This quirky collection of short stories will take you to weird worlds just beyond the here and now. Strange places where kids can control time, playing is against the law and rag-doll girls can become real. In these places magic can be found everywhere, even in cakes, pens and running shoes.

Weird is a sad clown in church. Weirder, that the congregation is all clowns. Weird: you're a sad clown, too, and you think you like it.That says it all. In 'Weird, Weirder & WEIRD,' descend into the depths of A.A. Garrison's particular brand of strange. Begin with the traditional, sci-fi weird ("Suffer," "RIP, Krokinski"), progress to the hauntingly peculiar ("Faith," "Chesterfield Drive"), and then end with some full-throttle, no-apologies bizarro ("The Enema Flower: A Love Story," "GG Allin Must Die"). Altogether, these twenty stories deliver a full spectrum of weirdness-and then some.Come on, don't be shy. Everyone likes a little weird. Or are you afraid you'll like life as a sad, church-going clown?

From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities. You won't find any elves or wizards here...but you will find the biggest, boldest, and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled. The Weird features 110 stories by an all-star cast, from literary legends to international bestsellers to Booker Prize winners: including William Gibson, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Franz Kafka, China Miéville, Clive Barker, Haruki Murakami, M. R. James, Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake, and Michael Chabon. The Weird is the winner of the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Weird is a sad clown in church. Weirder, that the congregation is all clowns. Weird: you're a sad clown, too, and you think you like it. That says it all. In 'Weird, Weirder & WEIRD,' descend into the depths of A.A. Garrison's particular brand of strange. Begin with the traditional, sci-fi weird ("Suffer," "RIP, Krokinski"), progress to the hauntingly peculiar ("Faith," "Chesterfield Drive"), and then end with some full-throttle, no-apologies bizarro ("The Enema Flower: A Love Story," "GG Allin Must Die"). Altogether, these twenty stories deliver a full spectrum of weirdness-and then some. Come on, don't be shy. Everyone likes a little weird. Or are you afraid you'll like life as a sad, church-going clown?

How did four strange teachers get into this little box? Meet a teacher who eats bonbons, a principal who kisses pigs, a librarian who thinks she's George Washington, and an art teacher who dresses up in pot holders! They're all inside this box! They must be getting pretty crowded in there!

A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 A Bloomberg Best Non-Fiction Book of 2020 A Behavioral Scientist Notable Book of 2020 A Human Behavior & Evolution Society Must-Read Popular Evolution Book of 2020 A bold, epic account of how the co-evolution of psychology and culture created the peculiar Western mind that has profoundly shaped the modern world. Perhaps you are WEIRD: raised in a society that is Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. If so, you’re rather psychologically peculiar. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist, and analytical. They focus on themselves—their attributes, accomplishments, and aspirations—over their relationships and social roles. How did WEIRD populations become so psychologically distinct? What role did these psychological differences play in the industrial revolution and the global expansion of Europe during the last few centuries? In The WEIRDest People in the World, Joseph Henrich draws on cutting-edge research in anthropology, psychology, economics, and evolutionary biology to explore these questions and more. He illuminates the origins and evolution of family structures, marriage, and religion, and the profound impact these cultural transformations had on human psychology. Mapping these shifts through ancient history and late antiquity, Henrich reveals that the most fundamental institutions of kinship and marriage changed dramatically under pressure from the Roman Catholic Church. It was these changes that gave rise to the WEIRD psychology that would coevolve with impersonal markets, occupational specialization, and free competition—laying the foundation for the modern world. Provocative and engaging in both its broad scope and its surprising details, The WEIRDest People in the World explores how culture, institutions, and psychology shape one another, and explains what this means for both our most personal sense of who we are as individuals and also the large-scale social, political, and economic forces that drive human history. Includes black-and-white illustrations.

Conversations made up entirely of inside jokes. Netflix passwords, bizarre dreams, even French fries, all shared without a second thought. From husband-wife team Brooke Barker and Boaz Frankel, here’s that rare relationship book that captures the rituals and mini universe (Population: 2) that a couple can create together, in a sweet, small package with all the humor, charming illustrations, and endearing quirkiness that makes their It's Different Every Day Page-A-Day Calendar and Barker’s New York Times-bestselling Sad Animal Facts each cult favorites. Celebrating the uniqueness that makes each person, and each relationship, special, Let’s Be Weird Together includes a humorous timeline of how a loved one’s oddball habits go from annoying to swoon-worthy over time. Illustrations celebrate the Tiny Acts of Heroism you do for your #1 person—like saying you’re full when there’s only one bite of cake left, so they can enjoy it. Plus, fun facts on the habits of lovesick animals (they’re just like us!): Bowerbirds collect blue items to impress mates. Perfect for Valentine’s and anniversary gifts, it’s a hip, not-at-all saccharine way to say, "I-love-you-slash-I-love-being-weird-with-you!"

Four weird books, one weirder collection! Meet Miss Child, a zookeeper who eats lunch with baboons; Mr. Harrison, a tech guy who is on the fritz; Mrs. Lilly, a reporter who digs up dirt; and Mr. Burke, a groundskeeper who races lawnmowers! Will Ella Mentry School ever be the same? Read this four-book collection to find out!

One of Vanity Fair's Great Quarantine Reads: Step into Jenny Slate's wild imagination in this "magical" (Mindy Kaling), "delicious" (Amy Sedaris), and "poignant" (John Mulaney) New York Times bestseller about love, heartbreak, and being alive -- "this book is something new and wonderful" (George Saunders). You may "know" Jenny Slate from her Netflix special, Stage Fright, as the creator of Marcel the Shell, or as the star of "Obvious Child." But you don't really know Jenny Slate until you get bonked on the head by her absolutely singular writing style. To see the world through Jenny's eyes is to see it as though for the first time, shimmering with strangeness and possibility. As she will remind you, we live on an ancient ball that rotates around a bigger ball made up of lights and gasses that are science gasses, not farts (don't be immature). Heartbreak, confusion, and misogyny stalk this blue-green sphere, yes, but it is also a place of wild delight and unconstrained vitality, a place where we can start living as soon as we are born, and we can be born at any time. In her dazzling, impossible-to-categorize debut, Jenny channels the pain and beauty of life in writing so fresh, so new, and so burstingly alive, we catch her vision like a fever and bring it back out into the bright day with us, where everything has changed.

A.J. thinks that nothing can possibly be as boring as a sleepover in the natural history museum. But anything can happen when Ms. Krup is in charge. The tour guide says that dinosaur skeletons come to life in the middle of the night. Is she right?