Our Blog

There are plenty of books about M.I.T. whiz kids who have beaten blackjack and won big money–but those math geeks don’t have a clue about the business of running a casino or how Las Vegas coaxes guests into gambling away more than $7.6 billion every year.

A good pit boss, on the other hand, can tell you exactly why the house always wins. Pit bosses supervise the dealers, identify con artists, approve insanely high wagers, and (more than anything else) protect the casino’s money. In Casino Confidential, a licensed pit boss reveals how casinos stack the odds in their favor and how you can improve your own chances of winning. You’ll discover tricks and traps used to disorient players (there’s a reason why you won’t find any 90-degree angles in modern Las Vegas casinos) as well as essential strategies of blackjack, poker, roulette, craps, baccarat, pai gow, slot machines, and video poker. Plus you’ll learn why many of the most popular gambling systems (like counting cards) are barely worth the effort. Casino Confidential is filled with information that Las Vegas doesn’t want you to know.

ANONYMOUS would face serious consequences if he had published this book under his own name. He has worked as a dealer and pit boss for most of his adult life, and he lives in Nevada.

Quirk’s Amazing Magical Wonder Deck charmed amateur and professional magicians with its gorgeous aesthetic and fiendishly clever card tricks. Now these same readers can experience a complete course in magic with Mysterio’s Encyclopedia of Magic and Conjuring—a giant compilation of more than 300 tricks and variations.

Here are illustrated step-by-step instructions for rope tricks, money magic, mind-reading effects, stage illusions, everyday magic, and plenty of all-new card tricks. Readers will learn how to bend spoons, stretch handkerchiefs, levitate glassware, make small children disappear, shuffle playing cards with aplomb, and much more—everything from simple street-magic effects to epic on-stage illusions. Mysterio’s Encyclopedia of Magic and Conjuring is a beautifully designed reference for magicians of all ages and abilities.

GABE FAJURI is an associate editor of Magic, the world’s leading trade journal for magicians. He also publishes scholarly titles on the subject of conjuring. He lives in Chicago.

Forget Yinglish. Put aside Franglais. It’s time to brush up on Spanglish—the Latino Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup of languages that’s sweeping the nation!

In Pardon My Spanglish, stand-up comic Bill Santiago chronicles the quintessentially American joys of his mother tongue: the quirky, often hilarious fusion of Latino Spanish and American English spoken everywhere from the barrio to the local mall.

Readers will learn:
• The pseudo-syntax of Spanglish (as observed by a comedian with no formal training in
linguistics whatsoever)
• The Top Ten Best Things About Spanglish (#7: Gives you a competitive edge in Spanglish Scrabble)
• Why People en Español is not simply called Gente
• Classic gaffes every Spanglish-speaking gringo should avoid (“Estoy embarasado” does not mean you’re embarrassed—it means you’re pregnant)

Full of indispensable tips and witty observations, Pardon My Spanglish is a hilarious celebration of Latino culture.

BILL SANTIAGO is a stand-up comedian who debuted nationally on Comedy Central’s Premium Blend and appears regularly on The Late Show with Conan O’Brien. He lives in New York City.

The English language is full of words that sounds obscene but aren’t. Terms like arsole (an organic chemical compound) and crack spread (a calculation showing theoretical market values of petroleum). Words like cunctator (a person who procrastinates, delays, or wastes time) and spotted dick (a traditional English dessert made with hot, thick custard).

Seventh-grade language arts teacher Eric Groves Sr. has spent years listening to his students giggle after he used words like thespian, coccyx, and masticate. Now he has compiled hundreds of these foul-sounding terms into a delightfully innocent dictionary, complete with illustrated definitions of their true meanings. From air cock (a valve on a boiler) and bushmaster (a large venomous snake) to cummingtonite (a mineral) and beyond, Butt Rot and Bottom Gas is a wonderful reference for word lovers and the snickering seventh grader in all of us.

ERIC GROVES SR. is a middle-school teacher in California.

Porn is more mainstream than ever-witness recent bestsellers by Jenna Jameson, Traci Lords, the Vivid Girls, and Pamela Anderson. Continuing this fine tradition is The Big Book of Porn, a friendly, funny celebration of adult movies. Chapters include:

• Know Your Classics: The 25 most important adult films.
• Great Moments in Porn History: From the first stag movie to the invention of the VCR.
• The Pantheon of Porn: These mini-bios of mega-stars like Seka and Ron Jeremy are filled with surprising trivia.
• It’s a Porn World, After All: Adult movies from Canada, Japan, even Afghanistan.
• Make Your Own Porno: All you need is a video camera, a willing partner, and these simple pointers (”Tell a story,” “Start with a bang,” “Parody a real film title”).

Best of all, The Big Book of Porn is illustrated with classic posters, stills, and production shots from the smutty ’70s to the present day. Provocative, authoritative, and laugh-out-loud funny, The Big Book of Porn is a proud celebration of history’s most scandalous art form.

SETH GRAHAME-SMITH lives with his incredibly tolerant wife in Los Angeles.

If you’re looking for another stodgy, holier-than-thou “connoisseur’s” book, you’ve come to the wrong place. The Big Book o’ Beer celebrates the wide world of beer in all its shameless glory-from the highbrow to the Löwenbräu, from trendy Belgian microbrews to the famous “old man bars” of Las Vegas. It’s packed with amazing photographs and fascinating beer-related information about history, geography, science, arts, crafts, and more.

Want to tour the ten biggest breweries on the planet? Interested in making dazzling arts and crafts from old beer cans? Need a recipe for beer-flavored ice cream? Want to know the science behind beer bellies, beer goggles, and beer foam? The Big Book o’ Beer has it all-plus drinking games, drinking songs, vintage cans, classic advertisements, an “atlas of beer,” and too many other features to list here. It’s an inspiring tribute that every cervezaphile (a.k.a. beer lover) will cherish!

DUANE SWIERCZYNSKI is the author of The Perfect Drink for Every Occasion. His writing has also appeared in Details and Men’s Health. He lives in Philadelphia.