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Tiny Pep Talks

Why should you need to be doing something important or impressive to get a pep talk? Two comedians offer hilarious encouragement for your most mundane struggles.

Anybody can tell you “You can do it!” before the big job interview, or before you walk down the aisle, or before you head out onto the field to make the game-winning kick at the Super Bowl. But what about the other 99.99% of stuff you do? Who’s going to gas you up for all those low-stakes situations where you need an extra push?

That’s where Tiny Pep Talks comes in. Comedians Paula Skaggs and Josh Linden are rooting for you, and they’re here to cheerlead you through your everyday challenges. You’ll find specific, constructive, and—most of all—very funny motivation for:

  • Parallel parking (cars just weren’t meant to go sideways!)
  • Sending a scary email (if you died and came back as a ghost, wouldn’t it suck if this was your unfinished business?)
  • Making a doctor’s appointment (think how good you’ll feel when you’re finished—like a runner’s high without the chafing!)
  • Doing your taxes (just round to the nearest dollar! The IRS could never be mad at you—not with a face like that)
  • Getting through a breakup (did you know the grocery store will sell you a cake on any day for any reason?)
  • Remembering that all your friends are not secretly mad at you (they’re busy worrying all their friends are secretly mad at them)
  • …and many more!

If you’re going through it, have ever gone through it, or will maybe go through it in the future, let Tiny Pep Talks give you the boost you need.

Posted by Gaby Iori

Holiday Gift Guide 2023: White Elephant Gifts

These books make for great White Elephant gifts for anyone—especially the opossum and cat lovers in your life!

Posted by Quirk Books Staff

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