Cooler than fiction

Yeah baby! It's snowing!, originally uploaded by your neighborhood librarian.

First of all, this picture is cooler than fiction. You couldn't MAKE UP a six year old in striped Hanna Anderssen pajamas and moon boots, dancing because it's snowing, wearing his father's hat. The hat which for some reason the children describe as, "That's your hat for going down to the harbor to blow things up!"

Hey, I would like to make clear: my husband has never blown anything up at the harbor.

What else is cooler than fiction?

AC/DC: Maximum Rock & Roll. by Murray Engleheart with Arnaud Durieux.
I haven't read this and I don't care. I've flipped through the pictures and that's cool enough for anyone. You know what I love about AC/DC? Well besides ALL the music, and the fact that my kids were BORN liking AC/DC, and this shirt? I love that when Bon died, the entire band, without a moment's hesitation, canceled whatever else they were doing and flew back to Australia to be with his family.

Breaking the Mode: Contemporary fashion from the permanent collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, by Kaye Durland Spilker and Sharon Sadako Takeda
No pesky provenance problems here... all this Fashion as Art was donated fair and square by some very fancy fashion victims indeed.

Hello Charlie: Letters from a serial killer by Charlie Hess and Davin Seay
Just what you'd expect: over the course of dozens of letters, a convicted killer gives up the details of another 39 murders. It's like fiction, but it's better.

When Man is the Prey: True stories of animals attacking humans, edited by Michael Tougias
You know the difference between fiction and non-fiction? Subtitles. Yeesh. This one's good for a read-aloud, as long as your listeners get creeped out by sharks. Or bears. Monkeys. Lions. Snakes, of course. There's even a deer attack! No bunnies though.

Secret Ingredients: The New Yorker book of food and drink, edited by David Remnick
The author list here gives me a little shiver of joy: Adam Gopnik, Bourdain, Miss Mary Francis, John McPhee, Buford, Susan Orlean, Miss Parker, Woody, Steve, Roald Dahl, Don DeLillo (wait, Don DeLillo on food? do you think the food is depressed?), and other wits. Can't wait.

W.A.R.: The unauthorized biography of William Axl Rose by by Mick Wall
Ever since that weird article in GQ last year I have been on the lookout for Axl. How'd he get so funny-looking so fast? Is he really back on stage? Plus - pictures!

And here's why I had to write this post: I walked into the workroom this afternoon and spotted THIS:

go fug yourself presents: The Fug Awards, by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
All new content, expanded commentary, and copious photographic documentation bolster the opinions expressed in this book: a) Chloe Sevigny is not a productive choice for a style icon b) Bras = good and c) a little color never did any girl any harm.

And here I thought I was going to settle in this weekend with naught to read but the new issue of Vanity Fair. And the second Kiki Strike novel. And An Ordinary Spy by Joseph Weisberg, recommended by a customer. Ok, shut up.