Some years ago, I stumbled across Aaron Mahnke’s podcast Cabinet of Curiosities and immediately began devouring it. I enjoyed its bite-sized content, the narrator’s punny twists, and the subjects were genuinely, well, curious. I confess, life got in the way, and I fell out of the habit of listening to the podcast—or podcasts, in general. So, I was surprised and excited when I discovered Mahnke took the podcast to a new medium.
Cabinet of Curiosities as a book remains true to form. Each story is just a few pages, so it makes for easy and fun reading—whether you want to pick it up for one story at a time or, as I did back in my podcast heyday, devour a whole lot of them. Further, I enjoyed the organization of the content, with the stories being collected topically under American History, Mysteries, True Crime, Creatures, War, and other subject matters.
Now, to be fair, the book could use more citations (though some sources are included at the end). This leaves some of the stories to questionable integrity and historicity. At the same time, I think that is what makes these stories curious in nature. They are shrouded in lore and legend. If you’re looking for a historically accurate work that makes you go, “Aha!,” this may not be it, but if you’re looking for entertaining urban tales and interesting stories that makes you go, “Hmmm,” look no further than Cabinet of Curiosities.
And, as I mentioned, if you’re unsure what you’re looking for, well, there’s also the audio format in Mahnke’s podcast by the same name. If you enjoy that format, then this book will only be a continuation of that.
A big thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the advanced readers copy in return for my honest review.
