Transmorgrification and phantasmagoria are big words but they sure describe the tenor of 13 stories told by strangers stranded overnight in an airport. Fairy tales commingle with surrealism and are transformed into life fables. In Paris, a changeling cares for a man who lies on the earth with plant growth emanating from within his body, singing a poetic monologue that transfixes all who hear it. The two meet death together as their spirits and bodies become entwined by nature. A woman is changed into a NY department store (and back to human) by a unique Oreo cookie--think hilarious transubstantiation. The last tale-teller ties the 13 dreams together. With wild ingenuity, a wink of humor, and yes, stunning weirdness, DasGupta makes it almost real. A great vacation or airplane read.

This gem of a statistical atlas compresses the entire colossus of China into 125 pages, every one of which is fact-packed. For openers: in 2003 the U.S. topped the list of trade deficit countries with minus $581 billion, while China enjoyed the 3rd largest trade surplus of $26 billion dollars. Each subject gets a two-page layout that portrays the data in stunning and brilliantly conceived maps, graphs, charts, and symbols. What's more, it's all understandable even to the statistically challenged. Proverbial headings ("Opium of the People" for tobacco use) are neat lead-ins. The visuals are worth a thousand words, but tables, sources, and text commentary are also included. If we don't know it already, China's numbers have implications for all of us.

This young U.S born author sets his stories in Thailand where he was raised. All are tinged with comic and tragicomic cultural currents in the form of western and Cambodian foreigners. The stories feature, among other characters, a pet pig named Clint Eastwood on a tourist beach, a draftee lottery, and a cockfighter destroyed by a ruthless competitor. Perfect pitch, witty, wise, and most entertaining!

Gaita's philosophical essay on the depth and mystery of human-animal relationships is also a loving memoir of animals he has known. Key to our intimacy is our respect for animals and their dignity. Their obedience depends on the "rightful authority" of a given command, it cannot be given as an act of force. Gaita makes an apt analogy to freedom and obedience-to-law in human affairs. Meanwhile, the tender kisses of a cockatoo awakening his master (the author's father) in bed, and then snuggling briefly under the blanket, is countered by his mischief with a neighbor's antenna. Touching and insightful, this little gem offers much to ponder and savor.

Armchair travel is recommended for this forbidding country. Emma Larkin is on a careful literary mission, seeking out "Orwellian" places throughout present day Myanmar. Orwell's experiences in Burma in the 1920's were the basis for Animal Farm--prophetic visions of today's tyranny. Books are forbidden but revered; history has been altered and erased; informants are everywhere. Larkin is a pseudonym, as are the names of those with whom she spoke. The author's harassment-filled trip is itself a journey through Orwell's portents from the past. Lest we forget, there are no 4th of July's here; Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday is and has been an occasion for international protest and demands for freedom, of which this book is a restrained and elegant reminder.

The political and racial complexities of modern South Africa shape the troubled lives of a mostly honorable family and their friends. Silas and Lydia's relationship is darkened early in their marriage by rape. Eighteen years later, their son discovers this and seeks out a Muslim relative to determine his own lineage, uncovering at the same time other injuries from the past. Lives are inevitable broken apart by confession and retribution. Born in Johannesburg, Dangor was involved in politics and relief work and according to Nadine Gordimer, wrote about such dangerous themes at "risk to his own personal life." A frank and unsettling read.

In a Florida nursing home after a stroke, Amadeo is treated as a brainless blob, although his mind is gloriously active. The Cuban tobacco worker examines the minutiae of his bedridden days and recalls his lifetime of passion and transgression--always with the saving grace of a caustic wit. His meandering mind play is all that matters and with it he will practically break your heart. Cuban-born author Medina has created an unforgettable character.

Tiny pet piglet Chris grows into a mature 750 lb. adult and is cherished as a family member by naturalist Sy Montgomery and all who knew Chris, especially children, until his peaceful death at age 14. Devotion, loving kindness, and the human-animal bond make a good good story to be shared with readers of all ages.

A wager of his own making leaves a whaling man alone on an Arctic island until his ship returns the following year, 1617. Discipline, orderliness, and will sustain Cave. The writing crackles with the brittle embrace of winter and eternal darkness, its spareness eloquently matched to the era. This contemplation of isolation, the wits of man, and nature�s power is Harding�s first novel. Dazzling... brava!

Esme was a special child and young woman, non-conformist, free thinking, unbowed by rules. She suddenly vanished from family, society and her world; she no longer existed. Sixty years later great niece Iris finds Esme alive when she is called upon to claim her from a mental institution that's closing. Drawn to Esme's spirit and soul, she brings her home. As Iris tries to reconstruct Esme's lost life and her own, family voices mingle and weave a conflicting chimera of events, shimmering pieces of a family's peculiar past. Esme is unforgettable, there's a heart-pounding denouement, and the unraveled mystery is sublime.
Nancy