Furthermore: Where the Headlines Take You

Romancing the Undead

The zombie is the monster of our times, according to Adam Cohen in a piece about the new book Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith. Cohen contrasts the sleek, investment banker-like vampire of the recent past with the more brutish and blunt zombies we now see shambling all over our movie screens and bookstore shelves. Jane Austen sequels, knockoffs, takeoffs, and remakes have flooded the market in the last few years as well. With the over-the-top conjunction of these two trends, I'm afraid they may have reached their apotheosis and that both zombies and Elizabeth Bennet will slowly fade from the front of our collective mind. Enjoy the mayhem and Regency manners while you can!

Memories of devouring Choose Your Own Adventure books when I was a kid flooded back to me on seeing Lost In Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emma Campbell Webster. A book that may polarize hardcore Austen fans into purists vs. non-traditionalists, it incorporates favorite characters from Jane Austen's novels and lets you decide on the steps you, as Elizabeth Bennet, will take on the path to matrimonial bliss--or disaster. The world of Pride and Prejudice opens up to Sense and Sensibility and Mansfield Park. Part of the fun of this book will be figuring out who belongs to which book and enjoying how they're put together in novel ways.

If your hobbies tend towards handicrafts, like the Bennet sisters and the ladies of their day, but you need a little edge to your projects, try this: Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More!. As a crocheter myself, I've experienced what I feel is a lack of crochet books with funky, fun projects compared to some of the knitting books I've looked at. Creepy Cute Crochet helps fill that gap. Using the popular Japanese Amigurumi style of crochet, Christen Haden provides patterns and instructions for a Corporate Zombie and a Cyber Zombie, as well as a panoply of monsters and their ilk. You can even make a crocheted Cleric to confront the Grim Reaper or to exorcise a crocheted Devil.

When you need to ready yourself for the inevitable rise of the undead, your indespensible companion will be The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead. This comprehensive guide to arming yourself, preparing your home for a long-term seige, and doing battle with the undead will keep you laughing through the apocalypse. Max Brooks' exhaustive guide includes a complete history of zombie uprisings dating from the dawn of human history and the details of the virus Solanum, which causes the infection that kills and then reanimates human beings. Don't read The Zombie Survival Guide if you're sensitive like I am. Its mock-serious tone could make you believe there really are zombies in your garden, hungry for your flesh.