This is probably what many might consider an "adult" section to The Abyss. Monica's best friend, Jeffrey Tsuruoka, has given us some great book recommendations for those who dare to travel on the path less traveled. Jeff has been a huge influence on what she has read and we are glad to be able to share this wonderful collection of books with you.

Sorry, if there are a lot of book reviews that are missing from him, but Jeff is quite busy (work-a-holic) and doesn't have much time to update this. Check back from time to time to see if something new has been added!

NOTE: Books are listed alphabetically by author.

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One Hundred Years of Solitude Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez (translated) -- Published: 1970 -- Format: Hardcover

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DESCRIPTION: Love and lust, war and revolution, reiches and poverty, youth and senility--the variety of life, the endlessness fo death, the search for peace and truth--these, the universal themes, dominate the novel. Whether he is describing an affair of passion or the voracity of capitalism and the corruption of government, Garcia Marquez always writes with the simplicity, ease, and purity that are the mark fo a master. Inventive, amusing, magnetic, sad, alive with unforgettale men and women, and with a truth and understanding that strike the soul, One Hundred Years of Solitude is a masterpiece of the art of fiction. TSURUOKA REVIEW: No review from Jeff yet ... OTHER EDITIONS: This book is available in another hardcover edition in addition to a paperback as well.

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Love in the Time of Cholera Author: Gabriel Garcia Marquez (translated) -- Published: 1994 -- Format: Paperback

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DESCRIPTION: From the Nobel Prize-winning author of One Hundred Years of Solitude comes a masterly evocation of an unrequited passion so strong that it binds three people's lives together for more than fifty years. In the story of Florentino Ariza, who waits more than half a century to declare his undying love to the beautiful Fermina Daza, whom he lost to Dr. Juvenal Urbino so a Marquez has created a vividly absorbing fictional world, as lush and dazzling as a dream and as real and immediate as our own deepest longings.many years before, Garcia Marquez has created a vividly absorbing fictional world, as lush and dazzling as a dream and as real and immediate as our own deepest longings. TSURUOKA REVIEW: No review from Jeff yet ... OTHER EDITIONS: This book is available in a hardcover edition as well.

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Children of the Albatross Author: Anaïs Nin -- Published: 1959 -- Format: Paperback

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DESCRIPTION: "A handful of perfectly told fables, and prose which is so daringly elaborate, so accurately timed ... using words as magnificently colorful, evocative and imagist as any plastic combination on canvas but as mysteriously idiosyncratic as any abstract." --Times Literary Supplement TSURUOKA REVIEW: No review from Jeff yet ... MONICA'S REVIEW: A wonderful Nin Classic... I am a big Anaïs Nin fan and this book is definitely one of my favorites. It has been a while since I have read it so I cannot recall exactly what it is about this book that drew me to it. However, Nin was introduced to me by Jeff early on in our friendship and I have read many of her works. I don't think that this particular novel would be the best introduction to her works but really enjoyed after reading about her history and getting used to her style. In fact, this book is the 2nd volume (out of 5) from her "continuous" novel. Nin's work is wonderfully subtle yet powerfully erotic at the same time. Many of her characters are reflections of her friends, lovers and family which makes it even more interesting to learn about her wonderful and rich history. RELATED PRODUCTS: Read Monica's review of another Nin book, Delta of Venus.

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Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Author: Kenzaburo Oe (translated) -- Published: 1996 -- Format: Paperback

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DESCRIPTION: Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids recounts the exploits of fifteen teenage reformatory boys evacuated to a remote mountain village in wartime, where they are feared and detested by the local peasants. When plague breaks out, the villagers flee, blockading the boys inside the deserted town. Their brief attempt to build autonomous lives of self-respect, love and tribal valor is doomed in the face of death and the adult nightmare of war. TSURUOKA REVIEW: No review from Jeff yet ... OTHER EDITIONS: This book is available in a hardcover edition as well.

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The Butcher : And Other Erotica Author: Alina Reyes (translated) -- Published: 1996 -- Format: Paperback

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DESCRIPTION: A young Frenchwoman goes to work in a butcher's shop during her college vacation. Every day the butcher whispers obscenities in her ear, describing their imagined lovemaking. And as the summer heat takes hold, so does her lust. TSURUOKA REVIEW: Obvious parallels can be drawn between Reye's erotica and that of Anaïs Nin. Both relate their tales in a distinctly feminine voice and somehow manage to integrate a tinge on innocence with the most sordid entanglements of their characters. The comparison ends right there, for while Nin seduces her readers with lush language and fluid, almost pastel images before opening her hope chest of debaucheries, Reyes attacks her readers' senses with vivid, often grotesquely so, imagery, forgoing the lovemaking for the harsher pleasures of a good, hard f*ck. Each writer exudes passion quite differently than the other. Nin's passion is centered on experiencing sexuality for the sake of mind, body, and soul. The passion of Alina Reye's erotica is centered directly between the legs.

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Perfume : The Story of a Murderer Author: Patrick Süskind -- Published: 1995 -- Format: Paperback

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DESCRIPTION: An acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion-his sense of smell-leads to murder. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift-an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odors of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille's genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and frest-cut wood. Then one day he catches a hint of a scent that will drive him on an ever-more-terrifying quest to create the "ultimate perfume"-the scent of a beautiful young virgin. Told with dazzling narrative brillance, Perfume is a hauntingly powerful tale of murder and sensual depravity. TSURUOKA REVIEW: No review from Jeff yet ...

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Diary of a Mad Old Man Author: Junichiro Tanizaki -- Published: 1991 -- Format: Paperback

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DESCRIPTION: Diary of a Mad Old Man is the journal of Utsugi, a seventy-seven-year-old man of refined tastes who is recovering from a stroke. He discovers that, while his body is decaying, his libido still rages on -- unwittingly sparked by the gentle, kindly attentions of his daughter-in-law Satsuko, a chic, flashy dancer with a shady past. Pitiful and ridiculous as he is, Utsugi is without a trace of self-pity, and his diary shines with self-effacing good humor. At once hilarious and of a sadness, Diary of a Mad Old Man is a brilliant depiction of the relationship between eros and the will to live -- a novel of the tragicomedy of human existence. TSURUOKA REVIEW: No review from Jeff yet ...

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Written on the Body Author: Jeanette Winterson -- Published: 1994 -- Format: Paperback

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DESCRIPTION: The most beguilingly seductive novel to date from the author of The Passion and Sexing the Cherry. Winterson chronicles the consuming affair between the narrator, who is given neither name nor gender, and the beloved, a complex and confused married woman. "At once a love story and a philosophical meditation." --New York Times Book Review TSURUOKA REVIEW: No review from Jeff yet ...

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