"An admirable job of covering 60,000 years of human history in one volume. . . . fascinating stories, hilarious oddities, and plenty of fun." — School Library JournalThe Mental Floss History of the World is an amazingly entertaining joyride through sixty millennia of human civilization. As audacious as it is edifying, here is a hilarious and irreverent—yet always historically accurate—overview of the ascent (or descent) of humankind, courtesy of th...

For ten years, the knowledge seekers at mental_floss have been hunting and trapping the world's rarest facts, locking them into captivating lists for the world to admire. Thanks to their tireless efforts, Mental Floss: The Book is packed with a decade's worth of the smartest, quirkiest stories around, including:Five Presidential Fashion FlubsSeven Shameless Abuses of Diplomatic ImmunityFive Units of Measurement Weirder Than the Metr...

Laugh and learn with this humorous compendium that sets the historical record straight—and "manages to educate and entertain simultaneously" ( Seattle Post-Intelligencer).Smarter than your old history teacher, funnier than the founding fathers, and more American than apple pie, The Mental Floss History of the United States is an almost (but not entirely) comprehensive primer on American history (or at least, the good stuff). From the editors of the...

Be amazingWho says you can't? It's time to get off the couch and take your life to the next level.Step one: stand on the shoulders of geniusesWhat good are the world's greatest geniuses if you can't muddy their shoulder pads and use their accomplishments as a step stool? mental_floss has combed through every success story in history to deliver this ultimate how-to guide for climbing your way to greatness.Step two: bask in the glow of admiring fansWhe...

The first comprehensive account of the storming of the Iranian Embassy in London in 1980.GO! GO! GO! tells the action-packed story of the 1980 Iranian Embassy siege. It is a comprehensive, detailed and gripping account of an unforgettable six-day drama that shook Britain -- and the wider world -- to the core. Drawing on original and unseen source material from ex-SAS soldier Rusty Firmin, the police and the British Government, GO! GO! GO! takes us to the heart of t...

How were the hunter-gatherers of Göbekli Tepe able to build a series of stunning stone monuments six thousand years before Stonehenge?Was the so-called 'Wow!' Signal a radio transmission from deep space, or the ambient resonating frequency of a passing comet?What happened mid-Atlantic to the passengers and crew of the Mary Celeste, leaving the abandoned ship to sail on by itself?Wonderful and weird, here are twenty incredible mysteries that continue to enth...

Everybody loves a good mystery, and an unsolved mystery is even better. Sometimes, the questions can be more interesting than the answers. The Search in Extraterrestrial Intelligence [SETI] has recently hotted up, with a whole new wave of research going to show that we will always be fascinated by what we don't understand. Was 'The Wow Signal' a radio transmission from deep space? Or was it the resonating frequency of a passing comet?Often, it can feel as if professional explainers ...

“Elegantly written and magisterially researched” (Robert Service, author of A History of Modern Russia), the definitive story behind the self-destruction of the autocratic Romanov dynasty, by the world’s foremost expertWhen Tsar Nicholas II fell from power in 1917, Imperial Russia faced a series of overlapping crises, from war to social unrest. Though Nicholas’s life is often described as tragic, it was not fate that doomed the Romanovs—it was poor leaders...

"A hugely entertaining achievement." –Esquire“An engaging survey through a period of intellectual history that reveals as much about people who wear watches as the objects on their wrists." – Wall Street Journal"As impeccably crafted and precisely engineered as any of the watches on which the author has worked so lovingly over the years, this book is a joy to behold and a wonder to enjoy.” –Simon Winchester, author...

An SPSFC 2021 Finalist, Book Bloggers Novel of the Year 2022 Semi-Finalist, IndieInk Funniest Award Finalist, and Indie Fantasy Fund 2022 Award Winner! ...if you can believe it.Michael Duckett is fed up with his life. His job is a drag, and his roommate and best friend of fifteen years, Stephanie Dyer, is only making him more anxious with her lazy irresponsibility. Things continue to escalate when they face the threat of imminent eviction from their palatial 5th fl...

The timeless stories of Greek mythology come to life in these reimagined tales written in the voices of Zeus, Oedipus, Odysseus, and many others.Though the gods are featured prominently in Greek mythology, there is nothing sacred about it. Anyone is free to bring their own interpretation to these stories, just as Homer, Sophocles, and Euripides did centuries ago. In this volume, classicist and author Robert Garland presents nearly forty Greek legends as told by the ...

Break the Procrastination Habit, Accelerate Your Productivity, and Take Control of Your Life Today.Are you living in chaos because you constantly put off critical tasks until the last minute? Do you feel disorganized both at home and at work? Do you experience feelings of anxiety, frustration, and helplessness with all your incomplete projects?If so, it's time to beat analysis paralysis, boost productivity, and implement a proven system to enhance ...