Gibby
Haynes from the band Butthole Surfers wrote a YA novel about a boy and his
supernatural dog? You had me at hello!
If
you’re familiar with the musician, this book is as wild as you’d imagine and
then some. Saying anything more would spoil the fun.
It’s a trip worth taking,
with enough heart to leave you fulfilled beyond the lightweight Fear & Loathing vibe throughout. I
didn’t always understand what was going on, but I also didn’t want it to end.
From the wild and wonderful mind of Gibby Haynes—world famous Butthole Surfers front man/lyricist and self-proclaimed eternal Texan adolescent—comes the surreal tale of seventeen-year-old Oscar Lester and his trusted dog, Mr. Cigar.
Oscar and his dog have made a pretty good life for themselves, despite the fact that Oscar’s family has all but vanished—his father is dead; his mother has a new boyfriend. His older sister, Rachel, fled five years ago . . . right after Mr. Cigar bit off her hand.
Despite the freak accident, Oscar knows his dog is no menace. Mr. Cigar is a loyal protector: a…
Jonathan
Carroll is my favorite author. He’s also my wife’s favorite. We lovingly bicker
over who gets to read his books first whenever a new one is released,
oftentimes ending up with two bookmarks as we alternate reading it at the same
time.
Sixteen novels in, Carroll has perfected his take on magic realism, where
anything can happen and it’s no big deal while always grounding the story in
observational truisms such as “You can love someone and still think they’re an
idiot.”
I hope he has another book in him, and I hope it doesn’t take another 9
years.
From one of the great modern masters of the fantastic, “A beautiful, brilliant, meditation on art, love, inspiration and what makes life worthwhile."-- Neil Gaiman
"[Carroll's] prose is spare, polished and quick-moving, sometimes lightly comic, always immensely engaging... Mr. Breakfast is pure pleasure to read. It will surprise you, make you laugh and scare you — and then, just when you think it’s over, add several extra twists." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
Graham Patterson’s life has hit a dead end. His career as a comedian is failing. The love of his life recently broke up with him and…
One
of the most creative premises I’ve encountered in a long time: After leaving
the Velvet Underground but before starting his solo career, Lou Reed spends a
year working for his father’s accounting firm and gets wrapped up in a murder
mystery.
Lyrics, characters, and situations from throughout Lou Reed’s entire
catalog set the stage and add another layer to the story for fans of music and
mystery alike. It’s the exact type of music-based fiction/non-fiction hybrid
sub-genre I love but have trouble finding examples of.
In the fall of 1970, Lou Reed walked away from rock and roll. He left the Velvet Underground, and New York City, returning to Long Island. He moved in with his parents and got a job as a typist at his father’s accounting firm. He told friends his career in music was over. Vicious takes an imagined look at what happened to Reed after he quit his band, and before the successful solo career that began in 1971.
The story follows Reed as he finds himself drawn into a strange case at his dad’s office. Someone’s trying to claim the…
What
did Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, and my sister have in common? They were all my
friends, and they died.
My book follows an anonymous music critic on a quest to save his sister from
the relationship that ended her life. After a chance encounter at a bowling
alley leaves him with the ability to travel in time, our hero uses his musical
knowledge to "blink" through the years, attempting to keep the couple
apart by any means necessary.
Reliving past events through the eyes of his
younger self, he soon finds that correlation and causation are not always
what they seem.
