Adrienne Raphel

Enjoyable history of the crossword puzzle. I can't believe that it's only been around less than 100 years. I will definitely add articles about it to my ongoing list of popular objects of public outrage that use the same abit-argument: coffee, comic books, D&D, hard rock, rap, video games, ... I had no idea that crosswords corrupted the youth.

I didn't like how the author inserted herself into the story. YMMV. She did list sources for her quotes in the back,, which redeems it a bit.

I'm not a better solver for reading Rapel's book, but crosswords are more fun now, and I do recognize forms and styles and how the puzzle might have been built.

The first two chapters about the history of the modern crossword are mildly interesting and if you are a fan of Will Shortz, the third chapter about him is worth reading as well. Unfortunately the rest of the book feels mostly like a bunch of potential magazine articles stretched out and turned into chapters. None are particularly interesting and these later chapters take time to get through and frankly you would be better off using this time to solve more crosswords instead.

nonfiction
the first 1/3-1/2 was ok; the rest was pointless trash.