The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals: Coming Soon!

Somehow, it seems entirely appropriate to post about The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals on Christmas Day...and necessary since Foreward posted about the book earlier this week. A lot of reverb from that and great word-of-mouth, so I just want to make sure that readers have all the info about the book now, even though it's not out until February 2010 (just in time for Purim).The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals isn't a rehash of the original post from back in 2007. The selection from the dialogue between me and my wife on the subject is only one element of the book--and each discussion has been carefully and in most cases completely revised. But in addition to those sections, the book contains the following:- Master designer John Coulthart's brilliant design and copious selection of illustrations.- Hugo Award winner Ann VanderMeer's introduction on Jews and food.- A foreword by Joseph Nigg, author of the Oxford University Press's definitive guide to fantastical beasts and, under the name "Topsell" the mastermind behind the wildly popular How to Keep and Train a Dragon.- An often tongue-in-cheek original description of each beast by yours truly.- Ann's conversation with Food Network star (Ace of Cakes) Duff Goldman about how you'd cook, say, a Mongolian Deathworm, and what evil tastes like.- As an added bonus, one illo is by one of our favorite artists, Ian Miller.All this in a beautiful little hardcover book, and a website coming soon that will include extras like the recipe cards displayed below (Ann wrote the text for those).I highly suggest preordering this book because my gut tells me the first edition print run, no matter how large, is going to sell out within weeks of publication.Samples from the book below the cut, and my apologies for another "book ad"--you'll have plenty of real content here from me in the next few months.And, Ann lookin' fierce: