Liberty or Love!


Robert Desnos - 1927
    Mystery, the marvellous, a city transmuted by love, Sanglot's pursuit of the siren Louise Lame, such are the essential ingredients of this the last masterpiece of early Surrealism to remain untranslated into English. It was originally published in 1924 to immediate and lasting acclaim - except from the public authorities who immediately censored whole sections (here restored). Impossible to describe a novel of such virtuosity and bravura, and one which consistently refuses to behave as one expects, characters appear and vanish according to whim or desire, they walk underwater, nonchalantly accept astounding coincidences. It's a hymn to the erotic, an adventure story darkly illumined by the shades of Sade, Lautreamont and Jack the Ripper, a dream both violent and tender, an obsession, in fact the perfect embodiment of the Surrealist spirit: at once joyful, despairing, and effortlessly scandalous.

Sea-Horse in the Sky


Edmund Cooper - 1969
    They find themselves in an area made to look like a town--it contains a stocked store, a hotel, a inoperable car & plastic coffins, each containing a passenger from an international flight, each apparently snatched out of midair, since there's no flight wreckage & all seem alive & unharmed. The people slowly gather in the hotel & find themselves able to understand one another, even tho they don't all speak the same language. None of them has an idea what they're doing in this new place & there isn't anything for miles around their little settlement except a seemingly endless expanse of grass. After weeks of waiting for rescue that never arrives, a few of them explore & discover this mysterious land is also populated by a group of what appear to be medieval people & a group of what seems to be cavemen. That accounts for the human population on the island. The only other creatures around are sinister metal spiders. This story is as much mystery as it is sf, because these people must figure out how they got to this place, & why they were chosen. But they also have to survive.--Kaduzy (edited)

Slow Fade


Rudolph Wurlitzer - 1984
    It is a profound and utterly convincing portrait of a man whose career and life has been devoted to the manipulation of imagesand the story of how, at the age of 71, he tries to divest himself of illusions and make peace with his demons and his past.

Diminished Capacity


Sherwood Kiraly - 1995
    And he has old newspapers stacked up to his ceiling because...well, who knows?

Cops and Robbers


Donald E. Westlake - 1972
    They've got homes on Long Island and a dream: to pull off the perfect heist. Tom and Joe also have badges, uniforms and guns, just like the rest of the New York City police force! These two shining examples of New York's Finest don't care what they steal or how, as long as it comes out to 2 million dollars. But they get involved with the Mob and find out that robbing Wall Street can be very dangerous

Spacetime Donuts


Rudy Rucker - 1981
    Under the bottom is the top--and the power to smash the Machine. After humanity becomes inextricably linked to the computers, a heroic couple makes a scale-ship journey beneath the smallest particles and through the largest cosmic structures, seeking a perfect world.

The Hunger, and Other Stories


Charles Beaumont - 1957
    Although he is best known today for his scripts for television and film, including several classic episodes of The Twilight Zone, Beaumont is being rediscovered as a master of weird tales, and this, his first published collection, contains some of his best. Ranging in tone from the chilling Gothic horror of "Miss Gentilbelle," where an insane mother dresses her son up as a girl and slaughters his pets, to deliciously dark humor in tales like "Open House" and "The Infernal Bouillabaisse," where murderers' plans go disastrously awry, these seventeen stories demonstrate Beaumont's remarkable talent and versatility. This new edition of The Hunger and Other Stories, the first in more than fifty years, includes a new introduction by Dr. Bernice M. Murphy, who argues for reevaluation of Beaumont alongside the other greats of the genre, including Shirley Jackson, Ray Bradbury, and Richard Matheson.Contents:Miss Gentilbelle • (1957) The Vanishing American • (1955)A Point of Honor • (1955) Fair Lady • (1957) Free Dirt • (1955) Open House • (1957)The Train • (1957) The Dark Music • (1956) The Customers • (1957)Last Night in the Rain • (1956)The Crooked Man • (1955) Nursery Rhyme • (1957) The Murderers • (1955) The Hunger • (1955) Tears of the Madonna • (1957) The Infernal Bouillabaisse • (1957)Black Country • (1954)

Imaginary Friends


Alison Lurie - 1967
    Exposed to the persuasive energies of a sensuous high priestess, the men of science are forced to question seriously their superstitious belief that they can chart, understand, and control the workings of the human mind.

Fun with Your New Head


Thomas M. Disch - 1968
    (1964)Casablanca (1967)

Sex Pistols: The Inside Story


Fred Vermorel - 1978
    The complete account of the Sex Pistols saga.

The Best of C.L. Moore


C.L. Moore - 1975
    L. Moore '75 essay by Lester del Rey Shambleau [Northwest Smith] '33 novelette by C. L. Moore Black Thirst [Northwest Smith] '34 novelette by C. L. Moore The Bright Illusion '34 story by C. L. Moore Black God's Kiss [Jirel of Joiry] '34 novelette by C. L. Moore Tryst in Time '36 novelette by C. L. Moore Greater Than Gods '39 novelette by C. L. Moore Fruit of Knowledge '40 novelette by C. L. Moore No Woman Born '44 novelette by C. L. Moore Daemon '46 story by C. L. Moore Vintage Season '46 novella by Henry Kuttner & C. L. Moore Afterword--Footnote to Shambleau & Others '75 essay by C. L. Moore

Dead Girls


Richard Calder - 1992
    Revenge does not account for it: Something infinitely more sinister has happened. Only Primavera and mad Ignatz Zwakh know what power is really behind the microbiotic army dedicated to overthrowing the human gamete. But Primavera's dying. Can they reach Dr. Toxicopholous before the CIA or the pornocrat Kito or their combined assassins and nanomachines reach them?

Solomon's Vineyard


Jonathan Latimer - 1941
    In this classic noir novel, a private eye from St. Louis, who likes his steak rare, his liquor hard, and his women fallen, arrives at the small town of Paulton to protect his wealthy client's daughter from a suspicious religious cult. Throughout the span of the case, he confronts Paulton's mob boss, avenges his partner's death, and falls for a classic femme fatale named Princess.

The Image


Jean de Berg - 1956
    Originally published in France in 1958 and immediately banned, this novel concerns the sexual games of domination and punishment that take place between two women to which only the narrator has access.

Sinbad's Guide to Life (Because I Know Everything)


Sinbad - 1997
    Yeah, right--there is no sense in both us dying"), discipline ("If you've got to get whupped, your father is the man. Mothers don't stop until you're bleeding to death"), money ("Before computers, checks were great...local ones took fourteen days to clear"), men and women ("If there were no women in the world, men would be naked, driving trucks, living in dirt"), underwear ("Women, do not buy your men bikini underpants"), love ("If you can get a car with no money down, you can get a boyfriend or girlfriend"), marriage ("There is no compromise, you either go to the basketball game or you go to a movie you hate"), divorce ("there are no Betty Ford clinics for strung-out lovers. You have to go cold turkey"), dieting ("I would be hanging out at McDonald's, tapping on the window: 'Don't throw out those fries!'"), parenting ("When they caught Jeffrey Dahmer, his mom was protective: 'He always had a healthy appetite...'"), technology, and much more.