Curios

'Tis Thee, Not Me: A Modern Medieval Guide to Bad Dates and Worse Decisions

'Tis Thee, Not Me: A Modern Medieval Guide to Bad Dates and Worse Decisions

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An acerbic, savagely funny illustrated guide to the pitfalls of dating, in medieval and modern times, by viral sensation Clarice Tudor.

Hast thou ever been ghosted by a suitor? Courted a king only to find he was a jester? Suffered the malady known as "the ick"? If so, this tome is for thee.

Inspired by artist Clarice Tudor's viral illustrated post, "The Fart," 'Tis Thee, Not Me is a fresh look at evergreen topics: love, dating, and relationships, illustrated in a medieval, intricately decorated style.

As wise as they are witty, the comics in 'Tis Thee, Not Me tackle:

  • Dating horror stories such as: "The Fart That Ended Mine Own Situationship" and "The Merkin"
  • Relationship advice that ranges from fairly good to truly terrible "(The Dos and Don'ts of Revenge" and "The 8 Stages of E-Stalking Your Ex's Ex")
  • A retelling of Rapunzel, featuring the array of suitors one would face today
  • And more

  • Hilarious and relatable to all singletons of the realm, this medieval guide to modern dating is sure to turn thine frown upsidedown.

    Atlas of Paranormal Places: A Journey to the World's Most Supernatural Places

    Atlas of Paranormal Places: A Journey to the World's Most Supernatural Places

    $30.00
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    Uncover fascinating paranormal activity on this chilling, nerve-wracking global tour of 100 haunted locations.

    Set out on a uniquely dark armchair journey, and witness the shocking supernatural events, ghosts and unexplained phenomena that have captivated humankind for as long as we have told stories to each other, looked to the skies, and wondered whether we really are alone...

    The paranormal places include:

  • The Island of the Dolls in Mexico, where a haunted recluse has hung hundreds of creepy dolls from trees
  • St. Augustine Lighthouse in Florida, USA, the eerie former home of three girls trapped beneath a wheelbarrow
  • Gunnuhver Mud Pool in Iceland, infected by the spirit of a maddened criminal
  • Turkmenistan's Door to Hell, an infernal crater still blazing after half a century

  • Legends about spirits that rise from the dead, places where the crops don't grow, or sites where strange lights are seen at night... glaciers that bleed, ghost towns, crumbling castles, disused (and active) cemeteries, eerie forests, and freak nature patterns...

    This cursed collection covers these sites in all their mysterious glory, and recounts what happened, what continues to happen, and what may explain these phenomena. Hauntings, aliens, moving rocks, and all manner of paranormal activity are covered, in manmade as well as natural surroundings.

    You may not want to read it when you are alone...

    Book Curses

    Book Curses

    $25.00
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    Featuring some of the most ferocious and humorous book curses ever inscribed, this is a lively, engaging introduction to the history and development of bookish maledictions.

    Have you ever wanted to protect your books from forgetful borrowers, merciless page-folders, or outright thieves? Perhaps you have even wished harm on those who have damaged your books--but would you threaten them with hellfire, hanging, or the plague?

    This book contains a collection of some of the most ferocious and humorous book curses ever inscribed--from fearsome threats discovered emblazoned on stone monuments from the ancient Near East to elaborate manuscript maledictions and chilling warnings scribbled in printed books. Book curses are entertaining writings in themselves, but they also offer a tantalizing insight into how passionately texts and books have been valued by their owners and readers over the centuries. Here you will find an engaging introduction to the history and development of the book curse and perhaps some inspiration to pen a few of your own.

    Book of Luck: Invite Fortune and Positive Energy Into Your Life

    Book of Luck: Invite Fortune and Positive Energy Into Your Life

    $19.99
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    In an increasingly uncertain world, people are seeking more and more ways to navigate life's challenges and seize opportunities. The Book of Luck is a fun and practical gift book that explores the world of luck and shows you how by simply shifting your mindset and adopting certain practices, you can increase your chances of experiencing luck in all aspects of your life.

    Featuring 60 beautifully illustrated lucky symbols from all around the world - including the talismanic Daruma doll to the whimsical Maneki-neko - alongside daily affirmations, everyday rituals, gratitude mediations and vision boards, The Book of Luck will teach you how you can leverage these symbols and actions to overcome obstacles and create a positive environment that encourages luck to flow into your lives.

    Whether you are preparing for a crucial job interview, navigating the challenges of moving house, or gearing up for a high-stakes presentation, this book will show you that by making positive choices and taking proactive steps towards your goals, you can create a foundation for luck to flourish.

    Book of Practical Witchcraft: A Compendium of Spells, Rituals and Occult Knowledge

    Book of Practical Witchcraft: A Compendium of Spells, Rituals and Occult Knowledge

    $14.99
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    Become a competent, confident spell-worker with this practical guide to witchcraft, presented in a beautiful hardcover with gilded page edges.

    Containing an extensive collection of traditional spells and techniques, this guide will help readers attract positive friendships, love and luck as well as promote healing, careers and protection. The Practical Book of Witchcraft is an essential reference for anyone wishing to master the incredible art of wicca and spell-making.

    Includes:
    - A section on tools used as well as information on how to consecrate them
    - Correspondences for different spells
    - Rituals for manifesting your wishes

    This spell-binding book provides a wonderful introduction into witchcraft and makes a perfect gift.

    ABOUT THE SERIES: The Mystic Archives are beautiful hardcover guides which reveal the hidden mysteries of esoteric arts, presented with foil-embossing, Wibalin binding, patterned endpapers and gilded page edges.

    Book of Superstitions: Black Cats, Yellow Flowers, Broken Mirrors, and More

    Book of Superstitions: Black Cats, Yellow Flowers, Broken Mirrors, and More

    $14.95
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    Learn the compelling cultural histories behind some of the world's supernatural beliefs with The Book of Superstitions.

    Friday the 13th; rabbit feet; knocking on wood; walking under a ladder; the curse of the evil eye. We all have a superstition or two. Unveil the origins of some of the most universal and little known superstitions that have influenced cultures around the world for centuries. Including beliefs that gained a foothold in African and European folklore, notions from ancient Greece, legends of the British Isles, and beyond, this is a captivating read for people of all ages and backgrounds.

    Inside you'll find:

  • Legends and cultural behaviors organized by region, so you can discover how cultural identity has impacted these beliefs over the years
  • Beautiful illustrations of these fascinating concepts
  • An analysis of how superstitions vary from country to country
  • Discover why superstitions have bewitched us for centuries with The Book of Superstitions. Fingers crossed you'll love this book!

    Comic Book Women: Characters, Creators, and Culture in the Golden Age

    Comic Book Women: Characters, Creators, and Culture in the Golden Age

    $32.95
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    2023 Ray and Pat Browne Best Single Work by One or More Authors in Popular and American Culture, Popular and American Culture Association (PACA) / Popular Culture Association (PCA)
    2023 Ray and Pat Browne Best Edited Reference/Primary Source Work in Popular Culture Award (Honorable Mention), Popular and American Culture Association (PACA) / Popular Culture Association (PCA)
    2023 Peter C. Rollins Book Award, Southwest Texas Popular Culture and American Culture Associations (SWPACA)

    A revisionist history of women's pivotal roles as creators of and characters in comic books.

    The history of comics has centered almost exclusively on men. Comics historians largely describe the medium as one built by men telling tales about male protagonists, neglecting the many ways in which women fought for legitimacy on the page and in publishers' studios. Despite this male-dominated focus, women played vital roles in the early history of comics. The story of how comic books were born and how they evolved changes dramatically when women like June Tarpé Mills and Lily Renée are placed at the center rather than at the margins of this history, and when characters such as the Black Cat, Patsy Walker, and Señorita Rio are analyzed.

    Comic Book Women offers a feminist history of the golden age of comics, revising our understanding of how numerous genres emerged and upending narratives of how male auteurs built their careers. Considering issues of race, gender, and sexuality, the authors examine crime, horror, jungle, romance, science fiction, superhero, and Western comics to unpack the cultural and industrial consequences of how women were represented across a wide range of titles by publishers like DC, Timely, Fiction House, and others. This revisionist history reclaims the forgotten work done by women in the comics industry and reinserts female creators and characters into the canon of comics history.

    Composer Embalmed: Relic Culture from Piety to Kitsch

    Composer Embalmed: Relic Culture from Piety to Kitsch

    $35.00
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    The first granular study of nineteenth-century composer devotion--a network of devotees who preserved tangible traces of composers through relics, rituals, pilgrimage, exhumation, and embalming.

    During the nineteenth century, music institutions promoted artworks they deemed timeless and made composers into figureheads of a lasting Western canon. Alongside this institutional face of the canon was a more intimate impulse to preserve, touch, and embrace the residues of the dead. In Germany and Austria between 1870 and 1930, music lovers venerated the bodies, houses, and belongings of composers as relics, shrines, and talismans. In The Composer Embalmed, Abigail Fine documents the vernacular and eccentric ways that composers have been remembered.

    Fine navigates a wealth of unknown archival material to recover the stories of devotees: from pilgrims who felt time stop in historic houses to music-loving doctors who made skulls into sacred specimens, dilettantes who displayed Beethoven's mask as a relic of the "beautiful death," and interwar critics of those dilettantes who disparaged piety as a false religion, a kitsch replica. In isolation, these practices may look like simple acts of affection. But in the aggregate, Fine asserts, acts of devotion constituted what we might broadly understand as relic culture--a culture that sought to possess the body of the departed genius, and that superimposed habits of anthropological collecting onto artifacts of Austro-German heritage. By excavating objects, ephemera, amateur lyric, visitors' books, letters, and travelogues, The Composer Embalmed reveals the underbelly of the canon, where guilty pleasures blur the boundary between sanctity and desecration.

    Cursed Objects: Strange But True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items

    Cursed Objects: Strange But True Stories of the World's Most Infamous Items

    $19.99
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    Beware...this book is cursed! These strange but true stories of the world's most infamous items will appeal to true believers as well as history buffs, horror fans, and anyone who loves a good spine-tingling tale.

    They're lurking in museums, graveyards, and private homes. Their often tragic and always bizarre stories have inspired countless horror movies, reality TV shows, novels, and campfire tales. They're cursed objects, and all they need to unleash a wave of misfortune is . . . you.

    Many of these unfortunate items have intersected with some of the most notable events and people in history, leaving death and destruction in their wake. But never before have the true stories of these eerie oddities been compiled into a fascinating and chilling volume. Inside, readers will learn about:

    - Annabelle the Doll, a Raggedy Ann doll that featured in the horror franchise The Conjuring
    - The Unlucky Mummy, which is rumored to have sunk the Titanic and kick-started World War I
    - The Dybbuk box, which was sold on eBay and spawned the horror film The Possession
    - The Conjured Chest, which has been blamed for fifteen deaths within a single family
    - The Ring of Silvianus, a Roman artifact believed to have inspired J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit
    - And many more!

    Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic

    Decoding the Hand: A History of Science, Medicine, and Magic

    $35.00
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    "Delightful."--Times Literary Supplement - "Intriguing."--The Sydney Morning Herald - "Fascinating, well-illustrated."--Nature - "Altogether surprising and hard to categorise."--London Review of Books - "There are many stories to be told here, and Bashford tells them well."--Literary Review

    The astonishing history of palmistry and biometrics--from occult physicians to the very foundations of modern science and medicine.

    Why did Isaac Newton read books on chiromancy, the occult science of hand reading that revealed the secrets of the soul? Why did Charles Darwin claim that the hand gave humans dominion over all other species? Why did psychoanalyst Charlotte Wolff climb into the primate cages of the London Zoo, taking hundreds of delicate palm prints? Why did Francis Galton, the father of fingerprinting, take palm prints too? And why did world-leading geneticists study the geometry of palm lines in their search for the secrets of chromosomal syndromes?

    Decoding the Hand is an astounding history of magic, medicine, and science, of an enduring search for how our bodily surfaces might reveal an inner self--a soul, a character, an identity. From sixteenth-century occult physicians influenced by the Kabbalah to twentieth-century geneticists, and from criminologists to eugenicists, award-winning historian Alison Bashford takes us on a remarkable journey into the strange world of hand readers, revealing how signs on the hand--its shape, lines, marks, and patterns--have been elaborately decoded over the centuries. Sometimes learned, sometimes outrageously deceptive, sometimes earnest, and, more often than we ever expected, medically and scientifically trained, these palm readers of the past prove to be essential links in the human quest to peer into bodies, souls, minds, and selves. Not only for fortune-telling palmists were the future and the past, health, and character laid bare in the hand, but for other experts in bodies and minds as well: anatomists, psychiatrists, embryologists, primatologists, evolutionary biologists, geneticists, and more.

    Drawing telling parallels between the divination promised by palmistry and the appeal to self-knowledge offered by modern genetic testing, Decoding the Hand also makes clear that palm-reading is far from a relic or simple charlatanism. Bashford's sagacious history of human hands touching and connecting opens wide the essential human pursuit of what lies within and beyond.