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MARSHMALLOW MADNESS by Shauna Sever ($3.99)

AMAZON / BARNES & NOBLE / IBOOKSTORE / KOBO

If you’ve never tasted a fresh, homemade marshmallow, are you in for a treat! Marshmallow Madness! shows how to whip up dozens of fluffy, puffy flavors—from Strawberry and Vanilla to Buttered Rum, Root Beer Float, Maple Bacon, and more. Author Shauna Sever also includes easy recipes for homemade graham crackers, drinks for mallow dunking, and a host of irresistible desserts, including Lemon Dream Whoopie Pies, Blonde Rocky Road, and S’mores Cupcakes.

Here at Quirk, we love watching our books get transformed into apps when the opportunity presents itself. Check out a few examples of that, here. 

Last week, we released our latest venture into book-to-app with How to Con Your Kid. Our new friends at Papertrell did an absolutely amazing job, and you can get the app now in the App Store and via Google Play. 

To celebrate, we want to give YOU a chance to be one of the first to try the app out! We've got a Rafflecopter set up below, and you can enter to win a download code for How to Con Your Kid plus a copy of the original book. Winners will be contacted via email, and will have their choice of iOS or Android codes. 

Good luck! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We sure do love Tapestry. Last time we made something for them, it was this fun William Shakespeare's Star Wars story. This time around, we're sharing some photos from Find Momo.

Tap along and see if you can find our favorite border collie. And be sure to check out our other stories on Tapestry, and follow Momo's adventures at gofindmomo.com. 

So fashion! Wow. Such style! Very haute! Amaze.

Here at the Quirk HQ, we love the hilarious, grammatical disaster that is the "doge" meme. And by we, I mean myself, editorial assistant Blair Thornburgh, and frequent Quirk blogger Brian Morrell. True story, Brian's favorite doges in literature post is a treasured piece of writing that is referenced weekly via Gchat. 

This April, Quirk is proud to be publishing Haute Dogs by Russell van Kraayyenburg. Full of fancy and appropriately "haute" hot dog recipes, it's just a great cookbook packed with amazing recipes and beautiful food photography. And we'd like to give you a chance to win a copy, in the silliest way possible.

We'd like you to Photoshop your own Haute Doge, and send it over to us here at Quirk! Take the wonderful doge we all know and love, and make that puppy look as fashionable and hip as possible. You can email us your hilarious image (to [email protected]) or tweet it to @QuirkBooks. We'll pick our five favorites on March 10th, post them here on the blog, and send you an early copy of Haute Dogs! 

Note: You can grab the original photo over at Know Your Meme. 

Good luck! Be amaze! 

I was pretty excited when the announcement regarding the latest LEGO video game dropped back in December. I mean, I already have the fantastic Lord of the Rings LEGO video game, and I adored all of the Harry Potter LEGO video games… but now there's going to be a Hobbit adaptation?

And the LEGO minifig looks like Martin Freeman? YES! 

Okay, okay, I get it. The game is more of an adaptation of the movie and not the book. It specifically focuses on the first two films, An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, and chances are the third game will end up being some standalone title or (evil) DLC. But you know what? I'm okay with that.

Because Martin Freeman minifig. 

But let's talk about others works of literature that might make for amazing LEGO video games. Because I want them, and because several people have already gone ahead and made projects inspired by these literary masterpieces. Let's go! 

Image via Flickr

MOBY DICK: A thrilling adventure on the high seas! LEGO minifigs running around a ship, whaling, floating around on rowboats, and oh yeah, chasing after a massive white LEGO whale?

And can you imagine the beautiful brick waves of water? Yes. Yes you can. Let's do this, video game developers. 

SHERLOCK HOLMES: Remember when I went crazy over the Martin Freeman minifigs? WELL I'M NOT DONE YET.

Someone went ahead and made Sherlock inspired LEGOs. Let's hire this person to be the designer on the Sherlock Holmes LEGO video game. Do some serious sleuthing around a brick world. Also, more plastic block shaped Martin Freeman. 

Image via Eurobricks

THE LAST OF THE MOHICANS: A LEGO video game adaptation of James Fenimore Cooper's classic work of literature? I'd play it. Perhaps, just perhaps, we could get Daniel Day Lewis on board to reprise his role, and provide the voice over for Nathaniel. A boy can dream.

THE ODYSSEY: Someone already went to the (amazing, incredible) trouble of recreating this scene in LEGO, and seriously, the epicness is pretty astounding. Seeing as how Homer's works are frequently getting new films, TV series, and are the inspiration for countless other works, a LEGO video game just feels right, you know? 

Image via Flickr

THE HUNGER GAMES: I VOLUNTEER! I VOLUNTEER AS LEGO TRIBUTE!

You know, I'm actually really surprised this doesn't exist yet. Maybe it's because the whole teenagers killing teenagers thing wouldn't gel with the whole "rated E for Everybody" ranking LEGO games get. That's probably it. Whatever, I'd play it.

Bonus, watch this trailer done up in LEGOs. Awesome. 

Long John Silver via Flickr

TREASURE ISLAND: Robert Louis Stevenson's classic would make for a great LEGO video game. And LEGO is almost there! There's already a LEGO Treasure Island… although it isn't quite what we're looking for. And there are plenty of pirate playsets. Come on guys, let's do this. 

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Alright guys, I've gone on long enough. What are some pieces of literature YOU'D like to play as a LEGO video game? 

Bloggers! The final book in Ben H. Winters' amazing, Edgar award winning The Last Policeman trilogy, World of Trouble, will collide with bookstores everywhere this July. I can't wait to see how things wrap up for Detective Hank Palace, and I want to get you just as excited about it as I am.

We released the first book, The Last Policeman, in 2012, with the second book, Countdown City, following just last year. For those of you who haven't taken a trip into Ben's fantastic pre-apocalyptic world, I want to give you that chance before the final book hits. So if you'd like to get familiar with the series I'd be more than happy to send you the first two books to review on your book blog or BookTube channel. 

Or if you're just curious how many asteroid puns I can make in a single email (spoiler: a lot), you can reach out to me at [email protected].