{"title":"Adrienne Raphel","description":"\u003cp\u003eDelve into Adrienne Raphel's world, where poetry meets prose in captivating explorations of language and culture. Perfect for readers seeking thoughtful and beautifully crafted non-fiction. Browse her insightful works.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"thinking-inside-the-box-book-adrienne-raphel-9781472144645","title":"Thinking Inside the Box","description":"A delightful, erudite, and immersive exploration of the crossword puzzle and its fascinating history from a brilliant young writer.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49595107082513,"sku":"GOR010892501","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50385322475793,"sku":"CIN1472144643G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":50697649979665,"sku":"NGR9781472144645","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1472144643.jpg?v=1750988443"},{"product_id":"thinking-inside-the-box-book-adrienne-raphel-9781472144621","title":"Thinking Inside the Box","description":"'Beautifully researched account, full of humour and personal insight'  David Crystal, author of Making Sense: The Glamorous Story of English Grammar     'A witty, wise, and wonderfully weird journey that will change the way you think . . . This book is a delight'  Bianca Bosker, author of Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste     'Delightfully engrossing, charmingly and enthusiastically well-written history of the crossword puzzle' Benjamin Dreyer, author of Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style       'Full of treasures, surprises and fun . . . richly bringing to life the quirky, obsessive, fascinating characters in the crossword world'   Mary Pilon, author of The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World's Favorite Board Game        'A gold mine of revelations. If there is a pantheon of cruciverbalist scholars, Adrienne Raphel has established herself squarely within it'  Mary Norris, author of Between You \u0026amp; Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen    Equal parts ingenious and fun, Thinking Inside the Box is a love letter to the infinite joys and playful possibilities of language, a treat for die-hard cruciverbalists and first-time crossword solvers alike.     The crossword is a feature of the modern world, inspiring daily devotion and obsession from millions. It was invented in 1913, almost by accident, when an editor at the New York World was casting around for something to fill some empty column space for that year's Christmas edition. Almost overnight, crosswords became a phenomenal commercial success, and have been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt since then. Indeed, paradoxically, the popularity of crosswords has never been greater, even as the world of media and newspapers, the crossword's natural habitat, has undergone a dramatic digital transformation. But why, exactly, are the satisfactions of a crossword so sweet that over the decades they have become a fixture of breakfast tables, bedside tables and commutes, and even given rise to competitive crossword tournaments?     Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of the crossword's rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. At the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, she rubs shoulders with elite solvers from all over the world, doing her level best to hold her own; aboard a crossword-themed cruise she picks the brains of the enthusiasts whose idea of a good time is a week on the high seas with nothing to do but","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49740212896017,"sku":"NGR9781472144621","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50276594450705,"sku":"GOR011399785","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51232356827409,"sku":"GOR011498174","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1472144627.jpg?v=1764844644"},{"product_id":"thinking-inside-the-box-book-adrienne-raphel-9780525522089","title":"Thinking Inside the Box","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis cultural and personal history of crosswords and their fans, written by an aficionado, is diverting, informative, and discursive. --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eEditors' Choice\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA delightful, erudite, and immersive exploration of the crossword puzzle and its fascinating history\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Almost as soon as it appeared, the crossword puzzle became indispensable to our lives. Invented practically by accident in 1913, when a newspaper editor at the\u003ci\u003e New York World\u003c\/i\u003e was casting around for something to fill empty column space, it became a roaring commercial success almost overnight. Ever since then, the humble puzzle has been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt. But why, exactly, are the crossword's satisfactions so sweet? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of its rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. \u003ci\u003eThinking Inside the Box \u003c\/i\u003eis an ingenious love letter not just to the abiding power of the crossword but to the infinite joys and playful possibilities of language itself.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50046485790993,"sku":"CIN0525522085G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50355300303121,"sku":"CIN0525522085A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50917428035857,"sku":"CIN0525522085VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0525522085.jpg?v=1751008514"},{"product_id":"what-was-it-for-book-adrienne-raphel-9780986086984","title":"What Was It for","description":"Poetry. In her debut collection WHAT WAS IT FOR, Adrienne Raphel revitalizes the topsy-turvy lyric and its evergreen sagacity. Through playground doggerel, charm, and riddle, these poems cry fair and foul to a world where p t  geese dabble in fields of lavender, crises get wallpapered over, hot air balloons stalk pleasurably, cash changes for gold, and the moon sinks into the sea to the thrum of the metronome. That world is this, our own and only, so reader, climb aboard: like a carousel, each poem loops round and round, granting dizzying vistas. All the while, these poems spill over with wonder--as in query, as in jubilee--just as a child chants why, but why, but why. By way of answer, WHAT WAS IT FOR offers an immortal, resounding question. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Adrienne Raphel's lexical sleight-of-hand in her debut collection astonishes me. Her poems are feral and full of feverish delight. Her corkscrewing rhymes enchant as she incants the phenomenological joy of living among earthly and unearthly wonders. Raphel takes Victorian nonsense verse into the twenty-first century and transforms it to her own strange and genius song. --Cathy Park Hong \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e As maddening, incantatory, and exhilarating as the nursery rhymes of the most gifted, twisted children, What Was It For trembles with the terrifying, unspooling energy of a maypole rewinding in eternity. 'Pulsing and pulling concentrically\/\/ to the center of centers, ' 'unfurling\/ in crooked angles, ' and falling 'without falling, ' Raphel's dangerous, luminous mode is the 'carousel spell'--enchanted and hell-bent. --Robyn Schiff \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Nothing escapes Adrienne Raphel's notice--whatever her eye trains itself on blooms with mystery, logic, fractal intelligence and a feverish, near-mathematical stumped- ness. Her depth of thinking and clarity of observation leave no assumption unchecked; it's almost as if the world--with its lavender and feathers and salt and balloons and passports and goats and alienation--exists to destabilize this knowing voice, to goad it into rules for breaking and to show its range. It's not un-Homeric. It's miraculous. It's not wordplay when the words are playing us. Reading this book is like stumbling onto some amazing circumstance where T.S. Eliot, Sylvia Plath, Mina Loy, and Gerard Manley Hopkins are all together, utterly serious and in rare form, playing a drinking game in what looks like an abandoned musical theater set with a boardwalk as a backdrop. What a room  Depressive Mother Goose slumps in a corner with Edward Lear deep in his Morbids while Gwendolyn Brooks and Gertrude Stein win several rounds handily. But, at a certain layer or fathom in every poem, all that company drops silent and a reader is left with the rarest of presences: the inner life of a poet for whom every moment of consciousness yields a discovery. This is a book that calls up ancient and immediate ways to play--and if there is a catastrophe looming (the big one looms like a cloud in the sky of this book) Raphel's work will still make cosmic sense, will give joy, regenerate, and remind us (as her title does) what it was for.--Brenda Shaughnessy","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50125268254993,"sku":"CIN0986086983VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50375876182289,"sku":"CIN0986086983G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0986086983.jpg?v=1751298825"},{"product_id":"thinking-inside-the-box-book-adrienne-raphel-9780525522102","title":"Thinking Inside the Box","description":"\u003cb\u003eThis cultural and personal history of crosswords and their fans, written by an aficionado, is diverting, informative, and discursive. --\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eEditors' Choice\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA delightful, erudite, and immersive exploration of the crossword puzzle and its fascinating history\u003cbr\u003e \u003cb\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Almost as soon as it appeared, the crossword puzzle became indispensable to our lives. Invented practically by accident in 1913, when a newspaper editor at the\u003ci\u003e New York World\u003c\/i\u003e was casting around for something to fill empty column space, it became a roaring commercial success almost overnight. Ever since then, the humble puzzle has been an essential ingredient of any newspaper worth its salt. But why, exactly, are the crossword's satisfactions so sweet? \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Blending first-person reporting from the world of crosswords with a delightful telling of its rich literary history, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secrets of this classic pastime. \u003ci\u003eThinking Inside the Box \u003c\/i\u003eis an ingenious love letter not just to the abiding power of the crossword but to the infinite joys and playful possibilities of language itself.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50354047746321,"sku":"CIN0525522107G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51702065430801,"sku":"CIN0525522107VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0525522107.jpg?v=1751358891"},{"product_id":"our-dark-academia-book-adrienne-raphel-9781734831641","title":"Our Dark Academia","description":"\u003cp\u003eYes you, you chose to carve out this moment for you. No one else gets this time just for you, chirps the onscreen calisthenics coach. It's midnight. \u003ci\u003eOur Dark Academia\u003c\/i\u003e's contingent academic anti-heroine is perpetually working, trying to work it out. She's lonely but onscreen. I don't feel anything at all it is so fun to be alive  she lies. Meanwhile, is this new sensation grief or a groin pull? Who's in the waiting room? Is it too late to join the symposium? To buy organic greens? To save up? Save anything? With unsettling humor, Adrienne Raphel traces the suspect filigrees of the late late stage advanced degrees, wellness trends, inherited trinketry, GIFs of inspo lynx. Sliding with formal dynamism from sonnet crown to sestina, Wiki page to personal statement, crossword to quiz, \u003ci\u003eOur Dark Academia\u003c\/i\u003e captures the exuberant florid panicked acrobatics of this time at the edge of time.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51049661726993,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51049665200401,"sku":"NIN9781734831641","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1734831642.jpg?v=1750864332"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-au\/collections\/author-books-by-adrienne-raphel.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}