The Gashlycrumb Tinies
by Edward Gorey
The concept behind Edward Gorey’s The Gashlycrumb Tinies; or, After the Outing, is brilliantly simple. It consists of a series of rhymes about 26 little children who suffer various, if not gruesome, deaths. Each child’s name begins with a different letter of the alphabet, from A to Z, and their grim fates are arranged alphabetically by name. For example, it begins with “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs” and it ends with “Z is for Zilla who drank too much gin.” Personally, my favorites are the horrid drawing of “K is for Kate who was struck with an ax” and the depressing “C is for Clara who wasted away.” The Victorian/Gothic crosshatch drawings are delightful in their black-and-white simplicity. The cover is especially nice, with a drawing of Death sheltering all the children under his big black umbrella. Although this book is tiny in size, it is big on macabre humor and artistic achievement!
Paranormal People: The Famous, the Infamous and the Supernatural
by Paul Chambers
I always enjoy reading books about the odd habits of people ostensibly endowed with paranormal powers. The subjects of this book include the famous and notorious (e.g. the occultist Aleister Crowley, and Madame Blavatsky, the founder of Theosophy), the playful (the Cottingley fairy photographers) and even stories about skeptics who did their best to expose fraudulent paranormal events (e.g. Harry Houdini). The writing style is interesting – first the event as it supposedly happened, then the various reasons why it is probably fake. Out of the whole book, I was most shocked by the interesting chapter about Spontaneous Human Combustion. I also found interesting examples of psychometry and bilocation.
The Last Alchemist: Count Cagliostro, Master of Magic in the Age of Reason
by Iain McCalman
This book recounts the astounding adventures of Count Alessandro di Cagliostro, the self-proclaimed alchemist and healer who was both revered and reviled by a host of eighteenth-century celebrities. Escaping a life of poverty in his native Sicily, the former gutter rat turned to deception on a grand scale. Traveling across Europe promoting himself and peddling a mix of Freemasonry and mysticism, he managed one narrow escape after another until he was finally imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition in 1789. Charming and outraging monarchs, priests, artists, scientists, physicians, and courtesans with his claims of magical powers, he crossed paths with Catherine the Great, Goethe, Marie Antoinette, Mozart, and William Blake. This book is a fascinating analysis of the life and times of Cagliostro as well as a fascinating read about Enlightenment Europe.
Johhny the Homicidal Maniac (Directors Cut)
by Jhonen Vasquez
This is about a poor tortured individual named Johnny, or “Nny.” who tortures and kills people when they’re make fun of his apperance. Behind Nny’s madness are the two psycho-Doughboys, one of which urges Nny to kill people, while the other wants Nny to kill himself instead. The only sane voice in Nny's head is that of compassionate Nail-Bunny, a former pet of Nny’s, now nailed to a wall. In the course of his disturbing day-to-day life, Johhny falls in love (only to lose the girl after he tries to kill her), tries to commit suicide (and eventually succeeds, only to be thrown out of both Heaven and Hell), craves Brain Freezies, enjoys murdering cheerleaders and door-to-door salesmen, and ultimately tries to uncover the meaning of his homicidal existence. The original JTHM was released in seven issues, but they are all here in this one book. This special “Director's Cut” also includes the infamous Anne Gwish comics, which mercilessly satirize the angst-ridden existence of Goths.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
by Mary Roach
This grimly funny book brings us behind the scenes of what happens to the corpse after a person dies. The books contains many chapters focusing on various things that can happen to a corpse, both historically and in modern times. You can read about severed heads used by doctors to practice cosmetic surgery; about corpses used to crash-test new car models; about bodies being stolen from graveyards for medical experiments by incompetent doctors; and about various cases of cannibalism in China, where human flesh and organs are believed to have medicinal properties. One of the more gruesome chapters contains a step by step description of the processes of human decay -- starting from the “fresh stage,” going on to “bloat,” and finishing with “putrefication.”
