Book Recommendations, Since (Some of You) Asked

Here are two novels I didn't expect to love and a how-to book I'm embarrassed to be indebted to as profoundly as I am.

Recommendation the First:

Lud-in-the-Mist, Hope Mirrlees

I don't usually buy a second copy to lend out to friends, but I intend to press this book on everyone I know.
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Recommendation the Second:

Kalpa Imperial, Angelica Gorodischer (Ursula K. LeGuin, trans.)

Okay, now I see why Small Beer Press is such a big deal. I love this book for the same reason I love the Lemony Snicket books: it breaks all the alleged rules of good writing, and all the rules of salable writing, flagrantly, and it triumphs anyway, on its own terms, with a big screw-you attitude. This has got to be the least commercial volume of fantasy I've read...ever. Who else but Small Beer was going to touch it? So thank the gods for Small Beer.

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Recommendation the Third:

Best Dressed, Suzy Gershman

What the hell is a fashion how-to book doing on a list of recommendations alongside Mirrlees and Gorodischer?

And well you might ask.

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Someday maybe I'll tell the story of the research expedition to the Mall of Three Furriers with my trusty companions, the Oklahoman anthropologist and the brilliant former fashion designer with massive post-stroke brain damage. But not today.