The book Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre caught my eye, I do not recall why. I never heard of the podcast or it’s author. As I read each chapter, I kept thinking this could be called Did You Know? Each very short chapter is a story, a tale a tidbit a piece of history that comes with a little learning. Yes, you can google it, but this is more fun. I love the idea that it can create table discussions and get people off their phones. You can open the book at any chapter read it and enjoy it.
This book is simply written it would make a great gift! Yes, after reading it I tuned into the podcast :)
Thank you #netgalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

💥 Pub Date: 11/12/2024

This is a compilation of interesting stories in history. They're presented in a digestible way, which makes for easy reading. "Peculiar Places" was my favorite section of the book... I love learning about the history of towns. I'm not familiar with the author's podcast, but I'm definitely going to check it out!

🗣 Thank you to netgalley and St. Martin's Press for the opportunity to read and review this book via gifted eARC! All opinions are honest and my own.

Interesting collection of miscellaneous information that will fascinate curious readers from upper elementary to adult readers. The element of surprise at the end of each 'chapter' keeps the reader turning pages.

I really enjoy Aaron Mahnke's voice and the way he sets up the stories. This is a fun collection of mini stories divided into sections. I started out reading through from cover and the started bouncing around as the name of a story caught my eye. The stories are short enough they make a great read during lunch break or when you are sitting waiting for someone

Cabinet of Curiosities is a wonderful concept, based in the eclectic collections of Europeans beginning in the (primarily) Victorian era. However, I found it very disjointed and full of "Dad Puns" that were appropriately funny, but it wasn't what I was looking for in an enjoyable evening read. The stories were short, clear, and to the point, many of them had the old Paul Harvey feel of "Now you know the rest of the story," which I did enjoy.

I did not complete this book; I received an ARC; this is my honest review.

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Based on the author’s popular podcast, this book is a collection of strange oddities. As each is only a couple of pages long, it is easy to pick up when the reader has a few spare minutes. The stories are arranged by topic. Some of the situations are very well known, such as the Inverted Jenny stamp, while others are more obscure. I really enjoyed reading these brief clips.

I was drawn to this because of the book description. This is a collection of interesting short (a few pages) stories. This was a good book to read a few or several stories at a time. There was a wide variety of stories grouped with other similar type stories. I enjoyed this book and recommend it.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader Copy (ARC) copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Cabinet of Curiosities by Aaron Mahnke

I've had a lot of doctor appointments lately and this book is great for those times when I'm waiting but don't want to dive into a novel. Each chapter is short, to the point, and interesting to me. Some touch on history or historical figures and fill in gaps that I didn't know about events and people. Other stories introduce me to happenings that I knew nothing about. A lot of them had me searching the internet for more of the story because much of what I learned here had me wanting to know even more. It's a great book for trivia nerds like me, my poor husband will never hear the end of all the "fun facts" I have at my disposal now...ha ha

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC

This collection is for you if you like did-you-know facts you can share with anyone. Mahnke curates snippets of stories you might find far too strange to be true. The tales have a campfire storytelling vibe that many readers will appreciate. This would make a great gift for any curious reader.

This was an easy to read book. I thought the first half of the book was more interesting. As the book goes on I found myself loosing some interest in it. Some of the chapters seemed to drag a little too. I couldn’t help but think this book might be a good study book for Jeopardy

This was a great history book! As someone who loves to learn new facts and interesting stories this hit the mark. Some of the stories I had heard of before because they had been fairly popular, but some I had never heard before. I will definitely be buying the hardcopy.

Any lover of history, short stories, and random collected bits of knowledge will adore this book! Although I very much enjoyed it in printed format, I can only imagine that the audiobook would take it to the next level!

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Cabinet of Curiosities: A Historical Tour of the Unbelievable, the Unsettling, and the Bizarre by Aaron Mahnke is a series of short articles taken from Mr. Mahnke popular podcast. Mr. Mahnke launched his podcasting career in 2015 with Lore podcast, and has been at it ever since.

I’ve read similar books before, collections of bite size true stories for those of us who love trivia, history, or just general knowledge. These type of literary buffets can be read in any order, even though Mr. Mahnke does put them in general categories such as True Crime, War, Literature, Inventions, and more.

Cabinet of Curiosities by Aaron Mahnke is just a bunch of very short, mostly interesting tidbits. You can read them in any order, skip pages or even sections without missing a beat even if it’s in the same section.

When I checked out the sources which were used to write this book, I found them to be lacking. Most of it relied on Wikipedia other easily searched on-line material. That’s fine for a free podcast, or even a bookish blog with a Fun Facts Friday feature, but if you’re asking someone to pay hard earned money for a product, I think a bit more effort is needed. Other “bizarre” stories are out of context, as they were not seen as bizarre during that time, and many times embellishing an already amazing story was going overboard.

As a dad, however, I appreciated the cheesy jokes at the end of each story.

On a positive note, this book does not pretend to be anything more than what it is. The stories are simply written, often relatable, short and get straight to the point. I do wish that that more context or history would have been provided.

This is a fun book to introduce people to different subjects. However, it plays too loosely with history, presenting it without context or disputed evidence.

The book is a collection of tales of curiosity. Mildly interesting, a reasonably interesting if read in bits and pieces, but not as a straight through in 2 or 3 sittings.
I received an ARC copy from NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

This book would make a great bathroom reader. There is a plethora of curious stories grouped into different catagories, much like the room(s) of curiosities he mentions. The stories are short enough to read as you have time on a bus or commute, or of course the bathroom.

I have to confess that I love books like this, with short little tidbits about all sorts of things, that you can consume a little at a time or in big batches. Cabinet of Curiosities was just that, a book full of interesting short stories from all sorts of categories. I learned so much reading this and enjoyed myself the whole time.

I had a great time reading this book and highly recommend it.

5/5 stars.

*** I would like to thank NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Aaron Mahnke for the opportunity to read and review Cabinet of Curiosities.

This was a really fun book. I actually think this would be the perfect bathroom book to learn a little fun fact or two. I do think there were a few stories that took a bit of a jump just to fit the punny closing line, but interesting nonetheless. I loved the way Mahnke sectioned the book. It was fun to see stories about people, animals, events, etc across the world and time. I would recommend this book for any and all curious minds.

Cabinet of Curiosities is a delightful collection of the weird and wonderful. Fans of the podcast may find themselves hearing Aaron Mahnke's voice and signature storytelling style in their heads while reading through this book, while those unfamiliar are in for a real treat. When reading each page, it truly feels as though the author is discovering these curiosities right alongside you. The short tales grouped in related sections mean you can pick this book up any time and flip to any page for a few minutes of entertaining and interesting information. That is, if you don't devour the whole thing in one sitting, like I did. The stories in this book range from inspiring to icky, sensational to spooky, and there's something for everyone. It would make a great read to share with friends and family.

I didn't count exactly how many separate stories there are in Aaron Mahnke's 'Cabinet of Curiosities' but there are a lot. Like, a lot. So it's not an easy book to summarize and review.

But I can say this - if you're like me and history fascinates you, if you're like me and a little nugget of history can send you on a happy, escapist rabbit hole of research for hours, if you're like me and sometimes you need to read in short spurts instead of big commitments, and if you're like me and there's truly nothing better than saying "oh, wow! I didn't know that!" ... 'Cabinet of Curiosities' is the non-fiction book you need to read.

I don't have a favorite section or story from the book. I liked it all. And there was so much, I am 100% going to be coming back to it again soon!

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I received a copy of this book through NetGalley and St. Martin's Press in exchange for an honest and original review. All thoughts are my own.

Cabinet of Curiosities by Aaron Mahnke is a treasure trove of weird and whacky people, places and things recorded over the past few centuries. Divided into topical chapters, these strange but true short stories are written with wit, humour, word plays and surprise twists.

"Wonder rooms" became trendy hundreds of years ago, ideal distractions for bored and curious aristocrats who wanted to show off and study their acquisitions. Some of my favourite curiosities in this bookish cabinet include a cab accident which involved the same car, same driver and same passenger one year apart; Mike the Chicken; the six-mile fall survivor; the man who was in the right place at the right time to save two falling babies on two separate occasions; a woman who survived being frozen solid out in the snow; the incredible tale of the pilot who got sucked out of the plane windshield; famous author stories and the flaked cereal mistake.

My only wish would be less Wikipedia representation. Nevertheless, the stories and writing enthrall and are fun snippets to dip in and out of at will.

My sincere thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of this absorbing book.