Weird Life

It's all too easy to get caught up in the often monotonous nature of our day to day—moving from one rote task to the next, only to rinse and repeat the next day. Weirdness, however, is an easily accessible antidote to these feelings of languishing. The quirky, eccentric, and peculiar can take us out of our normal habits of thought and perception, surprising us by breaking up our routines and reminding us that there's more to life than the everyday.

When we're kids, our parents tell us that being creative is fun, fun, fun. But when you decide to turn art into your career, whether that's painting, writing, drawing, or sculpting Edgar Allan Poe out of earthworms, that's when things get tough. In this insightful and heartfelt guide, artist and speaker Phil Hansen shares his hard-won wisdom from the front lines of life as a professional creative. Hansen provides advice for the difficult moments - the slumps, the creative blocks, the times when something you love doesn't resonate with the world - and gives you the pep talk you need....

Did you know soap can burn? It can, my pretties. It can and it does. Fortunately, it cleans up so easily! But yes, the house didn’t smell as “wonderful” as it did “wonder what that smell is” for a couple of weeks. In good news, I found out I can literally leave my crockpot turned on low for weeks without it catching fire, so that’s a handy fact to know. Part how-to, part memoir, My Life as a Kitchen Witch was a surprise hit for fiction writer Red Tash.

Sam has retreated to her late father’s rental house, a safe place to commune with the animals in the greenbelt out back, tend to her garden, and keep her secrets. Her sense of security slowly returns - until an aggressive neighbor from the other side of the ravine fells a tree on her property. How little he regards nature. Or understands its darkness. How little he knows Sam.

Dad's working on his cool dance moves for the local talent search, while Weir's trying out for the school soccer team! Will Weir score a goal, or fall flat?

Briarcliff Mansion and the land it occupies are owned by Emory University, which refers to it as its "Briarcliff Campus." Fortune and Folly, in part, illuminates the largely lost story of how the mansion, and the entire surrounding neighborhood, got its name. But in order to understand the mansion, we have to understand the man who built it. Briarcliff Mansion once belonged to a man named Asa Candler, Jr.—also known as Buddie. The second son and namesake of Coca-Cola founder Asa Griggs Candler, Buddie was a wealthy real estate developer of great successes and greater failures.

I’m fascinated with ancient history because there are continuous new discoveries which push back the dawn of civilization by thousands of years. In the last couple of decades, the discoveries at Gobekli Tepe in eastern Turkey pushed back man-made structures to the time period of 9,000-11,000 BC, thousands of years before the next known civilizations existed.

When two science-savvy girls create an entire robot world, they don’t expect the robots to come alive. But when a choice must be made, the robots might have to pay the price.

Something must be done. Vlad Luxor continues to rule the Timeless Province with a cruel hand, and now he's screaming about Inners and Outers, Others and Us. Then when the meanest boy in school is turned into the stinkiest, weirdest creature ever, Henry, Jo, Apollo, and Pirate Girl are asked to do the impossible. Breaking this spell will force them to go on their most dangerous, frightening adventure yet - through the Wilds, the Forest of Knives, and a lodge in the woods belonging to the most terrible bully of all...Vlad Luxor himself.

Hoping to ditch two months of chicken coops, kale, and her parents’ antiscreen rules, Mac MacLeod sets out to win a citywide food cart scavenger hunt and the money she needs for the summer coding camp of her dreams. But Mac discovers more than just clues during her cross-city sprint - like how her weird parents might not be the worst thing compared to the circumstances of those around her.

To make some extra money for the Feral Zoo, Sammy, Red, and Donny decide to promote their cryptozoology business: investigating animals that don't exist. What could possibly go wrong? Everything! Hired to check out sightings of a ghost dog, the friends uncover the terrifying legend of the Hell Hound. Anyone who is seen by this terrible beast is struck with a death curse. So when Sammy's best friend, Mark, runs into the deadly dog, Sammy knows he doesn't have long to figure out how to save him!

Dad's training to become a firefighter, while Weir's busy with Pet Day! Will FiDo and Blockhead freeze up or find fame?

Sammy Feral is a lucky boy. His family runs a zoo, where he spends his time cheerfully hanging out with (to name just a few) orangutans, crocodiles, and snakes. But his good luck has just run out - the entire Feral family has been infected with a mysterious virus that causes them to turn into werewolves. Now his mom, dad, and sisters are howling at the moon, craving raw meat, and worst of all, trying to infect Sammy! Worse, it seems there is an evil professor trying to take over the Feral Zoo - could he have anything to do with the werewolf virus?

The first book in the Huggabie Falls trilogy - the funniest, craziest, weirdest series ever written, so far. Kipp Kindle and his friends Tobias Treachery and Cymphany Chan live in Huggabie Falls, the weirdest town on Earth. Weird things happen all the time - that’s normal. But when an extremely weird thing happens Kipp and his friends know that something is wrong. They embark on a fast-paced, action-packed, hilarious adventure to find out what is making everything turn normal and to return the weirdness to Huggabie Falls.

Woody wants to get un-weird - and fast! And he'll find help in the most unlikely of places. Woody is forever worried about being different. He thinks himself weird and a bit of a wuss, and two bullies, Della and Casey, make sure he doesn't forget that. It doesn't help that his mum is slightly bonkers. She dresses up as a sheep for a living - mostly for her job as a children's entertainer. And not to mention the fact that she forces Woody to wear old granny jumpers that she finds down the local charity shop.

Maddie thought trying to survive the last day of the puberty unit at school was going to be her biggest challenge until the question dropped from the sky like an atomic bomb hitting the lunch table. “Maddie, have you had your period yet?” Maddie always resorted to humor with a dash of sass to get through every awkward moment, but suddenly being clueless and braless wasn’t so funny. Chill Out & Stop Making This Weird takes you on a pubescent girl's heartfelt and humorous journey as she realistically navigates the complexities of puberty.

Ming often gets teased for being "weird". His curious mind and wild imagination make him extra nervous for his school's upcoming lockdown drill after a deadly dance hall shooting. His teacher calls the Helper Hounds to help calm his nerves, and King Tut comes to the rescue! King Tut knows all about being weird - she's been in some scary situations herself after being abandoned under a bridge as a puppy. King Tut helps Ming and his classmates through the lockdown drill. Discover how King Tut helps Ming and his friends see the beauty in being "weird". 

Growing up, Dr Camilla Pang loved patterns and ordering things. She was obsessed with Disney, infatuated by Stephen Hawking and the language she only really understood was science. Diagnosed with autism age eight, Camilla felt like an outsider - and kids often like nothing better than to gang up on outsiders. This is the story of how Camilla used science as her sidekick for navigating the world - allowing her to translate ideas she could understand (like gravity and light waves) onto things she couldn't (like people, how long to smile for and when someone needed a hug).

From the man behind the popular Wired series "Absurd Creature of the Week", a fun, fascinating collection of unique animals and the unbelievable evolutionary traits they use to survive the most extreme scenarios: zombie ants mind-controlled by a fungus; beautiful salamanders that can regenerate any part of their bodies including their brains; and much more.

When he first started seeing ghosts, Max mistakenly assumed everyone else could see them, too. Now, after years of being blamed for the pranks of mischievous spirits, Max is determined to do whatever it takes to make himself normal. But when he’s sent to spend the summer with his eccentric grandfather, Ramhart, being normal becomes impossible. Here in Glimmerville, bakeries sell enchanted pies, the lake is infested with mermaids, the town’s beloved ghosts roam free, and Ramhart himself is celebrated as the world’s most famous monster hunter.