Hands-down the most useful of the reference books I consulted – and so utterly enjoyable just for browsing, for its witty, saucy tone as well as its sheer depth – was Eileen Blumenthal‘s Puppetry: A World History. Julie Taymor? She’s there. Parasite puppets, worn on the head? Yes. Alma Mahler sex puppet? She’s there, too. And Avenue Q, Inuit finger puppets, Philippe Genty…You can get so happily, deliriously lost here, among the puppets and performing objects, and I did, and do. I wish this book was twenty times longer. And I wish I knew Eileen Blumenthal so I could take her out for a thank you dinner.