Eye-catching Oddities

Have you every walked by a book and title or cover caught your eye and made you do a double take, laugh, smile, or just think “what the heck”? Well, we’ve put together a display full of these books for your perusal.

enslaved by ducksEnslaved by ducks
by Bob Tarte

Book description
When Bob Tarte bought a house in rural Michigan, he was counting on a tranquil haven. Then Bob married Linda. She wanted a rabbit, which seemed, at the time, innocuous enough. But that was just the beginning. Wouldn’t a parrot be cute? Linda said. Bob suddenly found himself constructing pens, buying feed, clearing duck waste, spoon feeding at mealtime. One day he realized he’d become a servant to a relentlessly demanding family, and a motley crew it was.

 

stop dressing your six year old like a skankStop dressing your six-year old like a skank : and other words of delicate Southern wisdom
by Celia Rivenbark

Book description
Celia Rivenbark is a master at summing up the South in all its glorious excesses and contradictions. In this collection of screamingly funny essays, you’ll discover:
• How to get your kid into a character breakfast as Disney World (or run the risk of eating chicken out of a bucket with Sneezy)
• Secrets of Celebrity Moms (don’t hate them because they’re beautiful when there are so many other reasons?
• EBay addiction and why “it ain’t worth having if it ain’t on eBay”
• Why today’s children’s clothes make six-year-olds look like Vegas showgirls with an abundance of anger issues

 

knit your own dogKnit your own dog : easy-to-follow patterns for 25 pedigree pooches
by Sally Muir and Joanna Osborne

Book description
The knitted dog is indeed the ideal companion: There’s no feeding, barking, shedding, or vet’s bills, and he’ll live forever! Knit Your Own Dog is the irresistible guide to knitting the perfect pup. With patterns for 25 different pedigree pooches, Knit Your Own Dog lets you choose the dog you want, whether it’s a pretty Poodle or a loyal Labrador. Or knit them all for a pack of canine fun!

 

when the kissing had to stopWhen the Kissing Had to Stop: Cult Studs, Khmer Newts, Langley Spooks, Techno-Greeks, Video Drones, Author Gods, Serial Killers, Vampire Media, Allen Sperm-Suckers…
by John Leonard

Book description
Leading literary critic John Leonard is a master at decoding the fears and longings that animate our popular culture. When the Kissing Had to Stop is Leonard at his best, with his reflections on the best new literature of today and what it can tell us about America now.

The conspiracies and fears fostered by the Cold War continue to poison our national psyche. New enemies, real or imagined, have fostered subcultures of fantasy and paranoia, and vertiginous proclamations of doom and transformation. Leonard shows how our great novelists and essayists can help us to find some sense and sanity amid the dull roar of tabloids, talk shows, and the Disneyfication of everything.

 

wearing this garment will not enable you to flyWearing of This Garment Does Not Enable You to Fly: 101 Real Dumb Warning Labels
by Jeff Koon and Andy Powell

Book description
The infamous 1994 McDonald’s hot coffee lawsuit has spawned a veritable industry of “hot” warnings, from Kellogg’s Pop-Tarts admonition that “if pastry is over-heated, frosting/filling can become extremely hot and could cause burns” to the Black Cat Fireworks label: “Caution: Flammable. Do not put in mouth”. If, on the other hand, you manage to escape the heat with a trip to the beach, be warned that a twenty-inch beach ball is “NOT a lifesaving device.”

Compiled by Jeff Koon and Andy Powell, this hilarious collection features the best contributions from the hundreds of thousands of fans of their Web sites, www.dumblaws.com and www.dumwarnings.com, and forty-two original drawings by illustrator Tim Carroll.

 

unlikely friendshipsUnlikely friendships : 47 remarkable stories from the animal kingdom
by Jennifer Holland

Book description
Written by National Geographic magazine writer Jennifer Holland, Unlikely Friendships documents one heartwarming tale after another of animals who, with nothing else in common, bond in the most unexpected ways. A cat and a bird. A mare and a fawn. An elephant and a sheep. A snake and a hamster. The well-documented stories of Koko the gorilla and All Ball the kitten; and the hippo Owen and the tortoise Mzee. And almost inexplicable stories of predators befriending prey—an Indian leopard slips into a village every night to sleep with a calf. A lionness mothers a baby oryx.

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