Getting these in early this week.

This Week’s Book: The Penguin of Death by Edward Monkton

Things you need to know about The Penguin of Death:

• He is strangely attractive because of his enigmatic smile.
• He can kill you in any 1 of 412 different ways.

Someone (and I apologise for forgetting exactly who) gave me a birthday card with this on it a year or two back. It’s one of the few birthday cards I have kept, because really, what’s not to love about a card with an enigmatic penguin of death on it?

And then the other day while risking life and wallet in a bookstore in January (Fatal. Fatal, I tell you.), I ran across this book, which is an illustrated short poem about said Antarctic bird, beauty and death.

I’m not really sure how to describe it, except to say that I loved it.

(I feel a bit like I’m cheating talking about a short book like this. I’m also reading “Still Life” by Joe Donnelly, but since I just got a jbo lot of his books second hand the other day, I think the odds are reasonable that I’ll be talking about one of them next week, hence the penguin this week.)

This Week’s Album: Gutters and Pews by Preacher Boy

I can feel this one growing on me. I picked this up via Emusic’s recommendations engine, where it drew comparisons to Tom Waits and Louis Armstrong. And on first listen, it’s perfectly acceptable middle-of-the-road blues rock, that I wouldn’t be sorry to hear when it comes up on the random shuffle, but I didn’t see myself seeking it out a lot, either. But I’ve listened to it a couple more times, and I find it a little more appealing now – while the musical arrangements are, like I say, a bit straightforward, there’s a bit more to the lyrics. On the strength of this, I might give one of his more recent albums a try.