This was a super fun fast read. The stories were thoroughly entertaining and I found myself giggling and having a really good time reading them Whether all of these stories are indeed completely factual I don't know but I kinda looked at it in a urban legend, meets ancestor pass down of stories. I had a great time reading this and would absolutely recommend for anyone that is into these kinds of quirky stories.

Unbelievable, unsettling, bizarre, and fun!
Cabinet of Curiosities is my favorite kind of read. It was highly entertaining and gave me lots of smiles and “wow”s, and at the same time I learned a lot of fascinating information, so I can even say it is good for my brain! It is a book-length collection of items from Aaron Mahnke’s podcast. Each is about 3 or 4 pages long and presents an intriguing tidbit that you would NOT know; I do not think I encountered any item I had heard before. The topics include subjects like American History, Coincidences, Creatures, Literature, Inventions, Origin Stories, True Crime, and War. Each item ends in a clever remark or quip that usually made me smile or chuckle (although a few were sufficiently disturbing that the end remark was sober.). The cleverness of the final words of each item impressed me as much as the author’s research skills. Much as I would like to share some prime examples, I will refrain so that you can enjoy them as much as I did.
There was not a dull piece in the bunch, but every reader has their own special interests. As a lifelong avid reader , the background stories of a number of authors I thought I knew well were perhaps my favorites, since they were as fascinating as the authors’ products themselves. One of my other favorites told the almost unbelievable tale of the origin of some of our most popular breakfast cereals.
Despite the fact that I thoroughly enjoyed Cabinet of Curiosities, I do not see it as a book to sit down to read for several hours at a time. Instead, it is perfect to pick up if you have a short stretch of time to read. I highly recommend it if you are tired out and need something to help you unwind. It MIGHT not be a good read in the company of a family member who is trying to do something else, though, because it provoked me to laugh so often and to share some of the best stories. I think it would make a great listen; the audio version is narrated by the author.
I have recently seen a number of book compilations on various subjects that claim to be the best from a popular podcast. Usually I find myself a bit disappointed at the lack of consistently good quality. This was NOT my experience with Cabinet of Curiosities, and it is a contender for my Favorite Book of the Year.
I received an Advance Review Copy of this book from NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press.

I had been in a reading slump for a while and this booked help get my jump started again. As a fan of the "Lore" podcast, the short stories were set up in a similar fashion and even though I had heard some of these tales before, I still stayed engrossed and found myself hearing the podcast music in my head while reading.

I’m not sure what I expected from this book, I think this one was perhaps just not for me.Sorry

Thanks Netgalley and Publisher. all thoughts an opinions are my own

Bite sized stories that leave you wanting the next one. This is a great book to open when you are waiting in line or just need to fill give minutes. The vignettes are 3-6 pages long and easy to read
I enjoyed all of them. Most are historical facts that most have never heard. Much like Paul Harvey’s The Rest of the Story.

I have never listened to the podcast, but this was a fun read. I love stories about quirky and bizarre things, so this was an entertaining read!

I’m not sure what I expected from this book, but it was definitely not what was delivered. I think this one was perhaps just not for me. It overall felt like something that *might* work in an oral/conversational format, but just did not translate well on the page.

There were definitely some interesting facts mixed in, but overall the information seemed fairly mundane— definitely not bizarre, unsettling, and unbelievable (as promised by the title). I can see that this book would be fun as a coffee table book or short bedtime stories for kids (perhaps I am not the target audience). But even in those contexts, I felt the stories omitted detail in favor of cutesy prose. Some of the stories were also incredibly uninteresting to read and a slog to get through, largely due to the author choosing to wait to reveal the “surprise” (or whatever thing makes it interesting) until the end. The pig convicted of murder comes to mind as a particularly egregious example of both these things— the most interesting parts of the story were left out and we received no factual details.

As a source of information, and for the aforementioned reasons, I didn’t really trust the “facts” and I also wasn’t given enough information to go and verify the stories or obtain more detail on my own. I also felt concerned that Wikipedia was cited as a primary source for almost every story— no shade to wiki, but it is a starting point to guide further research.

This is the perfect novel for a waiting room, coffee table, dare I say guest bathroom? It is filled with odd, even bizarre stories from a coin flip that decided the fate of three people to wars won and lost all during a celestial event.

I had a good time with these tales and read a few each night before bedtime. It would make an excellent gift for someone who likes history and facts.

Cabinet of Curiosities, A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre, by Aaron Mahnke was received directly from the publisher and I chose to review it. I had never heard of this author or any of his works before, but the topic sounded interesting to me. As soon as I started reading it, it made me think of the of the old school Ripley's Believe It or Not "comics" from newspapers back in the day. The book is very interesting and each story is about the right length to keep the reader from getting bored. Actually, if I had children in the house, this book would be great to read a bedtime story each night, as they would learn new and wonderful and exciting things. If you, or someone you buy gifts for, want sot learn about new topics, certainly give this book a read.

5 Stars

Cabinet of Curiosities is a collection of 160 short stories, categorized into 14 different topics. Topics range from American History, Coincidences, Events, Inventions and many more. My favorites were Coincidences, Eerie Mysteries, and True Crime. The book is like the Ripley’s Believe It or Not of curious tales.

As a fan of trivia and astonishing stories, Cabinet of Curiosities was a delight to read. I can’t imagine the amount of research and work that went into collecting all of the data, compiling them into short stories, and then categorizing those stories into a book.

The writing style is easy going, fun, as well as informative. It read like a friend sharing tales around the campfire. Entertaining and full of fun facts, Cabinet of Curiosities is the perfect book for non fiction trivia fans. Five stars.

I was invited to read a DRC from St. Martin’s Press through NetGalley. This review is completely my own and reflects my honest thoughts and opinions.

None of the curiosities were long enough to really establish an interesting story and wikipedia was cited as the main source in a lot of the stories. This would have simply worked better in Mahnke's main format, podcast.

3 ⭐️

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me an advanced reader copy of this book.

My family and I listened to the podcast in the car together. It was a great clean, family friendly option that also taught you something and that’s pretty rare in today’s age. So I was pretty excited when I saw the book last month. I love reading and I love facts. However, I am not a short story fan so I was worried this book may not be for me. I am not much for only a few pages of something very interesting and then moving on. So, that being said, this book was hard for me to get into for that reason. I just really enjoy long stories but because I love facts I did enjoy this. Some of them I found quite interesting and hope I can actually retain. lol Any fan of facts, history or quirky things will enjoy.

Full Disclosure: I received an Advanced Reader's Copy of Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre by Aaron Mahnke from St. Martin's Press via NetGalley. This book should be available to the public after November 12, 2024.

I was very excited to receive a copy of Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre by Aaron Mahnke because I am a big fan of his podcasts on tales of the weird. If you've listened to his podcasts, the book is very similar. It is a collection of true stories of unusual happenings throughout history and the world. They are loosely grouped by theme. You don't need to read them in order. You could read it in small snippets or big chunks, however you like. Having listened to the podcasts so much, I could nearly hear Aaron reading the accounts to me. The writing is very similar to the way the stories are presented in the podcasts. Besides being interesting and entertaining, you can come away with some great pieces of trivial knowledge. You never know when that can come in handy!

This was a fun book. The vignettes reminded me of Ripley’s Believe it or Not. It is broken down by sections with true stories with a similar theme. For me, it was the perfect book to pick up after finishing another book or project. Each was a few pages long. Many I was able to guess who or what the subject

Thank you, NetGalley for an advanced copy.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read with a wide variety of incredibly short stories. It would be good to pick up when you have 15-20 minutes to read.

I do wish the stories had been a little bit longer. They were so short that you barely had a taste for each one before moving onto the next. It was difficult to retain anything with how quickly we moved on from each story.

Although I did not know of this author and of his podcasts, so happy to receive this from NetGalley. It was an enjoyable read that one can pick up and read anytime. The tales were fascinating and so good for trivia lovers and those of us who have heads full of useless but interesting information.

Way back when, there was a radio program where Paul Harvey told “the rest of the story”. He would set up a tale and then would come back, after commercial with the hook that took the story from interesting to fascinating. It was a great for people who like unusual facts and trivia. This book reminded me of those old broadcasts.

It sets up the background of the story, some with characters whom you will know and others people of whom you never heard and then at the end there is the “kiss” with history of how what could have been just an interesting tale into something that was fascinating. Each story is a quick read and while they are under general categories, it still felt like they were one-offs. It is the kind of book that you could sit down and read from cover to cover or just dip in and out at random. Either way it covers a lot of unusual occurrences. Four purrs and two paws up.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC.

I normally like weird fact books, but I think I'm just not a fan of Mahnke's writing style. Each one is written as a brief story, and he tends to leave out one piece of info until the very end as a surprise twist. Especially when it refers to famous people, he'll call them by a middle name or legal name until the reveal. It got annoying really quick, especially when I'm already familiar with a lot of these stories. These stories are fascinating on their own, it doesn't need a little 'gotcha!' moment to spice it up.

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Check out this review of Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre on Fable. https://fable.co/review/97b627f6-fe18-4e03-9dd2-53bb3d0ff3cf/share

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of “Cabinet of Curiosities” by Aaron Mahnke. I’m a big fan of Aaron’s “LORE” podcast/universe and was excited to read this collection of short tales about the world’s greatest curiosities. It did not disappoint!! I loved the short form style; it was easy to spend a few moments with or sit down for a longer reading session. I liked how tales were divided into categories and how stories were told from all over the world. A very interesting read!!

Much like the podcast for which it's named, Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities is a series of bite-sized stories that tell of oddities, coincidences, and macabre outcomes. The stories are organized into several different topics, with each topic containing a handful of interesting stories. Lots of fun trivia, and it's easy to read in bits and pieces as each story is so short. It's been a while since I've listened to the podcast, so I'm not sure how much overlap there is, but new readers will certainly find this an interesting read.