Reading Frenzy ~ An Independent Press Emporium

All the Pretty People

By Ariel Gore

pp. 143, 8.5"x5.5", perfect bound

Told in a series of "flash memories", All the Pretty People is Ariel Gore's memoir of growing up in 70's California hippie suburbia. Sequestered to a sugar and Barbie free childhood, Gore struggles coming of age as a queer, as an outcast, as the child of a single mom. Bittersweet and introspective, peppered with genuinely hilarious and embarrassing moments attenuate with navigating the bizarre grown up world as a child, All the Pretty People is an authentic, down to earth yet witty examination of a journey into adulthood and the bewildering lessons learned along the way.

$10.00

Beach 90th

By Justin Hocking

limited edition. handmade. letterpress cover. perfect bound. 33 pages

An excerpt from Justin Hocking's memoir-in-progress entitled The Great Floodgates of the Wonderworld, Beach 90th tells the tale of Justin picking up surfing in New York and finding a little more freedom. An underlying theme in his upturned life, surfing brings Justin though the doldrums of work, relationships, and depression to find meaningfulness in Portland, OR.

$5.00

The Book Bindery

By Sarah Royal

95 pps., 6"x4.5", perfect bound

The Book Bindery is a modern Dickensian tale of the safety infractions, despotic supervisors, and train wreck co-workers which make up young Sarah Royal's place of employment, a decrepit Chicago book bindery. Filled with the humor and romance we are only capable of in hindsight, Sarah lovingly recounts the small joys only found in awful jobs. From the Evangelist ex-drug addict owner to the increasingly illegal ways to avoid completing any real work on the clock, The Book Bindery is a hilarious reminder to enjoy the halcyon days of drudgery. One day it will make a great story.

$5.00

Cambodian Grrrl

By Anne Eliza Moore

96 pps. 7''x5.5'', perfect bound

Zines provides a refuge for self expression and information in a culture largely controlled by corporate media and sanitized histories. The power of self-publishing has never been more relevant than in artist and activist Anne Elizabeth Moore's memoir Cambodian Grrrl. Armed with a glue stick and a passion for personal stories, Moore helps 32 young women find their voices and that of their country through zines, providing an opportunity speak out about the atrocities and realities of the Pol Pot legacy, systematic illiteracy, and the unknown Cambodia. Told in a series of vignettes of daily Cambodian life, teaching experiences, and the observations of an American punk abroad, Cambodian Grrrl is a powerful advocate for free media as a human right.

$7.95

Good Ink: American Short Stories

Twelve 3.5x5 notebooks, saddle-stitch, cardboard slipcase

American Short Stories pairs ten classic authors with ten contemporary illustrators to breathe new life into some the U.S.A.'s best short stories. From the heart-warming to the horrific, this collection puts a century's worth of must read stories into pocket friendly Scout Books. The perfect fit for anyone who could use a good read on the go! Also included in the set are two blank notebooks for your own big ideas!

Vol.1 "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Pierce
Illustrated by Francois Vigneault

Vol.2 "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving
Illustrated by Bwana Spoons

Vol.3 "The Jelly Bean" by F.Scott Fitzgerald
Illustrated by Vanessa Davis

Vol.4 "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin
Illustrated by Gemma Cornell

Vol.5 "Eve's Diary" by Mark Twain
Illustrated by Meg Hunt

Vol.6 "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Illustrated by Aaron Renier

Vol.7 "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Illustrated by Zack Soto

Vol.8 "The Fall of the House of Usher" by Edgar Allen Poe
Illustrated by Tom Neely

Vol.9 "To Build a Fire" by Jack London
Illustrated by Michael Hunting

Vol.10 "The Gift of the Magi" by O.Henry
Illustrated by Kate Bingaman-Burt

$34.95

Legs Get Led Astray

By Chloe Caldwell

157 pps., 8"x5", perfect bound

Chloe Caldwell's personal essays lay her soul, her past, her thoughts spread-eagle and raw. Legs Get Led Astray collects the sex, confused childhood,bookstore crushes, wanderlust and longings of an existential and sarcastic young woman running wide eyed and wreckless through life. Hilarious, dark, tender and insightful, Caldwell's acerbic prose never dips into the maudlin, but merely reflects her own life as it's happening. 

$13.95

Logodaedaly,or,Sleight of Words

By Erzsebet Gilbert

pp. 285, 7.5"x5.5", hardcover

What is a balanoid? Who carries an ombrifuge into a storm? How is a filipendulous city destroyed? These and other fabulous questions are found in Logodaedaly, or, Sleight-of-Words: A Dictionary of theIimagination. Within its pages, young author Erzsebet Gilbert has delved into the history of the English language to unearth a host of forgotten, quirky, obsolete and utterly bizarre words, and created a phrasebook like no other. It is a dictionary whose entries are not merely words, but the fantastical stories and wild musings behind them -- a dictionary of two-headed serpents and royal assassins, warrior birds and people on the moon, specters and true love.

As vividly antiquated as it is experimental, the ornately designed book features the original images -- from dragons to hummingbirds -- of artist Sherise Talbott, illuminations whose intricacy and style might have emerged from the museums of centuries ago. Through Logodaedaly one might not learn an everyday vocabulary, but beyond A and Z the reader finds that the meaning of a word is always much more than it seems.

$18.95

Loom of Ruin

By Sam McPheeters

262 pps., 8.5"x5.5", perfect bound, paperback

The debut novel from Sam McPheeters of Born Against fame, Loom of Ruin tells the tale of Los Angeles gas station owner Trang Yang. Accidentally injured by the LAPD, Trang is neurologically incapable of any emotion but rage. With a free pass from the police and the desultory backdrop of freeways and abandoned shopping carts, Trang embarks on a darkly satirical wrathful spree against the self-righteous, self-absorbed, and generally annoying. A large cast of characters run, die, and act out the American nightmare through 109 rapid fire chapters

$16.00

Love Is Not Constantly Wondering If You Are Making The Biggest Mistake Of Your Life

By Zach

pp. 120, 7"x4.25", perfect bound

There's probably been a point in your life where you questioned your actions, wished you could skip ahead pages to immediately view the consequences, or choose the most fiery way out. Really, is deciding to kiss the worst person in the world for you really so different from choosing to make a crash landing into an alien jungle below? After all, a relationship and a Choose Your Own Adventure novel are really just a series of quick but ultimately blind judgement calls leading to your salvation or destruction. Through the medium of Choose Your Own Adventure, Love lets you, a starfighter pilot of the Galactic Space Force navigate a romance with a young woman and your struggles to cope with her alcoholism. Only with the right choices will you be able to save your relationship and discover the secret of the Ant Warriors!

$5.00

Miami, You've Got Style: A Little Golden Girls Book

168 pp., 7x9, perfect bound

From the creator of Degrassi Digest, here is a book dedicated to the Golden Girls.  It contains photos of every outfit worn in the first season, hilarious commentary on them and an overall entertaining look at the thoughts and jokes and randomness of one man's journey through watching an entire television series.

$12.00