MacGyver Meets Betty Crocker

via www.powells.com

Featuring twenty projects ranging from edible origami to glowing lollipops, cryogenic martinis to Tupperware boom boxes, the book draws from the expertise of programmers, professors, and garden-variety geeks and offers something to delight DIYers of all skill levels. Full Story

Powell's Books

Slightly Unusual Book Beats Truly Odd Books in Oddest Title Contest

via www.guardian.co.uk

The people have spoken and the oddest book title of the past 30 years has been selected: Greek Rural Postmen and their Cancellation Numbers. Full Story

Powell's Books

The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie

via www.newyorker.com

Like a good book, successful lingerie strikes a delicate balance between revelation (its own) and imagination (yours). Which is why "The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie," in spite of its mystifying title (evoking Gogol-esque visions of bras running amok in Damascus), is, like the atlas-print bra-and-pantie set on the cover, a great fusion of form and content. Full Story

Powell's Books:
The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie

Political Playthings

via www.latimes.com

Just in time for the nominating conventions, a pair of new books paint the presidential candidates as two-dimensional politicians, capture them in various states of undress and reveal what they've long kept hidden in their closets. Full Story

Powell's Books:
Obama Paper Dolls
McCain Paper Dolls

The Creepy Joy of Cooking with Vincent Price

via www.slate.com

For those who know Price from classic 1950s horror films like The Fly and The House of Wax—or who were imprinted with his Batman cameos and Saturday-morning commercials for Stay Alive and Hangman—it's odd to discover that he and his wife, Mary, were also gourmets. Full Story

Powell's Books:
Treasury of Great Recipes
Vincent Price

Cast Your Vote for Oddest Book Title

via guardian.co.uk
Forget the Booker of Bookers. The quest to find the oddest book title of the past 30 years has begun today, with Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice the early frontrunner. Full Story

Powell's Books:
If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With Your Legs
The Stray Shopping Carts of Eastern North America
People Who Don't Know They're Dead
Bombproof Your Horse
The Big Book of Lesbian Horse Stories

The 10 Oddest Travel Guides Ever Published

via www.slate.com

"After five years' travel," veteran guidebook writer Geoff Crowther once recalled, "most of us went feral." So did the books they wrote. Jammed into backpacks, ripped into pieces, guidebooks escape into the wild to get lost or abandoned for the next edition. Here are 10 that are so transfixingly odd that they've remained readable long beyond their original itineraries. Full Story

Powell's Books:
The Night Climbers of Cambridge
Bollocks to Alton Towers
Micronations