

EVOLVING CIVIL RIGHTS

In 1963, the fanatic racist Byron de la Beckwith murdered NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers and got away with it when two hung juries failed to convict him. Thirty years later, Beckwith was tried one more time, found guilty at last, and sentenced to life in prison. Nossiter examines the years between the trials and traces how the civil rights movement changed Mississippi and the South, making Beckwith’s ultimate conviction possible. His portraits of Evers, Beckwith, and prosecutor Bobby DeLaughter are truly memorable.

OF LONG MEMORY: MISSISSIPPI AND THE MURDER OF MEDGAR EVERS, by Adam Nossiter (Perseus Books, 2002)