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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bagombo Snuff Box'
From out of the blue, here's a new collection of Vonnegut fiction--his first magazine stories from the 1950s in book form at last, with some charming reminiscences (and three new endings for old stories) by the author. Vonnegut says these tales were meant to be as evanescent as lightening bugs, and that image captures their frail magic. They're like time travelers from an epoch when stories swarmed in mass-market magazines, before TV dawned and doomed them.
Later greatness glimmers here: the offbeat sci-fi of "Thanasphere" (in which an astronaut encounters dead souls in space) and the hero's bogus adventures in alien lands in "Bagombo Snuff Box" look forward to Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, as do the war stories "Souvenir," "Der Arme Dolmetscher," and "The Cruise of The Jolly Roger," which incorporate and amplify Vonnegut's actual war experiences. There's authentic midcentury news here, even in the gentle Saturday Evening Post social satire of "The No-Talent Kid," "Ambitious Sophomore," and "The Boy Who Hated Girls," which pretty much nail the high-school marching band experience. The pieces are peppered with odd, true observations and neat little turns of phrase: one incompetent kid in Lincoln High's band marches "flappingly, like a mother flamingo pretending to be injured, luring alligators from her nest."
You can't miss the ironic humor and the humane, death-haunted melancholy of the young war veteran and tyro writer. This collection beats his first novel, Player Piano, and anticipates the masterpiece Cat's Cradle, whose tiny chapters resemble short stories. Young Vonnegut is derivative, mostly of Saki and O. Henry, partly because he couldn't think of endings, and their switcheroos offered a handy model. But from the start, Vonnegut's idiosyncratic voice is unmistakable. --Tim Appelo [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Beaver Papers: The Story of the Lost Season'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bluebeard'
Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life storyand Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about mans careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Breakfast of Champions'
"We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane." So reads the tombstone of downtrodden writer Kilgore Trout, but we have no doubt who's really talking: his alter ego Kurt Vonnegut. Health versus sickness, humanity versus inhumanity--both sets of ideas bounce through this challenging and funny book. As with the rest of Vonnegut's pure fantasy, it lacks the shimmering, fact-fueled rage that illuminates Slaughterhouse-Five. At the same time, that makes this book perhaps more enjoyable to read.
Breakfast of Champions is a slippery, lucid, bleakly humorous jaunt through (sick? inhumane?) America circa 1973, with Vonnegut acting as our Virgil-like companion. The book follows its main character, auto-dealing solid-citizen Dwayne Hoover, down into madness, a condition brought on by the work of the aforementioned Kilgore Trout. As Dwayne cracks, then crumbles, Breakfast of Champions coolly shows the effects his dementia has on the web of characters surrounding him. It's not much of a plot, but it's enough for Vonnegut to air unique opinions on America, sex, war, love, and all of his other pet topics--you know, the only ones that really count. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Cat's Cradle'
Cat's Cradle, one of Vonnegut's most entertaining novels, is filled with scientists and G-men and even ordinary folks caught up in the game. These assorted characters chase each other around in search of the world's most important and dangerous substance, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature. At one time, this novel could probably be found on the bookshelf of every college kid in America; it's still a fabulous read and a great place to start if you're young enough to have missed the first Vonnegut craze. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Colossus: The Price of America's Empire'
"The United States today is an empirebut a peculiar kind of empire," writes Niall Ferguson. Despite overwhelming military, economic, and cultural dominance, America has had a difficult time imposing its will on other nations, mostly because the country is uncomfortable with imperialism and thus unable to use this power most effectively and decisively. The origin of this attitude and its persistence is a principal theme of this thought-provoking book, including how domestic politics affects foreign policy, whether it is politicians worried about the next election or citizens who "like Social Security more than national security." Ferguson, a British historian, has no objection to an American empire, as long as it is a liberal one actively underwriting the free exchange of goods, labor, and capital. Further, he writes that "empire is more necessary in the twenty-first century than ever before" as a means to "contain epidemics, depose tyrants, end local wars and eradicate terrorist organizations." The sooner America embraces this role and acts on it confidently, the better. Ferguson contrasts this persistent anti-imperialistic urge with the attitude held by the British Empire and suggests that America has much to learn from that model if it is to achieve its stated foreign policy objectives of spreading social freedom, democracy, development, and the free market to the world. He suggests that the U.S. must be willing to send money, civilians, and troops for a sustained period of time to troubled spots if there is to be real changeas in Japan and Germany after World War II--an idea that many American citizens and leaders now find repulsive. Rather than devoting limited resources and striving to get complex jobs done in a rush, Americans must be willing to integrate themselves into a foreign culture until a full Americanization has occurred, he writes. Overall, a trenchant examination of a uniquely American dilemma and its implications for the rest of the world. --Shawn Carkonen [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage'
Fates Worse Than Death [Paperback] by Vonnegut, Kurt [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage of the 1980's'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Frankenstein Omnibus'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Galapagos'
Galapagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galapagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave new, and totally different human race. Here, America's master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry -- and all that is worth saving. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Galapagos'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Galapagos: Key Environments'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Galapagos/300854'
The human survivors of the "Nature Crisis of the Century", are quietly evolving into sleek, furry creatures with flippers and small brains. All other forms of humankind have ceased to exist, made redundant by their prized big brains. From the author of "Slaughterhouse 5". [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater'
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is a comic masterpice. Eliot Rosewater, drunk, volunteer fireman, and president of the fabulously rich Rosewater foundation, is about to attempt a noble experiment with human nature... with a little help from writer Kilgore Trout. The result is Vonnegut's funniest satire, an etched-in-acid portrayal of the greed, hypocrisy, and follies of the flesh we are all heir to. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Great Science Fiction of the 20th Century'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Hocus Pocus'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Jailbird: A Novel'
Jailbird takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in government. . .and in the heart. This wry tale follows bumbling bureaucrat Walter F. Starbuck from Harvard to the Nixon White House to the penitentiary as Watergate's least known co-conspirator. But the humor turns dark when Vonnegut shines his spotlight on the cold hearts and calculated greed of the mighty, giving a razor-sharp edge to an unforgettable portait of power and politics in our times. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Joke's Over: Bruised Memories Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson, and Me'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kurt Vonnegut, Jr'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Like Shaking Hands With God'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Like Shaking Hands with God : A Conversation about Writing'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Man Without a Country'
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER"[This] may be as close as Vonnegut ever comes to a memoir." -Los Angeles Times"Like [that of] his literary ancestor Mark Twain, [Kurt Vonnegut's] crankiness is good-humored and sharp-witted. . . . [Reading A Man Without a Country is] like sitting down on the couch for a long chat with an old friend." -The New York Times Book ReviewIn a volume that is penetrating, introspective, incisive, and laugh-out-loud funny, one of the great men of letters of this age-or any age-holds forth on life, art, sex, politics, and the state of America's soul. From his coming of age in America, to his formative war experiences, to his life as an artist, this is Vonnegut doing what he does best: Being himself. Whimsically illustrated by the author, A Man Without a Country is intimate, tender, and brimming with the scope of Kurt Vonnegut's passions."For all those who have lived with Vonnegut in their imaginations . . . this is what he is like in person." -USA Today"Filled with [Vonnegut's] usual contradictory mix of joy and sorrow, hope and despair, humor and gravity." -Chicago Tribune"Fans will linger on every word . . . as once again [Vonnegut] captures the complexity of the human condition with stunning calligraphic simplicity." -The Australian"Thank God, Kurt Vonnegut has broken his promise that he will never write another book. In this wondrous assemblage of mini-memoirs, we discover his family's legacy and his obstinate, unfashionable humanism." -Studs Terkel [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mask of Sanity: An Attempt to Clarify Some Issues About the So Called Psychopathic Personality'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Modern Book of Yoga : Exercising Mind, Body and Spirit'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Mother Night'
From ratty attic to Auschwitz and back again, Mother Night is the confessions of Howard W Campbell Jr - an American, a notorious Nazi propagandist, and a US counter-spy - not a moral man. This mournful, macabre and diabolically funny tale of unsung heroism uses acrid humour to underline the horror of its themes. It is one of the blackest comedies ever. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Player Piano'
Vonnegut's spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. [via]
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sirens of Titan'
Winston has flown his craft into a chrono-synclastic infundibulum, and been converted into pure energy. Materializing only when his waveforms intercept a planet, he only gets home once every 59 days. But at least it's some consolation that he knows all that ever has been and all that ever will be. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Slapstick'
Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, centenarian, the last President of the United States, King of Manhattan, and one-half (along with his sister, Eliza) of the most powerful intelligence since Einstein, is penning his autobiography. He occupies the first floor of a ruined Empire State Building and lives like a royal scavenger with his illiterate granddaughter and her beau. Buffeted by fluctuating gravity, the U.S. has been scourged by not one, but two lethal diseases: the Green Death and the Albanian Flu. Consequently, the country has fallen into civil war. (Super-intelligent, miniaturized Chinese watch the West self-destruct from the sidelines.) Swain stayed at the White House until there were no citizens left to govern, then moved to deserted New York City, where he writes a thoughtful missive before death.
In Slapstick, Vonnegut muses on war, man's hubris, and the awful, crippling loneliness humans are freighted with--but, miraculously, the book still manages to delight and amuse. Absurd, knowing, never depressing, Slapstick kindles hope--for the possibility of wisdom, perhaps; for human resiliency, surely.
It's best to end with a quote from the prologue wherein the author discourses on The Meaning of It All, or at least This Book: "Love is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go off looking for it, and I think it can often be poisonous.
I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, 'Please--a little less love, and a little more common decency.'"
Amen. [via]

› Find signed collectible books: 'Slapstick : Or Lonesome No More!'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade'
Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Slaughterhouse-Five: Reforming the Novel and the World'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Timequake'
Think of Timequake, Kurt Vonnegut's 19th and last novel (or so he says), as a victory lap. It's a confident final trot 'round the track by one of the greats of postwar American literature. After 40 years of practice, Vonnegut's got his schtick down cold, and it's a pleasure--if a slightly tame one--to watch him go through his paces one more time.
Timequake's a mongrel; it is half novel, half memoir, the project of a decade's worth of writer's block, a book "that didn't want to be written." The premise is standard-issue Vonnegut: "...a timequake, a sudden glitch in the space-time continuum, made everybody and everything do exactly what they'd done during past decades, for good or ill, a second time..." Simultaneously, the author's favorite tricks are on display--frequent visits with the shopworn science fiction writer Kilgore Trout, a Hitchcockian appearance by the author at the book's end, and frequent authorial opining on love, war, and society. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ultimate Frankenstein'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ultimate Frankenstein'
trade Dell paperback original, fine Aldiss, Vonnegut, Yarbro, Farmer, Bisho [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Venus halfshell C195'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Venus on the Half Shell'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Venus on the Half-Shell'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Vibrant With Words: The Letters of Ursula Bethell'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Vonnegut in America: An Introduction to the Life and Work of Kurt Vonnegut'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wampeters Foma and Granfalloons'
The bestselling author of Hocus Pocus offers a rare glimpse into his magic world, as he presents this indignant, outrageous, always witty, and deeply-felt collection of his reviews, essays, and speeches. "Vonnegut at his unnerving best."--Providence Bulletin. Reissue. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions)'
The bestselling author of Hocus Pocus offers a rare glimpse into his magic world, as he presents this indignant, outrageous, always witty, and deeply-felt collection of his reviews, essays, and speeches. "Vonnegut at his unnerving best."--Providence Bulletin. Reissue. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Welcome to the Monkey House'
Welcome To The Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnueguts shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Writer's Digest Guide to Good Writing'
It's all here. The best writing instruction, advice and inspiration from the past 75 years of Writer's Digest magazine. Writers will find ageless advice on such topics as dialogue and characterization, and they'll be escorted through the particulars of horror fiction by a young Stephen King. [via]
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Slapstick, Eller, Aldrig Mera Ensam'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Amerikanische Metafiction Im Kontext Der Europaischen Moderne'
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Borgerlige Partisaner'
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