5 Quirky Books to Make You Feel Normal

The First Bad Man by Miranda July
Publisher: Scribner. Jan 13, 2015
Genre: Literary Fiction, Humor
Source: Library
Pages: 276
First Line: I drove to the doctor's office as if I was starring in a movie Phillip was watching--windows down, hair blowing, just one hand on the wheel.


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I wouldn't use a British accent out loud, but I'd be using one in my head and it would carry over.

This is one of the funniest books I have ever read. Miranda July never fails to capture the weirdness of everyday life, and that comes into full focus in her debut novel, The First Bad Man. The main character is an awkward middle-aged woman named Cheryl whose thoughts are so quirky and hilarious, it feels like you're in the head of a more demented character from "The Office."

Cheryl's high strung, very particular, and very bizarre. She mostly stays in her own head throughout her life, imagining infinite lifetimes loving one man who actually doesn't give her the time of day and communicating telepathically with babies (who she imagines are all the same baby soul). That is until Cheryl's boss forces her to let her mean-spirited 21-year-old daughter stay with Cheryl, and her life completely unravels. It's funny, it's moving, it's poignant. It's very Miranda July. A warning: There's some (sort of) graphic sex stuff. But like it's funny and bizarre.

Every night my plan was to make it to dawn and then feel out the options. But that was just it--there were no options. There had been options, before the baby, but none of them had been pursued. I had not flown to Japan by myself to see what it was like there. I had not gone to nightclubs and said Tell me everything about yourself to strangers. I had not even gone to the movies by myself. I had been quiet when there was no reason to be quiet and consistent when consistency didn't matter. For the last twenty years I had lived as if I was taking care of a newborn baby.

Ghost World by Daniel Clowes
Publisher: Fantagraphics Books. March 1998
Genre: Graphic novel
Source: Library
Pages: 80
First Line: Why do you have this?


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If you like your quirky a little less whimsical, you have got to check out this brilliant graphic novel made just for pessimists hoping life is a little less shitty and weird than it seems to be. Illustrated beautifully in just blue and white, Ghost World follows recent high school graduates, Enid and Rebecca. Neither of them are planning to go to college and their future is kind of a mystery to them. They spend their days going to diners, watching/judging the strange characters in their towns, and stirring up mostly benign mischief.

It's really easy to relate to these characters as they do weird shit and hate people. I totally related to Enid. Her relationships with the people in the graphic novel PERFECTLY paralleled my relationships with certain people in real life. But even though it's funny and on point, it gets very real by the end when the girls start having to make actual decisions about their lives. The awkward struggle with this new found control over what your life is could not have been portrayed better.

The Sasquatch Hunter's Almanac by Sharma Shields
Publisher: Holt Paperbacks. Jan 27, 2015
Genre: Literary fiction, Magical realism
Source: Library
Pages: 400
First Line: Eli Roebuck lived with his parents, Greg and Agnes, in a tiny cabin near Stateline.


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Eli Roebuck sees his mother leave his family for a sasquatch one day. I was ready for this to be a metaphor, but there is legitimately a sasquatch (Mr. Krantz) who lives his sasquatch life in the forest. And there are unicorns. And bird people. And lake monsters. I mean, granted, there's still some metaphor. But it's weird. Really weird.

We follow Eli as he grows up and continues his obsession with finding this sasquatch. It affects all aspects of his life, and we get to look into the lives of people this obsession touches: both of his wives, his daughter, his father, his mother. It's a very strange, very excellent look at the effect obsession has on families and what damage can be done--and hopefully reversed. And the magical realism is a fantastic blend of whimsical and dark.

The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink
Publisher: Dorothy. Oct 1, 2014
Genre: Literary fiction
Source: Purchased
Pages: 200
First Line: I was looking at the map when Stephen swerved, hit the rock, and occasioned the miscarriage.


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The characters in this book are some weird, confusing assholes. The Wallcreeper is a strange tale about some pretentious weirdos who are married. Well, Tiffany married Stephen really quickly and then they kind of also explore extra-marital affairs, which is sometimes not a big deal but is other times a very big deal. They're kind of both lazily interested in a future together and furthering potential careers, but not to the extent that they aren't just floating around talking about birds one minute then quantum physics in relation to babies the next.

The structure is dreamy and weird. Tiffany and Stephen eventually turn into eco-terrorists. Their relationships get more complicated. But throughout it stays smart, witty, and really well written. Everything Zink writes is so on point. Her descriptions of sex, life, and death are all strange but super accurate. She's definitely talented and this book is definitely crazy. Zink captures how messy and volatile life and relationships can be, but it makes you grateful that you're probably less involved in eco-terrorism than they are.

"Wait a second," I said. "I don't mean to sound like a crank, but are you saying that what makes our relationship valuable is my willingness to suffer for you? Are you aware that I've never suffered for you for even, like, one second? That's what makes our relationship so optimal, in my opinion."

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Publisher: Penguin. 1962
Genre: Horror
Source: Purchased
Pages: 146
First Line: My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood.


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Ok, maybe quirky isn't the BEST way to describe this book. Horrifying might be better. Or creepy. But the characters who live in the Blackwood house are actually the quirkiest ever. Merricat, the main character, is super into magic words, not allowing herself to go into certain rooms, and poisonous mushrooms. Just normal 18-year-old girl stuff. Her cat is her best friend, so it's easy to relate.

Anyway, this book is a big, weird puzzle surrounding the death of her family due to arsenic put in the sugar bowl. Her sister was arrested for it, but got acquitted. Now the two girls and their uncle rarely leave the big, old house. You'll be immediately sucked into how creepy and bizarre they all are, and you'll need to keep reading as fast as you can to figure out what's going on. If you haven't read Shirley Jackson before, read her short story "The Lottery" then this. Also, this book has the greatest opening paragraph of all time:

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Robert Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

Merricat, you have my heart.

Top Ten Books Recently Added To My TBR

The Broke and the Bookish runs this business.

I love this week's Top Ten Tuesday prompt, because I feel like a TBR list is really telling. And it's an excellent opportunity to show off backlist titles that interest me (there are a lot of them) If any of the titles are links, you'll be sent to the blog where I first heard of them (if I remember where I heard of them). Check out their reviews, they're better than my speculations!

Coming Soon

                  

War of the Encyclopaedists by Christopher Robinson & Gavin Kovite - Two best friends are separated by the circumstances of life. One stays in Boston, the other is in Baghdad with the National Guard. How they stay in contact with each other is by editing a Wikipedia page about themselves in funny and sad updates. THIS IS BRILLIANT, CAN I READ IT NOW.

The Animals by Christian Kiefer -Bill Reed, who manages a wildlife sanctuary, has his life shaken up when an old friend is released from prison. Because of this, he has to face, and hide, his criminal past while trying to keep his shelter open. Since I do everything Shannon does, I should probably read this.

How to Cone a Mammoth by Beth Shapiro - A nonfiction book that delves into how extinct species can be cloned, why they would be, and the ethics of it all. Since I am very interested in keeping my cat alive forever, I have to read up on this cloning business. But also this sounds just fascinating.

Already Out

                 


Butterflies in November by Audur Ava Olafsdottir- This was in Shannon's books to read if you like Wes Anderson list, so that's really all you have to say for me. It's quirky, it's Iceland, the dialogue is weird. A deaf-mute son. Winning lottery numbers. A road trip. A falconer. God knows what else. I didn't know I needed these things, but I'm pretty sure I do.

Thanks For Ruining My Life by C.V. Hunt - To be honest, it's hard to tell what this one's about! But C.V. Hunt has been recommended to me and Lixian gave it 5 stars, sooo. A writer meets an antlered man. It's bizarre and fantastical. I DON'T KNOW, but I want to find out.

Changing by Lily Hoang  - This seems like a strange, beautiful little thing. It's about the life of a young Vietnamese American woman written in a strange from called I Ching. "Like a topsy-turvy horoscope writer, Hoang weaves a modern novella into the classical form of the I Ching. In glassine sentences, fragmented and new, Jack and Jill fall down the hill over and over again in intricate and ancient patterns."

                                

Trading Rosemary by Octavia Cade - "In a world where experience is currency, Rosemary is the owner of a very special library—a library of memory, where scented coins transfer personal experience from one individual to another." An 80 page science fiction novella about memory? Yeah. That's actually everything I've ever wanted.

The Visionist by Rachel Urquhart - "An enthralling debut novel about a teenage girl who finds refuge--but perhaps not--in an 1840s Shaker community." The main character kills her abusive father, moves in with some Shakers, and then becomes the group's visionist. Sounds interesting. Sounds intense, maybe? I guess we'll see.

                                

The Forever War by Joe Haldeman - If you liked Interstellar, you'd probably like this. It's the book my Nebula award winning science fiction professor talks about ALL THE TIME. It's about a war and, according to the blurb, "home may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries." Um yeah.

A Legend of the Future by Augustin de Rojas - "A morally profound chamber piece, Agustín de Rojas’ A Legend of the Future takes place inside a damaged spaceship following the failure of a mission to Titan, one of Saturn’s moons. The journey back to Earth forces the crewmembers to face their innermost fears while coexisting with each other in a state of desperation. This mesmerizing novel, reminiscent of Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, is a science fiction roman à clef about the intense pressures—economic, ideological, psychological—inside Communist Cuba." But you should really check out Rachel's review of this.




What have you recently added to your TBR? Maybe one of these a few seconds ago?? Let me know!

My 5 Favorite Stories in Hall of Small Mammals by Thomas Pierce

Hall of Small Mammals by Thomas Pierce Publisher: Riverhead Books. January 8, 2015.
Pages: 304
Genre: Short Stories
Source: Library
First Line: Mawmaw's throwing the party, and her own son is three hours late.


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I'm so happy I read this book of short stories! I was really close to not reading it. Want to know why? The cover was too good. Yup. Luckily I changed my mind about not reading it after looking more into it. These stories were weird and often moving. Even when they get really surreal, deep down they're about people and their relationships with each other. AND the stories are (mostly) all interconnected very sneakily, which I always love. Here were my favorites:


1. Shirley Temple Three

A man works for a tv show where they clone long-extinct creatures from their DNA. Due to some strange rules, if they accidentally clone two, they have to kill one of them. But instead of killing an extra dwarf wooly mammoth, he sneaks it home to his mother in the south. She keeps it in her back yard. She's frustrated with the situation, but at no point is this like the weirdest thing that will ever happen to anyone ever. Watching the woman's relationship with the mammoth and her son really affected me.


2. The Real Alan Gass

I brought the synopsis of this up at work and it sparked a lot of debate. In it, a physicist alerts her boyfriend that in her dreams she has a husband. And it isn't him. His name is Alan Gass, and he doesn't exist in real life. The dreams are really vivid, to the point where she is practically just living another life with another man in her sleep. Of course, she wants her boyfriend to be cool about it. And he tries to be cool, but he can't help himself from grabbing a phone book and trying to find out if Alan Gass is out there somewhere, dreaming about his girlfriend. Very bizarre. I would not be cool, for the record.


3. Grasshopper Kings

I liked this one a whole lot. A father brings his son to a Boy Scouts-esque camping trip, only to learn that this group is a little bit cult-ish. I was so in. Even though this story is weird and kind of creepy, it's more about the strained relationship between the father and son, as well as how humans relate to each other in group dynamics.


4. Videos of People Falling Down

This story is so clever, I can hardly stand it. This story consists of many small segments that each start with a class youtube falling video name like "CRAZY WIPE OUT FUNNY" (not a direct quote, but you get what I mean). In each, a person falls. But we also get to know them and see what was going on in their lives and their heads around the time of the fall. It's hard to think about the stars of videos like these as real people with real concerns, and this story highlighted that excellently. And all the falls are interconnected, YES.


5. More Soon

A man comes to the airport to pick up the body of his dead brother that was just shipped overseas to him. Much to his surprise, the body wasn't on the plane. It turns out that it had to be reexamined. Then eventually quarantined, because they believe it holds a deadly disease. When it starts killing doctors and scientists who come in contact with it, it's classified as a biological weapon. An interesting look at and interpretation of grief and family.

--------------

My only issue with these wonderfully strange stories was that a lot of them just kind of stopped. Not an enormous amount of clear resolution. I think that was mostly frustrating to me for two reasons. 1) I felt like it was probably profound in some way, but I didn't have the energy to figure out in what way it was profound. 2) I really just did not want these stories to end.




Some Quotes:

"Inside every group, he decides, there are more groups. Circles within circles, and inside of those, more circles still, all of them infinitely divisible. You could spend your whole life wondering which ones you're in and which ones you're not and which ones really want you and which ones are holes that have no bottom." - 79, Grasshopper Kings

"Sometimes when he hears Hungarian Dance No. 5 he has a funny feeling that is difficult to explain to others. He's told only one or two people about it. The feeling involves the possibility of a past life." -144, Videos of People Falling Down

"Directly behind us in line, a man with a comb-over fished around in his neon green fanny pack and produced two Wetnaps, one for himself and one for his wife, a somber-looking woman in a zebra-print dress that I gathered she had picked out specifically for this excursion. I watched them unfold their antibacterial napkins with care and scrub every inch of the hands--palms, fingers, creases, wrinkles, even up past the wrists. Watching them groom was exhausting. All of this was exhausting." -224, Hall of Small Mammals


Outlandishness Rating: 8/10

Review: Of Things Gone Astray by Janina Matthewson

Of Things Gone Astray by Janina Matthewson
Publisher: The Friday Project. February 3, 2015
Pages: 288
Genre: Literary Fiction with Magical Realism
Source: Publisher
First Line: Mrs Featherby had been having pleasant dreams until she woke to discover the front of her house had vanished overnight.


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Now this was a weird book. Of Things Gone Astray is a beautifully intricate webs of strange nonsense, that often hits surprisingly close to home. It definitely pushed every quirky and whimsical button of mine. It was fun and playful, but could be poignant and sad. And wow, this is some of the most fun dialogue I've ever read.

This is a charming novel following a cast of characters who have each lost things. Things you don't normally lose. The front wall of your house, your sense of direction, your place of work (like it's physically gone), your piano keys. But it's also about the power of relationships with other people. Oh and somebody turns into a tree. Not a spoiler. Trees take a long time to grow, ya goof. And the best part is that all of these stories intertwine, some lightly and some heavily. I love when that happens.

Overall, reading Of Things Gone Astray was a pretty good time. Each chapter switched to a new character, keeping me mostly interested in everyone's stories, and they were often quite short. And pretty funny or totally on point. If you need logical explanations for the weird magical whimsy that goes on, stop here and back away from this book. Of course, most of the characters needed to lose something to find something else, which appears in several beautiful ways. But like there's no scientific reason for a tree girl.

My only real qualm with this book is the lack of character and story development with a few characters, but specifically Marcus. Marcus is an old man and famous pianist who loses his piano keys. He's also grieving the loss of his partner/husband (not sure if the term was specified or what it would be in the UK) and a strained relationship with his college aged daughter. There was so much potential here, but most of the time he seemed like an after thought. His story was not as connected as the others and the ending to his story isn't completely satisfying.

I also had issue with the ending in general. Many of the characters had kind of rushed, frayed ends. But it was still charming. Perhaps I'm just one who either wants an ending wide open or very resolved. It's a personal problem that's hard to reconcile. But I did think, with how much layering and interlocking of characters there was, that it was going to build up to something bigger.

But it was sweet. It was soft and strange. It made me think about what's really important in my life.


Some Quotes:

"One simply cannot be a believable recluse when one is cursed with a transparent wall."

"Pfft. If you realized you do need help, you wouldn't need as much help as you need."

"'Morning Dee,' her mother trilled as she walked in the front door. Her mother had started trilling. Delia hadn't realised things had gone that far."



Outlandishness Rating: 9/10

She grows into a tree! What!

Review: No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories by Miranda July

No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories by Miranda July
Publisher: Scribner. March 2008
Pages: 205
Genre: Literary fiction, short stories
First Line: It still counts, even though it happened when he was unconscious.


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Miranda July's short stories are beautiful and startling. I had only read one of her stories, Shared Patio, which is the first story in the book, and I didn't like it quite as much as I thought I should. All of the other stories I adored, though. Most of them involve love or relationships in some sense, but often in surprising ways. There are characters in love with best friends, characters who try to seduce those who are too young, concerning sibling relationships, surprise homosexuality, imaginary relationships, and more.

What's most exciting about these stories isn't their quirky content, though. It's how personal and small most of these instances are. Many of the stories are incredibly small, both in length and in the moment being recorded/created. You see private, sometimes what one would expect to be mundane, instances. And they turn incredibly beautiful when you allow yourself to look at these often unseen moments.

Miranda July's style is clean and crisp, making this book of short stories a quick read. If you're annoyed by a trendy lack of quotation marks, be warned, you will find no ""s here. Most of the stories feel like a stream of consciousness, but I recall at least one story being more detached from the main character. I often would stop reading to turn to a friend and read parts and whole stories aloud. It's absolutely a book that I'm going to want to buy and revisit.

For a more specific review, and to be used as a taster, here's a very very short story from the collection called This Person. This story really got to me. Despite its length, it gets a very emotional response from me, which always impresses me with short stories. The ending is sort of painful, because I think July catches a very human behavior of withdrawing from others. It's hard to see it happen, because it's easy to recognize this behavior in ourselves. We want the main character to be better than ourselves. Any short story that moves me and leads me to do some amount of self reflection is good in my book.

Some Quotes:

"It's not agoraphobia, because I am not actually afraid of leaving the house. The fear hits about twenty-seven steps away from the house, right around the juniper bush. I have studied it and determined that it is not a real bush, and I have reversed this theory, and I have done everything I can not to turn around and go home, even if it means standing there forever." - The Boy from Lam Kien

"We don't know anything. We don't know how to cure a cold or what dogs are thinking. We do terrible things, we make wars, we kill people out of greed. So who are we to say how to love. I wouldn't force her. I wouldn't have to. She would want me. We would be in love. What do you know. You don't know anything. Call me when you've cured AIDS, give me a ring then and I'll listen." - The Sister

Outlandishness Rating: 7.5/10   

The atypical sexual relationships and peculiar logic held by the characters get this collection of stories a 7. The story about teaching people to swim without a pool, alone, gives it an extra half a point. Pretty weird, but not the weirdest.

Recommended For:

Anybody who likes strange little contemporary stories. They're quirky and unabashedly personal. Highly recommended.