Gwenda Bond directed Matt Ruff my way and after reading and enjoying his latest book, Bad Monkeys, I see that I owe her (yet again) for her fine fine literary taste. (Sharyn November has also told me to read his earlier title Set This House in Order asap and I do have a copy so expect more on that novel later!) Here's a bit from my review of Monkeys, which is in my column this month (it is not a YA title, but I thought it would work for some teens):

There were a lot of reasons Bad Monkeys impressed me, but mostly it was the sheer audacity of the plot -- and the fact that Ruff pulled it off in such fine style. The reader does not know whether to root for Jane or hope that Vale sends her away forever and the revelations about her past and especially her childhood only muddy those waters more as the story progresses. Part science fiction, part thriller, with elements of police procedural (minus the police of course), family drama and even humor thrown in, Bad Monkeys is both deliciously subversive and outrageously savagely brilliant. The inclusion of a sexual hint or two as well as some violence means it is only for the high school crowd, but I’m certain they will love it. Boys and girls are fair game here; don’t let them pass this one by.

Bad Monkeys was most definitely one of my favorite reads of the year. Now onto what Matt enjoyed:

Endless Things, by John Crowley – This long-overdue conclusion to Crowley’s Aegypt Cycle is my book of the year. Anticipation has something to do with that—as I describe in this essay on The Millions, my love affair with Aegypt dates back to the waning years of the Reagan presidency—but it’s also a great novel, and a satisfying conclusion to the series. I want to offer a special holiday thank-you to Gavin Grant and Kelly Link at Small Beer Press for seeing this into print, and to Overlook Press for committing to reprint the entire Aegypt Cycle (beginning with book one, The Solitudes) in trade paperback.

The Codex Seraphinianus, by Luigi Serafini – After Endless Things, which I waited two decades to read, the book that most excited me this year is one I can’t read at all. The Codex Seraphinianus is an encyclopedia from an alternate universe. Its folio-sized pages are covered in a flowing, alien script and numerous color illustrations. One picture shows a lake with what appear to be many pairs of eyes peeping up out of the water; an accompanying set of sketches reveals that these are actually fish with pupil-and-iris patterns on their sides and overarching, eyebrow-like tailfins. Another section of the book, devoted to gastronomy, shows a dish with teeth that pre-chews the diner’s food. And those are some of the tamer images.

The Codex was published in several limited editions, all of which are now scarce and expensive (I found mine at the Seattle Antiquarian Book Fair). If you can afford it, it’s a nice addition to your SF library. And you’ll feel like the coolest LOLcat on the block as you walk around the house chanting “I has a codex! I has a codex!�

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage – Forget Strunk and White’s flimsy little style pamphlet. What you’ve got here is nearly a thousand pages of distilled commentary on the most vexing grammar and usage questions of our time, such as whether it’s OK to say that one thing is different than another, or whether “my friend and I� can be used as the object of a sentence. The way you judge such a book, of course, is by seeing how often it supports your side of an argument, and so far, the Dictionary has been right every time.

Dangerous Space by Kelley Eskridge – A collection of short stories by the author of Solitaire. To quote my own blurb from the jacket: “It takes a special talent to write about emotions this raw without embarrassing yourself. In Dangerous Space, the very talented Kelley Eskridge offers tales of the human heart that are searing, moving, and true.�

Indulge: 100 Perfect Desserts, by Claire Clark – A gorgeous book of dessert recipes by the pastry chef at The French Laundry. Unlike that other great work of food porn, The French Laundry Cookbook, this one’s actually useable by mere mortals.

The Mad Scientists’ Club, by Bertrand R. Brinley – A YA classic about a group of boys who use their knowledge of science to pull cool pranks (and occasionally help out the community). This was reprinted recently along with its sequel, The New Adventures of the Mad Scientists’ Club, and two previously unpublished Mad Scientist books, The Big Kerplop! and The Big Chunk of Ice.

The Latke Who Couldn’t Stop Screaming: A Christmas Story, by Lemony Snicket and Lisa Brown – And one more for the holidays. My wife Lisa bought this to give to our niece and nephew for Hanukkah and ended up keeping it for herself.
****************************************************

I have the first Mad Scientist book on my shelf right now and love it. It has a distinct 1950s feel in that there are a bunch of boys building crazy contraptions and having wild adventures but all of a decidedly nonviolent and nonthreatening manner. Purple House Press has done a great job reissuing out of print classics and I wholeheartedly recommend the Mad Scientist series.

I have never heard of The Codex Seraphinianus but one look at this article in The Believer has me absurdly jealous over Matt's find. Here's a bit of that article:

I got my Codex for the relative bargain of two hundred and seventy-five dollars. It’s the 1983 Abbeville Press edition, the only American edition of the book ever printed. “Organized in eminently logical fashion,� the jacket copy tells me, “it describes a system of knowledge that—at least in its structure—mirrors our own: here are botany, zoology, chemistry, physics, engineering, anatomy, anthropology, sociology, linguistics, and urban studies, each describing its object with a peculiarly recognizable exactitude.� It continues, in a tone not unlike that of a carnival barker: “Discover for yourself, reader, such wonders as the purple-caged citrus, the spider-web flower, the parfait protea, and the ladder weed. This is a world inhabited by weird half-sentient flora such as the tadpole tree and the meteor-fruit, by the lacy flying-saucer fish, the wheeled caterpillar-rumped horse, and the metamorphic bicranial rhino. The planet’s sentient species are here as well—races like the Garbage-Dwellers, the Road-Traffic and the Yarn People, and the exotic Rodent-Skin Wearers… Nor can we forget to mention the Homo-Saurians, whose unusual sexual life-cycle is graphically described.� One presumes the “Homo-Saurians� are the couple-cum-gator on the book’s cover (the illustration also appears inside the book). The jacket copy cheerfully concludes that “merely to name these creatures is to confront the limits of our language.� Well, yeah.

(You know, every time I think The Believer is just too full of itself I read an article like this one and realize that it is unlike every single magazine out there. Nobody else would print a story like this one on such an unusual book.)

Thanks Matt for letting us know about this amazing book (and all the others you mentioned here). Back tomorrow with Margo Rabb.