Clayton

Here Be Monsters
by Alan Snow
Oh no! That poor cheese!
This is the best book for kids since Roald Dahl! Spend an extremely silly time with Arthur, a few box-trolls, some cabbageheads, a couple of rabbits, some wild cheeses, and some freshwater seacows.

The Afterlife
by Donald Antrim
A love poem. A note of thanks. A funeral hymn. A letter of hate. An alcoholic blackout. An artistic canvas. A whispered prayer. It's all these things and more. Who knew that a mother's passing could trigger an inability to buy a bed? This book is nothing short of amazing. It's another glimpse into how we handle grief and how we finally learn to forgive but not forget.

The Gangsta Rap Coloring Book
by Aye Jay
THUGGED OUT FO' YO CUB SCOUT!

The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair
This is the classic you should have read! As timely now as it was when it was written at the beginnning of the century, Sinclair's portrait of the immigrant's struggle for survival in a county struggling to survive itself...all set in the Chicago stockyards. Beautifully written and haunting, this will have you and your bookclub talking for hours.

This Book Will Save Your Life
by A.M. Homes
I don't think that A. M. Homes has written anything that I haven't loved. This is no exception. Richard Novak is functionally dead until he suffers something not unlike a heart attack, bringing him back to life. In true Homes' style, pandemonium and heart break ensue. Redemption rarely happens in Los Angeles, Homes gives it a fighting chance.

The Horrific Sufferings of the Mind-Reading Monster Hercules Barefoot: His Wonderful Love and His Terrible Hatred
by Carl-Johan Vallgren
This is quickly becoming the bookstore favorite. Incredibly imaginative, this novel holds all that made us become readers...
overcoming your limitations...
discovering your hidden strengths...
ultimate betrayals, gut-wrenching love, epic friendship, and some of the most deep-seeded and most deserved revenge...all set in 1800's Europe steeped heavily in religion...religion unaccepting deformities.
Think The Princess Bride's shadowy little sister.
Also see Jamil's recommendation.

One Foot In Eden
by Ron Rash
We may be done with the past, but the past isn't done with us. Ron Rash's debut novel's crude colloquial beauty examines the outcome when good people with the best intentions make bad decisions. Filled with beautiful imagery, southern superstition, and painfully human insight, Rash's view of mid-century Appalachia paints a breathtaking story, worthy of becoming a classic.

The Dead Beat
by Marilyn Johnson
Luckily in the past few years, several writers have taken it upon themselves to humorously explore those things usually left to the morbid. Hence The Dead Beat, a hysterical, fascinating, inquisitively written tome to the modern day writers of obituarties and those of us who wake to read who we've outlived.

The Secret Parts of Fortune
by Ron Rosenbaum
Why not improve your intelligence with little to no effort at all? Here is 30 years of some of the most insightful, witty, comical, and above all, entertaining articles written by one of journalism's absolute best practitioners. Rosenbaum tackles fascinating subjects with intense flair...twin gynocologists found dead in their New York apartment, Troy Donahue as Charles Manson, the secrets of the notorious Skull & Bones society at Yale..it's all here...Perfect for your bus ride!

The Brooklyn Follies
by Paul Auster
The part about Kafka and the little girl's doll will almost kill you! There's one quote in here that sold me both on the book and on Auster: "Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head." Do you really need anything more?
This is the real thing. This book is why authors write. This book is why people read.

PostSecret
by Frank Warren
What would you get if you offered an address for people to anonymously purge themselves of their darkest secret? This book is a sample. At turns humorous, heart-breaking, always jaw-dropping...these could be your neighbors, your best friend, your mother. What's your secret?.

Cutty, One Rock
by August Kleinzahler
I walked around in a haze for at least a week after reading this. It was something completely unexpected, something that I hoped would happen every time I read a book. This is the type of comfort that books are supposed to offer. Something that stays with you, a friend, a lover, or the memories of a dead brother.

The Alienist
by Caleb Carr
Quite simply, this is one of the best mysteries I have ever read. Beautifully written, skillfully paced, intricately pieced together. Set in turn of the century Manhattan, a band of acquaintances must hunt down a serial killer after young male prostitues. I read this book over ten years ago and it still haunts me.

The New Book of Lists
by David Wallechinsky
My boss will tell you that my organization skills are sketchy at best...even with my boughts of OCD. So when someone compiles an entire book of lists of information that is of questionable necessity, I am immediately drawn to it...moth to the flame. Why would you need to know John Waters' favorite movies? Eight celebrity couples married less than three weeks? The real question is...WHY NOT?

Oedipus Wrecked
by Kevin Keck
FILTHY!
I pride myself on being deviant and inappropriate. It's my trademark...something my coworkers have grown to find somewhat endearing about me. However, Kevin Keck has me beat. Even I don't think that I could sink to the levels of hilarious depravity that sick Mr. Keck has stooped to in his misguided sexual adventures. This book is wrong on so many different levels. I'm all for sexual experimentation, but a line MUST be drawn somewhere!

From the Dust Returned
by Truman Capote
Halloween is my favorite!
It took Bradbury almost fifty years to write this and it is by far my favorite of his works. Vignettes create a larger story of a family of vampires, mummies, a dreamer (whose story will break your heart), and the orphan boy left on the doorstep who is to become their historian—but must remain, sadly, a human.

Commitment
by Dan Savage
In the hands of someone less capable, the myriad of issues covered in this book could have become muddled, heavy-handed, and most important, absent of heart. Luckily for us, Dan Savage has willingly put his family on display, offering laugh-out-loud self-analysis and insight, never fearing to point a finger at himself, his husband, his family, or anywhere else that deserves further scrutiny. Finally we have the perfect face for the fight for gay marriage. You'd have to be a fool not to want to be a part of his family.

The Diary of a Wombat
by Jackie French
This is one of my favorites...oh, who am I kidding...this is my favorite kid's picture book to come out in the last couple of years. Adorable all the way through, it's hard not to want to go find a wombat to hug...or any animal that you really shouldn't hug for that matter. And it features the cutest animal butt ever drawn!

In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote
There is really nothing that I can say here that would do justice to exactly how vital and necessary this book was and still is. This would make an incredible novel if it weren't true. Capote cracks open the torso of violence and examines it on the dinner table, leaving no plate empty. Although unknown to us now, the Clutter family could be your own, and Capote makes sure they are missed. You owe it to yourself to read this...you owe it to all involved.

The Every Boy
by Dana Adam Shapiro
For anyone who has ever found something, or lost something, ever wanted something, or discarded anything, loved someone, fallen out of love, learned to love someone again, or loved someone even more in their absence....that's all I can say...I'm stumped otherwise...all I can say is that I loved it. Henry Every IS a hero. Of what? I don't know, but I adore him.

The Virgin Suicides
by Jeffrey Eugenides
For those of you who were captivated by his second novel Middlesex, I strongly recommend getting acquainted with his intoxicating debut. It's moody and simplistic...pushes itself on you leaving fingerprints on your skin. The girls haunt you, the boys perplex you, the neighbors peek at you through drawn curtains. It puts the knot of teenage love and yearning back in your stomach. Absolutely breathtaking.

The State Boys Rebellion
by Michael D'Antonio
I found myself completely dumbstruck while reading this book by the extreme idiocy of those regarded as forward thinkers in American history. I was further frightened by the fact that the subject matter covered in this book continued up until the 1970's. It makes you question what we are doing now that seems so inovative but will be seen in the future as archaic, brutal, and completely asinine. A wonderful piece of dark American history and the courage of overcoming it.

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
BURIAL IS SO PASSÉ!
After death, why deny your corpse all the fun it could be having now that you are gone? I mean, it did house you and your nasty habits for so many decades...How selfish you are! Your head could be getting a facelift while your arm is testing car impacts! AT THE SAME TIME! IN TWO DIFFERENT PLACES! Roach has found humor (a lot of humor) in the macabre. This book is enlightening, macabre, and hysterical all at once! You'll read it in one sitting...I bet my corpse on it.

Peninsula of Lies
by Edward Ball
Utterly bizarre! This proves that fact certainly is stranger than fiction could ever be. The story of Gordon/Dawn (transgendered? Maybe...) and her/his bizarre pregnancy (again, maybe...) in Charleston brings back the enjoyment that reading Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil gives. We Southerners are a strange lot...

Mini-Mart à la Cart
by Christopher Rouser & Victoria Traig
After thumbing enthusiastically through the mouth-watering pages of the cookbook for the "Convenience Store Connoisseur," I realized that there is good reason that I am vegetarian (there is a note to herbivores on p. 46 warning us that there is not much here for us). You carnivores are a sick, sick lot! These recipes will give you gas just reading them! I DOUBLE DOG DARE YOU TO EAT ONE! Try "Poop On A Pringle" on page 31.

Assassination Vacation
by Sarah Vowell
OK - Granted I knew I was going to put this on "Staff Recommends" before it was published, but in my defense...I already knew that Sarah Vowell is brilliant! As you should, too! Weaving truly bizarre history with her adorably deadpan humor, Ms. Vowell has created a vacation like no other...graveyards, monuments, the Mutter Museum...and some of you may never look at your cookware in the same way ever again!!

Closely Watched Trains
by Bohumil Hrabal
This novella will take you about an hour to read and then will continually gnaw at you long after you complete it. The story at first is strangely comical...a young train station attendant in Nazi occupied Czech Republic reflects on his recent suicide attempt, the question of his masculinity, the shadow of his family tree...then as the story progresses the tone becomes beautifully darker as our extremely common narrator chooses the path of a hero and confronts a train of Nazis. An incredibly moving story of an everyday individual stretching through the mold and changing the course of what seem to be inevitable events.

Get Your War On 2
by David Rees
OUCH! This sarcasm hurts! Foul mouthed office workers talk dirty about Bush and his dirty little war. Seriously biting sarcasm on every single page commentating on post 9/11 America and the administration that got us there. Thanks Dubya!

Home Land
by Sam Lipsyte
OH SAM! Where did life go wrong for you? You have created one of the most hysterical and revolting books I have read as of late. I laughed so hard!
Lewis's life didn't "pan out". Now he spends his days writing letters to his high school's alumni newsletter letting everyone know just how far he went to get absolutely nowhere!

Created In Darkness By Troubled Americans
by Dave Eggers
Where do these SICK SICK people live? Why do they have so much time to come up with the dumbest lists ever printed on paper? How do I join them? Is there a sign-up sheet? Do we get to live in a commune and eat grape fruit roll-ups while squishing granola and oatmeal in our toes? Do they have candy? One things for sure, they have got to have KILLER Kool-Aid!!

All The King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren
There is good reason why Robert Penn Warren won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947 for All The King's Men. It is completely haunting. It follows you to work, watches from the backseat as you drive home, whispers in your ear as you sleep. Long after the climax (what a climax!) the beautifully crafted language wraps itself around you mind like a welcomed boa constrictor. Warren was America's first poet laureate and he created an absolutely brilliant novel of a politician slowly unraveling.

The Complete Stories of Truman Capote
by Truman Capote
For starters, maybe I should preface this with, "I am, in fact, southern." Hence, my dark and often disturbed sense of humor, which when people point this out to me, I ALWAYS take it as a compliment. Being from the deep South, I am aware that sometimes we have a very odd yet endearing (albeit skewed) view of how the world works. We are painfully aware of human frailty (we have volumes of history about our adeptness at exploiting it), although we often couldn’t be more oblivious to our own shortcomings. Truman Capote has one of the most impressive oeuvres of writings from the lower states’ point of view than any of the modern Southern writers. There are truly heartbreaking passages, bitterly and breathtakingly humorous, whether writing about his beloved crumbling gothic South, or of the socially inept urbanites, who ultimately drunkenly swallowed him whole. This collection is indispensable.

Rides of the Midway
by Lee Durkee
So, once again I am going to suggest another Southern gem...a mock southern gothic tale with mint shag carpeting and a Lynyrd Skynyrd 8-track soundtrack (the crash of their plane plays a part). Noel can’t seem to get it right and the Ghosts that haunt him (or are they?) aren’t helping at all. After putting the opposing little league team’s catcher in a coma, Noel comes of age finding (or rather not finding) his niche as an amateur erotic photographer (of someone you’d hope he’d have used better judgment), a reluctant faith healer (since he continually fails as a Southern Baptist), a drug dealer (he’s pretty good at that), a suspected practitioner of euthanasia, And an adulterer with his youth minister’s wife...all without leaving the state of Mississippi...or his teens. This is one of the best "missed" books of the last five years.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky
Simply amazing. If I ever had a soulmate, he exists solely on these pages...Charlie...young, confused, always looking in...discovering new music in the heady haze of learning social skills...finding that lyrics better convey the adolescent confusion than he can...finding that a mix tape can be a soundtrack to your life...that a song can permanently solidify and define a single moment...the feel of thrift store clothing...the discovery of important literature...someone make a tape for me...show me you care...

2gether 4ever: Notes of a Junior High School Heartthrob
by Dene Larsen
Oh, the days of misspent youth...trails of drool drizzling in rivers over the edge of your desk in geometry class while you lie dreaming, legs twitching, eyes fluttering with the hints of R.E.M....you and the prom queen, spinning in the cancer-inducing glow of a spotlight, while some second rate cover band plays an Reo Speedwagon ballad just for the two of you...everyone loves you...you are the definition of popular...the essence of man...mature...necessary...that's not what these notes are about...you're a geek...and we hate you. Funny Stuff.

Sudden Sea: The Great Hurricane of 1938
by R. A. Scotti
Like Krakauer, only better!! Take The Perfect Storm, mix in Into to the Wild and add cliffhangers worthy of any summer blockbuster...then you are close to how truly harrowing this book is! Reads like a mystery written by the likes of Truman Capote! Hooks you from the first chapter and keeps running! Mother Nature can be cruel!

The Moviegoer
by Walker Percy
Hands down one of my favorite books of all time. Winner of the 1961 National Book Award, this character study eloquently exposes an ordinary man who prefers the emotions and dilemmas found only in darkened theaters...but learns that life has a way of butting in. It's absolutely one of the most beautifully crafted Southern novels ever penned.

Smashed: Story of a Drunken Girlhood
by Koren Zailckas
Zailckas has written a beautifully terrifying memoir chronicling her freefall into binge drinking from her first drink at age fourteen to her last nearly a decade later. The prose is as refreshing as any common cocktail and as sobering as the morning after. Citing alcohol facts and figures throughout, Koren unleashes her drunken past and it drips lusciously from the page.