The crossword companion with a contemporary edge: a hip, one-of-a-kind reference that offers up-to-date terms, names in the news, facts about pop culture, and other tidbits that comprise most puzzles today.

"BUST’s hilarious Queen of Crosswords now has men squarely in her crosshairs.” - Emily Rems, Managing Editor, BUST Magazine For every woman who has pulled her hair out trying to explain—for the 46th time—the importance of putting the toilet seat down, there’s a man snickering, “Someone's on the rag.” And this book is for that justifiably furious gal. The war between the sexes has raged for millennia, and It's Not PMS, It's You! is a hilarious, take-no-prisoners reconnaissance mission into the minds and souls of men and the things they do to infuriate women. Beginning with a completely scientific, fairly non-hormonal look at the history of the term “on the rag” and ending with the “Diary of a Break Up in One Full Menstrual Cycle,” this lighthearted guide looks at: Who should fund the medical research into why men do what they do. (Hint: It's definitely NOT the government) - How to take a lesson from Hamlet’s poor in-law management (Not to self: Don’t kill your future father-in-law) - Why men hate to talk about their feelings (with four separate mentions of the word “penis”) - An absolutely foolproof method for sustaining a long-term relationship, and why it could kill you

Sixty-four million people do it at least once a week. Nabokov wrote about it. Bill Clinton even did it in the White House. The crossword puzzle has arguably been our national obsession since its birth almost a century ago. Now, in "Crossworld," writer, translator, and lifelong puzzler Marc Romano goes where no Number 2 pencil has gone before, as he delves into the minds of the world's cleverest crossword creators and puzzlers, and sets out on his own quest to join their ranks. While covering the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament for the "Boston Globe," Romano was amazed by the skill of the competitors and astonished by the cast of characters he came across--like Will Shortz, beloved editor of the "New York Times" puzzle and the only academically accredited "enigmatologist" (puzzle scholar); Stanley Newman, "Newsday"'s puzzle editor and the fastest solver in the world; and Brendan Emmett Quigley, the wickedly gifted puzzle constructer and the Virgil to Marc's Dante in his travels through the crossword inferno. Chronicling his own journey into the world of puzzling--even providing tips on how to improve crosswording skills--Romano tells the story of crosswords and word puzzles themselves, and of the colorful people who make them, solve them, and occasionally become consumed by them. But saying this is a book about puzzles is to tell only half the story. It is also an explanation into what crosswords tell us about ourselves--about the world we live in, the cultures that nurture us, and the different ways we think and learn. If you're a puzzler, "Crossworld" will enthrall you. If you have no idea why your spouse send so much time filling letters into little white squares, "Crossworld" will tell you - and with luck, save your marriage. CROSSWORLD - by Marc Romano ACROSS 1. I am hopelessly addicted to the "New York Times" crossword puzzle. 2. Like many addicts, I was reluctant to admit I have a problem. 3. The hints I was heading for trouble came, at first, only occasionally. 4. The moments of panic when I realized that I might not get my fix on a given day. 5. The toll on relationships. 6. The strained friendships. 7. The lost hours I could have used to do something more productive. 8. It gets worse, too. DOWN 1.You're not just playing a game. 2. You're constantly broadening your intellectual horizons. 3. You spend a lot of time looking at and learning about the world around you. 4. You have to if you want to develop the accumulated store of factual information you'll need to get through a crossword puzzle. 5. Puzzle people are nice because they have to be. 6. The more you know about the world, the more you tend to give all things in it the benefit of the doubt before deciding if you like them or not. 7. I'm not saying that all crossword lovers are honest folk dripping with goodness. 8. I would say, though, that if I had to toss my keys and wallet to someone before jumping off a pier to save a drowning girl, I'd look for the fellow in the crowd with the daily crossword in his hand. "From the Hardcover edition."

'Beautifully researched account, full of humour and personal insight' David Crystal, author of Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar 'A witty, wise, and wonderfully weird journey that will change the way you think . . . This book is a delight' Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste 'Delightfully engrossing, charmingly and enthusiastically well-written history of the crossword puzzle' Benjamin Dreyer, author of Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style 'Full of treasures, surprises and fun . . . richly bringing to life the quirky, obsessive, fascinating characters in the crossword world' Mary Pilon, author of The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game 'A gold mine of revelations. If there is a pantheon of cruciverbalist scholars, Adrienne Raphel has established herself squarely within it' Mary Norris, author of Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen Equal parts ingenious and fun, Thinking Inside the Box is a love letter to the infinite joys and playful possibilities of language, a treat for die-hard cruciverbalists and first-time crossword solvers alike. The crossword is a feature of the modern world, inspiring daily devotion and obsession from millions. It was invented in 1913, almost by accident, when an editor at the New York World was casting around for something to fill some empty column space for that year's Christmas edition. Almost overnight, crosswords became a phenomenal commercial success, and have been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt since then. Indeed, paradoxically, the popularity of crosswords has never been greater, even as the world of media and newspapers, the crossword's natural habitat, has undergone a dramatic digital transformation. But why, exactly, are the satisfactions of a crossword so sweet that over the decades they have become a fixture of breakfast tables, bedside tables and commutes, and even given rise to competitive crossword tournaments? Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of the crossword's rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. At the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, she rubs shoulders with elite solvers from all over the world, doing her level best to hold her own; aboard a crossword-themed cruise she picks the brains of the enthusiasts whose idea of a good time is a week on the high seas with nothing to do but crosswords; and, visiting the home and office of Will Shortz, New York Times crossword puzzle editor and US National Public Radio's official Puzzlemaster, she goes behind the scenes to see for herself how the world's gold standard of puzzles is made.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A deliciously dark tale of America’s dysfunctional coming years—and the timeless and tender feelings that just might bring us back from the brink. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times • The Washington Post • The Boston Globe • San Francisco Chronicle • The Seattle Times • O: The Oprah Magazine • Maureen Corrigan, NPR • Salon • Slate • Minneapolis Star Tribune • St. Louis Post-Dispatch • The Kansas City Star • Charlotte Observer • The Globe and Mail • Vancouver Sun • Montreal Gazette • Kirkus Reviews In the near future, America is crushed by a financial crisis and our patient Chinese creditors may just be ready to foreclose on the whole mess. Then Lenny Abramov, son of an Russian immigrant janitor and ardent fan of “printed, bound media artifacts” (aka books), meets Eunice Park, an impossibly cute Korean American woman with a major in Images and a minor in Assertiveness. Could falling in love redeem a planet falling apart?

An award-winning poet offers a brilliant introduction to the joys--and challenges--of the genre In Don't Read Poetry, award-winning poet and literary critic Stephanie Burt offers an accessible introduction to the seemingly daunting task of reading, understanding, and appreciating poetry. Burt dispels preconceptions about poetry and explains how poems speak to one another--and how they can speak to our lives. She shows readers how to find more poems once they have some poems they like, and how to connect the poetry of the past to the poetry of the present. Burt moves seamlessly from Shakespeare and other classics to the contemporary poetry circulated on Tumblr and Twitter. She challenges the assumptions that many of us make about "poetry," whether we think we like it or think we don't, in order to help us cherish--and distinguish among--individual poems. A masterful guide to a sometimes confounding genre, Don't Read Poetry will instruct and delight ingénues and cognoscenti alike.

Gospels -- Faith -- Wealth -- Health -- Victory -- American blessing -- Megachurch table -- Naming names.

A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it’s that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope—the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman—through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships. Machado’s dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.

The inspiration for the Major Motion Picture Directed by George Clooney—exclusively in theaters December 25, 2023! The #1 New York Times bestselling true story about the American rowing triumph of the 1936 Olympics in Berlin—from the author of Facing the Mountain For readers of Unbroken, out of the depths of the Depression comes an irresistible story about beating the odds and finding hope in the most desperate of times—the improbable, intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant. It was an unlikely quest from the start. With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain, yet they did, going on to shock the world by defeating the German team rowing for Adolf Hitler. The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world. Drawing on the boys’ own journals and vivid memories of a once-in-a-lifetime shared dream, Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.