You can experience a rigorous mental workout with just a lift of the pen and these 140 challenging crossword puzzles. Feel the burn as you tackle these tough crosswords created by renowned puzzle constructors. While some clues test your recall of historical knowledge (6-letter word for "Revolutionary rider"?-Revere) and vivid vocabulary (8-letter word for "jumble"?-pastiche), others challenge you with themes, from "tongue twisters" to "con men" to "Charles Dickens." There's even a retro selection of puzzles dating back to the 50s and 60s to put you through your pop culture paces (Actress Barrymore? Ethel, not Drew). In addition to standard 15 x 15 square crosswords, this collection includes unique 17 x 17 square designs to vary your workout for maximum brain building.

From Mensa® comes a series of super-challenging puzzles that go way beyond the average crossword—and also offer an authentic treasure-trove of wordplay demanding some skilled solving. Here’s how they go: each clue has two parts. One is the normal definition of an answer, while the other features a little linguistic playfulness—maybe an anagram, perhaps a pun, and sometimes even a word written backward. And the hitch is…there’s usually no indication of which comes first, or punctuation to mark the division. You’ve got to see through the clue-maker’s deceptions and tease out the correct answer by rethinking the clue’s wording. Some of the irresistible language trickery includes double definitions, hidden answers, homophones, and containers.