An Arab and a Jew open a restaurant together across the street from the United Nations....

It sounds like the beginning of an ethnic joke, but it's the axis around which spins this gutsy, fun-loving, and alarmingly provocative novel, in which a bean can philosophizes, a dessert spoon mystifies, a young waitress takes on the New York art world, and a rowdy redneck welder discovers the lost god of Palestine—while the illusions that obscure humanity's view of the true universe fall away, one by one, like Salome's veils.

Skinny Legs and All deals with today's most sensitive issues: race, politics, marriage, art, religion, money, and lust.  It weaves lyrically through what some call the "end days" of our planet.  Refusing to avert its gaze from the horrors of the apocalypse, it also refuses to let the alleged end of the world spoil its mood.  And its mood is defiantly upbeat.

In the gloriously inventive Tom Robbins style, here are characters, phrases, stories, and ideas that dance together on the page, wild and sexy, like Salome herself.  Or was it Jezebel?

Still Life with Woodpecker is sort of a love story that takes place inside a pack of Camel cigarettes.  It reveals the purpose of the moon, explains the difference between criminals and outlaws, examines the conflict between social activism and romantic individualism, and paints a portrait of contemporary society that includes powerful Arabs, exiled royalty, and pregnant cheerleaders.  It also deals with the problem of redheads.

In this wickedly funny, irreverent tribute to mythological “bad girl” goddesses from around the world, Trina Robbins tells 20 nasty, bitchy, utterly enjoyable tales. Her goddesses sleep with dwarves, slip drugs into drinks, have catfights with their sisters, kill, get even, and generally raise hell. Readers meet Innanna, the Sumerian goddess who plies the god of wisdom with beer so she can steal his powers; Norse goddess Freya, the original Snow White, who is after a diamond necklace; and Lilith, created by God to be Adam's equal, but hungry for more.

This collection is in many ways an indispensable history of women in comics since the 1940s. Author Trina Robbins used to hang out in comics shops with her boyfriend, waiting impatiently, assuming that comics was essentially a boy's medium. Looking closer, Robbins realized there was a hidden history within the comics world, one that reflected cultural shifts in ideas about women—if you look at how women are drawn, you learn a lot about how women are imagined. Robbins edited the first all-women comic book, It Ain't Me, Babe, and her insider knowledge is clearly encyclopedic. Before the grrrl comics like Ellen Forney's Tomato or Jessica Abel's ArtBabe, there was 1943's Girl's Life, narrated by a cartoon teenager named Patsy Walker who wants nothing more than to become a beautiful movie star. Then there are Betty and Veronica with their impossible breasts, and Wimmin's comics of the early '70s, in which the drawings pulse with angry life, druggy and hopeful.

From Girls to Grrrlz occasionally suffers from tunnel vision—analysis is not Robbins's strength. She's so immersed in the world she's documenting, she's never objective about it; she never rises out of the cartoon world for a feminist discussion of what it means for women to start drawing themselves, to start telling their own stories via this boy-dominated medium. Nevertheless, it is a well-organized, beautifully presented tribute to women as creators and characters. The full-page reproduction of "The Further Fattening Adventures of Pudge, Girl Blimp" is by itself worth the price of admission. —Emily White

A writer's public life is not — as is often thought — a round of glamorous parties, prize-acceptance speeches, and triumphant readings to amphitheatres full of loyal, cheering fans; it is, in fact, a grim treadmill of humiliation and neglect. Mortification sets the record straight, once and for all. A collection of seventy specially commissioned contributions — true stories of public indignity by some of our finest living writers — this is a celebration of defeat, and a chance to indulge in that most malicious of pleasures: schadenfreude.

You will read about dashed hopes and collapsing bowels, thwarted desire and unimpeded drinking; of fans queuing up for Stephen King's blood; Margaret Drabble bidding at a mock slave auction in Dallas; Louis de Bernières and the S&M prostitute; A. L. Kennedy's disintegrating trousers; William Boyd endorsing Shake 'n' Vac; Margaret Atwood's on-air brush with the Colostomy Association; about an author wanting to kill a member of her audience or another succeeding (accidentally) in killing his host's beloved pet.

These are the best kind of stories: those told against the teller. While readers may be transfixed by the baroque twists of fate, the toe-curling embarrassments, the body's betrayals, and the mind's vanishing acts, they will also wonder at these writers' brave acknowledgment of their own vulnerability and the willingness to expose their shame, a second time, before the public.

Decorative Paint Recipes is a well-designed and beautifully illustrated book about the world of decorative paint applications for nearly every part of the home. "A Good Foundation," the first of three main sections, includes all of the basics on colors, varieties of paints (for example, there are paints made specifically for application on glass), mixing paints, solvents, tools and equipment, and preparation. The second section, "Techniques," is essentially a manual covering how to paint and how to use the tools and materials to create spectacular, professional results. "Projects and Designs," which makes up the largest portion of the book, contains plans for unusual, elegant, and whimsical wall treatments; exciting border designs; painted doors with nature themes; cabinets; fabric screens; delightfully individualized picture frames; and dozens more projects that are diverse enough to appeal to the style and taste of almost anyone.

Annabel thinks her mom has the best life. If she were a grown-up, she could do whatever she wanted! Then one morning she wakes up to find she's turned into her mother . . . and she soon discovers it's not as easy as it looks!

Disney brings this popular and funny favorite to the silver screen in a new, totally modern story, starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan.

A brash, outrageous novel from the irresistible author of Fag Hag. Lionel Frank is a man as desperate to conceal his homosexuality from his ad agency colleagues as he is to indulge it at night. But poor Lionel is playing the straight man in a world where every success takes him one step closer to disaster.

Leave it to Caldecott-winning illustrator Eric Rohmann to exactly capture the touching, transporting beauty of a girl hugging a fish. In fact, Rohmann may have some practice at it, having arranged a repeat performance of sorts with Asha here (the fishy friend in Clara and Asha), so similar is she to her smiling piscine counterpart in 1997's wonderfully dreamy Cinder-Eyed Cats.

To call Asha a "flying" fish would be a misnomer—Asha properly floats, as she does from the beginning of this book when she drifts in through the bedroom window of Clara, a pony-tailed girl who can't bring herself to fall asleep. ("'Clara! Time for bed,' my mom calls. But I'm not sleepy, so I open my window...and wait for Asha.") Rohmann's sweeping, lyrical, painterly style here—much more similar to Cats and Prairie Train than to My Friend Rabbit—provides a perfect backdrop for Clara and Asha's frolics. As with the huge fish in Cinder-Eyed Cats, imaginary-friend Asha seems to be brought to life from a child's longing alone (in this case, coaxed out of the statuary of a park fountain), so she;s more than happy to play tag, take baths, have tea parties, and even help Clara with her Halloween costume (as, naturally, a fisherman).

The last half of this bedtime picture-book follows Clara and Asha across several sleepy, wordless, panoramic spreads, as the duo navigates (and swoops, and somersaults) by starlight across the night sky. This graceful drop in tempo should soothe even the most hyper victim of a tucking-in—which is more than can be said for poor Clara, who receives yet another imaginary-animal visitor just as Asha excuses herself. (Ages 4 to 8) —Paul Hughes

Month by month, Elizabeth Romer details a year in a Tuscan kitchen. Noting farm recipes calling for olive oil measured in wine glasses, Romer recounts the way of life folks in Tuscany have enjoyed for centuries. In winter they spin wool and cure quantities of prosciutto. In springtime the pecorino cheese is made, while in summer the farm is ripe with corn, pears, and sweet peas. Then, of course, comes autumn, the time for wine, the time of the harvest. The rhythm of life naturally follows the foods of the seasons. You shouldn't read it without some good food nearby.

An all-encompassing guide to entertaining, amazing, and possibly even educating children, Be the Coolest Dad on the Block provides the perfect excuse to stand on a balloon, play with grated cheese in the microwave, and unroll an entire roll of toilet paper, all in the name of spending time with your kids.

Written by a comedy writer and a cartoonist with thirty years’ combined experience as dads, Be the Coolest Dad on the Block is a cornucopia of practical parenting advice, like how to skip stones or teach a kid to ride a bike. It has answers to the pesky questions kids love, such as “Why is the sky blue?” or “Where do babies come from?” And it can help dads entertain large groups of kids with slapstick gags (“burp the alphabet”) or cool tricks (“the hole in the head”). Be the Coolest Dad on the Block also contains spooky myths for telling around the campfire and loads of quizzes and jokes for rainy days or endless car rides.

With a range of ideas to suit all situations and sensibilities, Be the Coolest Dad on the Block gives any dad the right stuff to be the wackiest and smartest guy in the room.