Book Nook: Unique Books from Microcosm Publishing

I recently had a chance to review several books from Microcosm Publishing, a publisher that has all sorts of unique books.

Born to Be Weird: Demented Fantasy and Bizarro Horror was right up my daughter's alley. She likes weird stories, urban legends, cryptids, and things that are slightly gory. She really liked that there were lots of different stories in the book; it makes it faster to read, and if there's one story she didn't really like, there were still plenty more to read!

A public restroom even more horrific than most, with a stained toilet that can swallow a man whole, sending him to a sewage-filled hell. A riverbank lined with swaying mops given faces and philosophies. A secondary school that seems to waver in and out of reality not only in dreams, but also upon wakeful visitation. An isolated grotto, home to trolls and the posthumous shadow form of Elvis Presley.

These are all settings of the peculiar, often unnerving events in Set Sytes’s collection of short bizarro fiction. By the author of How Not to Kill Yourself, this second edition of Born to Be Weird features hordes of new terrors and otherworldly adventures to make your stomach turn and skin crawl.

Dead Theorists: A Card Game for Disillusioned Philosophers and Aspiring Academics was perfect for my other daughter. She is really interested in philosophy, and even though this is a little more adult, she still was able to understand all the references in the decks.

A satirical romp through academia's best ideas

In this turn-based card game, the ghosts of Simone De Beauvoir, W.E.B. Du Bois, Michel Foucault, and Karl Marx have returned from beyond the grave to complete a bit of unfinished business. Become the specter of one of these four great (but deceased) thinkers as you seek to recruit your last great protégé from the ranks of students on one college campus. But you’ve encountered two challenges you didn’t expect...

First, the forces of neoliberalism have been hard at work dismantling the education system. It will be tough to train your final pupil from within today’s profit-oriented university.

Second, you’ve got competition! Other spirits have also awoken and they’re dead set on halting your progress and advancing their own ghostly agendas.

Can you train your protégé in order to complete your unfinished business — and be the first one to do it? Satirical, educational, and a ton of fun for battle-hardened academics and philosophical novices alike.

For 2-4 players, 30-45 minutes per game, and includes 81 cards and the rules in an attractive box set.