TITLE: Dirty Tricks; When Doves Cry: The Art of Sabotage AUTHOR: Unknown ORIGIN: Bob’s Burgers (television series, episode 4x10, “Presto Tina-o,” 2014)

Have you ever found yourself needing to ruin a magician’s act? Maybe you’re opponents in a magic competition. Maybe one declared you an Enemy of Magic and put a magic curse on you. Maybe you were one’s assistant and he wouldn’t listen to any of your suggestions and just danced instead of doing the actual trick and left you trapped in the box and it’s super frustrating even if he does have a really cute butt.

If so, this is the book for you! From simple acts like stapling the secret pockets in their cape shut to more elaborate eight-week-long schemes involving twenty-five rabbits and a fire hose, you’ll learn everything you need to find the heart of their act and cut it out. If you only buy one magic sabotage book this year, make it this one!

I. Handbooks and manuals — Stage magic — Sabotage II. Character illumination — A turn to the Dark Side — Pushed too far III. Character illumination — Vengeance is mine — What have I done

TITLE: How to Cook for Forty Humans AUTHOR: Unknown Rigellian gourmand ORIGIN: The Simpsons (television series, episode 2x3, "The Simpsons Halloween Special," aka "Treehouse of Horror," segment "Hungry Are the Damned," 1990)

A cookbook from Rigel IV, written specifically if you are... serving humans. The recipes within will give those humans the perfect flavor, helping them to grow large with food, in order to properly prepare them as the guests of honor at the Grand Feast. If they pause eating long enough between courses, perhaps you will be able to chew the fat with them. Be aware, though, some unfortunately placed space dust and the astonishing coincidence that the English and Rigellian languages are exactly the same may give your humans the unfortunate idea that you want to actually eat them! Truly a ridiculous and insulting thought.

I. Reference — Cookbooks — Normal human food II. Plot twists — Misunderstandings — Wordplay trouble III. Parodies — Twilight Zone — Untwist the twist

TITLE: The Corpse Danced at Midnight AUTHOR: Jessica Fletcher (writing as J.B. Fletcher) ORIGIN: Murder She Wrote (television series, episode 1x1, “The Murder of Sherlock Holmes," 1984)

The bestselling debut novel by celebrated mystery author Jessica "J.B." Fletcher. Formerly a substitute English teacher, Fletcher wrote The Corpse Danced at Midnight as a way to pass the time after the death of her husband, Frank. Though she never intended to actually publish the book — her nephew set the manuscript to a publisher without her knowledge — it quickly became a bestseller and led to Fletcher publishing at least forty additional mystery novels over the next twenty years. She also developed a reputation as a keen detective in her own right, solving the many, many murders that seem to occur wherever she goes and that made her home town of Cabot Cove, Maine (population 3,560) into the per-capita murder capital of the world.

While a film adaptation of The Corpse Danced at Midnight (with added violence and nudity) was optioned shortly after its publication, the film's production was halted by the untimely murder of the film's producer by its lead actress. The only other known adaptation of the novel is an audiobook for the blind, read by Fletcher herself.

SPOILERS: It was the pregnant ballerina, with the poison.

I. Fiction — Mystery — Dance-themed II. Successes (accidental) — Inadvertent publication — Who would want to read something I wrote? III. Character illumination — Establishing moments — Skills and abilities

Original art by @foldingfittedsheets. Check out their Commissionpalooza!

TITLE: Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie AUTHOR: Mabel Syrup ORIGIN: Calvin and Hobbes (comic strip; July 10, 1988; created by Bill Watterson)

The charming childhood story of Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie, which tells the memorable story of... a hamster named Huey and a kablooie that is gooey, is beloved by children and known by parents the world over. The book is perfect for reading at bedtime, as long as the reader remembers to do all the squeaky voices, gooshy sound effects, and of course the Happy Hamster Hop, and refrains from making Hamster Huey speak very sarcastically, do everything very fast, or get decapitated. Your child will surely love this book just as much the thousandth time they hear it as they did the first, and will demand to hear it a thousand and first time, regardless of whether or not you want to read it over and over and over and over.

If you enjoyed Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie, be on the lookout for Mabel Syrup's upcoming sequel, Commander Coriander Salamander and 'er Singlehander Bellylander! And if you didn't enjoy Hamster Huey... you may also want to be on the lookout for it, just in case. [Donated by Calvin's dad, who says "Just keep it, please. I'll tell him his tiger ate it or something."]

I. Children's books — Character Name and the Noun Phrase — Kablooies (gooey) II. Favorite books — Bedtime stories — Read it to me again, and again, and again.... III. Running gags — Just a funny title — Left to the imagination

TITLE: From Outer Space AUTHOR: Jose Chung ORIGIN: The X-Files (television show, episode 3x20, “Jose Chung's From Outer Space,” 1996)

A "nonfiction science fiction" novel by celebrated thriller author Jose Chung, From Outer Space tells a fictionalized account of the alien abduction of two teenagers in Klass County, Washington. Based upon extensive interviews with the victims, an eyewitness, the discoverer of a dead alien body, the local police, and one of the primary FBI investigators, Chung discovers multiple conflicting stories that involve a fake alien abduction interrupted by a real alien abduction, a bestial creature named "Lord Kinbote," multiple levels of hypnosis and false memories, a real autopsy of a false alien, an Air Force cover-up, a reincarnated souls sex orgy at the center of the Earth, mysterious "men in black" (one of whom may or may not be Alex Trebek), and the consumption of an entire sweet potato pie. While some aspects of the story seem certain, the full truth of what happened to those two teens that night may never be known.

I. Fiction — Science fiction — Alien abductions II. True crime — Unreliable narrators — It was definitely aliens III. Metanarratives — Self-parody — An outsider's perspective