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Electronic Gadgets for the Evil Genius : 28 Build-It-Yourself

123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius (TAB Robotics)

Build Your Own Laser, Phaser, Ion Ray Gun and Other Working Space Age Projects

The Costumer's Manifesto Totally Unrelated Books I Just Like:

The Art of the Catapult: Build Greek Ballistae, Roman Onagers, English Trebuchets, and More Ancient Artillery

Harry Potter Hardcover Box Set with Leather Bookmark (Books 1-5) [LIMITED EDITION]

 

 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Book 1) If you haven't read Harry Potter yet, do so.  Ignore the hype and merchandizing, and bask in the comic glory of this weird British adventure series that seems to be composed of equal parts Monty Python and Tim Burton.

Harry Potter Schoolbooks: Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Two more small books by JK Rowling, filled with the same quirky humor as the rest.

 

Harrius Potter et Philosophi Lapis (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Latin edition)

 

Topiary Basics : The Art of Shaping Plants in Gardens & Containers You always wanted to clip and train trees into animal and geometric shapes when you were a kid, why not do so now that you are an adult, and nobody will stop you?

How to Grow A Chair : The Art of Tree Trunk Topiary

Gardens of Obsession : Eccentric and Extravagant Visions

Sex Tips for Girls The word from my Guru on life

 

The West End Horror : A Posthumous Memoir of John H. Watson, M.D.  Imagine Sherlock Holmes running amok through the theatre world of Gilbert and Sullivan, Ellen Terry, GB Shaw, and Oscar Wilde.

The Seven-Per-Cent Solution : Being a Reprint from the Reminiscences of John H. Watson, M.D. (Norton Paperback) Sherlock meets Freud, and is cured of his cocaine addition while both are busy averting a Balkan war.

The Canary Trainer : From the Memoirs of John H. Watson  Sherlock, meets the Phantom of the Opera

 

Good Night Mr. Holmes "A Scandal in Bohemia", from Irene Adler's point of view!

Good Morning, Irene  The Sequel, in which Irene & her entourage prove to be as good at detection as Holmes.

Irene at Large  More Irene

Irene's Last Waltz Irene revisits Bohemia, sings an opera, saves her erstwhile lover the King, repairs his faltering marriage, and foils a Russian plot to take over Bohemia. 

Chapel Noir : An Irene Adler Novel  The newest, out soon!

 

Silver Pigs Marcus Didius Falco, Ancient Rome's answer to Arcady Renko, busts a silver smuggling ring in Ancient Britain, and wins the affections of a smart mouthed Senator's daughter.

Time to Depart More Falco

Ode to a Banker  More Falco

One Virgin Too Many  More Falco

 

The Infernal Device and Death by Gaslight Two ripping novels, plus a short story, feature Professor Moriarity as the hero.  Sherlock Holmes provides comic relief, and the Professor has fun alternately saving the Empire and stealing from the rich.

 

The Great Game : A Professor Moriarty Novel Just out, another book with Professor Moriarity.

The Action Hero's Handbook: How to Catch a Great White Shark, Perform the Vulcan Nerve Pinch, Track a Fugitive, and Dozens of Other TV and Movie Skills

 

Mistress A romance novel for unsentimental women.  A nerdly Regency heroine, and a studly Lord (who longs to invent a working fountain pen) team up to find a killer.  Much silliness ensues.  Even the sex scenes are funny, and the hero's failed attempts at fountain pen design have a wry phallic subtext.

Mystique  For everyone who ever wished that one of those macho Medieval romance heroes (this one is "Hugo the Relentless") would meet up with with a heroine who was intellectual,  obsessively geeky and determined rather than "spirited" and petulant, just so you could watch his total breakdown of his belief system about women.

Deception  Another nerdly couple goes on a treasure hunt for a lost map and find one another.  Comic romantic happiness ensues.

Mischief  See above

 

Strong Poison  Aristocratic dilettante detective Lord Peter Wimsey finds he must clear a lady of a murder charge if she is going to live long enough to marry him. 

 

Have His Carcase Burnt out from being accused of murder, Detective novelist Harriet Vane, goes on a walking tour of the seaside, only to find a body.  She reluctantly enlists the help of Wimsey at solving the crime, while he periodically renews his offers of marriage.

Murder Must Advertise Wimsy, momentarily rejected, goes undercover at an Ad agency to solve a crime connected with a cocaine ring.  Lots of fun period flavor of the 1930's world of sex, drugs and advertising.

Gaudy Night Harriet returns to Oxford for Gaudy Night (kind of like a Class reunion), to find a mystery appears that her former professors want her to solve.  Again she taps Wimsey for help, but in this long, and very satisfying tale, no bodies surface, but Harriet and Wimsey finally agree to tie the knot.

Crocodile on the Sandbank  Amelia Peabody is the most funny, delightful and eccentric detective ever written.  This novel introduces her, and her husband in waiting, the equally erasable fictional Victorian Archaeologist Radcliffe Emerson.  In this tale they foil tomb robbers, kidnappers, and various evil doers, including an Italian gigolo dressed as a risen mummy.  Romance ensues by the end, in a fashion as absurd yet thrilling as the rest.

The Curse of the Pharaohs  Back in England Peabody and Emerson are at it again, this time with their small precocious son Ramses helping to save the day.  Many of the good bits of the film "The Mummy Returns" appear to have been nicked out of this far funnier book.

The Last Camel Died at Noon Peabody, Emerson and Ramses are stranded at an oasis where Ancient Egyptian culture is alive and well.  The twelve year old Ramses falls madly in love with Nefret, the 14 year old High priestess of Isis, and saves the oasis kingdom from a political overthrow.  (There are many, many more delightful books in this series going from the Marriage of Peabody and Emerson in the 1880's, to the married life of Nefret and Ramses after WWI) 

Amelia Peabody's Egypt: A Compendium

The Murders of Richard III  The most popular of Peter's non-Peabody Books, this tells the tale of a sarcastic librarian's sojourn to a mystery laden SCA type event, where all the party guests dress as characters from Richard III.  Somebody however, wants to kill Richard III all over again.

 

Die for Love  The librarian attends a Romance book convention in NYC, and writers start dropping like flies.  This is a great read for all those with a love/hate relationship with romance novels, since it skewers the books, the writers, and these conventions with equal abandon.

 

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Books of Wonder) One of the great fantasy novels of all time.  Most people don't know that it spawned a whole series of great books set in OZ.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz/the Marvelous Land of Oz/Ozma of Oz : Boxed Set The first three books in the series in a box set.

Glinda of Oz : In Which Are Related the Exciting Experiences of Princess Ozma of Oz, and Dorothy, in Their Hazardous Journey to the Home of the flatheads  The last in the series, and to my mind the best, full of engaging fantasy, subtle humor, and gorgeous Art Nouveau illustrations.

 

Queen Zixi of IX or the Story of the Magic Cloak : Or, the Story of the Magic Cloak L. Frank Baum wrote other books besides OZ stories, this is one of the best fantasies, set in IX, a neighboring land.  Also full of great Art Nouveau line drawings.

 

Vampires, Burial, and Death : Folklore and Reality

 

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This Page is part of The Costumer's Manifesto by Tara Maginnis, Ph.D.  Copyright 1996-2010.   You may print out any of these pages for non-profit educational use such as school papers, teacher handouts, or wall displays.  You may link to any page in my site.