TVA Baby — Terry Bisson

Beginning with a harrowing, high-speed ride through the Upper South (a TVA baby is a good ol' boy with a Yankee father and a 12-gauge) and ending in a desperate search through New Orleans graveyards for Darwin's doomsday machine (“Charlie's Angels”), Terry Bisson's newest collection of short stories covers all the territory between -- from his droll faux-FAQ's done for Britain's Science magazine, to the most seductive of his Playboy fantasies (“Private Eye”), to an eerie dreamlike evocation of the 9/11 that might have been (“A Perfect Day”). On the way we meet up with Somali Pirates, a perfect-crime appliance (via PayPal) and a visitor from Atlantis who just wants a burger with fries, please.

Readers who like cigarettes, lost continents, cars, lingerie, or the Future will be delighted. For those who don't, there's always Reality TV.