Book Rec of the Day 1/29-1/30/2009

RX FOR THE BLUES

What a treat—400 pages of the delicious, oddball humor and the shaky, incredibly detailed pastel drawings of Roz Chast, longtime contributor to The New Yorker. “Everything” means mothers-in-law, children, pets, neuroses, urban life, travel . . . the works. You don’t have to be a New Yorker to love this zany national treasure.

THEORIES OF EVERYTHING: SELECTED, COLLECTED, AND HEALTH-INSPECTED CARTOONS, 1978-2006, by Roz Chast (Bloomsbury USA, 2006)

MYSTERIOUS DOINGS
If you were a fan of The West Wing, you’ll love curling up with this one. Brad Meltzer gives us a recognizable White House and Washington, D.C., real flesh-and-blood characters, plenty of political scandal, and a walloping good mystery involving President Leland Manning and his top aides.

THE BOOK OF FATE, by Brad Meltzer (Vision, 2007)

On no, our Buffalo is definitely not:

Shangri-la is in your mind

But your Buffalo is not.

billboard, China

On church feats, obscure:

Feast of the Superb Owl

church bulletin listing, which should have said "Feast of the Super Bowl"

SINGING IN THE SHOWER

ROCKET MAN

Best known for his 1965 hit “Down in the Boondocks,” Billy Joe Royal thought he was about to make a big comeback in the mid-1980s with a country song called “Burned Like a Rocket.” It was released to radio stations in January 1986 . . . just days before the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy. (The song was not a hit.)

KING TUT WAS BURIED WITH 145 LOINCLOTHS.

IRONIC, ISN’T IT?

In 2003 Men’s Fitness magazine named Houston “America’s Fattest City.” Two years later a local bike club tried to change the city’s image by holding a 40-mile bike rally through downtown Houston. To get people to sign up, they offered free beer and tacos at the end of the race.

THERE ARE 20 POSSIBLE ANSWERS ON A MAGIC 8-BALL: 10 POSITIVE, 5 NEGATIVE, AND 5 NEUTRAL.

THE BAY OF ISLANDS

NORTH ISLAND, NEW ZEALAND

Off the irregular coast of New Zealand’s North Island, more than 150 smaller islands of varying size are scattered across the deep blue waters, their tall Norfolk pines growing side by side with subtropical banana plants and fan palms in an ideal climate that adds to the bay’s allure as a recreational playground.

KANDERSTEG

BERNESE OBERLAND, SWITZERLAND

A cozy, quiet village near the clear waters of the gemlike Lake Oeschinen, Kanderstag lures visitors in its crisp white winters and again in its sunny summers, when hikers trek the alpine bluffs and ravines.