When it comes to all things rare, strange and peculiar, there’s one common denominator: Jules Torti. In this, her fourth book, she explores sensory heritage, the birthday paradox, broken heart syndrome, superstitions, signs, kooky diets, ylang ylang and falling airplane parts statistics.

Life lessons learned from a wayward racing pigeon named Marge and a gull that stole her egg salad sandwich at the beach make sound sense in a book that includes everything from lost wedding rings to Belinda Carlisle lyrics to the fine print on insurance coverage for suborbital flights.

If you’ve ever wondered about prosthetic wings for butterflies, Bill Murray (in general), star-nosed moles and lucky rabbit foot charms, Torti places these topics under a microscope (though she hasn’t used one since elementary school). In the moving spirit of My Octopus Teacher, Torti discovers she has many teachers, including, possibly, a local beaver.

Readers will be enlightened on the meandering path from balloon animals to wax museums to Gwyneth Paltrow’s vagina-scented candle line. It’s an irresistible ecosystem of unusual things and events that prove that rare moments are not as rare as you are led to believe. Insert a collection of shared stories from Torti’s circle that includes lottery winners, lightning strikes, bizarre accidents involving port-a-potties, dishwashers and a cow. Who has friends who have been bitten by a beaver, mongoose and scorpion (not all at once)? Maybe you’re nodding along and realizing that nothing is as rare as rocking horse manure anymore.

Even Oprah makes an appearance.

Jules Torti is the author of Free to a Good Home: With Room for Improvement, Trail Mix: 920km on the Camino de Santiago and Been There, Ate That: A Candy-Coated Childhood. She is the former editor-in-chief of Harrowsmith magazine and has been published in Cottage Life, Coast Mountain Culture, Our Homes, NOW, FASHION, The Globe and Mail and Vancouver Sun. Torti is currently the chief content creator at Wild Women Expeditions and is mostly at-large in destinations like Tanzania, Indonesia and anywhere due south. She lives with her wife on the 45th parallel in Lion's Head, Ontario — halfway to the North Pole and (better yet) halfway to the equator. Her affection for bizarre beers and questionable foods is no secret. Ask her to go on a long walk and she?ll suggest crossing the Pyrenees and hiking across Spain. A lifelong blogger, jogger and egg nogger, Jules Torti insists on writing about the best things in life: burgers, beer, books, birds and beaches — in no particular order. When she grows up she hopes to be an official paint chip colour namer, wine label or beer coaster writer and/or fortune cookie message creator.

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