A Separate War And Other Stories (2006) - Plot & Excerpts
There was one officious librarian who would always shoo me back to the children’s section (and try to make me read something besides that science fiction trash), but most of them tolerated my intrusion.My favorite adult book was a fat red tome called Henley’s Twentieth Century Book of Formulas, Processes, and Trade Secrets. “Secrets” is the dramatic and operative word there. How to make your own root beer or nitroglycerin. Cure asthma or constipation in canaries. I would bicycle away from the library aglow with secret wisdom. Things I knew my parents didn’t know.Any letter of the alphabet would yield marvels: Bear fat, bookbinder’s varnish, bust reducer, British champagne, broken bones (a test for), blasting powder, Bowl of Fire trick. “Burning Brimstone” is not a trick you’ll find in contemporary manuals of magic: “Wrap cotton around two small pieces of brimstone and wet it with gasoline; take between the fingers, squeezing the surplus liquid out, light it with a candle, throw back the head well, and put it on the tongue blazing.
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