Book picks similar to
Caresses Soft as Sandpaper by Clint Catalyst
poetry
goth
drugs
gothic
The Ouroboros Cycle, Book Two: A Cautionary Tale for Young Vampires
G.D. Falksen - 2014
But Doctor Varanus Shashavani has far more pressing concerns to worry about than a lunatic in Whitechapel. Her charitable hospital is under siege by gang lords, her English cousins are threatening to steal her inheritance, and her best friend has become obsessed with Gothic novels. To make matters worse, her son Friedrich is associating with an American who talks endlessly of wellness and yoghurt, while her bodyguard is pestering her to return home to Georgia, half a world away. It seems that everyone--friends, enemies, and "Saucy Jack" alike--have conspired to interrupt her work. But Varanus did not obtain immortality just to have mad killers and distant relations get in the way of scientific progress. Though supernatural conspiracies and all-too-human monsters confront her at every turn, Varanus will stand firm against all odds. After all, she is accustomed to fighting for what is rightfully hers.
The Beatrice Letters
Lemony Snicket - 2006
How I pity these readers. With all due respect, Lemony Snicket
B Is for Beer
Tom Robbins - 2009
Once upon a time (right about now) there was a planet (how about this one?) whose inhabitants consumed thirty-six billion gallons of beer each year (it's a fact, you can Google it). Among those affected, each in his or her own way, by all the bubbles, burps, and foam, was a smart, wide-eyed, adventurous kindergartner named Gracie; her distracted mommy; her insensitive dad; her non-conformist uncle; and a magical, butt-kicking intruder from a world within our world. Populated by the aforementioned characters—and as charming as it may be subversive—B Is for Beer involves readers, young and old, in a surprising, far-reaching investigation into the limits of reality, the transformative powers of children, and, of course, the ultimate meaning of a tall, cold brewski.
A Soul in a Bottle
Tim Powers - 2006
Hollywood Boulevard, with its bars and used-book stores and the legendary Chinese Theater, is the psychic killing ground where Sydney must learn the rules of an old supernatural rivalry -- and choose to save either the woman he loves, or his soul.
Dracula
Nicky Raven - 2009
But when the unfortunate Harker finds himself held prisoner in the count’s remote castle, he must use all his faculties to escape. With the help of Professor Van Helsing, can he prevent the evil that has been unleashed from destroying his world? Illuminated in all its gothic majesty through the vivid artwork of Anne Yvonne Gilbert, this rich new edition is adapted for younger readers but retains the mystery and shocking twists of Bram Stoker’s classic.
Lolly Willowes
Sylvia Townsend Warner - 1926
To her overbearing family in London, it is a disturbing and inexplicable act of defiance. But Lolly will not be swayed, and in the depths of the English countryside she gradually discovers not only freedom and independence, but also, unexpectedly, her true vocation.
Club Sex
Tatumn Dixon - 2019
On their first date, Kyle reveals his deepest desires to Jessica, which include some of the kinkiest things she’s ever heard—and has her sensual curiosity piqued. Ready to be seduced into a world of fantasy, Jessica and Kyle visit a sex club where all their sinful cravings are fed—and others are only beginning. Saucy Sneak Peek: Voyeuristic Pleasure, Down and Dirty Dancing, Girl on Girl Grind, Insatiable Threesomes!
The Correspondence Artist
Barbara Browning - 2011
Readers are urged not to resent a wit superior to their own, since it is deployed entirely for their particular entertainment."—Harry MathewsVivian, a writer, is carrying on a relationship with an internationally acclaimed artist. There are those who stand to profit—and suffer—from the revelation of her paramour's identity, so in the service of telling her tale, she creates a series of fictional lovers.There is Tzipi, a sixty-eight-year-old Nobel-winning female Israeli writer; Binh, a twenty-something Vietnamese video artist; Santuxto, a poetic Basque separatist; and Djeli, a dreadlocked Malian world-music star.Largely through Vivian's e-mail correspondence, she divulges the story of their relationship, from their first meeting to their jumpy spam filter, which arrests the more explicit notes that result in Vivian being held captive in a tiger cage in a Berlin hotel/being chased by a Medusa-like woman on a Greek Island/imprisoned by a splinter cell of Basque separatists/in an African hospital with a bout of Dengue Fever.Barbara Browning's captivating wit and passionate intelligence make The Correspondence Artist a love story like none other.Barbara Browning has a PhD from Yale in comparative literature. She teaches in the Department of Performance Studies at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU. She's also a poet and a dancer. She lives with her son in Greenwich Village.
Literary Wonderlands: A Journey Through the Greatest Fictional Worlds Ever Created
Laura MillerAbigail Nussbaum - 2016
From Spenser's The Fairie Queene to Wells's The Time Machine to Murakami's 1Q84 it explores the timeless and captivating features of fiction's imagined worlds including the relevance of the writer's own life to the creation of the story, influential contemporary events and philosophies, and the meaning that can be extracted from the details of the work. With hundreds of pieces of original artwork, illustration and cartography, as well as a detailed overview of the plot and a "Dramatis Personae" for each work, Literary Wonderlands is a fascinating read for lovers of literature, fantasy, and science fiction.
Black Wade: The Wild Side of Love
Franze - 2009
Black Wade shows the entertaining love story between a rough, square-edged pirate and a young fine officer finely detailed and brilliantly colored.
Maybe the Moon
Armistead Maupin - 1992
All of 31 inches tall, Cady is a true survivor in a town where -- as she says -- "you can die of encouragement." Her early starring role as a lovable elf in an immensely popular American film proved a major disappointment, since moviegoers never saw the face behind the stifling rubber suit she was required to wear. Now, after a decade of hollow promises from the Industry, she is reduced to performing at birthday parties and bat mitzvahs as she waits for the miracle that will finally make her a star.In a series of mordantly funny journal entries, Maupin tracks his spunky heroine across the saffron-hazed wasteland of Los Angeles -- from her all-too-infrequent meetings with agents and studio moguls to her regular harrowing encounters with small children, large dogs and human ignorance. Then one day a lanky piano player saunters into Cady's life, unleashing heady new emotions, and she finds herself going for broke, shooting the moon with a scheme so harebrained and daring that it just might succeed. Her accomplice in the venture is her best friend, Jeff, a gay waiter who sees Cady's struggle for visibility as a natural extension of his own war against the Hollywood Closet.As clear-eyed as it is charming, Maybe the Moon is a modern parable about the mythology of the movies and the toll it exacts from it participants on both sides of the screen. It is a work that speaks to the resilience of the human spirit from a perspective rarely found in literature.
Antkind
Charlie Kaufman - 2020
Rosenberger Rosenberg, neurotic and underappreciated film critic (failed academic, film-maker, paramour, shoe salesman who sleeps in a sock drawer), stumbles upon a hitherto unseen film made by an enigmatic outsider—a film he's convinced will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core. His hands on what is possibly the greatest movie ever made—a three-month-long stop-motion masterpiece that took its reclusive auteur ninety years to complete—B. knows that it is his mission to show it to the rest of humanity. The only problem: The film is destroyed, leaving him the sole witness to its inadvertently ephemeral genius.All that's left of this work of art is a single frame from which B. must somehow attempt to recall the film that just might be the last great hope of civilization. Thus begins a mind-boggling journey through the hilarious nightmarescape of a psyche as lushly Kafkaesque as it is atrophied by the relentless spew of Twitter. Desperate to impose order on an increasingly nonsensical existence, trapped in a self-imposed prison of aspirational victimhood and degeneratively inclusive language, B. scrambles to recreate the lost masterwork while attempting to keep pace with an ever-fracturing culture of "likes" and arbitrary denunciations that are simultaneously his bete noire and his raison d'etre.A searing indictment of the modern world, Antkind is a richly layered meditation on art, time, memory, identity, comedy, and the very nature of existence itself—the grain of truth at the heart of every joke.
Space Raptor Butt Trilogy
Chuck Tingle - 2016
Nobody could have expected what would happen when the story continued. Collected here is the entire trilogy of Chuck Tingle’s history making Space Raptor Butt series.SPACE RAPTOR BUTT INVASIONSpace can be a lonely place, especially when you’re stationed by yourself on the distant planet Zorbus. In fact, Lance isn’t quite sure that can last the whole year before his shuttle pod arrives, but when a mysterious visitor appears at Lance’s terraforming station, he quickly realizes that he might not be so alone after all. Soon enough, Lance becomes close with this mysterious new astronaut, a velociraptor. Together, they form an unlikely duo, which quickly begins to cross the boundaries of friendship into something much, much more sensual. It’s not gay if it’s a man and a dinosaur, is it? SPACE RAPTOR BUTT REDEMPTIONAfter a year stationed on planet Zorbus, astronaut Lance Tanner and his raptor lover Orion return home to find that they are not greeted as heroes, but as villains. Unbeknownst to Lance, his space travels have been funded by the villainous Scoundrels Inc, a corporation that has deep ties to the illegal trade of unicorn tears and a destructive mining project at the core of the earth. Now Lance is on trial for a number of false charges; from having connections to the wicked Scoundrels, to being too strange for space. The opposing lawyer argues that space is only for serious astronauts, and that love between a raptor and a man is giving space travel a bad name. Lance is arguing that there’s room to be weird in space. More importantly, Lance is arguing for the idea of love itself; that just because something comes out of darkness doesn’t mean it can’t become a beacon of light. Of course, this all culminates in a hardcore dinosaur on astronaut pounding that will have your jaw on the courtroom floor! SPACE RAPTOR BUTT ASCENSIONSoon after blasting off on their mission to find refuge for the people of Earth 1 on the dinosaur inhabited Earth 2, Orion and his space raptor lover Lance find a spaceship stow away, the notorious CEO of Scounrels Inc, Vam Dox. Vam claims that his intentions are pure, but it’s hard to trust such a sad, strange man. After landing in Hugona, the planet capital of Earth 2, our heroes restrain Vam Dox and head off to secure an important diplomatic relationship with the pterodactyl president, but that’s when all hell breaks loose. Soon, Vam Dox is storming the capital with a band of rabid dogs, and Lance and Orion are wrongly taking the blame! Fortunately, Lance and Orion know that the only cure for evil this strong is to prove their love in a hardcore gay encounter at the steps of the capital building. When the smoke clears, will Vam Dox be revealed as the super villain that he claims to be, or a meek, lonesome manbaby who is starved for attention?
Frankissstein: A Love Story
Jeanette Winterson - 2019
‘Beware, for I am fearless and therefore powerful.'What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet? Jeanette Winterson shows us how much closer we are to that future than we realise. Funny and furious, bold and clear-sighted, Frankissstein is a love story about life itself.
Perfect Hair
Tommi Parrish - 2016
The locations and bodies are exaggerated to reach a more realistic and sensorial state. This is an awesome debut comic."— Dash Shaw, author of titles such as Cosplayers, Doctors, Bodyworld, and Bottomless Belly Button"Parrish has one of my favourite traits in a cartoonist: intense passion for the craft. They are rapidly evolving and experimenting wildly and it’s joyful to watch."— Simon Hanselmann, author of NY Times bestselling titles such as Megahex and Meg and Mogg in AmsterdamPerfect Hair, the debut graphic novel by Tommi Parrish, is a vivid set of vignettes that balances emotional honesty with a keen cultural awareness. Deploying their bold, innovative style to navigate topics such as fear, loneliness, identity, body politics, and more, Parrish is a promising newcomer from the burgeoning Australian altcomics scene. Tommi Parrish is a cartoonist, illustrator, and art editor based in Melbourne, Australia. Their work has appeared in various anthologies, magazines, mini comics, gallery shows in New York, Argentina, and throughout Australia, as well as the online column Advicecomics. They are also the art editor of the Australian literary journal The Lifted Brow.