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When in Doubt, Play Dead
This adorable book of pocket wisdom with 70 watercolor illustrations offers surprising insight from a delightfully unexpected source: the opossum.
The opossum—shy, awkward, resourceful, and deeply misunderstood yet thoroughly relatable—offers a model for seeing the world—and oneself—in an entirely fresh way.
Written and illustrated by Ally Burguieres, a wildlife rehabber and creator of popular Instagram account @ItsMeSesame who spends her days caring for opossums and learning from them, this book offers hope, inspiration, and encouragement to embrace life’s weird, wild, and wonderful moments.
- Learn to live your life the opossum way with advice including:The difference between a weed and a flower is often a matter of taste.
- It’s nobody’s business what’s in your pouch. Unless you’ve got snacks in there. In which case, you should share.
- A bit of risk is part of life. Cross that street, but ALWAYS look both ways beforehand.
- Smile! Unless someone tells you to, in which case you are well within your rights to scream.
- And more
Posted by Kim Ismael
Holiday Gift Guide 2022: White Elephant Gifts
These White Elephant gifts are sure to be hits. Gift away!
Posted by Quirk Books Staff
Possums Are Not Cute!
Possums may steal your garbage…but with this book, they’ll also steal your heart!
Possums are more than the ugly-cute icons of the internet. These so-called trash animals and pointy kitties are not only relatable avatars for anxious but resilient people everywhere, but nature’s secret clean-up crew.
Organized around common myths that have given possums a bad reputation, this fun and offbeat book reveals the truth about possums through dozens of adorable photos, informative illustrations, and fascinating facts. Did you know that…
- Possums protect people and pets from disease! A single possum can eat up to 4,000 ticks per week!
- Possums excel at interspecies friendships, often sleeping in other animals’ dens.
- Possums are shy creatures: when they “play dead,” they are actually fainting from anxiety!
Written by wildlife rehabber and possum advocate Ally Burguieres, known for her popular Instagram account @ItsMeSesame, this accessible and giftable guide explains why possums deserve our admiration and offers tips on how we can protect and advocate for these magical marsupials.
Posted by impart
The Ultimate Evil
The true crime cult classic that inspired an upcoming Netflix documentary series and companion podcast, The Ultimate Evil follows journalist Maury Terry’s terrifying investigation into the true evil behind the Son of Sam murders.
On August 10, 1977, the NYPD arrested David Berkowitz for the Son of Sam murders that had terrorized New York City for over a year. Berkowitz confessed to shooting sixteen people and killing six with a .44 caliber Bulldog revolver, and the case was officially closed.
Journalist Maury Terry was suspicious of Berkowitz’s confession. Spurred by conflicting witness descriptions of the killer and by the Queens District Attorney, who was convinced Berkowitz didn’t act alone, Terry spent decades researching, gathering evidence, and interviewing those involved in the case. He released his initial findings in the original publication of The Ultimate Evil in 1987, in which he presented his theory that Berkowitz was a member of the Process Church of the Final Judgment, a cult responsible for the Son of Sam murders, as well as other ritual murders across the country. After Terry’s death in 2015, documentary filmmaker Josh Zeman (Cropsey, The Killing Season, Murder Mountain) followed leads Terry left for him, which form the basis of his upcoming docuseries with Netflix and a companion podcast. Taken together with The Ultimate Evil, which includes a new introduction by Zeman, these works reveal the stunning intersections of power, wealth, privilege, and evil in America–from the Summer of Sam until today.
Posted by impart
Cursed Objects
Beware…this book is cursed! These strange but true stories of the world’s most infamous items will appeal to true believers as well as history buffs, horror fans, and anyone who loves a good spine-tingling tale.
They’re lurking in museums, graveyards, and private homes. Their often tragic and always bizarre stories have inspired countless horror movies, reality TV shows, novels, and campfire tales. They’re cursed objects, and all they need to unleash a wave of misfortune is . . . you.
Many of these unfortunate items have intersected with some of the most notable events and people in history, leaving death and destruction in their wake. But never before have the true stories of these eerie oddities been compiled into a fascinating and chilling volume. Inside, readers will learn about:
• Annabelle the Doll, a Raggedy Ann doll that featured in the horror franchise The Conjuring
• The Unlucky Mummy, which is rumored to have sunk the Titanic and kick-started World War I
• The Dybbuk box, which was sold on eBay and spawned the horror film The Possession
• The Conjured Chest, which has been blamed for fifteen deaths within a single family
• The Ring of Silvianus, a Roman artifact believed to have inspired J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit
• And many more!
Posted by impart
Monster, She Wrote
Meet the women writers who defied convention to craft some of literature’s strangest tales, from Frankenstein to The Haunting of Hill House and beyond.
Frankenstein was just the beginning: horror stories and other weird fiction wouldn’t exist without the women who created it. From Gothic ghost stories to psychological horror to science fiction, women have been primary architects of speculative literature of all sorts. And their own life stories are as intriguing as their fiction. Everyone knows about Mary Shelley, creator of Frankenstein, who was rumored to keep her late husband’s heart in her desk drawer. But have you heard of Margaret “Mad Madge” Cavendish, who wrote a science-fiction epic 150 years earlier (and liked to wear topless gowns to the theater)? If you know the astounding work of Shirley Jackson, whose novel The Haunting of Hill House was reinvented as a Netflix series, then try the psychological hauntings of Violet Paget, who was openly involved in long-term romantic relationships with women in the Victorian era. You’ll meet celebrated icons (Ann Radcliffe, V. C. Andrews), forgotten wordsmiths (Eli Colter, Ruby Jean Jensen), and today’s vanguard (Helen Oyeyemi). Curated reading lists point you to their most spine-chilling tales.
Part biography, part reader’s guide, the engaging write-ups and detailed reading lists will introduce you to more than a hundred authors and over two hundred of their mysterious and spooky novels, novellas, and stories.
Posted by impart