Thank you to the author, BooksGoSocial and NetGalley, for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of odd facts and interesting stories is fun reading, especially for those like me, who don't mind diving down various internet rabbit holes. The content is loosely grouped under headings like true crime stories, secrets of famous people, unbelievable inventions, hoaxes and scams. Told with humor, it's a quick read - ideal also for situations where you can only read bits and pieces at a time. However, I could have done without the quiz questions at the end of each chapter, and the self-promotion in the middle somewhere.

Epic True Tales And Crazy Stories by Owen Janssen is a very highly recommended entertaining collection of true stories, trivia, and trifles.

This is a good choice for those who love to collect and share interesting little facts. The short, pithy tales are told in an engaging manner with humor and details. As I was reading, I kept thinking that this would be an excellent choice for kids, upper elementary and up. It would captivate the younger group and could encourage older, struggling readers with the interesting stories. Each fact/story is presented in a succinct manner, fast and to the point. For the older crowd, the short selections make a perfect choice for quick reading while waiting or in-between tasks.

Chapters include: Histories Hidden Side; True Crime; The Famous and Their Little Secrets; Inventions; Stretching the Truth: Hoaxes and Scams; Sport and Sports; Science, Nature, and Animals; Pop Culture; and Fabulous Flops. Each chapter is followed by a Bonus Interrogation section (5 questions) and Answers to the questions.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Owen Jannsen via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and Amazon.

Interesting and well written I just personally couldn’t get into the story. Difficult to follow at times and a little slow. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

A book that will not only make you giggle but proper belly laugh. I throughly enjoyed this book and the stories had me laughing out loud.
Thank you to both the publishers and NetGalley for gifting me this wonderful book

Full of interesting facts. I found this book to be charming. The author has a great sense of humor. I will recommend this book to others who love books like this.

Really fun and enjoyable! Good as a present or coffee table book, and great to use as a conversation starter!

Some people love random bits of trivia or tidbits of information.. if that is your jam this book is definitely for you and you’ll love it. And there is definitely a market for that! Or if you’re looking for creative ways to divert your social media scrolling habits…. this maybe be a good solution as the stories in each chapter are really short and can be read probably in about 1-2 minutes. This book is a quick, delightfully light read that has overall positivity to it. Maybe it’s what you might need after reading something heavy - a quick palate cleanser.

The quizzes at the end aren’t funny questions like the subtitle of the book suggests; They're really just questions about the facts you read. Would have liked it if the questions were funnier… Something like should the prisoner get a lighter sentence for outsmarting everyone running the prison and hacking the prison system? Or what’s more impressive, Russians drinking their whole country dry or conning 1000 men to fight you and give you 10,000 horses? Or.. Do you think it was hard to work for someone who was considered one of the greatest minds in technology but also couldn’t understand the basic fundamentals of a healthy diet?

However, overall this was quite meh for me. It’s a fun idea that falls a bit short. I wish there was more personality or humor in the writing as I feel the title suggests. The author relies heavily on the “crazy stories” to carry themselves - would have liked it if there was a little more storytelling in there. It’s written very matter-of-fact and almost reads like a very lengthy Buzzfeed article.

From the title and the description, I was not expecting a book rich in historical insight and analysis. I picked up this book as a light-hearted, change-of-pace read. In that sense, Janssen's Epic True Tales and Crazy Stories lived up to its billing. It is an easy read that hits on a large variety of topics. And there was plenty of information with which I was not familiar.

That being said, I was still rather disappointed in the book. It lacked significance - so many of the stories were of trivial impact. There is plenty of history that, even if amusing and unexpected, made a difference - the majority of these stories did not do so. Further, they were not fully developed - many were just a few bare-bones facts with little detail or context. The cadaver synod is a case in point: A remarkable episode to be sure. But it took place within the context of the struggle between Church and state (specifically the Holy Roman Empire) and had several other "chapters" to what happened.

If someone wants a quick, diverting read, by all means pick this up. But if you are looking for real history, there may be better options.

A page turner of true crazy tales that has you hooked with each turn of the page.I would recommend this book to everyone interested in tales far from the norm.

Strange and unknown truths.
True but odd tidbits from ancient history to today, pop culture to stupid criminals. And more!
Very interesting but the writing is a bit dry and bland. I know the author has personality because it comes out in his forewords and requests for reviews. I would've liked to see a bit more of that in each little piece.

Overall, a quick and interesting read.

Brilliant book that is very easy to dip in and out of. Its well written and well researched, Janssen has a great way of writing and its perfect for those who love odd stories. The trivia questions were good fun too. Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Super fun book! Anything that mentions the Great Emu War is good. There a lot of facts I didn’t know mixed in with a little more detail on things I already knew.

This was written in a fun, easy to read way. I liked the little quizzes at the end. I hated the “leave a review” part after chapter 3. I would have rated it higher if that wasn’t there, or at least at the end of the book. If I was the average reader, I might not review because of that.

Except for that, I recommend this to anyone who loves trivia.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this!

Homeschool family, APPROVED!

You don’t have to be a homeschool family to really enjoy this trivia type book. It has TONS of seriously interesting facts and some seem entirely impossible. The content lives up to the title.

Each section has a paragraph or so of information per factoid. I like the way that the book is laid out so you don’t have to read the whole thing at once. I wouldn’t consider this a small kid book by a means. If you love Trivia and History with some silly but true facts, you will LOVE this book!

My husband and I had a great time reading these facts, my 6 year old only grasped SOME of the info. I would say this is perfect for more than 9/10+ range and up.

The “Bonus Interrogation” question at the end of each section was SUPER fun and set up like trivia questions.

Highly recommend and would make a great gift for anyone who loves learning interesting facts.

This book has super interesting stories, ranging from history to sports and celebrity trivia. However, my rating went down a bit because of the format. It is marketed as "A genuinely hilarious book of outrageous events, entertaining world history, and funny true stories for adults!", but the quizzes at the end of each section kinda throw the 'adult' part out of the window. I thought it was a bit silly and if it wasn't for that I would've given this 5 stars for the content and writing.

Truth is stranger than fiction, as the old saying goes. The truth can also be far more entertaining than fiction because life gets really bizarre sometimes.”

What do you do when you only have a few minutes. Perhaps your brewing a cup of tea or sitting on the loo , then you need this book by your side.
Or like me you can just devour it in one hit!

These are fantastic little bite sized pieces of trivia and you will feel like you are watching QI whilst reading about crazy stories ranging from Julius Caesar to Taylor Swift!

I thought this would be a bit of a novelty read but actually I really enjoyed it l and learned a lot of great trivia .
I think it would be a great gift and I would highly recommend !

I love books like these, lots of odd little facts and amusing stories. What makes this book different from others I have read is that at the end of each chapter were 5 questions with answers on the following pages. Two benefits to this, firstly it helps check if you've been paying attention, secondly I read some of them out to my wife, unsurprisingly she had no idea to the answers, but was very interested in the answers, a great chance to encourage someone else to read it!

Fun, knowledgeable and amusing book. very entertaining. Short stories to read everywhere - on a bus, train or listen (audiobook) when biking. Recommend for lovers of trivia.

Good book. I like how it had the trivia questions at the end of each of the chapters. That was fun. I've never seen a; book like that before.

This was so fun to read! I love trivia and just learning things in general, so this book was perfect for me! I already know people who also love this type of thing and plan to gift this book to them maybe during the holidays this year. The stories are quick, fascinating, and weirdly funny even! I absolutley loved this. Thank you so much for this ARC!!!

An informative, fun, goofy, entertaining book.

I love these types of books for the fun trivia contained within.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.