List #5: 13 Out-of-Print Books to Get from Your Library

Often, libraries really are your best bet for books that aren't in print anymore.


1. The Undertaker's Gone Bananas (Rec. #16), by Paul Zindel: An undertaker goes bananas and two teen misfits solve the mystery.

2. Summer Half (Rec. #40), by Angela Thirkell: Teachers, schoolmasters, students (and their relations) enjoy an English summer during the interwar period.

3. I Married a Dead Man (Rec. #47), by Cornell Woolrich: Young couple killed, desperate pregnant woman, stolen identity, blackmail, murder = classic noir.

4. The Moving Toyshop (Rec. #60), by Edmund Crispin: A poet's discovery of a dead body leads to a romp through Oxford.

5. When the Messenger Is Hot (Rec. #73), by Elizabeth Crane: Basically a collection of short, extra-chatty monologues.

6. Ascending Peculiarity (Rec. #80), by Edward Gorey: In this collection of interviews, Edward Gorey shares his thoughts on cats, French symbolist poetry, yard sales, George Balanchine, soap operas, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

7. Crewe Train (Rec. #84), by Rose Macaulay: Denham Dobie adjusts to the social whirl of 1920s London.

8. Night at the Vulcan (Rec. #102), by Ngaio Marsh: A Golden Age mystery novel set in a British theater.

9. Open to the Public (Rec. #107), by Muriel Spark: Spark has fun with some rather bloodthirsty stories.

10. Come Up and See Me Sometime (Rec. #122), by Erika Krouse: Thirteen stories tied together by Mae West quotes.

11. Magdalena the Sinner (Rec. #124), by Lilan Faschinger: A woman disguised as a nun kidnaps a priest and forces him to hear her confession.

12. Tex and Molly in the Afterlife (Rec. #142), by Richard Grant: A couple who fell down a well find themselves in an afterlife quest to stop a corporate doer of environmental evil. In the manner of Tom Robbins.

13. Light Can Be Both Wave and Particle (Rec. #159), by Ellen Gilchrist: An excellent collection of short stories.