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Did you know that Thomas Jefferson’s grandson was an ax murderer? Do you delight knowing that some dinosaurs were as teeny tiny as hens? Wonder what it’s like to live in Hell Town at the End of the World? How about an ailment so surreal it’s named after Alice in Wonderland? In A People's History of the Peculiar, historian Nick Belardes has dug into the raw source material found in historical archives, scientific studies, and libraries the world over to find facts, lists, definitions, and astonishing information guaranteed to provide readers with the best cocktail conversation topics for many years to come! Also found here are first-person interviews with people who can explain the unexplained, from the permanently puzzling Mothman conspiracy to secret Star Wars Jedi religious cults and the charmingly eccentric reason why British aerospace engineers sent teddy bears floating out into space. These real-world facts are outlandish enough to sharpen the brain and occupy readers’ minds for hours of entertainment.
A treasure trove of startling, funny and stranger-than-fiction trivia that spans history, continents and even worlds. Teeming with the strange, the shocking and the downright fantastic, this is truly a collection of trivia that readers will not be able to live without.
Are you aware that ghostly toys haunt the dark corridors beneath Santa's village? How about the origins of toy-making elves-do they really come from drops of sugar that are baked to perfection? You'll find these things out and more in The Blimperwhirls, a zany and sometimes scary Christmas story, where Santa suddenly thinks that his magical ways of doing things have become outdated. But look out! In Santa's attempts to change the North Pole, big trouble comes his way, including bubble ships that drop paper package bombs, and a mischievous candy cane-hunting, self-doubting toy that hasn't been seen in ten thousand years: the Imp of Christmas Doubt.
Author's Proceeds Donated to UNICEF. Victoria and Alfredo move from the city to a Latin version of Wonderland and produce a juice called Liquid Passion that provokes unusual reactions in its consumers. Their twelve-year-old daughter, Honey, has a hummingbird living in her ear and possesses magical powers. Hungry for a story, an investigative reporter named Rigby Sloane, shows up and launches an international media frenzy. Honey and her pre-teen nemesis, John Firestarter, escape the chaos on her parents' farm and begin an underground journey; through an armadillo hole, on a quest to restore balance in the lives of their immediate families.
For almost 3,000 years apocalypse prophecies have convinced people all over the world that the future is about to give them the world they want instead of the world they’ve got. All the end time prophecies splashed across the media in every age have had something else in common: every one of them has been wrong. Apocalypse Not is a lively and engaging survey of predictions about the end of the world, along with the failed dreams and nightmares that have clustered around them. Among the stories highlighted in Apocalypse Not are: the birth of the apocalypse meme out of archaic star myths in the ancient Middle East; the failed end time prophecies of Nostradamus, Mother Shipton, and other famous prophets; the long and murky road from the Great Pyramid to today’s Rapture beliefs; and the real origins of the belief in apocalypse in 2012 (hint: it’s not originally Mayan at all).
Did you know Thomas Jefferson’s grandson was an ax murderer? Don’t you delight knowing some dinosaurs were teeny tiny as hens? Before buying that plane ticket, don’t you NEED to know which exotic islands still have cannibals? Wonder what it’s like to live in Hell Town at the End of the World? How about an ailment so surreal it’s named after Alice in Wonderland? In Random Obsessions: Trivia You Can’t Live Without, historian Nick Belardes has dug into the raw source material found in historical archives, scientific studies, and libraries the world over. You’ll also read first-person interviews with people who can explain the unexplained, from the permanently puzzling Mothman cons...
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At the foot of the Elwha River, the muddy outpost of Port Bonita is about to boom, fueled by a ragtag band of dizzyingly disparate men and women unified only in their visions of a more prosperous future. A failed accountant by the name of Ethan Thornburgh has just arrived in Port Bonita to reclaim the woman he loves and start a family. Ethan’s obsession with a brighter future impels the damming of the mighty Elwha to harness its power and put Port Bonita on the map. More than a century later, his great-great grandson, a middle manager at a failing fish- packing plant, is destined to oversee the undoing of that vision, as the great Thornburgh dam is marked for demolition, having blocked the very lifeline that could have sustained the town. West of Here is a grand and playful odyssey, a multilayered saga of destiny and greed, adventure and passion, that chronicles the life of one small town, turning America’s history into myth, and myth into a nation’s shared experience.
Devangelical is an irresistibly funny and irreverent memoir about Erika Rae's experience growing up in? and out of? the Evangelical church in the American Bible Belt. As an adolescent who is expected to be hot for God, and not boys, Erika dreads that the Rapture will come before she gets to have sex. All the while she survives exorcisms, radical taboos, satanic back-masking on records, muscle men for Jesus, and cool, mulleted youth group leaders. Eventually Erika emerges as a young, married adult in spiritual limbo. Devangelical is a political and personal exploration of h.
What would happen if you sat down to dinner with the likes of Alicia Keyes, Jonathan Safran Foer, David Lynch, Morgan Freeman, Sir Ben Kingsley, Alton Brown, Neil Gaiman, Deepak Chopra and David Foster Wallace? Fascinating conversation, without doubt, and one of the things that all these folks have in common is that they practice gratitude and have a lot to say about it. These thinkers and luminaries included in The Grateful Table make this a thoroughly modern book of blessings, both heartfelt and deeply profound. Saying grace is one of our loveliest traditions and one that has stood the test of time for good reason - it simply feels wonderful. Whether holding hands and praying to the heavens above or waxing poetic about the bounty of food, these blessings turn any group of people into family, connected by the power of gratitude. Compiled by the editor of and collaborator on the runaway bestseller Attitudes of Gratitude, Brenda Knight has employed the practice of gratitude for years. The Grateful Table is not your grandmother's book of graces. Filled with fresh voices and contemporary expressions, this book of blessings will make every occasion more meaningful.