When I was a kid, I loved getting my hands on the Guiness books of world records and Ripley's Believe it or Not collections. This Cabinet of Curiosities book caught my attention.
I received a copy from the author Aaron Mahnke with Harry Marks from St. Martin's Press through NetGalley. This is my own opinion of the book.

There is a truly amazing collection of historical stories here from bizarre or fascinating things to creepy happenings about U.S. Presidents, brave, (or nutty) people, heroes, animals and events. The book has been organized into several categories including Places, True Crime. Inventions, Death Defying and more.
There were some that had me saying, "oh wow" for sure. I liked the book as a whole. There were some stories that were summed up with some cornball humor for my taste, but I still gave it a 4 for very interesting content.

Cabinet of Curiosities is a collection of unique stories that happened and you do not want to miss. Each story in this had me intriguted andthe stories were so interesting to learn. The author did a great job writing this and it was an easy read. I am looking forward to listening to the authors podcast now, which is what the book is based off. Overall, this was such a fascinating read that I highly enjoyed and would recommend to any reader who loves non fiction. Thank you to NetGalley and St Martins Press for this read in exchange of my honest review of Cabinet of Curiosities by Aaron Mahnke.

thank you netgalley for providing me with an arc in exchange for an honest review.

this book was just meh. I think the author tried to hard to make his reveal for the stories surprising but honestly it felt a bit childish. it was like reading the phrase “bond, james bond” over and over again. I also have issue with using wikipedia has a source for a non-fiction book, i’m very surprised that was allowed.

This was exciting and kept my attention! Very interesting and odd little vigentes that were organized in a way that was easy to follow. Learned a lot and was entertained!

A fun collection of some very interesting snippets/stories. It definitely piqued my interest and I enjoyed it quite a lot. I do wish some more details or information was added, I want to know more.

These are fun anecdotes, but I wish that Aaron Mahnke had delved deeper into these topics in a way that didn't necessarily make them longer but revealed some facts that I couldn't just glean from Wikipedia (which, based on the source list, Mahnke relied on heavily).

The book title and premise peaked my curiosity, but just didn’t care overall on the execution/layout of the stories. I’m sure others will enjoy it more than I, just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

2.5 stars rounded to 3

This is meant to be a short collection of historical tidbits to peak your interest. I ultimately found the subject matter to be a bit boring and nothing new or exciting. Each of the entries was only about a page or two in length. Not nearly enough to give any real depth of information. Sources cited were Wikipedia a lot of the time. It felt a little thrown together and not well researched.

Thank you to St Martin's press for this eARC. All opinions expressed are my own. #netgalley #stmartinspress #cabinetofcuriosities

Cabinet of Curiosities is like a weird uncle at a family reunion - sometimes fascinating, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes just plain weird. The chapters are short and sweet, making it easy to read a little, laugh a little, and then walk away. But let's be real, some of the stories start to feel like your uncle's repeated jokes - funny at first, but then just repetitive. Maybe they could've cut a few and made the book a little shorter. Still, it's a great gift for someone who likes to read in bite-sized chunks. It's fun, quirky, and suitable for all ages. Cabinet of Curiosities is like a weird uncle at a family reunion - sometimes fascinating, sometimes hilarious, and sometimes just plain weird. The chapters are short and sweet, making it easy to read a little, laugh a little, and then walk away. But let's be real, some of the stories start to feel like your uncle's repeated jokes - funny at first, but then just repetitive. Maybe they could've cut a few and made the book a little shorter. Still, it's a great gift for someone who likes to read in bite-sized chunks. It's fun, quirky, and suitable for all ages. This book just was not for me.

Going through this book was a bit like going through a museum if all the exhibits were jumbled up. Some entries were more curious and intriguing than others, but it was never boring. At times it felt like speculation was presented as fact, but overall it was a fun and lighthearted exploration of the stranger side of history.

Aaron Mahnke is the king of urban legends and this book is proof of this. Incredibly informative and a fun read, I really enjoyed learning about all of these bizarre places.

This is a collection of historical stores and anecdotes about weird things throughout history. The title is accurate as this truly is a cabinet of curiosities through stories. However, at times if felt like we were just scratching the surface of these stories.

Synopsis:
The podcast, Aaron Mahnke’s Cabinet of Curiosities, has delighted millions of listeners for years with tales of the wonderful, astounding, and downright bizarre people, places, and things throughout history. Now, in Cabinet of Curiosities the book, learn the fascinating story of the invention of the croissant in a country that was not France, and relive the adventures of a dog that stowed away and went to war, only to help capture a German spy. Along the way, readers will pass through the American state of Franklin, watch Abraham Lincoln’s son be rescued by his assassin’s brother, and learn how too many crash landings inspired one pilot to leave the airline industry and trek for the stars.


Thoughts:
I’ve never heard of Aaron Mahnke or his podcast before reading this book. It was an odd book, but if you like odd history then you’ll enjoy this book!

I've read a lot of trivia fact books, with short stories about historical events and such. Unfortunately, this one does not make the top of my list. It didn't flow well. I think the format, full of exclamatory language, e.g. "you've probably never heard about" and "it just goes to show," probably works better in podcast form, although I have not listened to the podcast. I didn't end up finishing this one, but it might go over better with other folks.

In this chaotic and fascinating collection of strange stories from history, podcast creator Aaron Mahnke compiles a staggering number of short stories together in this complex and fascinating new release. Crossing time, space, and history, this book brings a host of old and new favorite stories of Mahnke’s together to give readers an introduction into a history that is engaging, fascinating, and exciting. Passing through fascinating moments of time in this book gives readers some incredible chances to understand that history is not boring nor the rote memorization of facts and dates but a living, breathing story full of joy and human stupidity and, yes, tragedy and violence, but also success and invention and achievement. Mahnke is an excellent writer whose stories are brief, succinct, and packed with detail, and the tonal shifts between stories and sections works incredibly well throughout the book. With so many stories, readers really do get a bit of everything, and this makes this book a great introduction to history for readers because it can act as a jumping-off point and introduce readers to new points in history to explore elsewhere. A fun and detailed read, this is unlike most history books, and readers will like that.

Quite a curious reading! Not quite what I was expecting, but quite a powerful reading. I love the idea of focusing on short snippets and curious stories. Though I dint think this is a read to sit down and read in one or two sittings, it is quite fun to read here and there when you have a few minutes to spare!

I love historical facts that just give you brain tingles. This book is exactly that! I'm not sure I knew any of these facts and if I did, it was a very minimal amount. I like how it was broke apart into different categories and the chapters were very short, which made it easy to just read a little bit whenever you want to. I have listened to the podcast, and it reads just like Aaron Mahnke in his podcast.

I hardly ever read non-fiction, but I adore weird, strange, and bizarre stories from history. There’s just something about living in a predictable world where so many things are easily explained, and then being able to dig deep into history and find some really strange and coincidental stories. Cabinet of Curiosities was a lot of fun for me as I enjoyed stories I haven’t heard before, where strange and unusual things happened, and some are still unexplained. But the stories are short, and I often felt they seemed more like a transcript from a podcast, one that this book was actually born out of, than a book.

Cabinet of Curiosities presents a number of stories that are divided into categories, including American History, Coincidences, Mysteries, and Origin Stories. Each story falls under one of these categories, though there isn’t anything else linking them. They’re short, just a few Kindle pages, and there’s generally very little drama to them. Sometimes the stories are presented with limited information so a twist could be revealed at the end, but these become a bit predictable. Nevertheless, each story certainly documents something strange, but they’re a bit dry.

I did enjoy many of these stories, though I was already familiar with a number of them. I suppose there are only so many bizarre stories out there. I really enjoyed the ones that were truly weird, and especially loved the coincidental stories. While I abhor coincidences in fiction as they often come off as contrived, actual coincidences in history absolutely thrill me, so those were probably my favorites. Others were essentially short pieces of someone’s biography, offering a little story from their lives that’s a bit unusual. Some of them were more informative and amusing than others, but, as much as I liked learning about some authors in the Literature section, I didn’t actually enjoy those stories as much.

As much as I enjoy strange stories in history, history is not my favorite subject. It can be dry and cumbersome to read, and many of these stories were exactly that. No matter how interesting the subject matter was, reading a dry, brief story after another dry, brief story eventually taxed and tired out my brain, so this ended up being a slow read despite the brevity of each story. I’m not sure if it’s just that my brain isn’t fond of history or if the stories were just not engaging, but I found it difficult to read more than a handful before just feeling cognitively exhausted. Fortunately, some were actually interesting and engaging, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was reading this to me while I was reading it to myself. It helped to think in a male voice, possibly because I’ve really enjoyed the Mysteries at the Museum TV show and couldn’t stop imagining the show’s host telling me the stories.

Cabinet of Curiosities was an interesting read. I did enjoy parts of it, but also found myself not exactly enthralled by certain sections so those felt like they went by a lot slower. Many of the stories were new to me, and I really enjoyed those, but the ones I was already familiar with felt like they should have been fun with their little twists and I found myself disappointed that I couldn’t enjoy those reveals. I do see this perhaps becoming a springboard for my writing brain, or a useful and interesting resource to have on hand when a bizarre story from history becomes, for whatever reason, necessary. Otherwise I found it to be dry and sometimes tedious to read despite some of the more interesting subjects.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange this honest review.. This is an interesting collection of bits and pieces of historical stories about strange coincidences told in short 3-4 pages. The shortness and random nature of the stories made them easy to read by picking it up and putting it down rather than a long read. While I did enjoy several of the stories the style of ending each one with the same type of twist and relying on using unfamiliar names for famous people got a little “old” after a while. I also would have liked to see the stories in more of a chronological order rather than so random and skipping around timeframes. I think these stories are more fit for the author’s podcast than in written form and so cannot really recommend it. Seeing Wikipedia as a common source for most of the stories was also a bit disappointing.

This was a fun book! I loved the little pieces of information and fun facts about so truly bizarre things! I also enjoyed that it was easy to put down and pick back up with its short sections. I did wish we could have gone into more detail for some of the entries, this style is great for podcasts but left me with something missing for a book. Overall an entertaining read!