Search results for ""author weird"

From the New York Times Book Review: "The unnamed narrator scrapes her knee. 'I cried like a baby,' she confesses. “It was like a scary movie with you-know-what dripping down my leg. I had never seen so much before. Blood. I said the word that really scares us kids.' How could you not immediately adore and trust this voice?"From three-time NYT Best Illustrated creator of On a Magical Do-Nothing Day comes a stunning picture book about a little girl, the scab on her knee, and the healing they do together.In this utterly enchanting and unexpected tale from international picture book star Beatrice Alemagna, a childhood mishap is the occasion for growth and self-reflection. When a little girl falls on the street, scraping her knee, her father tells her not to worry, that "a beautiful scab will form." But she does worry! The scab is not beautiful and it's keeping her from bending her knee! When will it ever go away? By the time the scab—who she has named Pepper—falls off, something astonishing has happened: the girl has come to feel affection for the scab and has a hard time letting go. With an unerring understanding of a child’s emotional life and a dash of absurdist wit, this picture book will stand with classics from creators like Tomi Ungerer and William Steig, who explore the weird, funny essence of childhood.

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"Delightfully horrifying."--Popular ScienceOne of Mental Floss's Best Books of 2018One of Science Friday's Best Science Books of 2018· A mysterious epidemic of dental explosions… · A teenage boy who got his wick stuck in a candlestick...· A remarkable woman who, like a human fountain, spurted urine from virtually every orifice...These are just a few of the anecdotal gems that have until now lain undiscovered in medical journals for centuries. This fascinating collection of historical curiosities explores some of the strangest cases that have perplexed doctors across the world.From seventeenth-century Holland to Tsarist Russia, from rural Canada to a whaler in the Pacific, many are monuments to human stupidity – such as the sailor who swallowed dozens of penknives to amuse his shipmates, or the chemistry student who in 1850 arrived at a hospital in New York with his penis trapped inside a bottle, having unwisely decided to relieve himself into a vessel containing highly reactive potassium. Others demonstrate exceptional surgical ingenuity long before the advent of anaesthesia – such as a daring nineteenth-century operation to remove a metal fragment from beneath a conscious patient’s heart. We also hear of the weird, often hilarious remedies employed by physicians of yore – from crow’s vomit to port-wine enemas – the hazards of such everyday objects as cucumbers and false teeth, and miraculous recovery from apparently terminal injuries.Blending fascinating history with lacerating wit, The Mystery of the Exploding Teeth will take you on a tour of some of the funniest, strangest and most wince-inducing corners of medical history.

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Mad Max: Fury Road meets Neil Gaiman's Sandman in this full-throttle, grindhouse, fantasy epic. Cars! Guns! Entropy! Izzy Tyburn has promised the world that if it won't have her in it, it'll have nothing of her at all. Chased by an unstoppable killer, she's re-treading her life, leaving nothing behind but burned rubber, ash... and the sun-scorched bones of those who get in her way. Ride shotgun on an existential road-trip through the tangled web of a blood-splattered life.Collects COFFIN BOUND #1-4."If you like Dan Watters' work on Lucifer, this is even weirder..." -Neil Gaiman "Wholly original. Fresh concepts and characters pop up on almost every page, courtesy of Watters' mind and Dani's art. This is a series to keep your eye on." -Entertainment Weekly "It's a gleeful of literary grindhouse comic that brings to mind Milligan's Arthouse Pulp and notes of Pretty Deadly. Out in August. Pre-order now." -Kieron Gillen "Dani is quite a discovery: the work is very inventive and actually very careful but the line is alive and organic-the ink just spills down and branches into the right places. And the language style Watters launches here is just wonderful-I summon Milch because it's eccentric and neo-antique like his Deadwood speech, rippling with character and drunken with its own pleasure... Coffin Bound is a damned joy." -Warren Ellis"A Lynchian crime chase desert noir fever dream with its own messed up internal logic. Fun." -Rob Williams"An acid drenched road trip, seeping violence and weirdness of the best kind. Definitely one to check out." —Ollie Masters"Gorgeous and odd and very much its own unique monster. I am jealous at its filthy strangeness." —Ivan Brandon "A gore-splattered—but poetic—road trip with one of the strangest stripper scenes in comics." —John Harris Dunning "Dreamlike, mythic, relentless and strange." —Kurt Busiek"Excellent. Like finding a weird Alex Cox meets Jodorowsky road movie you didn't know existed. Literate, full of ideas & complimented by Dani's Guéra meets Pope-ish art." —Iain Laurie "Pure Doom. Watters spins a fantastic Kerouac-Ian fever dream with Dani dropping some story chops, solid gesture and moody blacks. It's a great hook that will take you Under. Coffin Bound Rules!" —Andy Belanger "Your lessons of life delivered at the end of a muzzle by a choir of grindhouse philosophers laced with the wisdom of dead birds. I can hardly think of another story so fully infused with Dan Watters and Dani aesthetic." —Ram V"Coffin Bound is a distillate of madness. A slice of apocalyptic dreamtime cut with engine smoke, acid nihilism and dirty juju. This is some top-class necrofuel, my friends, and you need it in your brain-tank pronto." —Si Spurrier"Coffin Bound is a comic with a strong pulse that bleeds all over your hands while reading. You should give it a read." —Declan Shalvey "So fun! Dani's art is gorgeous (as always!) and Brad Simpsons' colours are ridiculously nice. I just want moreeee." —Emmeline Pidgen"Call your local comic shop now. Make sure they get this for you. Trust me." —Matthew Rosenberg

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An urgent volume of essays engages the Gothic to advance important perspectives on our geological era What can the Gothic teach us about our current geological era? More than just spooky, moonlit castles and morbid graveyards, the Gothic represents a vibrant, emergent perspective on the Anthropocene. In this volume, more than a dozen scholars move beyond longstanding perspectives on the Anthropocene—such as science fiction and apocalyptic narratives—to show that the Gothic offers a unique (and dark) interpretation of events like climate change, diminished ecosystems, and mass extinction.Embracing pop cultural phenomena like True Detective, Jaws, and Twin Peaks, as well as topics from the New Weird and prehistoric shark fiction to ruin porn and the “monstroscene,” Dark Scenes from Damaged Earth demonstrates the continuing vitality of the Gothic while opening important new paths of inquiry. These essays map a genealogy of the Gothic while providing fresh perspectives on the ongoing climate chaos, the North/South divide, issues of racialization, dark ecology, questions surrounding environmental justice, and much more.Contributors: Fred Botting, Kingston U; Timothy Clark, U of Durham; Rebecca Duncan, Linnaeus U; Michael Fuchs, U of Oldenburg, Germany; Esthie Hugo, U of Warwick; Dawn Keetley, Lehigh U; Laura R. Kremmel, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology; Timothy Morton, Rice U; Barry Murnane, U of Oxford; Jennifer Schell, U of Alaska Fairbanks; Lisa M. Vetere, Monmouth U; Sara Wasson, Lancaster U; Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, Central Michigan U.

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Dive into the depths and discover the mysteries of the world of water in this beautiful book for young readers.From myths and legends, folklore and fables, to amazing discoveries, and undiscovered depths – children will love exploring the amazing world of water in this beautifully illustrated book for young readers.Dive between the pages of Underwater World into the ocean depths to discover sunken lands, and sail in and out of legends laden with weird and wonderful monsters. This educational book for 7-9 year olds will teach curious children all about the ocean, magical creatures and mythology, mysteries and the unexplained. Ready for an adventure? Dive straight in to discover: - A strikingly visual guide to the innermost depths of our Earth- Exquisite hand-drawn illustrations and maps making the information engaging and accessible- A diverse range of fascinating information using captions and detailed cross sectionsWater – it can be hard as rock, silky soft, and often barely there. We can’t live without it, but can’t breathe within it. This shape-shifting element washes in on our shores, pours on our towns, and winds through our fields. We are mostly made out of water, but how much do we really know about it? Children will love learning all about the world of water in this beautifully illustrated and colorful book. At DK, we believe in the power of discovery. So why stop there? If you like Underwater World, then why not complete the collection? Take a peek inside the enchanting and mythological world of dragons with Dragon World, and discover their fascinating history.

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A quirky collection of true stories from the stranger side of the Tube, featuring ghost stations, eccentric stationmasters and the real story of what happens under London at night. Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of London's Underground, or as it is affectionately referred to, the Tube. Though this isn’t the usual side of the Tube the tourists, travellers and residents see. (Though, of course, they do see a great deal of strangeness in their daily commutes!). This is the real Underground, the strange and twisted nooks and crannies of what happens hundreds of metres below millions of London legs – from its peculiar past through to its paranormal present and looking forward to its fascinating future. Following on from the bestselling Portico Strangest titles now comes a book devoted to London's globally envied, and much loved, public transport system. Located deep beneath the heart of Greater London, the Underground is awash with more strangeness than you can shake your pre-paid Oyster card at. In 2013 the whole city will be celebrating the Underground's 150th birthday – the oldest underground in the world. So, pack up your old kit bag and travel stop-by-stop with us on this strange and fantastic journey along the Northern, Picadilly, Metropolitan, Jubilee, Hammersmith and City and District Line … and explore the Underground as you've never seen it before. London Underground's Strangest Tales is a treasure trove of the humorous, the odd and the baffling – an alternative travel guide to the Underground's best-kept secrets. Read on, if you dare! You have been warned. Word Count: 35,000

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'Read any history of the Nineties in Britain and you will read about Britpop, Blair, the birth of the Premier League and the rise of new lads. I played no part in any of these events. Growing up in a tiny rural village on Dartmoor, no bands came within 100 miles, all the local farmers voted Tory, our nearest football team was in the fourth division, and the closest I got to being a new lad was when my older brother let me drink some of his Hooch.' In Watching the Nineties, much-loved comedian Josh Widdicombe tells the story of a strange rural childhood, the kind of childhood he only realised was weird when he left home and started telling people about it. From only having four people in his year at school, to living in a family home where they didn't just not bother locking the front door, they didn't even have a key. Using a different television show of the time as it's starting point for each chapter Watching the Nineties is part-childhood memoir, part-comic history of 90s television and culture. It will discuss everything from the dangers of recreating Gladiators in your front room, to Josh's belief that Mr Blobby is one of the great comic characters, to being the only vegetarian child west of Bristol. Together it tells the story of the end of an era, the last time when watching television was a shared experience for the family and the nation, before the internet meant everyone watched different things at different times on different devices, headphones on to make absolutely sure no one could watch it with them.

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A seasoned comedian's love letter to America's food curiosities—the regional cuisines, the culinary oddities, the weird and the wonderful "Mark DeCarlo is a [modern-day] Groucho Marx." —PEOPLE Whether it be fish ice cream, kudzu tempura, or even sausage, Mark DeCarlo always wonders, "Who the hell thought to eat this stuff the first time?" We find out in this hilarious celebration of the genesis of America's most creative and idiosyncratic food traditions, and the people who keep these food traditions alive. Join the master comedian on his journey across the United States to visit these people and their foods in their natural habitats—places like the French Quarter of New Orleans, lush Maui resorts, and the Annual Road Kill Cook-off Festival in West Virginia. From the obvious and beloved (Buffalo wings, Boston clam chowder, hush puppies, and strawberry shortcake) to the bizarre and, well, beloved by some (Rocky Mountain oysters, fried rattlesnake, scrapple, and deep fried Twinkies), DeCarlo takes readers on a rollicking tour of the people and places behind America's greatest food inventions. Each chapter features the story behind a particular food (moosehead soup, anyone?) and the people who love it. Signature recipes, snapshot photos from the road, along with "Road Rules" on how to discover the real America all spice up the travelogue. It's a love letter to America's culinary curiosities, providing armchair travelers with a tour of the wackiest and kitschiest food festivals, delicacies, and people this country has to offer. FROM THE AUTHOR'S FOREWORDConsider the oyster. Unopened, dirty, and habitually covered with muddy, green crap. If you didn't know that it was hollow and contained a tasty glob of salty protein, would you ever guess that this rock was edible? Well . . . somebody did. Deep in the recesses of time, some caveman or beach-dwelling ape not only discovered that oysters aren't rocks . . . but that they're tasty—as long as you've got Tabasco and a date for the night. But for every 'oyster,' success story, there are thousands of casualties that will forever remain unknown. History is written by the survivors. A Fork on the Road celebrates those survivors and their progeny: It's about the kinds of people who will spend 30% of their yearly salary building a BBQ Trailer with a homemade logo painted in flames on the side just to win a $50 contest 500 miles from home. It's about the third generation pie maker who is as dull as a hammer until the conversation comes around to "cracker" versus "pastry" shells. It's about the millions of people around the country who call themselves 'foodies'—as if the rest of us exist simply on air and water. . . .

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This intimate portrait by his former personal assistant and confidante reveals the man behind the legendary filmmaker – for the first time. Stanley Kubrick, the director of a string of timeless movies from Lolita and Dr. Strangelove to A Clockwork Orange, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Full Metal Jacket, and others, has always been depicted by the media as the Howard Hughes of filmmakers, a weird artist obsessed with his work and privacy to the point of madness. But who was he really? Emilio D'Alessandro lets us see. A former Formula Ford driver who was a minicab chauffeur in London during the Swinging Sixties, he took a job driving a giant phallus through the city that became his introduction to the director. Honest, reliable, and ready to take on any task, Emilio found his way into Kubrick's neurotic, obsessive heart. He became his personal assistant, his right-hand man and confidant, working for him from A Clockwork Orange until Kubrick's death in 1999. Emilio was the silent guy in the room when the script for The Shining was discussed. He still has the coat Jack Nicholson used in the movie. He was an extra on the set of Eyes Wide Shut, Kubrick's last movie. He knew all the actors and producers Kubrick worked with; he observed firsthand Kubrick's working methods down to the smallest detail. Making no claim of expertise in cinematography but with plenty of anecdotes, he offers a completely fresh perspective on the artist and a warm, affecting portrait of a generous, kind, caring man who was a perfectionist in work and life. The paperback edition has a new foreword by Matthew Modine, who is featured in the book and starred as Private Joker in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket.

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An actual wagon train to space? Gunslinging cowpokes riding in rickety rocket ships? What isn’t possible when you mix science fiction and Westerns? The final frontier ain’t so final in these 12 tales of space exploration and adventure: each a timeless yarn told around the warm glow of a nuclear reactor just before it goes supernova. There’s a story for everyone who’s ever dreamed of traveling the stars. From the lone stranger who flies into town to help a widow and her daughter to the alien rancher trying to pose as human, they are familiar, yet with completely new twists. Take the pair of mercenaries who sign on to stop a mining camp insurrection only to discover they might be on the wrong side of evolution, or the prospector who finds the strike of a lifetime but ends up stranded on a barren moon without hope of rescue. And if that’s not enough to catch your fancy, then how about a cloned Doc Holliday making his way in a future where both sickness and gambling are ancient history? Assembled inside are the biggest names in science fiction, taking you to the farthest reaches of the galaxy like they’ve never done before. Elizabeth Moon, Alan Dean Foster, Jane Lindskold, and Wil McCarthy are some of the exciting yarn-spinners inside. So get ready to hit the hyper-thrusters as you set course for adventure, mystery, romance, and two-lasergun slinging action! Featuring Elizabeth Moon, Alan Dean Foster, Jane Lindskold, Wil McCarthy, Gini Koch, Martin Shoemaker, Cat Rambo with J.R. Martin, Alastair Mayer, Alex Shvartsman, Patrick Swenson, and Michael F. Haspil. Edited by David Boop (Straight Outta Tombstone). About Straight Outta Dodge City: “A dark, diverting anthology of 14 original tales, the third in a series. . . . By tossing weird fiction concepts into western settings, these tales give rise to unusual what-ifs. . . . [T]he ever-enjoyable Joe R. Lansdale is on hand with 'The Hoodoo Man and the Midnight Train,' an energetic tale of a mystical gunfighter, and Harry Turtledove presents the delightful 'Junior & Me,' set in an alternate world in which evolution favored reptiles rather than mammals, and the ornery galoot narrating the yarn is actually a highly evolved dinosaur. The result is an amusing . . . bunch of stories.”—Publishers Weekly About Straight Outta Tombstone: “The authors were having fun. Even when they are not playing the stories for laughs, they are taking an opportunity to . . . tell a story with a fresh twist, and expand out of their expected boundaries.”—The Galveston County Daily News

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Myths and legendary tales from around the world are packed with gigantic rivalries; gods, monsters and giants compete for supremacy over the land, the creatures within and the universe beyond. Zeus clashes with the all-powerful Typhon, Odin is destined to face the great wolf Fenrir during Ragnarok. And yet monsters such as the Minotaur, and giants of all kinds, dragons even, are monsters only to those too fearful to understand them, while others such as the Sirens, or the weird sisters, are malevolent without remorse. Such mythical gods and their foes, make great adventures for the modern reader tracing the roots of The Game of Thrones, Lord of the Rings and The Witcher, where good and evil are morphed into real avatars and creatures of vivid imagination. In these pages you'll find the gods of the heavens and mountains, and the spirits and demons of the deep sea, the dark woods and the burning sands. From the gods of Babylon and Ancient Egypt to the Norse Aesir, from the pantheon of mighty Greek deities to the gods of the earth and the sky in Pacific legends, most of the great traditions are featured here, with monsters galore: Anansi the trickster spider, the chaos serpent Apep, the Wendigo (or Windegoo spirits), the Greek Sphinx, the drought demon dragon Vritra and the Chimera to name a few. The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

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“That woman who killed the fish unfortunately is me,” begins the title story, but “if it were my fault, I’d own up to you, since I don’t lie to boys and girls. I only lie sometimes to a certain type of grownup because there’s no other way.” Enumerating all the animals she’s loved—cats, dogs, lizards, chickens, monkeys—Clarice finally asks: “Do you forgive me?” “The Mystery of the Thinking Rabbit” is a detective story which explains that bunnies think with their noses: for a single idea a bunny might “scrunch up his nose fifteen thousand times” (he may not be too bright, but “he’s not foolish at all when it comes to making babies”). The third tale, “Almost True,” is a shaggy dog yarn narrated by a pooch who is very worried about a wicked witch: “I am a dog named Ulisses and my owner is Clarice.” The wonderful last story, “Laura’s Intimate Life” stars “the nicest hen I’ve ever seen.” Laura is “quite dumb,” but she has her “little thoughts and feelings. Not a lot, but she’s definitely got them. Just knowing she’s not completely dumb makes her feel all chatty and giddy. She thinks that she thinks.” A one-eyed visitor from Jupiter arrives and vows Laura will never be eaten: she’s been worrying, because “humans are a weird sort of person” who can love hens and eat them, too. Such throwaway wisdom abounds: “Don’t even get me started.” These delightful, high-hearted stories, written for her own boys, have charm to burn—and are a treat for every Lispector reader.

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Valiant’s critically acclaimed, 10-time sold-out magnum opus returns with a brand-new journey into myth and mystery, from comics master Peter Milligan (Shade, the Changing Man) and incendiary artist Juan José Ryp (Britannia!) Fifty thousand Romans stand on their feet, watching from the rafters of the coliseum with captured breath as Achillia, a Gladiator unlike any that Rome has seen before, faces incredible odds – one lone warrior against five of Rome’s greatest. Such is the tradition, when a female gladiator enters the fray. When the carnage is complete, the coliseum roars its approval as Achillia stands victorious. Now only one match away from winning her freedom, she has begun to gain renown. The women of Rome, suppressed by their husbands and fathers, have noticed. The men of Rome, husbands and fathers to a growing horde of women entertaining ideas of independence, have noticed as well. On the other side of Rome, a strange mystery swirls through the Palatine Hill. In the dead of night, down winding alleys, Rome’s elite swear that they see visions of a blood-soaked Apollo walking thecity...visions that are driving them mad. Even more are becoming sick with weird fever god-dreams. Panic ensues in the city. The Chief Vestal, Rubria, is arrested by Emperor Nero and threatened with crucifi xion unless the deadly curse that’s fallen on Rome is lifted. She asks Antonius Axia, hero of Britannia and Rome’s only detective, for help. She offers only one clue...the gladiator Achillia. Collecting BRITANNIA: WE WHO ARE ABOUT TO DIE #1–4.

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Josh Clark and Chuck Bryant started the podcast Stuff You Should Know back in 2008 because they were curious-curious about the world around them, curious about what they might have missed in their formal educations, and curious to dig deeper on stuff they thought they understood.As it turns out, they aren't the only curious ones. They've since amassed a rabid fan base, making Stuff You Should Know one of the most popular podcasts in the world. Armed with their inquisitive natures and a passion for sharing, they research and discuss a wide variety of topics-always working to uncover the weird, fascinating, delightful, or unexpected pieces of any given subject, and then talking about it together in an accessible and humorous way.The pair have now taken their near-boundless "whys" and "hows" from your earbuds to the pages of a book for the first time-and with it comes loads of new content, covering subjects about which they've long wondered or wanted to explore in greater detail. Follow along as they dig into the underlying stories and interesting ways things fit into the world, touching on everything from the origin of Murphy beds, to the history of facial hair, to the psychology of being lost.An additional layer of visual material allows the duo to further embellish their engaging storytelling and bring these topics to life in a snappy new way-including charts and graphs, illustrations, and sidebars for rabbit-hole tangents and wandering digressions.Have you ever wondered about the world around you, and wished to see the magic in everyday things? Come get curious with Stuff You Should Know. With Josh and Chuck as your guide, there's something interesting about everything (...except maybe jackhammers)

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If you love Jessica Sorensen, Abbi Glines or Jamie McGuire's Beautiful Disaster, you'll love New York Times bestseller Monica Murphy, who took the New Adult genre by storm with the deeply emotional, completely addicting story of Drew and Fable, beginning with One Week Girlfriend.Temporary. That's the word I'd use to describe my life right now. I'm temporarily working double shifts - at least until I can break free. I'm temporarily raising my little brother - since apparently our actual mother doesn't give a crap about either of us. And I always end up as nothing but the temporary girlfriend - the flavour of the week for every guy who's heard the rumour that I give it up so easily.At least Drew Callahan, college football legend and local golden boy, is upfront about it. He needs someone to play the part of his girlfriend for one week. In exchange for cash. As if that's not weird enough, ever since he brought me into his world, nothing really makes sense. Everyone hates me. Everyone wants something from him. And yet the only thing Drew seems to want is...me.I don't know what to believe anymore. Drew is sweet, sexy, and hiding way more secrets than I am. All I know is, I want to be there for him - permanently.Don't miss the rest of the intensely passionate One Week Girlfriend series: Second Chance Boyfriend, Three Broken Promises, Drew + Fable Forever and Four Years Later, as well as Monica's sexy Fowler Sisters trilogy and her breathtaking Reverie Series.

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15+ pages of new, original content, including a glossary of terms, in-universe writings, and more! A USA Today Best-Selling Novel! "Unlike anything I've ever read. " --V.E. Schwab "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" --Charles Stross "Brilliantly original, messy and weird straight through." --NPR The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead nonsense. Tamsyn Muir's Gideon the Ninth, first in The Locked Tomb Trilogy, unveils a solar system of swordplay, cut-throat politics, and lesbian necromancers. Her characters leap off the page, as skillfully animated as arcane revenants. The result is a heart-pounding epic science fantasy. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her sword, her shoes, and her dirty magazines, and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won't set her free without a service. Harrowhark Nonagesimus, Reverend Daughter of the Ninth House and bone witch extraordinaire, has been summoned into action. The Emperor has invited the heirs to each of his loyal Houses to a deadly trial of wits and skill. If Harrowhark succeeds she will be become an immortal, all-powerful servant of the Resurrection, but no necromancer can ascend without their cavalier. Without Gideon's sword, Harrow will fail, and the Ninth House will die. Of course, some things are better left dead. THE LOCKED TOMB TRILOGY BOOK 1: Gideon the Ninth BOOK 2: Harrow the Ninth BOOK 3: Alecto the Ninth

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In the beginning, everything was fine.* And then along came Zeus. *more or lessAhh Greek myths. Those glorious tales of heroism, honour and... petty squabbles, soap-opera drama and more weird sex than Fifty Shades of Grey could shake a stick at! It's about time we stopped respecting myths and started laughing at them. Did you know Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, was born of some discarded genitals? Or that Hera threw her own son off a mountain because he was ugly? Or that Apollo once kidnapped a boat full of people while pretending to be a dolphin? And let's not even get started on Zeus - king of the gods, ruler of the skies and a man who's never heard of self-control. In fact, if there's one thing most Greek myths have in common, it's that all the drama could have been avoided if SOMEONE could keep it in their toga...Horrible Histories writer Susie Donkin takes us on a hilarious romp through mythology and the many times the gods (literally) screwed everything up! Stephen Fry's Mythos by way of Drunk History, Zeus is a Dick is perfect for those who like their myths with a heavy dollop of satire.'Who knew mythology was so bonkers? I am grateful - it had me laughing from the first page to the last.' - Miranda Hart'It's about time someone called him out on all this' - Hera, goddess of marriage, wife of Zeus'Worst. Father. Ever.' - Artemis, goddess of the hunt, daughter of Zeus'Oh yeah, focus on him. I never did anything wrong. Nothing to see here' - Poseidon, god of the seas, brother of Zeus'Just a real dick, honestly' - Many, many people

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An eye-opening exploration of the weird and wonderful things human beings have done in pursuit (and denial) of the mighty orgasm, based on the hit Twitter account @WhoresofYoreThis is not a comprehensive study of every sexual quirk, kink and ritual across all cultures throughout time, as that would entail writing an encyclopaedia. Rather, this is a drop in the ocean, a paddle in the shallow end of sex history, but I hope you will get pleasantly wet nonetheless. The act of sex has not changed since people first worked out what went where, but the ways in which society dictates how sex is culturally understood and performed have varied significantly through the ages. Humans are the only creatures that stigmatise particular sexual practices, and sex remains a deeply divisive issue around the world. Attitudes will change and grow – hopefully for the better – but sex will never be free of stigma or shame unless we acknowledge where it has come from. Drawing upon extensive research from Dr Kate Lister's Whores of Yore website and written with her distinctive humour and wit, A Curious History of Sex covers topics ranging from twentieth- century testicle thefts to Victorian doctors massaging the pelvises of their female patients, from smutty bread innuendos dating back to AD 79, to the new and controversial sex doll brothels. It is peppered with surprising and informative historical slang and illustrated by eye-opening, toe- curling and hilarious images. In this fascinating book, Lister deftly debunks myths and stereotypes and gives unusual sexual practices an historical framework, as she provides valuable context for issues facing people today, including gender, sexual shame, beauty and language.

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Stories abound of immigrant Jews on the outside looking in, clambering up the ladder of social mobility, successfully assimilating and integrating into their new worlds. But this book is not about the success stories. It's a paean to the bunglers, the blockheads, and the just plain weird—Jews who were flung from small, impoverished eastern European towns into the urban shtetls of New York and Warsaw, where, as they say in Yiddish, their bread landed butter side down in the dirt. These marginal Jews may have found their way into the history books far less frequently than their more socially upstanding neighbors, but there's one place you can find them in force: in the Yiddish newspapers that had their heyday from the 1880s to the 1930s. Disaster, misery, and misfortune: you will find no better chronicle of the daily ignominies of urban Jewish life than in the pages of the Yiddish press. An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Bad Rabbi exposes the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With true stories plucked from the pages of the Yiddish papers, Eddy Portnoy introduces us to the drunks, thieves, murderers, wrestlers, poets, and beauty queens whose misadventures were immortalized in print. There's the Polish rabbi blackmailed by an American widow, mass brawls at weddings and funerals, a psychic who specialized in locating missing husbands, and violent gangs of Jewish mothers on the prowl—in short, not quite the Jews you'd expect. One part Isaac Bashevis Singer, one part Jerry Springer, this irreverent, unvarnished, and frequently hilarious compendium of stories provides a window into an unknown Yiddish world that was.

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'This is about gob-smacking science at the far end of reason … Take it nice and easy and savour the experience of your mind being blown without recourse to hallucinogens' Nicholas Lezard, Guardian For most people, quantum theory is a byword for mysterious, impenetrable science. And yet for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this magisterial book, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly-written history of this fundamental scientific revolution, and the divisive debate at its core. Quantum theory looks at the very building blocks of our world, the particles and processes without which it could not exist. Yet for 60 years most physicists believed that quantum theory denied the very existence of reality itself. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar shows how the golden age of physics ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century. Quantum theory is weird. In 1905, Albert Einstein suggested that light was a particle, not a wave, defying a century of experiments. Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Erwin Schrodinger's famous dead-and-alive cat are similarly strange. As Niels Bohr said, if you weren't shocked by quantum theory, you didn't really understand it. While "Quantum" sets the science in the context of the great upheavals of the modern age, Kumar's centrepiece is the conflict between Einstein and Bohr over the nature of reality and the soul of science. 'Bohr brainwashed a whole generation of physicists into believing that the problem had been solved', lamented the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Murray Gell-Mann. But in "Quantum", Kumar brings Einstein back to the centre of the quantum debate. "Quantum" is the essential read for anyone fascinated by this complex and thrilling story and by the band of brilliant men at its heart.

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Dive into the depths and discover the mysteries of the world of water in this beautiful book for young readers.From myths and legends, folklore and fables, to amazing discoveries, and undiscovered depths - children will love exploring the amazing world of water in this beautifully illustrated book for young readers.Dive between the pages of Underwater World into the ocean depths to discover sunken lands, and sail in and out of legends laden with weird and wonderful monsters. This educational book for 7-9 year olds will teach curious children all about the ocean, magical creatures and mythology, mysteries and the unexplained.Dive straight in with this educational book to discover: - A variety of exciting topics surrounding water, including sunken cities, ghost ships, Ocean gods and goddesses, and mythical creatures such as the kraken, merpeople, selkies, and sirens.- Most of the world's cultures that share mythology around water together in one place; from gods and goddesses to beasts of the deep.- Exciting and informative text and beautiful hand-painted illustrations that bring the subject to life.Water - it can be hard as rock, silky soft, and often barely there. We can't live without it, but can't breathe within it. This shape-shifting element washes in on our shores, pours on our towns, and winds through our fields. We are mostly made out of water, but how much do we really know about it? Children will love learning all about the world of water in this beautifully illustrated and colourful book.At DK, we believe in the power of discovery. So why stop there?If you like Underwater World, then why not complete the collection? Take a peek inside the enchanting and mythological world of dragons with Dragon World, and discover their fascinating history.

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CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 BY WATERSTONES AND THE TIMES'The book that might change the world ... This is luxury-class science writing'TELEGRAPH'One of the best books of any genre that I've read in 2023, this superbly-written book ... will fascinate absolutely everyone.'FORBES'A delight. To learn more about phages is to discover fascinating details about a hidden world'NATURE'Outstanding'CLIVE MYRIE__________Not all viruses are out to get us - in fact, the viruses that do us harm are vastly outnumbered by viruses that can actually save lives.At every moment, within your body and all around you, trillions of microscopic combatants are fighting an invisible war. Countless times per second, 'good' viruses known as phages are infecting and destroying bacteria. These phages are the most abundant life form on the planet and have an incredible power to heal rather than harm. So why have most of us never even heard of them?The Good Virus reveals how personalities, power and politics have repeatedly crashed together to hinder our understanding of these weird and wonderful life forms. We explore why Stalin's Soviet Union embraced using phages to fight disease but the rest of the world shunned the idea. We find out why scientists only recently realised phages are central to all ecosystems on Earth. And we meet the often eccentric phage heroes who have shaped the strange history of this field and are unlocking its exciting future.Faced with the threat of antibiotic resistance, we need phages now more than ever. The Good Virus celebrates what phages could do for us and our planet if they are at last given the attention they deserve.

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Embark on an awe-inspiring and informative journey through our Solar System and beyond in this illuminating astronomy book! Discover how big the Universe is, why our view of the sky is constantly changing, what came before the Big Bang, and so much more. 3, 2, 1, blast off! Inside the pages of this comprehensive guide to astronomy for beginners, you'll discover:- Simple text and step-by-step graphics make astronomy easy to understand- Fun facts and tip-of-the-tongue questions are presented through bite-sized factoids and question-and-answer features- Clear explanations demystifying more advanced topics such as cosmic rays, dark matter, and black hole collisionsAn out-of-this-world reference book about space that introduces you to the weird and wonderful world of astronomy and space exploration. From the structure of the Milky Way to the Earth's nearest celestial body, the Moon, How Space Works takes you on an unforgettable tour through the stars and galaxies, and to the furthest reaches of space!Answering all your burning questions about space, from ancient white dwarf stars to the Mars Rover, this visual guide explains the basics of astronomy through bold graphics and step-by-step artworks. It's the ultimate book for armchair astronomers and space-technology enthusiasts looking for reliable and up-to-date facts and explanations.DK's How Things Work series uses dynamic graphics and jargon-free text to explain the modern world simply and clearly. Packed with fascinating facts and stats, these visual guides cover everything from science to philosophy, making complex topics more accessible than ever before!

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Winner of the Whitley Award for Best Natural History Book 2022 A compelling, funny, first-hand account of Australia's wonderfully unique mammals and how our perceptions impact their future. Think of a platypus: they lay eggs (that hatch into so-called platypups), they produce milk without nipples and venom without fangs and they can detect electricity. Or a wombat: their teeth never stop growing, they poo cubes and they defend themselves with reinforced rears. Platypuses, possums, wombats, echidnas, devils, kangaroos, quolls, dibblers, dunnarts, kowaris: Australia has some truly astonishing mammals with incredible, unfamiliar features. But how does the world regard these creatures? And what does that mean for their conservation?In Platypus Matters, naturalist Jack Ashby shares his love for these often-misunderstood animals. Informed by his own experiences meeting living marsupials and egg-laying mammals on fieldwork in Tasmania and mainland Australia, as well as his work with thousands of zoological specimens collected for museums over the last 200-plus years, Ashby's tale not only explains the extraordinary lives of these animals, but the historical mysteries surrounding them and the myths that persist (especially about the platypus). He also reveals the toll these myths can take.Ashby makes it clear that calling these animals ‘weird’ or ‘primitive’ – or incorrectly implying that Australia is an ‘evolutionary backwater’ – a perception that can be traced back to the country's colonial history – has undermined conservation: Australia now has the worst mammal extinction rate of anywhere on Earth. Important, timely and written with humour and wisdom by a scientist and self-described platypus nerd, this celebration of Australian wildlife will open eyes and change minds about how we contemplate and interact with the natural world – everywhere.

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With Dwight attending Tippett Academy this semester, the kids of McQuarrie Middle School are on their own—no Origami Yoda to give advice and help them navigate the treacherous waters of middle school. Then Sara gets a gift she says is from Dwight—a paper fortune-teller in the form of Chewbacca. It’s a Fortune Wookiee, and it seems to give advice that’s just as good as Yoda’s—even if, in the hands of the girls, it seems too preoccupied with romance. In the meantime, Dwight is fitting in a little too well at Tippett. Has the unimaginable happened? Has Dwight become normal? It’s up to his old friends at McQuarrie to remind their kooky friend that it’s in his weirdness that his greatness lies. With his proven knack for humorously exploring the intrigues, fads, and dramas of middle school, Tom Angleberger has crafted a worthy follow-up to his breakout bestsellersThe Strange Case of Origami Yoda and Darth Paper Strikes Back. Praise for The Secret of the Fortune Wookiee STARRED REVIEW "Angleberger’s third in the series continues the fun. A chorus of spot-on middle school voices and plenty of laughs are wrapped around this tale of friendship and seasoned with Star Wars references." —Kirkus Reviews, starred review "Tom Angleberger offers a hilarious third book in his best-selling series starring origamiStar Wars characters. Angleberger’s grasp of middle-school emotions, humor and behavior is spot-on, and parents who want to get a sense of what it’s like be a preteen these days might consider reading this book. But you'll likely have to pry it out of your young reader’s hands first." —Scripps Howard News Service Award 2013 ReadKiddoRead Kiddos Finalist

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Search for your favourite mobs in this official Minecraft Search and Find book! Meet five intrepid explorers as they set out in search of an explosive creeper, a mysterious enderman and more elusive mobs. But these blocky beasts are harder to track down than expected and now the explorers need your help to hunt them all down. Do you have what it takes to find these sneaky mobs? Explore the world of Minecraft and its biomes as you journey across the Overworld, through the fiery Nether and even into the terrifying End dimension, as you join the chase to track down Minecraft's most popular mobs. Illustrated by Mr Misang, each scene is packed full of weird and wonderful details to pore over. There are also bonus items to find on each page, ensuring hours of fun. Collect all of the official Minecraft books to become the best Minecrafter you can be: Minecraft Maps: 9781405294546 Minecraft Let's Build! Land of Zombies: 9781405294539 Minecraft Let's Build! Theme Park Adventure: 9781405293075 Minecraft Guide to Creative: 9781405285988 Minecraft Guide to Redstone: 9781405286008 Minecraft Guide to the Nether and the End: 9781405285995 Minecraft Guide to Enchantments and Potions: 9781405288958 Minecraft Guide to Farming: 9781405290104 Minecraft Blockopedia: 9781405273534 Minecraft: Exploded Builds: Medieval Fortress: 9781405284172 Minecraft The Survivors' Book of Secrets: 9781405283335 Minecraft Survival Tin: 9781405288200 Minecraft Mobestiary: 9781405286022 Minecraft: The Ultimate Construction Collection: 9781405291927 Minecraft is a multi-platform block-based gaming sensation available on Xbox, PlayStation, PC and mobile devices. Whether you're in Creative, Survival or Hardcore Mode, the official Mojang-approved Minecraft books contain all the advice you need to survive and thrive.

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Have you ever wondered why your cats behave the way they do? This authoritative guide has all the answers! Cats are weird, and sometimes their behavior can leave you scratching your head. Discover what’s really behind those things cats do – whether they’re amusing, irritating or just downright bizarre.What’s My Cat Thinking will help cat lovers unlock the secret code of cats for a deeper connection with the feline in your life. Inside, you’ll find: • Accurate descriptions of behavior will help you understand your cat’s body language nuances and act accordingly. • Covers a range of breeds. • A fun book for cat people that delivers practical, helpful advice from acknowledged experts on a range of tricky or puzzling cat behaviors. Have you ever wondered why your cat sleeps on your keyboard, why they bully the dog or why they insist on drinking from the bathroom tap — or if they even like you? Cats (unlike the dogs they look down on) are not always easy to understand. This cat psychology book will show you that they do show their feelings, albeit subtly, in the way they relate to you, other animals and their home environment. Stunning illustrations of a wide range of breeds and informative text will help you understand your cat's body language, so you know when they are happy and when they aren’t! Aside from learning to understand your cat, this guide includes “catwatching” spreads that provide helpful tips and advice on dealing with some common kitty challenges like moving home and introducing a new cat into the family. So when they are sitting on your head at 4 a.m., you will at least know why!

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'Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus does for the creature what Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk did for raptors' New Statesman'Charming and moving...with extraordinary scientific research' Guardian'An engaging work of natural science... There is clearly something about the octopus’s weird beauty that fires the imaginations of explorers, scientists, writers' Daily Mail In 2011 Sy Montgomery wrote a feature for Orion magazine entitled 'Deep Intellect' about her friendship with a sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at her death. It went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then, Sy has practised true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild, solitary shape-shifters. Octopuses have varied personalities and intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot, venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think? The intelligence of dogs, birds and chimpanzees was only recently accepted by scientists, who now are establishing the intelligence of the octopus, watching them solve problems and deciphering the meaning of their colour-changing camouflage techniques. Montgomery chronicles this growing appreciation of the octopus, but also tells a love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about consciousness and the meeting of two very different minds.

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Japan has produced thousands of intriguing video games. For any number of reasons, not all of them were ever released outside of the country, especially in the '80s and '90s. While many of these titles have since been documented by the English-speaking video game community — and in some cases, even unofficially translated — a huge proportion of the Japanese game output is unknown outside of their native territory (and even, in some cases, within it). Some of these games are oddities, the kind of uniquely Japanese title that wouldn't have been commercial viable outside of the country; others may have done well but were victims of circumstance. Plus, for quite a long time, the Japanese industry developed separately from American and European output, with their own landmark titles that created trends and inspired later games. Even the older games have a visual and aural style that make them distinct from similar games from around the globe. Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: Japanese Video Game Obscurities seeks to catalogue many of these titles - games that are weird, compelling, strange, cool or historically important. Some of these may be familiar if you've comprehensively read Hardcore Gaming 101 website archives (though the actual text for this book is completely original), but we've also included a large number of titles that aren't (currently) reviewed, and in some cases, have little to no English-language coverage whatsoever. Most of these games are Japanese exclusive, though we've also picked some that are suitably obscure outside of the country, or were only localized many years after their original release. In some cases, they're games that were hugely successful in Japan but barely made a mark in the West.

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'A groundbreaking analysis of what used to be an impenetrable mystery: how and why do cultures differ? ... Anyone interested in our cultural divides will find tremendous insight in Rule Makers, Rule Breakers' - Steven Pinker, Johnstone Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, and author of Enlightenment NowWhy are clocks in Germany always correct, while those in Brazil are frequently wrong? Why are Singaporeans jailed for selling gum? Why do women in New Zealand have three times the sex of females worldwide? Why was the Daimler-Chrysler merger ill-fated from the start? And why does each generation of Americans give their kids weirder and weirder names? Curious about the answers to these and other questions, award-winning social psychologist Michele Gelfand has spent two decades studying both tight societies (with clearly stated rules and codes of ethics) and loose societies (more informal communities with weak or ambiguous norms). Putting each under the microscope, she conducted research in more than fifty countries and collaborated with political scientists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, anthropologists, and archaeologists. Her fascinating conclusion: behaviour seems largely dependent on perceived threats. It's why certain nations seem predisposed to tangle with others; some American states identify as "Red" and others as "Blue"; and those attending a sports contest, health club, or school function behave in prescribed ways. Rule Makers, Rule Breakers reveals how to predict national variations around the globe, why some leaders innovate and others don't, and even how a tight vs. loose system can determine happiness. Consistently riveting and always illuminating, Michele Gelfand's book helps us understand how a single cultural trait dramatically affects even the smallest aspects of our lives.'Fascinating and profound...It's quite possibly this year's best book on culture' - Roy F. Baumeister, bestselling co-author of Willpower and author of The Cultural Animal'This brilliant book is full of well-documented insights that will change the way you look at yourself and at the world around you' - Barry Schwartz, bestselling author of The Paradox of Choice, Practical Wisdom, and Why We Work

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There's a reason Noma sits atop the list of the world's best restaurants. Every bite, every dish, every course surprises, delights, challenges, and deeply satisfies in a way that's unique in the world of dining. As the New York Times's Pete Wells wrote recently in praising Noma's flavors, "sauces are administered so subtly that you don't notice anything weird going on; you just think you've never tasted anything so extraordinary in your life." In Noma 2.0, Rene Redzepi digs deep into the restaurant's magic through the creation of nearly 200 dishes, each photographed in spectacular beauty and detail. Noma 2.0--the title is a reference to the reinvention of Noma after it closed in 2018 to move to its new compound across the water--is about true seasonality, from wild game in the fall to just-picked peas in the summer. It is about using only local ingredients, to build a cuisine that is profoundly situated in its place and culture. It is about transforming the ordinary--a mushroom, a chicken wing, often through fermentation--to develop haunting, memorable flavors. It is about composing a plate that delights the eye as much as the palate, whether through the trompe l'oeil of a "flowerpot" chocolate cake or a dazzling mandala of flowers and berries. It is about pushing the boundaries of what we think we want to eat--a baby pinecone, a pudding made of reindeer brain--to open our palates with a startling confidence. And it is about how to stay creative and challenge yourself over the course of a career. For foodies, for chefs, for artists and art lovers, for thought-leaders and makers, and for the kind of reader who is compelled by the idea that sometimes one person can change everything, Noma 2.0 is the gift book of the season.

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In midcentury America, the golden age of television, a man named Golk is wreaking havoc with the medium. Through a devastating series of exposures—"You're on Camera"—Golk manipulates the high and mighty, the lowdown and dirty, and the outrageous weird; all are within the compass of Richard Stern in this early novel, a comedy with as many inspired maneuvers as its rambunctious protagonist has for taking the measure of a profligate world. "Golk is a rich and marvelously detailed novel by a man with a cultivated intelligence; it is also the first really good book I have read about television."—Norman Mailer "An original: sharp, funny, intelligent, rare. . . . Working in a clean, oblique style reminiscent of Nathanael West, Mr. Stern has written in Golk a first-rate comic novel, a piece of fiction that is at once about and loaded with that kind of recognition that junkies call the flash."—Joan Didion, National Review "Golk is fantastic, funny, bitter, intelligent without weariness. Best of all Golk is pure—that is to say necessary. Without hokum."—Saul Bellow "Golk (like Golk himself) is a wonderous conception. Its world responds to personification, not analysis, and personify it Mr. Stern has done. A book in a thousand."—Hugh Kenner "What I like about Mr. Stern's fantasy is that it has been conceived and written with so much gaiety. Far from a political melodrama, it reminds me of a René Clair movie, and even the surrealist touches needed to bring out the power and pretense of the television industry are funny rather than symbolically grim."—Alfred Kazin, Reporter "A mighty good book, altogether alive, full of beans and none of them spilled."—Flannery O'Connor

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"It's been described as a cross between Alice in Wonderland and The Crystal Maze and it manages to feel both classic and modern at the same time." Good Housekeeping "A brilliant, clever, kind of genius book" Graham Norton, Virgin Radio A high-energy, laugh-out-loud, fully illustrated adventure story by much-loved actor Stephen Mangan and talented artist Anita Mangan. The last thing Jack expected when he bungee-jumped at the fairground was to go plummeting right through the ground into the weird, wonderful Rooms... There he must face a series of puzzles and traps alongside a mysterious girl called Cally, in order for them to find their way home. Throw in a murderous polar bear, hundreds of tiny yet ferocious lions, some mind-blowing riddles, and get ready for a hilarious, helter-skelter adventure like no other! Escape the Rooms follows two children dealing with loss on an amazing adventure. Wildly funny and endlessly surprising, Escape the Rooms is also a story about friendship, overcoming fears and being kind to yourself. Packed with fantastic pictures created by Stephen Mangan's sister, Anita Check out Stephen and Anita's other books, The Fart that Changed the World, The Unlikely Rise of Harry Sponge and The Great Reindeer Rescue. More praise for Escape the Rooms "[Escape the Rooms] is richly imagined and deeply heartfelt, and Anita Mangan's cartoonish and poignant illustrations capture the tone perfectly … It reminded me a little of The Wizard of Oz, with the children on a quest through different lands to get home." Hadley Freeman, Guardian "A beautiful and exciting adventure that ignites the imagination" Edith Bowman

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An eccentric comic about the central mystery of quantum mechanicsTotally Random is a comic for the serious reader who wants to really understand the central mystery of quantum mechanics--entanglement: what it is, what it means, and what you can do with it.Measure two entangled particles separately, and the outcomes are totally random. But compare the outcomes, and the particles seem as if they are instantaneously influencing each other at a distance—even if they are light-years apart. This, in a nutshell, is entanglement, and if it seems weird, then this book is for you. Totally Random is a graphic experiential narrative that unpacks the deep and insidious significance of the curious correlation between entangled particles to deliver a gut-feel glimpse of a world that is not what it seems. See for yourself how entanglement has led some of the greatest thinkers of our time to talk about crazy-sounding stuff like faster-than-light signaling, many worlds, and cats that are both dead and alive. Find out why it remains one of science's most paradigm-shaking discoveries. Join Niels Bohr's therapy session with the likes of Einstein, Schrödinger, and other luminaries and let go of your commonsense notion of how the world works. Use your new understanding of entanglement to do the seemingly impossible, like beat the odds in the quantum casino, or quantum encrypt a message to evade the Sphinx's all-seeing eye. But look out, or you might just get teleported back to the beginning of the book!A fresh and subversive look at our quantum world with some seriously funny stuff, Totally Random delivers a real understanding of entanglement that will completely change the way you think about the nature of physical reality.

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NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE ECONOMIST, OBSERVER, NEW SCIENTIST, BBC FOCUS, INDEPENDENT AND WASHINGTON POST 'A rollicking tour of the wildest physics. . . Like an animated discussion with your favourite quirky and brilliant professor' Leah Crane, New Scientist'Weird science, explained beautifully' - John ScalziWe know the universe had a beginning. But what happens at the end of the story?With lively wit and wry humour, astrophysicist Katie Mack takes us on a mind-bending tour through each of the cosmos' possible finales: the Big Crunch, Heat Death, Vacuum Decay, the Big Rip and the Bounce. Guiding us through major concepts in quantum mechanics, cosmology, string theory and much more, she describes how small tweaks to our incomplete understanding of reality can result in starkly different futures. Our universe could collapse in upon itself, or rip itself apart, or even - in the next five minutes - succumb to an inescapable expanding bubble of doom.This captivating story of cosmic escapism examines a mesmerizing yet unfamiliar physics landscape while sharing the excitement a leading astrophysicist feels when thinking about the universe and our place in it. Amid stellar explosions and bouncing universes, Mack shows that even though we puny humans have no chance of changing how it all ends, we can at least begin to understand it.The End of Everything is a wildly fun, surprisingly upbeat ride to the farthest reaches of all that we know.

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With Bukowski, the votes are still coming in. There seems to be no middle ground—people seem either to love him or hate him. Tales of his own life and doings are as wild and weird as the very stories he writes. In a sense, Bukowski was a legend in his time . . . a madman, a recluse, a lover . . . tender, vicious . . . never the same . . . these are exceptional stories that come pounding out of his violent and depraved life . . . horrible and holy, you cannot read them and ever come away the same again.Bukowski . . . "a professional disturber of the peace . . . laureate of Los Angeles netherworld [writes with] crazy romantic insistence that losers are less phony than winners, and with an angry compassion for the lost." —Jack Kroll, Newsweek"Bukowski’s poems are extraordinarily vivid and often bitterly funny observations of people living on the very edge of oblivion. His poetry, in all it’s glorious simplicity, was accessible the way poetry seldom is – a testament to his genius." —Nick Burton, PIF MagazineCharles Bukowski (1920-1994) published his first story when he was twenty-four and began writing poetry at the age of thirty-five. His first book of poetry was published in 1959; he went on to publish more than forty-five books of poetry and prose, including books published by City Lights Publishers such as Notes of a Dirty Old Man, More Notes of a Dirty Old Man, The Most Beautiful Woman in Town, Tales of Ordinary Madness, Portions from a Wine-Stained Notebook, The Bell Tolls for No One,and Absence of the Hero.

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From woolly mammoths and eight-foot beavers on the River Thames to plagues and civil wars, from tea to castles and cathedrals, and everything in between, The Big Book of Britain is a compendium of the major people and events in British history.Dive in and discover this island nation’s unique charm and fascinating story. More than 200 stories are sure to delight Anglophiles, British readers, the curious, and history buffs alike. Whether you’re interested in mythology, famous historical figures, ancient and medieval history, or how this tiny nation came to rule and influence so much of the world for a while, this accessible, illustrated volume has something for everyone. The Big Book of Britain covers the common and the obscure over thousands of years, including: The Celts and Romans Food, drink, and feasts Wars and politics, and all the skulduggery that go with them Music and literature, and the amazing creators behind the masterpieces Britain during and between the two World Wars Inventors and engineers The truth about the Vikings The rise and fall of the British Empire Tabloids and the modern royal family Brexit And much more! Each entry has a fun or weird fact that adds more to the whole picture. Celebrate the triumphs of Britain’s people, its rich history, its influence around the world, and its major achievements, as well as some of its major stumbles, outrages, and mistakes. The Big Book of Britain will have you buzzing about what makes Britain, well, Britain, from the earliest times to the modern age.

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The iconic Periodic Table of the Elements is now in its most satisfyingly elegant form. This is because all the 'gaps' corresponding to missing elements in the seventh row, or period, have recently been filled and the elements named. But where do these names come from? For some, usually the most recent, the origins are quite obvious, but in others - even well-known elements such as oxygen or nitrogen - the roots are less clear. Here, Peter Wothers explores the fascinating and often surprising stories behind how the chemical elements received their names. Delving back in time to explore the history and gradual development of chemistry, he sifts through medieval manuscripts for clues to the stories surrounding the discovery of the elements, showing how they were first encountered or created, and how they were used in everyday lives. As he reveals, the oldest-known elements were often associated with astronomical bodies, and connections with the heavens influenced the naming of a number of elements. Following this, a number of elements, including hydrogen and oxygen, were named during the great reform of chemistry, set amidst the French Revolution. While some of the origins of the names were controversial (and indeed incorrect - some saying, for instance, that oxygen might be literally taken to mean 'the son of a vinegar merchant'), they have nonetheless influenced language used around the world to this very day. Throughout, Wothers delights in dusting off the original sources, and bringing to light the astonishing, the unusual, and the downright weird origins behind the names of the elements so familiar to us today.

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Sheffielder Tony Hewson is a former champion racing cyclist who won the 1955 Tour of Britain and went on to represent his country in the Warsaw - Berlin - Prague and the Tour de France. His first book, "In Pursuit of Stardom", was a widely acclaimed memoir of the 1950s telling how he and his companions faced handicap and privation in their struggle to earn a living a-wheel on the European continent. "A Cyclist's Worst Nightmare" covers a similar time-scope, though as a collection of individual but interrelated stories it employs a variety of different literary genres - autobiography, biography, discourse and fiction. Whilst each piece can be enjoyed in its own right, the work as a whole casts light on an era of UK cycling history in the aftermath of World War II that until now has been somewhat neglected and forgotten. Some events, for example the tumultuous birth and demise of the rebel British League of Racing Cyclists that split the sport and framed its future, have ramifications to this day. From foul-mouthed Jean Robic ('I haven't enough enemies!') to aggressive Korean war-veteran Reg ('Heroes we were - fat thanks we get.') via bullied national service 'nutter' Michael ('a queer boy wi' them fancy togs n' that weird show-off bike'), the mood is one of a shared sense of grievance from real and imagined characters who see themselves as put-upons in search of recognition. The theme of the social outsider will ring bells with any reader who has ever been a committed cyclist in the British Isles, and will also be of interest to many who have not.

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A ground-breaking book by the world-leading expert in sensory science: Freakonomics for food'Popular science at its best' - Daniel Levitin Why do we consume 35% more food when eating with one more person, and 75% more when with three? Why are 27% of drinks bought on aeroplanes tomato juice?How are chefs and companies planning to transform our dining experiences, and what can we learn from their cutting-edge insights to make memorable meals at home? These are just some of the ingredients of Gastrophysics, in which the pioneering Oxford professor Charles Spence shows how our senses link up in the most extraordinary ways, and reveals the importance of all the 'off-the-plate' elements of a meal: the weight of cutlery, the placing on the plate, the background music and much more. Whether dining alone or at a dinner party, on a plane or in front of the TV, he reveals how to understand what we're tasting and influence what others experience. Mealtimes will genuinely never be the same again.'Truly accessible, entertaining and informative. On every page there are ideas to set you thinking and widen your horizons' - Heston Blumenthal, OBE'His delight in weird food facts is infectious...fascinating' - James McConnachie, Sunday Times'Gastrophysics is packed with such tasty factual morsels that could be served up at dinner parties. If Spence can percolate all these factual morsels to the mainstream, the benefits to all of us would be obvious' - Nick Curtis, Daily Telegraph'Spence allows people to appreciate the multisensory experience of eating' - New Yorker'The scientist changing the way we eat' - Guardian

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CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR 2023 BY WATERSTONES AND THE TIMES'Superb ... This is luxury-class science writing'DAILY TELEGRAPH, 5* review'One of the best books of any genre that I've read in 2023, this superbly-written book ... will fascinate absolutely everyone'FORBES'A delight. To learn more about phages is to discover fascinating details about a hidden world'NATURE__________Not all viruses are out to get us - in fact, the viruses that do us harm are vastly outnumbered by viruses that can actually save lives.At every moment, within your body and all around you, trillions of microscopic combatants are fighting an invisible war. Countless times per second, 'good' viruses known as phages are infecting and destroying bacteria. These phages are the most abundant life form on the planet and have an incredible power to heal rather than harm. So why have most of us never even heard of them?The Good Virus reveals how personalities, power and politics have repeatedly crashed together to hinder our understanding of these weird and wonderful life forms. We explore why Stalin's Soviet Union embraced using phages to fight disease but the rest of the world shunned the idea. We find out why scientists only recently realised phages are central to all ecosystems on Earth. And we meet the often eccentric phage heroes who have shaped the strange history of this field and are unlocking its exciting future.Faced with the threat of antibiotic-resistance, we need phages now more than ever. The Good Virus celebrates what phages could do for us and our planet if they are at last given the attention they deserve.

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A Stonewall Book Award Honor * A Sid Fleishman Humor Award HonorFunny and full of heart, this debut graphic novel is a story about friendship, identity, and embracing all the parts of yourself that make you special. Fifth grade is just not Riley’s vibe. Everyone else is squaded up—except Riley. Her best friend moved away. All she wants to do is draw, and her grades show it.One thing that makes her happy is her favorite comedian, Joy Powers. Riley loves to watch her old shows and has memorized her best jokes. So when the class is assigned to write letters to people they admire, of course Riley’s picking Joy Powers!Things start to look up when a classmate, Cate, offers to help Riley with the letter, and a new kid, Aaron, actually seems to get her weird sense of humor. But when mean girl Whitney spreads a rumor about her, things begin to click into place for Riley. Her curiosity about Aaron’s two dads and her celebrity crush on Joy Powers suddenly make more sense.Readers will respond to Riley’s journey of self-discovery and will recognize themselves in this character who is less than perfect but trying her best. And creative kids will recognize themselves in her love of art and drawing.While often funny and light, Riley’s exploration of what it feels to be an outsider and how hard it can be to make a friend break your heart in the best way. And with all of Riley’s hijinks and missteps, this story is laugh-out-loud funny from start to finish.

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AN NPR BOOK-OF-THE-DAY • A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY STAFF PICK • A NYLON MUST-READ • A FORTUNE NEW BOOK TO READ IN AUGUST“And, at the center of it all, am I actually nice or am I just performing a role I think I’m expected to play?” Mia Mercado is a razor-sharp cultural critic and essayist known for her witty and hilarious dissections of the uncomfortable truths that rule our lives. In this thought-provoking collection of new essays, Mercado examines what it means to be “polite,” “agreeable,” and “nice.” She covers topics from the subtleties of the “Bad Bitch” and why women dominate the ASMR market, to what makes her dog an adorable little freak and how you know if you’re shy. This is a book about the unspoken trick mirror of our “good” intentions: the inherent performance of the social media apology, celebrating men when they do the bare minimum, and why we trust a Midwesterner to watch our stuff when we go pee.Throughout, she ponders her identity as an Asian woman and asks what “nice” even means—and why anyone would want to be it. With writing that is as precise as it is profound, and cultural references that range from trash reality television to the New York Times Sunday-morning crossword puzzle, Mercado uncovers weird, long-overdue truths about our frailties and failings. In the end, she sees them not as a source of shame but as a cause for celebration. Filled with revelations that range from the silly to the serious,She’s Nice Though offers a mind-bending glimpse into the illusions and delusions of contemporary life—and reveals who we *really* are when no one is watching.

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In Euclid's Window, Leonard Mlondinow takes us on a brilliantly entertaining journey through 3,000 years of genius and geometry, introducing the people who revolutionized the way we see the world around us. Ever since Pythagoras hatched a 'little scheme' to invent a set of rules describing the entire universe, scientists and mathematicians have tried to seek order in the cosmos: Euclid, who in 300BC defined the nature of space; Descartes, a fourteenth-century gambler and idler who invented the graph; Gauss, the fifteen-year-old genius who discovered that space is curved; Einstein, who added time to the equation; and Witten, who ushered in today's weird new world of extra, twisted dimensions. They all show how geometry is the key to understanding the universe. Once you have viewed life through Euclid's Window, it will never be the same again... 'Elegant, attractive and concise ... also very readable. Buy it' Ian Stewart, New Scientist 'This is an exhilarating book ... an important book ... and finally, a lovely book, one that reflects the radiance of its subject' David Berlinski 'Reader-friendly, high-spirited, splendidly lucid and often hilarious' Washington Post 'Mlodinow has a talent for lively and clear exposition ... Pythagoras' proof has lost none of its capacity to astonish and delight' Edward Skidelsky, Daily Telegraph Leonard Mlodinow was a member of the faculty of the Californian Institute of Technology before moving to Hollywood to become a writer for television. He has developed many best selling and award-winning CD-ROMs and is currently Vice President, Emerging Technologies and R&D at Scholastic Inc. He lives in New York City. His other books include The Drunkard's Walk and Subliminal.

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Stories abound of immigrant Jews on the outside looking in, clambering up the ladder of social mobility, successfully assimilating and integrating into their new worlds. But this book is not about the success stories. It's a paean to the bunglers, the blockheads, and the just plain weird—Jews who were flung from small, impoverished eastern European towns into the urban shtetls of New York and Warsaw, where, as they say in Yiddish, their bread landed butter side down in the dirt. These marginal Jews may have found their way into the history books far less frequently than their more socially upstanding neighbors, but there's one place you can find them in force: in the Yiddish newspapers that had their heyday from the 1880s to the 1930s. Disaster, misery, and misfortune: you will find no better chronicle of the daily ignominies of urban Jewish life than in the pages of the Yiddish press. An underground history of downwardly mobile Jews, Bad Rabbi exposes the seamy underbelly of pre-WWII New York and Warsaw, the two major centers of Yiddish culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. With true stories plucked from the pages of the Yiddish papers, Eddy Portnoy introduces us to the drunks, thieves, murderers, wrestlers, poets, and beauty queens whose misadventures were immortalized in print. There's the Polish rabbi blackmailed by an American widow, mass brawls at weddings and funerals, a psychic who specialized in locating missing husbands, and violent gangs of Jewish mothers on the prowl—in short, not quite the Jews you'd expect. One part Isaac Bashevis Singer, one part Jerry Springer, this irreverent, unvarnished, and frequently hilarious compendium of stories provides a window into an unknown Yiddish world that was.

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'I'm completely hooked. Adams is a skilled and engaging writer' Alex MarwoodTHREE GENERATIONS OF SECRETSSocial worker Kit Goddard is convinced that Sandbeach Child Services have let an injured seventeen-year-old boy down, just like they'd done to her brother ten years earlier. Since the referral came in, it had been passed between departments, her own manager Georgia and colleague Tim brushing it off as a low risk, low priority case. But Kit can't shake the feeling that something isn't quite right. Scanning the referral, she notices that the house seventeen-year-old Dylan Meredith lives in with his 'weird' mother had been described as decrepit. The anonymous caller said he was injured, frightened and afraid to tell the truth. As Kit begins to look deeper into the history of the family, she learns that Dylan's grandmother had been an inpatient at Penlan psychiatric hospital and had died there in 2012. But as her colleague Tim had stressed, this was not a case for psychiatric services. In a bid to trace the anonymous caller for more information, Kit sets off to the small coastal town of Rock. Only to be confronted with the sense of strangeness that surrounds the Meredith family and the rumours that have troubled this small community for years. An intense psychological thriller, The Last House shows that the darkest secrets are hidden within the walls. But no matter how big you build them the truth will always find a way of breaking out. What readers are saying about THE LAST HOUSE'Gripping' 5*'Brilliant' 5*'Engaging' 5*'Full of twists' 5*

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Einstein's theories of relativity piqued public curiosity more than any other mathematical concepts since the time of Isaac Newton. Scientists and non-scientists alike struggled, not so much to grasp as to believe the weird predictions of relativity theory--shrinking space ships, bending light beams, and the like. People all over the world watched with fascination as Einstein's predictions were relentlessly and unequivocally verified by a hundred experiments and astronomical observations. In the last decade of the twentieth-century, another of Einstein's theories has produced results that are every bit as startling as the space-time contractions of relativity theory. This book addresses his other great theory, that of heat capacity and the Bose-Einstein condensate. In doing so, it traces the history of radiation and heat capacity theory from the mid-19th century to the present. It describes early attempts to understand heat and light radiation and proceeds through the theory of the heat capacity of solids. It arrives at the theory of superconductivity and superfluidity--the astonishing property of some liquids to crawl spontaneously up and out of their containers, and the ability of some gases to cause light to pause and take a moment's rest from its inexorable flight forward in time. Couched in the terminology of traditional physical chemistry, this book is accessible to chemists, engineers, materials scientists, mathematicians, mathematical biologists, indeed to anyone with a command of first-year calculus. In course work, it is a collateral text to third semester or advanced physical chemistry, introductory statistical mechanics, statistical thermodynamics, or introductory quantum chemistry. The book connects with mainstream physical chemistry by treating boson and fermion influences in molecular spectroscopy, statistical thermodynamics, molecular energetics, entropy, heat capacities (especially of metals), superconductivity, and superfluidity.

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It's an old-fashioned puppet. The details are hard to make out in the dim light, but it looks like the puppet's neck is broken. It's a sad-looking thing, trapped there in its cage. Maybe I should let it out... THE MUST-HAVE THRILLER THAT WILL KEEP YOU GRIPPED, KEEP YOU GUESSING, AND KEEP YOU UP ALL NIGHT. 'A captivating and creeping mystery full of brilliantly twisting turns and dark secrets' - Holly Jackson, bestselling author of A Good Girls' Guide to Murder 'If you like Stephen King, snap this up!' - Cass Green, Sunday Times bestselling author of In a Cottage in a Wood 'This book crawled under my skin and made itself a home there, and I can't wait for people to start reading it so that I can scream about the ending with everyone I know' - Inkandplasma book review 'Scream meets The Babadook in small-town USA' - Kirsty Logan, award-winning author of The Gracekeepers Lola Nox is the daughter of a celebrated horror filmmaker - she thinks nothing can scare her. But when her father is brutally attacked in their New York apartment, she's swiftly packed off to live with a grandmother she's never met in Harrow Lake, the eerie town where her father's most iconic horror movie was shot. The locals are weirdly obsessed with the film that put their town on the map - and there are strange disappearances, which the police seem determined to explain away. And there's someone - or something - stalking Lola's every move. The more she discovers about the town, the more terrifying it becomes. Because Lola's got secrets of her own. And if she can't find a way out of Harrow Lake, they might just be the death of her...

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