Edward Brooke-Hitching
Brooke-Hitching has created another marvelous collection of oddities. His book The Madman’s Library focused on the most bizarre and unique books in the world. The Madman’s Gallery expands the scope, looking at some of the strangest artwork and art movements in history. Learn about the “Ghost Heads” of …
OSS – The Director of Strategic Services
This fascinating little pamphlet was written in 1944 by the Office of Strategic Services (precursor to the FBI), and is filled with basic instructions on slowing and thwarting the enemy. There are no plans for rigging bombs, making poison or stealing state secrets. …
Chuck Klosterman
For Gen-Xers like myself, the 90s were just a few years ago. We lived them, so how could we possibly not know all about them? And yet, Chuck Klosterman, the pop-culture philosopher for our generation, once again does a phenomenal job pointing out all the obvious things we …
Text and captions by Donald J Johnson
Old photos are always fun to look at, but this collection is especially fun as so many locations in Madison (WI) are still in existence. The collection starts at the very earliest days of Madison’s history and follows it through major events, such …
Michael Farquhar
Five Centuries of Sex, Adventure, Vice, Treachery, and Folly from Royal Britain
Imagine of People Magazine were to write a textbook of British royalty. This is pretty much it. Each short chapter is a speedy, breezy read about an English monarch. Starting with Henry VIII (yes, him) up …
The story of The Nobel Sperm bank is as bizarre as its title. Wealthy inventor Robert Graham was semi-retired, but looking for a passion project (for lack of a better term). He believed that intelligent people would produce intelligent, nay, genius children. There were too many idiots dragging …
Witold Szablowski
A cook is often one of the most intimate relationships a rich or powerful person may have. Both from living in close proximity. But also, the rich and powerful must trust their cook to not murder them. In turn, these cooks find themselves very well-compensated, but also …
Michael Palin
If Michael Palin, of both Monty Python fame and former president of the Royal Geographic society, turns his eye to a topic, you know it will be good. The Erebus and Terror are two ships that have gripped the imagination for over a century. The two old warships …
Alexander Langlands
For those of us who like working with our hands, there is nothing as satisfying as making a useful and beautiful object we can use for years. Cræft, being skilled at creating unique, hand-made items sourced from nature locally, has nearly disappeared. Once, being a craftsperson who could …
Natalie Haynes
Haynes, a classics scholar who studied at Cambridge, compares and contrasts modern life with those of the Ancients (Greeks, Romans and some Egyptians). While we are often tempted to go with the lazy assumption that “nothing ever changes, people have all been essentially the same”, Haynes points out …
Iconic Moments from the Past In Color
Wolfang Wild & Jordan Lloyd
This wide-ranging collection of colorized photos gives a rare glimpse into the past. Photography has been around for a surprisingly long time. The first self-portrait was taken in 1839, almost 30 years before the American Civil War. There …
Victoria Finlay
I first heard of Finlay’s brilliant book on an equally brilliant BBC 4 Radio Show called ‘The Museum of Curiosity,’ described as a “Panel show in which three distinguished guests donate fascinating exhibits to a vast imaginary museum.” This dry description totally fails to encompass the …
Jeff Guin
There are some tragedies that are so mind-boggling and so bizarre that we can’t help going back to take yet another look. “Why would anyone choose to follow such an obvious, slimy charlatan like Jim Jones?” we wonder. But the story of Jones …
The Origins of the School Lunch in the United States
A.R. Ruis
Ruis’s book, adapted from his PhD thesis, gives a detailed overview of the history of U.S. School lunches. Attention to health and malnutrition in children started coming to the fore in the late 1880s. Schools found that their …
Douglas Preston
Preston, part of the writing duo of Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, have brought us so many exciting titles: Utopia, Relic, Riptide, Thunderhead and all the fabulous Special Agent Pendergast stories (including the hair-raising Still Life with Crows). Now Preston brings us his own, real …
The Bizarre and Disturbing Adventures of Hitler’s Limousine in America
Robert Klara
T
hree generations after the Holocaust and WWII, Hitler still has the ability to fascinate and repulse us, as does nearly anything even vaguely related to him. His (or possibly his) car (or possibly cars) are no exception. …
