Editor's note: Each month we see lots of books. Some of the curious arrivals are featured in this space.

The Mullet:
Hairstyle of the Gods
By Mark Larson
and Barney Hoskyns
Bloomsbury USA, $14.95
ISBN 1582340641

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REVIEW BY KATHERINE H. WYRICK

It's two-tiered, it's bi-leveled, it's the hairstyle with an identity crisis (is it long or short?). We are, of course, referring to "the mullet," the ultimate "hair-don't" that's short on the top and long in the back. We've always called it a "ridla," short for riddle, as in "What's short on top and long in back?" and "Why would anyone willingly wear their hair that way?" Our personal favorite, however, is "the shelby," which we learned from our cousin in Arkansas.

Whatever you call it, one thing's certain: it looks bad -- real bad. So bad, and so widespread, are mullets, that they are deserving of their own book, and that's just what Mark Larson and Barney Hoskyns bring us with The Mullet. Subtitled Hairstyle of the Gods, this book is a "hairography" of sorts, a history of mullets in their many incarnations. Wrestlers, hockey players, misguided musicians, they, and maybe even someone you know, have them. Think Hulk Hogan, Jaromir Jagr -- think Billy Ray Cyrus, the country star the authors rightly deem king of the mullets. His carefully coifed "Kentucky Waterfall" is indeed a mullet that commands respect.

This is the book we've been waiting for; it's the ultimate tribute to mullet madness -- and that's the long and the short of it.