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In Pursuit of the Mous, the Snaile, and the Clamm by Mary Durant. Illustrated by Victoria Chess. 247 pages. Meredith. $4.95. Subtitled "a roving dictionary of the animal kingdom," this lighthearted book traces the names of animals back to abstruse origins. (The lowly burrowing gopher, for example, derives from gaufre, the French word for honeycomb.) The illustrations are shaggy dog in style, but accompanying quotations from naturalists, explorers and novelists can be stern indeed. Thus Admiral Jaacob van Neck on the dodo bird, circa 1598: "They have thick heads only partially covered with feathers and in place of wings only a few black feathers. We called them DISGUSTING BIRDS, because the longer their flesh is cooked the more unpalatable it becomes." Sic transit dodo.
Caldron Cookery: An Authentic Guide for Coven Connoisseurs bv Marcello Truzzi, illustrated bv Victoria Chess. I 15 pages. Meredith. $3.95. Having exhausted everything from aardvark fried in yak butter to zabaglione a zingari, the compilers of cookbooks have turned to something really occult. Bats, eye of newt, serpents, felon's hands and less mentionable exotica seem to have formed the staple diet of the industrious witch. It should be said that this book serves no culinary purpose except perhaps to divert conversation among guests from the infamous concoctions some contemporary witch may happen to be serving in the name—not of the devil but Julia Child.
This is the Arlo Guthrie Book. 95 pages. Amsco Music. $2.95. A letter about love to his draft board, his eighth-grade report card, pictures of Arlo with his father (the late Woody Guthrie), pictures of Arlo singing, words and music to his songs—especially Alice's Restaurant—all provide delectations and deliriums for Arlo admirers.