This was definitely a fun book to browse through. Could also be used as a homeschool resource, if only to open discussion into the subject for older students. Many things I honestly did not know, and broken into segments that are great for homeschool use. My kids only found it sort of meh, which may because of the school like setting I used it in.

Who Knew: Questions That Will Make You Think Again by Sarah Herman is a non fiction book that answers many questions you might not think to ask. Why do elephants have such big ears? What's the difference between fog and mist? Who invented sliced bread? Be the smartest slacker in the break room, the brainiest guest at the wedding, and the cleverest cat at the cocktail party. Filled with gems of wisdom to dazzle your brain cells, there are plenty of tales to surprise and delight even the most ardent trivia fan. From the plagues of the Middle Ages and the rules of Roman architecture to culinary customs, presidential assassinations, and the contents of James Bond's glass; it is all covered. There is also a fun quiz at the end of each chapter to prepare you for mastermind status in no time.

Who Knew: Questions That Will Make You Think Again is a fun collection of information that might take some readers by surprise. I love to learn this type of odd facts, so knew some of the information already, but still enjoyed the read. I think the organization and presentation of the facts was well done, and I enjoyed the time spent reading it. I think this is a great book for those that need something to read in short bursts, and for those that like to know the odder and more eclectic bits of information that has no actual impact of your life, but is just cool to know. Trivia masters, Jeopardy watchers, and know-it-alls like myself will find value in the read and share the tidbits with others.

I enjoy this one! Every time I end up with a fun facts book I spend a great but short time reading it! A must have If you're a curiosities compiled

This book is perfect for fans of David Feldman's Impoderables or the now defunct (in print at least) Mental Floss Magazine.

This is a fine surface level fact book. The pros are that it would be great for many ages. The format and content is (mostly) digestible for teens and up. I would say nothing really separates it from other similar books. The art is cool but most facts only get one page dedicated to them (two if they're lucky) so the information is pretty surface level. However, there is a large range of topics covered.

Nicely formatted collection of brief discussions about various trivial and obscure subjects. I didn't find the topic selection very compelling, however, nor the answers terribly engaging.

If you want to be the life of the party, this is your book. You can fill your brain with as much “useless knowledge” (my affectionate moniker) as you can fit and impress people with how fast a sand dune can move, explain what watermelon snow is, and give in morbid detail why a barbershop pole is red and white.

A fun book with questions about weather and climate to film and theater. It also contains short quizzes at the end of each chapter (with answers in the back) to see how much you are retaining. My partner and I are always trying to one up each other on interesting facts and I can thankfully say this book has increased my odds of drawing and maintaining a crowd longer. 🙂

The resident nine-year-old an I love trivia books and this is a fun one!

From animals to alcohol, the Bermuda Triangle to golf, the book has a little bit of everything. Each little entry contains fascinating facts, interesting anecdotes, and simple but fun illustrations.

You can page through it and find just those nuggets that interest you, or read every page like I did - I was simply fascinated.

Honestly, I only wished the book was longer!

And excellent book that was both informative and amusing.

This book was a delight to read. The pages are packed full of fun trivia in a question/answer format. I had to limit myself to reading only a few in a sitting so I wouldn't zip through all of the interesting facts too quickly. It's not only a great read for adults, but also for teens or as a read aloud to younger children.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed reading this fun-fact-filled book. The book is categorized by different sorts of facts like animals, weather, space, sports, science etc. It is easy to read, but at the same time gives the reader "food for thought". I'll admit that I already knew some of the facts in the book, but I did learn a few things too.

This would be a great book for a school library or classroom.

This is a fun, engaging and easy to read book of facts. I enjoyed that the topics were short, yet informative, the pictures and layout were especially pleasing. It was also quite fun to do the quizzes at the end of each section. Excellent coffee table book or a book for anyone who enjoys facts.

This book covers a lot of subjects. Some I just jumped over (like sports), but others I loved and if I had the time could read over again. The illustrations are beautiful and the chosen questions are interesting.

Most of what was included in the book was things I did not know already. It is nice for a book, because usually in books like this are half of the same.

The book feels a little too long, but I guess it had to be in order to be as nice as it is. (Unless they took out the sports bit).

This book is a real gem for people that enjoy trivia and knowledge. It is an almanac of facts from diverse areas of knowledge. Wonderfully written, very well set out and great art. I highly recommend this book to those of us who enjoy learning and like obscure facts.

I have read a number of books in this genre, and this one is better than most. It is a quick read, and covers the usual ranges of topics (history, natural sciences, art, sports, food and entertainment), and has a good mix of subjects within those topic areas.

=== The Good Stuff ===

* The book is well written, but a bit short. The pages fly by, and it didn’t take but a couple hours to finish the book. It did manage to hold my interest, even for topics (movies and television) which seldom interest me. Sarah Herman maintains a serious tone, but isn’t above a little humor or irrelevancy to keep things light.

* The book keeps to a reasonable level of complexity. For the most part, it avoids over-simplification and tries to explain in clear simple terms. For example, the discussion of how alcohol affects your perception of heat and cold began with the effects of alcohol on blood circulation, and then moved on to how various human reflexes (perspiration, shivering) are affected by alcohol, furthering the influence. A lot of information packed into one or two pages.

* While the book is not referenced, there are a number of hints buried in the text (e.g. “A recent Harvard study showed”) to give a feel for where the information is coming from. However, I was mostly unsuccessful in googling these “hints” back to the original studies.

=== The Not-So-Good Stuff ===

* The Kindle format is a bit strange. Each page really seems to be a picture image rather than text. As a result, I found the book to be a bit tedious to read on my iPhone (just too much clicking and stretching), but fine on the larger screen of my iPad.

* Some of the articles were a bit incomplete. For example, one section of the book describes how ancient emperors attempted to include small but increasing doses of plant-based poisons into their diet to build immunity to the poisons and assassination attempts using these agents. There was little discussion of if this technique was ultimately successful, or had a sound scientific basis.

=== Summary ===

I ended up reading the whole book, found it to be an enjoyable experience, and learned a few things along the way. From that standpoint, the book is a success. There is nothing in the book that you couldn’t find in a quick internet search, so the value is really in getting you to read about things you might never have known you were interested in, such as why giraffes don’t get head rushes.

I wouldn’t call the book scientifically rigorous, and scientists and engineering types probably would like to see more detail and analysis. But for the most part, the explanations seem to be based on reality and grounded in fact, and were easy and somewhat fun to read. Not a lot of the material is inherently useful in everyday life, except as the book jacked discusses, hanging around the water cooler.

WHO KNEW is a fun book. This is the sort of book you leaf through at random, finding funny questions (and even funny answers.) Each question gets 1 or 2 pages, so it's all very concise and easy reading.

The questions are organized around general topics, such as Human Body, Sport, Science, etc. Each question is accompanied by really cute artwork as well.

Here's another piece of information found in this book: Whatever you do, don't eat that "Watermelon Snow." It's probably algae!

All around a fun, light-hearted book, but there is also some good information. If you like really hot peppers, don't miss the discussion of the "Scoville Organoleptic Test," which rates the spiciness of your hot pepper. I was especially interested in this chapter, since I have grown the "Ghost" peppers, and have given them to friends. (My even-hotter Carolina Reaper seedlings died.)

Advance Review Copy courtesy of the publisher.

This book is a delight! That might seem like a trite thing to say, but truly it is. If you love random trivia (What's the longest book ever written? Who owns Antarctica?) or throwing out conversation-starters (Mistletoe is a parasite! Cats can't taste anything sweet!), this book is for you. Written in short snippets (the answer to each question is only one or two pages long), this is perfect for busy people who want to read a bit but time doesn't allow to get immersed in their favorite novel. In fact, this reader maintains it is actually better read in short bursts rather than trying to get through the entire book in a day or two. The subjects are all interesting (some even fascinating), and I even enjoyed the illustrations. Questions are broken into 12 chapters/categories, and each chapter ends with a quiz to show yourself if you retained any of your new-found knowledge. There's even an index in the back for quick reference if the quizzes didn't work and you need to find a tidbit quickly. Cannot recommend this book enough. Thank you to Portable Press and NetGalley for letting me receive a copy of this ARC!

Despite repeated attempts and an unanswered email to customer support, I'm unable to download this title to my Kindle, although I'm able to download other titles easily. Best of luck with what looks like an interesting book.

I really enjoyed this book. I felt that the author presented the facts in a fun and educational format. The quizzes at the end of each chapter were a highlight because I love trivia and this made reading the book almost a fun Jeopardy-like challenge. I feel that the chapters were set-up nicely to highlight each of the categories and any reader would find joy in learning about the range of topics presented.

If you're a fan of Trivia or just plain curious, this little book provides enough fodder to make you happy. While I wouldn't buy this for myself, I might purchase it for a curious upper elementary or middle school student. It might also be one of those reads to tuck away on a guest room shelf or in the bathroom. Good time killer.