crossword puzzle book reviews

RS Recommends: The Best Crossword Books for Brain Health

By Natalli Amato

Natalli Amato

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

Just as you might go for a walk to exercise your heart and lungs, you can do activities to exercise your brain. Doing word games and puzzles is one of the best ways to exercise your brain and maintain your overall cognitive functioning. Whether you’re an avid puzzler or just getting started, crossword puzzles are a fun and effective means to take care of your mind.

Crossword Book Buying Guide

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Whether you’re a crossword novice or a pro, we’ve found some of the best crossword books you can buy right now on Amazon.

1. The New York Times Supersized Book of Sunday Crosswords

Lovers of the  New York Times  crosswords need this supersized crossword book. With 500 puzzles total, it’s the largest collection of Sunday crosswords that you can buy. Edited by experts Will Shotrz and Eugene T. Maleska, this collection of puzzles will bring you hours upon hours of good, challenging, crossword fun.

Buy The New York Times Supersized Book of… $13.61

2. The New York Times Crosswords for a Long Weekend

Another collection of New York Times  crosswords, this crossword book was edited with relaxation in mind. These crosswords range in difficulty from easy to hard and are best paired with a cup of coffee and a quiet morning in nature. With 200 puzzles total, you’ll want to bring this crossword book along on your next vacation.

Buy The New York Times Crosswords for a… $13.47

3. The Ultimate Brain Health Crossword Puzzle Book for Adults

If you’re new to crosswords and want to take up the hobby to improve your brain health, this crossword book is an excellent place to start. The puzzles in this book span three different levels of difficulties, cover fun themes, and even feature some clues to help get your gears turning. The 84 puzzles in this book are organized by increasing difficulty level, so you can build up your abilities and track your progress.

Buy The Ultimate Brain Health Crossword… $10.99

4. Brain Games Crossword Puzzles

Crossword puzzles are an entertaining way to challenge your mind, as long as you’re not straining your eyes. These jumbo-print puzzles are easy on your eyes and make crossword puzzles far more accessible. This crossword book has over 80 different puzzles, and they get harder as the book goes on. We also appreciate how the solutions are included at the back of the book.

Buy Brain Games Crossword Puzzles $10.69

5. Entertainment Crosswords

Trivia buffs, get ready to have fun with this themed crossword book. All 100 of the crossword puzzles in this collection are about entertainment. Whether you love movies, music, broadway, sports, or TV, there’s something here for you. Even entertainment experts will find a challenge here; the puzzles start off easy but get increasingly difficult. 

Buy Entertainment Crosswords

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5 Best Crossword Puzzle Books for Every Skill Level

Crossword puzzle books are a great way to challenge your mind while having fun. They’re an enjoyable pastime for many individuals, regardless of their skill level. It’s always exciting to complete a crossword puzzle that you previously thought was too challenging. In this article, we’ve compiled a list of the best crossword puzzle books for every skill level. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, we’ve got you covered.

Why Crossword Puzzle Books are Great for All Skill Levels

Crossword puzzles books are a fantastic way to keep your brain active. They challenge you to use creative thinking and problem-solving skills. Crossword puzzles are also beneficial to your language skills and vocabulary. They can be a helpful tool to improve certain aspects of your cognitive abilities. Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, crossword puzzles books are an excellent way to sharpen your mind.

Benefits of Crossword Puzzles for the Brain

Crossword puzzles engage multiple areas of the brain that are essential for cognitive functioning. They require you to use your memory recall, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills. The more you engage in these activities, the better your brain becomes at performing them. As a result, completing crossword puzzles daily as part of your routine helps maintain cognitive function as you age.

Moreover, crossword puzzles are a great way to improve your focus and concentration. They require you to pay attention to the clues and fill in the blanks, which helps to improve your attention span. This can be beneficial in other areas of your life, such as work or school, where you need to stay focused for extended periods.

How Crossword Puzzles Improve Vocabulary and Language Skills

Crossword puzzles incorporate a range of words and definitions. Completing puzzles daily can help you learn new words and remember their meanings, which can improve your language skills. This is especially helpful for individuals learning English as a second language. By completing crossword puzzles, you can expand your vocabulary and learn new words in context, which can help you communicate more effectively.

Additionally, crossword puzzles can help you improve your spelling and grammar. As you fill in the blanks, you’ll begin to recognize patterns in words and how they’re spelled. This can help you become a better writer and communicator.

The Role of Crossword Puzzles in Reducing Stress and Anxiety

Crossword puzzles are excellent for reducing stress and anxiety. They provide a challenging and fun distraction from daily stressors. Completing crossword puzzles causes the brain to release endorphins, which are feel-good hormones, bringing a sense of calm and relaxation.

Moreover, crossword puzzles can help you take a break from technology and screen time. In today’s world, we’re constantly bombarded with notifications, emails, and social media updates. Taking a break from technology and engaging in a crossword puzzle book can be a refreshing change of pace.

In conclusion, crossword puzzle books are an excellent way to keep your brain active and improve your cognitive abilities. They offer a range of benefits, from improving your language skills to reducing stress and anxiety. So, whether you’re a beginner or an expert, pick up a crossword puzzle book today and start challenging your mind!

Beginner Crossword Puzzle Books

Are you looking to challenge your mind and have some fun at the same time? Crossword puzzles are a great way to do just that! If you’re a beginner, don’t worry – there are plenty of crossword puzzle books out there that are perfect for you. Here are some of our top picks:

The New York Times Light and Easy Crossword Puzzles

As one of the most well-known newspapers in the world, The New York Times knows a thing or two about crossword puzzles. This crossword puzzle book is perfect for beginners. It features puzzles of varying difficulty levels, ranging from very easy to moderate. It includes 75 crossword puzzles and solutions, making it a great value. You’ll love the feeling of accomplishment you get when you complete each puzzle!

You can find this book here .

Funster Crossword Puzzle Book for Adults

If you’re looking for a puzzle book that’s both fun and challenging, the Funster Crossword Puzzle Book for Adults is for you. This book is filled with 101 puzzles that are designed to be both entertaining and engaging. They are large print, easy-to-read puzzles, perfect for those with vision impairments. The puzzles are also designed with fun clues and solutions, so you’ll never get bored.

The Everything Easy Crossword Puzzle Book

If you’re looking for a puzzle book that will keep you busy for a while, The Everything Easy Crossword Puzzle Book is a great choice. This book contains 200 easy crossword puzzles that are perfect for beginners. The clues are straightforward, and the puzzles increase in difficulty as you progress through the book. You’ll love the feeling of accomplishment you get when you complete each puzzle!

So whether you’re looking for a fun way to pass the time or you want to challenge your mind, these beginner crossword puzzle books are sure to do the trick. Happy puzzling!

The New York Times Monday Through Friday Easy to Tough Crossword Puzzles

Are you an avid puzzler looking for a challenge? Look no further than these intermediate crossword puzzle books. The New York Times Monday Through Friday Easy to Tough Crossword Puzzles is perfect for those who have completed beginner-level puzzles and are looking for a steady increase in difficulty. With puzzles throughout the week, you’ll be able to build your skills and challenge yourself with the most difficult puzzles on Fridays.

Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book

For a more diverse experience, check out the Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book . With over 300 puzzles and a variety of themes and styles, you’ll never get bored. The book even includes rebus puzzles and cryptic clues to really put your puzzling skills to the test.

The Ultimate Crossword Puzzle Book for Adults

If you’re looking for a book with a clear progression of difficulty, The Ultimate Crossword Puzzle Book for Adults is the book for you. With 300 puzzles that start easy and get progressively more difficult, you’ll be able to challenge yourself and build your skills as you go.

The well-written clues will keep you engaged and entertained for hours on end. No matter which book you choose, these intermediate crossword puzzle books will provide a fun and challenging experience for any puzzle enthusiast. So grab a pencil and get ready to put your skills to the test!

Advanced Crossword Puzzle Books

The new york times sunday crossword puzzles volume 50.

From the most popular newspaper in the United States, this book provides the ultimate crossword puzzle experience. The Sunday puzzles are the most challenging and incorporate the most intricate wordplay and themes.

The New Yorker Crossword Puzzle Book

The New Yorker crossword puzzles are notoriously challenging. This book features 50 of the most challenging crosswords designed to test even the most advanced crossword enthusiasts. The book also includes notes and explanations for some of the more challenging puzzles.

The Times Cryptic Crossword Book

For those who are up for the ultimate challenge, this book is an excellent choice. The Times Cryptic Crossword puzzles are notoriously challenging. They require a level of skill and expertise that is unmatched in the world of crossword puzzles. This book is sure to provide a challenging and fun crossword puzzle experience.

In conclusion, crossword puzzles are an exciting and beneficial pastime for individuals of all skill levels. Whether you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced, we’ve compiled a list of the best crossword puzzle books that will help challenge and entertain you. Remember to have fun while solving puzzles. Happy puzzling!

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16 Best and Easy Crossword Puzzle Books for Adults (2024)

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Read through this article as we list the best crossword puzzle books for adults. Favorite crossword puzzle books, with options for beginners, intermediate, and advanced puzzlers, with picks from Simon & Schuster, the New York Times, and more.

As the name suggests, a crossword game is a kind of simulation game with classic crossword gameplay as the main content. Players will complete the level by crossword in the game. 

Most of these games have rich levels and can be divided according to different voices. It is a good choice to pass the time. 

Crosswords are a great drink and show you that there's a lot of common sense you don't know. There is nothing wrong with watching TV variety shows and online news every day. However, if you have time, you can still read books, especially those outside your major.

If I like to crosswords, I want to find the blind spot of my knowledge and know that I still have many doors that have not been opened.

The editor has compiled some interesting crossword puzzle books for adults. Many brain-burning challenge crosswords are here.

1.  Best Overall: Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #18

Sharpen your pencils—unless you dare to use a pen. The classic, bestselling crossword puzzle series returns with 300 new, never-before-published Thursday to Sunday-sized brain breakers.

In 1924, Simon & Schuster published its first title, The Crossword Puzzle Book. Not only was it the publisher’s first release, but it was also the first collection of crossword puzzles ever printed. 

Today, more than 90 years later, Simon & Schuster’s legendary crossword puzzle book series continues with a brand-new collection of 300 crosswords, which offer hours of stimulation for solvers of every level. 

Created by the best contemporary constructors—and edited by top puzzle master John M. Samson—the Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #18 is designed with convenience in mind, featuring perforated pages so you can tear out puzzles individually and work on them on the go. 

This new super-sized book will delight existing fans and challenge new puzzle enthusiasts as they discover this timeless and unique collection of puzzles.

2.  Best for Beginners: Easy Crossword Puzzles for Adults: Relax and Train Your Brain

GET IT ON AMAZON  

These 100 Easy Crossword Puzzles and Relax And Train Your Brain.

These challenges were written with the casual crossword puzzle aficionado in mind. I’ve always liked to do easy or medium puzzles, in fact, all the crossword books I own are completed up to the point the difficult ones begin.

Your mind and the minds of your friends deserve this entertaining workout, testing knowledge of words, trivia, and spelling.

If you enjoy the daily or weekly crosswords in the New York Times or other such papers, the puzzles in this book will be too easy for you.

We’ve made our puzzles in large type to make them easier on the eyes. 

This crossword puzzle book offers :

• 100 easy crossword puzzles to buoy the spirit and exercise the mind
• Hours and hours of captivating challenges
• Large grids make it easier to enter letters
• Easy and Medium level crosswords
• Hundreds of clues to solve

Great for limbering up the mind during breakfast, an evening’s entertainment, a break at the office, or to pass the time enjoyably while on a train or plane.

3.  Easy Crossword Puzzles For Adults 2022

Easy Crossword Puzzles For Adults 2022: Easy Crossword Puzzles Book For Adults, Seniors, Men, And Women With Solution.

Large-Print Crossword Puzzle Book

Book Details :

• 80 Crossword puzzles to buoy the spirit and exercise the mind
• Large-print puzzles and solutions
• Medium level crosswordsHundreds of clues to solve
• Cover: Glossy Cover
• 8.5×11 in (large print).
• All solutions are at the end of the book!

This Crossword Puzzle Book is a fun way for teens, adults, or seniors to sharpen their minds and test their General Knowledge Skills. Including Puzzles to keep you entertained for hours.

4. Best Medium Difficulty: The New York Times Wednesday Crossword Puzzle Omnibus

America's most popular crossword Solvers know that "The New York Times" provides the finest crosswords in the world, and here are 200 more great Will Shortz-edited creations to prove the point. 

Under Shortz's editorship, the "Times" crosswords have emphasized flexible vocabulary, spoken English, fun wordplay, and a hip, contemporary attitude. 

*200 crosswords drawn from Monday through Friday editions of "The New York Times"* Edited by crossword legend Will Shortz* Author bylines allow fans to get to know today's top puzzle makers.

5.  Best for Advanced Puzzlers: Hellishly Hard Fireball Crosswords: 45 Ultra-Tough Puzzles

Looking for puzzles hot enough to burn your brain? Crossword masochists—these 45 ultra-tough puzzles are for you! Beware: these super-hard puzzles will have your brain working on overdrive! 

But that's perfect if you're a solver who likes to get burned once in a while—especially by brilliantly executed crosswords with fiendishly challenging clues. 

Fans of the Friday and Saturday offerings from places like The New York Times will love the difficulty level and the devilishly wicked themes. 

There are even explanations in the back for the toughest clues, along with complete answer grids. Solve with a pen … if you dare!

6.  Best for History Buffs: Curious History of the Crossword: 100 Puzzles from Then and Now

2013 marks the 100th anniversary of the original crossword puzzle. Arthur Wynne was a British journalist working for a NY newspaper in 1913. 

He wanted to do a new game for the back of the newspaper, so he devised a diamond grid with no black squares. He called it a “Word Cross,” and thus the first crossword puzzle was born. 

In this book, crossword constructor Ben Tausig examines the curious history of the crossword and its evolution in the past 100 years. 

Each chapter compares puzzles from then and now and is accompanied by one hundred challenging puzzles for readers to complete (classic early puzzles will also be included). 

Chapters include : 

• Chapter 1 – Basic Expected Knowledge to Finish a Crossword, Then & Now 
• Chapter 2 – Transcendent Puzzle Themes, Then & Now 
• Chapter 3 – Esoteric Words, Then & Now 
• Chapter 4 – Humor in Crosswords, Then & Now 
• Chapter 5 – The Breakfast Table Rule, Then & Now 
• Chapter 6 – The Rise of Indie Puzzles 
• Chapter 7 -  How Puzzles Pass through Generations 
• Chapter 8 – Technology in Puzzles 
• Chapter 9 – The Great Constructors, Then & Now 
• Chapter 10 - Puzzle Economies 
• Chapter 11 - The Future of the Crossword

7. Best for Foodies: Food for Thought Crosswords

Hungry for great crosswords? Then feed your brain with these 72 tasty puzzles that feature food-related puns and themes. 

The menu offers options ranging from easy to more difficult, so there’s something for every solver to enjoy. Bon appétit!

8. Best Diagramless: Diagramless Crosswords (Volume 3)

When regular crossword puzzles prove too easy, wordsmiths need a harder challenge. Diagramless crosswords offer a new trial of wits and intelligence for even the most devoted acrostic lover.

Imagine your typical crossword puzzle, with clue numbers and black squares separating each answer. Now remove the black squares. Not challenging enough for you? Remove the clue numbers as well. 

Now you’re looking at a blank grid. You don’t just have to solve the puzzle clues—you must figure out where the clue answers and black separation squares fit on the board. It’s a challenge unlike any other.

Diagramless Crosswords: Volume 3 is puzzle creator Richard Emmons’s third foray into the bewildering, mind-bending world of diagramless crosswords. 

Inside this collection, you’ll find seventy-five puzzles of varying difficulty. Simpler puzzle grids measure eleven by eleven squares, while the real brain strainers measure twenty-three by twenty-three.

For newcomers to the blank grids of diagramless crosswords, Emmons offers tips and tricks for solving the puzzles. A list of the starting squares for the first puzzle is included in the back to help jump-start your puzzle-solving adventure.

These are crossword puzzles at their purest and most challenging—these are diagramless crosswords.

9. Brain Games Crossword Puzzles

This book, from the popular Brain Games series, presents more than 80 crossword puzzles in a large-print format.  

• Puzzle clues and grids are enlarged for ease of reading and writing, and spread across two pages.
• The puzzles get progressively more challenging as you proceed through the book.
• If you get stumped, solutions to all the puzzles are provided in the final section of the book.
• Spiral bound, 192 pages.

Brain Games were developed to help people increase their memory, sharpen their reasoning, and expand their creative thinking. 

Working the puzzles in this book can provide a vigorous mental workout for virtually everyone from teenagers to senior citizens.

10. Funster Crossword Puzzle Book for Adults

Crossword puzzles that are fun for everyone!

• Gentle brain exercise
• From best-selling puzzle book author Charles Timmerman
• 101 puzzles for hours of entertainment
• Frustration-free with just the right level of challenge
• Large-print puzzles that are easy to read
• Giant grids make it simple to enter letters
• Includes free word search and sudoku puzzles you can download

11. The Crossword Book: Over 350 Crosswords

Everyone loves a crossword! With over 350 exciting puzzles, The Crossword Book provides hours of entertainment. 

This collection includes puzzles you will be able to finish in a single sitting, by tapping your knowledge on a broad range of subjects from notable quotes and Broadway plays to animal characteristics and geography.

Grab your favorite pencil, curl up, and start solving!

• OVER 350 PUZZLES & SOLUTIONS: Most puzzles contain over 50 words to solve for! Hours of fun and entertainment to enjoy!
• EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN: Test your knowledge of a broad range of subjects and give your brain some exercise! Of course, you know what is a Fairy Godmother's stick, a Mexican Donkey, or a Sugar Source? Test if you know a Great Lake near Buffalo, a Donkey's kin, or the Hawkeye State!
• LAY FLAT: Spiral-bound lays flat for ease of use at home or on the go. Whether you drinking your morning coffee, riding on the train, or relaxing on vacation this crossword puzzle book can go with you.
• EASY TO INTERMEDIATE: Easy to intermediate-level puzzles.  Great for beginners to more experienced crossword puzzle enthusiasts.
• MAKES A GREAT GIFT: For the crossword puzzle lover, this book makes a great gift for any occasion! Birthday, stocking stuffers, road trip, or more, everyone will love it!
• PARAGON PUZZLE BOOK COLLECTION: Look for additional puzzle books from Parragon for all types of puzzles including crosswords, word searches, sudoku, and more!

12. USA Today Crossword 3

USA TODAY Crossword 3 is a brand-new collection of 200 crosswords for puzzle smiths of all skill levels.

Crossword is a classic puzzle that continues to be one of the most popular puzzle types. Keep your mind sharp with this assortment from the nation's newspaper and gaming authority, USA TODAY.

13. Merriam-Webster Crossword Puzzle Dictionary

An enlarged print edition of America's best-selling crossword puzzle dictionary! The latest edition is an essential guide for anyone who enjoys the game and features a large, easy-to-read typeface.

• Features 340,000 clues and answer words with over 20,000 new words.
• Organized alphabetically, by the number of letters, and by common categories to quickly target the words you need.
• New answer and clue words include freegan, goji, pho, and tweep.
• Comprehensive coverage of ""crosswordese”– the words, people, and place names most encountered by puzzlers.

The perfect book for crossword puzzle lovers!

14. KAPPA Super Saver Large Print Crosswords Pack

Kappa Super Saver Word Search Puzzle Pack is a diverse collection of 6 of your favorite Full-Size Large Print Word-Find puzzle books. 

These Easy to Read Puzzles are the perfect way to relax and unplug while sharpening your mind!

15. The New York Times Greatest Hits of Monday Crossword Puzzles

A NEW day-of-the-week series with 100 puzzles in a convenient portable paperback package

Nobody loves Monday best...unless you're a New York Times crossword puzzle solver! This collection of 100 easy crosswords will give you a case of Mondays in the best possible way.

• 100 easy Monday puzzles
• Bold, fun series cover design
• Edited by crossword legend Will Shortz

16. The Puzzler

You have played more or less of the above puzzle games. How do you feel in the process of playing? Why do we like these puzzles? What kind of impact will these puzzles have on us? A new book called The Puzzle has the answer.

The book explains that while puzzles come in very different forms, nearly all puzzles have one thing in common: they cause the puzzler to go through a period of difficulty and struggle before relaxing. They provide a moment of epiphany. 

The tension leads to a very satisfying ending. Is this why the author and millions of others love puzzles? Or does the puzzle offer a certainty you can't get in the confusing real world? 

The answer may not be unique, as the author explores various theories and possible reasons why the puzzle is so appealing that many people are addicted.

Beginning with the author's first love puzzle, the crossword puzzle, he has gone through a variety of other types of puzzles, including: 

• The wildly popular Rubik's Cube (did you know there are 443 trillion possible combinations in the world?!), 
• puzzles Games (he discovered the World Puzzle Championship, the real thing), 
• math and logic puzzles (according to some scholars, the earliest math puzzles date back to Egypt, around 1500 BC!), 
• ciphertext puzzles questions (originating in the UK and known for being incredibly difficult), and more!

Filled with unforgettable adventures, he is fully immersed in a world full of puzzles, participating in various competitions with great enthusiasm, and he uncovers the history and all kinds of problems that give us headaches, while at the same time also educating us how games can improve the way we think, live and think.

Whether you're a very skilled puzzler or the occasional Monday crossword gamer, this book will teach you the power of flexible thinking and concentration. 

You'll close this book with real problem-solving strategies and the path to becoming a better thinker and decision-maker - because we are indeed in confusing times.

By the way, there is also a mystery hidden in this book itself. If you are interested, you can try to solve it.

Players only need to fill in the existing letters according to the prompts to make them add a Complete word. 

Therefore, the difficulty lies in the fact that you need to have enough knowledge reserves. 

For children's shoes with good English, if you have excellent judgment ability, it is very easy to win an online confrontation! 

Let's explore the ocean of letters together.  The best crossword puzzle books provide a brain challenge and a leisure pastime. Read through this article as we list the easy crossword puzzle books for adults.

You May Also Like: 

• Easy-To-Read Crossword Puzzles For Adults
• The New York Times Best of the Week Series
• The New York Times Best of Saturday Crosswords
• AARP Large Print Crossword Puzzles
• Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #19
• 75 Easy-To-Read Crossword Puzzles
• Drunk Crosswords: All-New Puzzles with a Twist
• The Best of Merl Reagle’s Sunday Crosswords
• Sudoku Puzzle Books
• Kakuro Puzzle Books
• Suguru puzzle book for adults
• Numbrix Puzzle Books
• 3D Projection Puzzle
• Futoshiki Puzzle Books
• Binary puzzle book for adults
• Nonogram Puzzle Books
• Crossword Puzzle  
• Word Search
• Murder Mystery Puzzle Books
• Cryptogram Puzzle  
• Riddles Puzzle
• Brain Teasers

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Get Down (and Across!) With the Best Crossword Puzzle Books

Isabelle Popp

Isabelle Popp has written all sorts of things, ranging from astrophysics research articles and math tests to crossword puzzles and poetry. These days she's writing romance. When she's not reading or writing, she's probably knitting or scouring used book stores for vintage gothic romance paperbacks. Originally from New York, she's as surprised as anyone that she lives in Bloomington, Indiana.

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We know there’s a puzzle craze right now, and for good reason. People are turning to activities to do at home that pass time, occupy minds, and soothe harried souls. Crossword puzzles can do all that and more. What makes crossword puzzles so amazing is their structure: a meeting of minds across time and space. The constructor has set a challenge for you, hoping you will best them. And you can. Like any skill, crosswords have a learning curve. With a little practice, the filling in of the final square is as satisfying as snapping the last piece into a jigsaw puzzle.

Crossword puzzle books are a perfect way to get into cruciverbalism. We all need activities that get us away from screens and devices. Working through all the puzzles in a book is the analog version of completing all the levels in a video game. So let’s wear down some pencils.

Getting to Know Your Puzzles

Crosswords come in generic and artisanal varieties. The books you can often find among the magazines at grocery stores likely have puzzles that were generated almost entirely without human hands and minds. Computers can scour dictionaries for words to fill a given grid, then populate the puzzle with standard clues for each word. They are technically puzzles, but a thin gruel at best.

The artisanal varieties are written by real humans! The grid may be filled by hand or with the aid of computers, and the clues are as original as can be. There are, of course, only so many ways to clue some of the words, like OLEO and EPEE, that show up in crosswords a lot due to the patterns of the English language. But crossword constructors put real humanity into what they write, imbuing the puzzles with their own sense of wordplay, humor, and pop culture sensibilities. Many constructors incorporate themes into their puzzles. Themes arise from the long answers scattered throughout the puzzle that have a uniting element, ranging from puns, spoonerisms, homophones, and more.

Ultimately, this means that crossword solvers will develop tastes, the same way readers do with authors. Any puzzle worth its salt includes the puzzle constructor’s name, and taking note of names allows solvers to develop favorites. If you know any name associated with crossword puzzles, it’s likely to be Will Shortz, the editor (though not the constructor) of The New York Times crossword puzzle . There are heaps of crossword puzzle books from the Gray Lady that range from reliable to classic. You don’t need me to recommend them any more than you need me to tell you to check out that Shakespeare guy if you’re in the mood for a play.

The Puzzling Caveat

The other reason I’m skirting around The New York Times in my recommendations is because I think it’s worth shining the spotlight elsewhere. The world of crosswords and the Times puzzle in particular, like other realms historically dominated by straight white men , has come under increasing scrutiny for allowing bigotry to continue largely unchecked.

This does also explain the relative dearth of racial, gender, and sexual diversity in the following list of crossword books. Change is afoot, but it’s slow. I want to also recognize the exciting things in the more indie crossword world, and encourage budding solvers to also check out the Inkubator , Queer Qrosswords , and Women of Letters . I also love the puzzles from The New Yorker and USA Today , both of which have diverse, exciting rosters of constructors who write fresh, fun puzzles.

All that said, there are still countless great crossword books out there, perfect for a low-tech afternoon with a comfy seat and a sharp pencil.

Getting Started

Fast & fun mini crosswords: tiny crosswords for quick solving.

Start small! Matt Gaffney is a prolific and excellent constructor, who has brought puzzles to a small size if you’re strapped for time or just learning how crosswords work.

Easy as Pie Crosswords: Super Easy!: 72 Relaxing Puzzles

Puzzles are often given a day of the week to denote difficulty. Mondays are the easiest, Saturdays are the hardest, and Sundays are bigger than the rest. This book by Stanley Newman is set to Tuesday difficulty.

Easy Monday Crosswords

If Tuesdays are tough, you can always try a book of Monday-level crosswords edited by Peter Gordon.

Sit & Solve Commuter Easy Crosswords

If you’re looking for a book of puzzles you could actually fit in your pocket, try this book by Patrick Berry. If you like these, you’ll want to seek out more of his puzzles; he’s one of the greats!

Getting Thematic

Crasswords: the enhanced edition: dirty crosswords for cunning linguists.

A great feature of crossword puzzle books is their ability to buck editorial standards requiring clean language in a newspaper or magazine. Francis Heaney took full advantage of that for his book of bawdy and irreverent puzzles.

Drunk Crosswords: Over 50 All-New Puzzles With a Twist

Brendan Emmet Quigley is one of my very favorite constructors in the game. I wouldn’t suggest actually being drunk to solve these puzzles. You will need your wits about you.

Food for Thought Crosswords

Erik Agard, the editor of the aforementioned USA Today  crossword, is another absolute favorite constructor of mine. So far he has published one book of his original creations, all themed on food.

Classic Classics

The best of merl reagle’s sunday crosswords: big book no. 1.

Merl Reagle was a singular talent among crossword constructors and his funny Sunday-sized puzzles (meaning 21 squares by 21 squares as opposed to the daily size of 15 x 15) are prized by people looking to solve a larger grid and get to know a constructor whose sense of humor is clever, unexpected, and delightful.

New York Magazine Crossword Puzzle Omnibus, Volume 1

Maura Jacobson is another of the all-time greats. If you’ve seen the crossword documentary Wordplay (and if you haven’t, get on it!), you’ve seen footage from the annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament . Maura’s puzzles were always gems at that competition, as were the puzzles she wrote for New York Magazine .

Appreciating History

The curious history of the crossword: 100 puzzles from then and now.

Ben Tausig runs the stellar crossword subscription service American Values Club Crossword and has also compiled a book to teach the history of the puzzle while solving puzzles.

Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #3

This line of crossword puzzle compendiums is a great way to get to know a variety of constructors. Simon & Schuster’s first ever published book was also the first ever published book of crossword puzzles, so these collections are keeping up with history.

New York Crosswords: 50 Big Puzzles

New York magazine has reliably great puzzles, but this book also captures an amazing piece of history: a cryptic crossword from the magazine’s first issue, written by Broadway living legend Stephen Sondheim. Cryptic crosswords are a style more popular in the UK than the U.S., and have their own idiosyncratic rules for cluing.

Bonus Content

Thinking inside the box: adventures with crosswords and the puzzling people who can’t live without them.

There have been a number of nonfiction books published about the history of crosswords and crossword culture. This particular sub-genre got an update this year, with this new book about puzzle people by Adrienne Raphel.

Merriam-Webster’s Crossword Puzzle Dictionary

I truly believe in using internet searches or a crossword dictionary to solve. It’s not cheating; it’s learning. You’ll be amazed at how your reliance on outside help will diminish over time. Nonetheless, it’s dangerous to go alone. Take this!

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What Do Crossword Puzzles Really Test?

In her new book, Anna Shechtman argues for puzzles that reflect a broader sense of common knowledge.

This past December, I threw a party to celebrate a major milestone in my life: the 1,000th day of my New York Times crossword-solving streak. My friends, none of them fellow cruciverbalists, poured in wearing their black-and-white best, armed with outsize praise for my presumed intelligence: How smart I must be to complete the Times puzzle every day! Their comments affirmed that the crossword—and particularly the Times one—carries a certain mystique. For 1,000 consecutive days, I had passed this bourgeois aptitude test, proving my linguistic and cultural acumen in my guests’ eyes.

Since its invention in 1913 , the modern American crossword puzzle has undergone something of a reputational shift, from frivolous distraction to status symbol. In reality, the crossword is many things: a site of play, a cultural forum, a daily pleasure. And, because it traffics in language—the stuff people use to form identity, signal belonging, and ostracize others—it’s also a political entity. The writer and crossword constructor Anna Shechtman knows that casting such a pastime as political might sound ridiculous. As she writes in her new book, The Riddles of the Sphinx: Inheriting the Feminist Legacy of the Crossword , the suggestion “risks a double embarrassment: trivializing the serious stuff of politics or, maybe worse, taking trivialities too seriously.”

But Shechtman, who previously worked as an assistant to the longtime Times crossword editor Will Shortz, argues that crosswords are inevitably politicized by the people who make them. At the Times , whose crosswords have long been considered a gold standard, Shortz and his stable of test solvers and freelance constructors strive to produce puzzles that adhere to a shared sense of “common knowledge.” Indeed, some people believe that the Times puzzle arbitrates which facts and public figures every American should know—or, alternatively, what kinds of esoteric trivia are especially impressive to have in one’s back pocket. But in a nation as heterogeneous as the U.S., the very idea of common knowledge is a false one. And because mostly white men have decided what ends up in the Times crossword, its content is often circumscribed by the biases of those doing the constructing.

Read: The hidden bigotry of crosswords

Shechtman has spent the better part of the past decade agitating for greater diversity among puzzle makers and for crosswords that reflect a more capacious sense of common knowledge, a project she expands upon and complicates in The Riddles of the Sphinx . Her advocacy first took root during her time working under Shortz (who recently announced that he is recovering from a stroke), with whom she often clashed over what was “puzzle-worthy.” In one of Shechtman’s own puzzles, for instance, he vetoed the answer MALE GAZE; they disagreed over whether the term fell within the bounds of common knowledge. In Shechtman’s estimation, Shortz likely “pictured an audience that looked like him” when it came to deciding what counted as “relevant” knowledge.

These conflicts underscored Shechtman’s role as a woman in a male-dominated field. Women have long made up the minority of puzzle makers. According to data compiled by the constructor David Steinberg , under the two editors before Shortz, Will Weng and Eugene T. Maleska, women made just over a third of the Times ’ crosswords. In the first two decades of Shortz’s tenure, per Steinberg, that proportion fell to 19 percent.

This is not necessarily an indictment of Shortz, who became editor in 1993. (Notably, the past five years under Shortz have seen a tremendous uptick in puzzles constructed by women, who once again represent close to one-third of bylines.) The ’90s saw the confluence of two forces that hindered many women constructors: the evaporation of their free time, which had been on the decline as more and more women entered the workforce starting in the ’70s, and the advent of now-ubiquitous crossword-constructing software. The software, which usurped the traditional method of making puzzles by hand, brought more computer programmers, who tended to be male, to puzzle-making. This influx, Shechtman suggests , gave rise to a Silicon Valley–esque “brogrammer culture” in the crosswording world that may have pushed out or repelled many women.

But in Riddles , Shechtman places herself within a rich lineage of female cruciverbalists who helped pioneer the form, organizing the book around four of them: Ruth Hale, who co-founded the Amateur Cross Word Puzzle League of America in 1924; Margaret Farrar, who was appointed the inaugural crossword editor at The New York Times in 1942; Julia Penelope, author of the 1995 feminist book Crossword Puzzles for Women ; and Ruth von Phul, winner of the first-ever crossword tournament in 1924. She also notes that it was women constructors—many of them housewives and homemakers with spare time—who created the first bylined puzzle , the first puzzle with a rebus , and crossword-solving contests.

Read: The unspoken language of crosswords

Women were also some of the puzzle’s earliest and most eager adopters, particularly during the “crossword craze” of the 1920s , in which crosswording rapidly became the nation’s pastime du jour. Because of women’s initial interest in the activity, it earned a reputation as mindless froth that lacked “any intellectual value,” as one acerbic Pittsburgh pastor put it in 1924. But in the intervening years, the puzzle evolved into an American ritual, particularly as people sought out distractions from the stresses of World War II. (That the Times , which had initially decried crosswords as a fad, launched its own puzzle in 1942 was no coincidence .) In the postwar era, a growing male presence in the crosswording world helped the pastime acquire the prestigious sheen it retains today. When the exacting Maleska became the Times ’ crossword editor in 1977 , he helped burnish the puzzle’s reputation for good. As Adrienne Raphel writes in her 2020 book, Thinking Inside the Box , Maleska rejected “clues that relied on pop culture or used overly colloquial phrases” and eschewed “universal accessibility,” thus turning the paper’s crossword into “a marker of a certain elite cultural status.”

When Shortz took over, he reoriented the puzzle toward common knowledge and “made it his explicit mission to introduce more varied vocabulary—including brand names, popular culture, neologisms, and slang,” Shechtman writes. As Shortz told Vanity Fair last year, “My feeling was, if younger solvers have to know older culture, older solvers should have to know younger culture.” But Shechtman and others have voiced concerns that these democratizing efforts have not gone far enough; she remains frustrated by the puzzle’s slowness to incorporate language with origins in culture produced by people of color, queer people, and women. Promisingly, some terms that Shechtman says had been rejected by Shortz have since made their way into Times puzzles, including tidying whiz Marie KONDO , K-pop band BTS , and the green-tea powder MATCHA .

The crossword community’s disagreements over the boundaries of common knowledge are not as niche—or as new—as they may appear. In his 1987 book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know , the English professor E. D. Hirsch argued for the importance of a shared cultural vocabulary among Americans. In the book, Hirsch included a list of about 5,000 people, dates, and terms—somewhat like the “wordlists” that most crossword constructors draw from to populate their puzzles—that might qualify. The aim of the list is not unlike what Shechtman hopes to achieve in the crosswording world: to create and embrace a canon of shared knowledge that has space for everyone. As Eric Liu wrote in this publication in 2015 , responding to Hirsch’s book, this “cultural core” must be “radically reimagined if it’s to be worthy of America’s actual and accelerating diversity.”

Read: The New York Times ’ new game is genius

The lexicon of crosswords, particularly highly visible ones like the Times ’, is a public-facing compendium of that shared vocabulary. As both a pastime and a public good, the ideal crossword puzzle is not a test of highbrow sensibilities but, to use Hirsch’s term, an opportunity to improve one’s cultural literacy. It should encourage and reward familiarity with a wide range of cultures, preoccupations, and ephemera. In this way, crosswords might also serve a pedagogical function: to not just affirm what one already knows but beget new knowledge. Shechtman calls out one notable constructor who is doing this kind of work: Elizabeth Gorski , since making her Times debut in 1995 , has introduced more than 1,500 terms to the paper’s crossword vocabulary, including ANNE SEXTON, QUEEN IDA, JOYCELYN ELDERS, GEORGE CLINTON, PURPLE RAIN, NATURAL HAIR, and ANDROGYNY.

In my three brief years solving the Daily Times crossword, I’ve noticed a veritable shift toward more timely and wide-ranging clues, as well as more diversity among constructors , especially in age and gender. Of course, blind spots remain: I still cringe every time I see a clue such as “12 meses” and have to enter ANO—a Spanish word that, without the necessary tilde, means “anus.” But above all, with this change under way, I’ve noticed that the puzzles have gotten more fun —drawing on more varied topics, spotlighting icons and ideas that have long gone overlooked, pushing the boundaries of the English language in exciting new directions. Taking the crossword seriously results in a better puzzle—one that challenges and teaches, surprises and delights, day after day.

​When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

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Best Crossword Puzzle Books

May 9, 2016 By Puzzle Dude Leave a Comment

The answer to what the best crossword puzzle books are depends on a few factors. Let’s go over a few:

• Crossword experience (mainly vocabulary)
• Amount of puzzles
• Font size (sometimes important for our aging puzzlers)

Ideally you want an appropriately difficult puzzle book that has the most amount of crossword puzzles possibles (max value!).

Now, buying a crossword puzzle book for yourself versus buying one as a gift are two completely different things. When recommending puzzle books to purchase I always suggest buying ones that have a range of difficulties so that you can accommodate any puzzler’s skill. This way there will always be a puzzle for them to solve, whether they start at the bottom rung or somewhere in the middle they can always work their way up.

With the intro out of the way I’m going to share with you what I think are the top 5 best crossword puzzle books out there right now – with options for the beginner, intermediate, advanced crossword puzzler.

NYT Ultimate Crossword Omnibus: 1001 Puzzles (4.5 / 5)

Edited by no other than Will Shortz (A very famous puzzle writer) we start off with this high-volume crossword book extracted from New York Times crossword puzzles written by Will Shortz of course. From probably one of those popular news papers in the world comes this mass of puzzles with a wide variety of difficulties. The high amount of puzzles, the writer Will Shortz, and the popularity of the source makes this my top pick for the best crossword puzzle book.

Supersized Book of Sunday Crosswords (4 / 5)

Another Will Shortz New York Times crossword puzzle book is on this list for the same reasons as the last, alongside the fact that the puzzles are supersized. Sure we can go for the puzzle book that has as many puzzles crammed in as possible, but sometimes it’s just nice to work on a large puzzle – one per page. This is also an excellent option for anyone with any sort of vision impairments, you want them to have an easy time seeing what they’re doing when puzzling.

Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #15 (4 / 5)

Simon & Schuster released the first EVER crossword puzzle book in 1924 – now released almost 90 years later is another 300 never before seen crossword puzzle book with crosswords constructed by expert puzzle constructor John Samson. This book isn’t anything special in any direction, you get 300 high-quality challenging puzzles for a good price – standard solid puzzle book.

Will Shortz Favorite Sunday Crossword Puzzles (4.5 / 5)

WOW another Will Shortz book, he must be a pretty popular puzzler – I should write an entire article just for him! This puzzle book is sort of a middle ground between the previously two reviewed Will Shortz books. A collection of popular crosswords in a slightly larger format than normal. Not quite 1001 puzzles, not quite as large as the supersize book, but it offers a bit of both worlds in this great puzzle book option.

USA Today Jumbo Puzzle Book #2 (3.5 / 5)

From another renowned news outlet we have this 400 crossword puzzle jumbo sized book that’s another great option to get yourself, or get the puzzler in your life as a gift. These puzzles are similar quality/difficulty to those found in the New York Times and it’s supersized as well – another all around great option for a crossword puzzle book.

Hopefully this selection of some of the best crossword puzzle books out there helps you narrow in on a good book for yourself or as a gift for the puzzler in your life. Most of these books have several editions so if you complete them all just look for the #2, #3, #4 etc. in that specific series. Will Shortz has also released a ton of crossword puzzles books so anything by him is a great choice.

History of Crosswords

Crosswords appeared historically dating back to the 1700’s being ran in various news outlets, as they still are today. Eugene T. Maleska is often credited with the first crossword phrase in the New York Times in 1862.

A crossword style puzzle appeared in an Italian magazine in 1890 designed by Giuseppe Airoldi and was titled in Italian “To pass the time”.

In 1913 an English journalist published a crossword that has most of the features found in today’s popular puzzles. The author was Arthur Wynne and he’s often called the inventor of the crossword due to the critical features he implemented.

As you can see the puzzle books have a varying history and appeared in many geographies before becoming mainstream.

Crossword puzzles serve to pass time, enhance vocabulary, stimulate the mind, and most importantly to derive enjoyment from.

The aim of creating this review of the best crossword puzzle books was to find the top books for my readers, and also inform you all a bit of the history of these amazingly fun puzzles that are enjoyed by millions across the world.

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100 Best Crosswords Books of All Time

We've researched and ranked the best crosswords books in the world, based on recommendations from world experts, sales data, and millions of reader ratings. Learn more

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green | 5.00

Elon Musk Must admit to liking [this book]. Sad, romantic and beautifully named. (Source)

James Comey @johngreen You should not be. It is a great book. Was recently in Amsterdam and walked some of the scenes with your huge fan, my youngest daughter. Loved hearing from you and meeting you at Kenyon. (Source)

See more recommendations for this book...

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Gail Honeyman | 4.65

Twinkle Khanna Eleanor is awkward, funny, an alcoholic and clearly not fine. A great book for someone who wants to get over a reading slump. Loved it! #mustread #eleanoroliphantiscompletelyfine #TweakIt https://t.co/fVQu4sYhSi (Source)

The New York Times Monday Crossword Puzzle Omnibus

200 Solvable Puzzles from the Pages of The New York Times

. The New York Times | 4.60

USA TODAY Crossword

200 Puzzles from The Nation's No. 1 Newspaper

USA TODAY | 4.51

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Ottessa Moshfegh | 4.45

Ben Collins Favorite book of the decade. https://t.co/CRcfp9f6Sq (Source)

Claire Diaz Ortiz @racheld great book (Source)

Lauren Mechling The friendship in it is very sweet, actually: it’s about two women, one of whom doesn’t have a name, and her best friend, Reva. They’re both brilliant comic characters, but Reva really lived on with me. Ottessa Moshfegh has this ability to say so much with little spiky details that linger. (Source)

Simon Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #18

John M. Samson | 4.45

The New York Times Ultimate Crossword Omnibus

1,001 Puzzles from The New York Times

The New York Times | 4.45

Simon Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #19

Funster Crossword Puzzle Book for Adults

101 Large-Print Easy Puzzles

Charles Timmerman | 4.43

The New York Times Supersized Book of Sunday Crosswords

500 Puzzles

The New York Times | 4.42

Don't have time to read the top Crosswords books of all time? Read Shortform summaries.

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

• Being comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
• Cutting out the fluff: you focus your time on what's important to know
• Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.

Sleepy Sunday Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.36

Simon Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #6

John M. Samson | 4.36

100 Large-Print Crossword Puzzles

Easy Puzzles to Entertain Your Brain

Chris King | 4.31

Webster's Crossword Puzzle Dictionary

Patricia Fox-Sheidwold | 4.30

The Dell Big Book of Crosswords and Pencil Puzzles

Kathleen Rafferty | 4.30

EASY-TO-READ CROSSWORD PUZZLES FOR ADULTS

LARGE-PRINT, MEDIUM-LEVEL PUZZLES THAT ENTERTAIN AND CHALLENGE

Jenny Patterson | 4.30

Learn How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords

A Course for Beginners

Henry Howarth | 4.29

F is for FART

A rhyming ABC children's book about farting animals

J. Heitsch | 4.29

Three-Day Weekend Crosswords

Leslie Billig | 4.29

Pretty Girl in Crimson Rose (8)

Sandy Balfour | 4.28

Walk in the Park Sunday Crosswords

Leslie Billig | 4.27

Simon Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #2

John M. Samson | 4.26

The New York Times Wednesday Crossword Puzzle Omnibus

200 Medium-Level Puzzles

The New York Times | 4.25

75 Easy-to-Read Crossword Puzzles

Medium-Level Puzzles to Challenge Your Brain

Chris King | 4.24

The New York Times Best of the Week Series: Monday Crosswords

50 Easy Puzzles

The New York Times | 4.23

Merl Reagle's 100th Anniversary Crossword Book

Merl Reagle and Jim Borgman | 4.23

The New York Times Sunday Crossword Omnibus

200 World-Famous Sunday Puzzles from the Pages of the New York Times

Will Shortz | 4.22

The New York Times Easy Crossword Puzzle Omnibus Volume 14

The New York Times | 4.22

The Agatha Christie Crossword Puzzle Book

Randall Toye | 4.21

The New York Times Easy Crossword Puzzles Volume 18

50 Monday Puzzles from the Pages of The New York Times

The New York Times, Will Shortz | 4.21

The New York Times Best of the Week Series: Tuesday Crosswords

The New York Times | 4.21

The Everything Easy Large-Print Crosswords Book, Volume IV

150 brand-new, quick and easy puzzles

Charles Timmerman | 4.20

The New York Times Sunday Crossword Omnibus Volume 11

200 World-Famous Sunday Puzzles from the Pages of The New York Times

The New York Times | 4.20

People Celebrity Puzzler Superstars

Word Searches, Crosswords, Second Looks, and More

The Editors of PEOPLE | 4.20

Weekend Retreat Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.19

Simon Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #16

John M. Samson | 4.19

Bed Breakfast Sunday Crosswords

Leslie Billig | 4.19

101 Fun Crossword Puzzles for Kids

First Children Crossword Puzzle Book for Kids Age 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 and for 3rd graders | Kids Crosswords (Easy Word Learning Activities for Kids)

Jennifer L. Trace | 4.18

Pajama Weekend Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.17

Chicago Tribune Daily Crossword Puzzles, Volume 6

Wayne Robert Williams | 4.16

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Aron Ralston | 4.16

Chambers Crossword Dictionary

Chambers | 4.16

The New York Times Crosswords for a Lazy Sunday

75 Puzzles from the Pages of The New York Times

. The New York Times | 4.16

Till The Last Breath

Durjoy, Datta | 4.15

The New York Times I Love Tuesday Crossword Puzzles

The New York Times | 4.15

The New York Times Greatest Hits of Monday Crossword Puzzles

100 Easy Puzzles

The New York Times | 4.14

Chicago Tribune Sunday Crossword Puzzles, Volume 5

Wayne Robert Williams | 4.14

Keep Moving

And Other Truths About Living Well Longer

Dick Van Dyke | 4.13

Crossword Puzzles

Publications International Ltd. | 4.13

AARP Large Print Crossword Puzzles

How to Solve Cryptic Crosswords

Kevin Skinner | 4.13

The New York Times Hardest Crosswords Volume 1

50 Friday and Saturday Puzzles to Challenge Your Brain

The New York Times | 4.13

Weekend Road Trip Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.12

The New York Times Sunny Sunday Crossword Puzzles

75 Sunday Puzzles

The New York Times | 4.12

The New York Times Super Sunday Crosswords Volume 5

50 Sunday Puzzles

Lazy Weekend Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.11

Sunday Brunch Crosswords

Leslie Billig | 4.11

The New York Times Best of Tuesday Crosswords

75 of Your Favorite Easy Tuesday Crosswords from The New York Times

The New York Times | 4.11

The New York Times I Love Wednesday Crossword Puzzles

50 Medium-Level Puzzles

Weekend Getaway Crosswords

Leslie Billig | 4.10

Harder Wednesday Crosswords

Peter Gordon | 4.09

The Times How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords

Tim Moorey | 4.09

Simon Schuster Super Crossword Book 9

The Biggest and the Best

John M. Samson, Eugene T. Maleska | 4.09

Random House Casual Crosswords, Volume 4

Mel Rosen | 4.09

Rainy Sunday Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.09

USA TODAY Crossword 2

200 Puzzles from The Nations No. 1 Newspaper

USA TODAY | 4.08

The New York Times Tension-Taming Crosswords

200 Relaxing Puzzles

Will Shortz | 4.08

Simon Schuster Super Crossword Book #10

Eugene T. Maleska, John M. Samson | 4.08

Relaxing Sunday Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.07

The New York Times Sweet & Simple Crosswords

75 Easy Puzzles

The New York Times, Will Shortz | 4.07

Chambers Crossword Manual

Don Manley | 4.07

The New York Times Will Shortz Presents Kenken

300 Easy to Hard Puzzles That Make You Smarter

The New York Times | 4.07

The New York Times Easy to Not-So-Easy Crossword Puzzle Omnibus Volume 1

200 Monday--Saturday Crosswords from the Pages of The New York Times

Will Shortz | 4.06

The New York Times Best of Monday Crosswords

75 of Your Favorite Very Easy Monday Crosswords from The New York Times

The New York Times, Will Shortz | 4.06

399 Games, Puzzles Trivia Challenges Specially Designed to Keep Your Brain Young.

Nancy Linde | 4.06

Brain Games - Lower Your Brain Age - Crosswords

Publications International Ltd. | 4.06

Arbitrary Stupid Goal

Tamara Shopsin | 4.06

Austin Kleon Certainly my favorite book cover of the year, the graphic designer’s memoir drops you right into a kid’s eye view of 1970s Greenwich Village. With it’s chunked sections and hand-drawn illustrations, it gave me the same kind of quick, skippy joy I get when reading Vonnegut. (Source)

The New York Times Morning Edition Crosswords

Light and Easy Puzzles

The New York Times, Will Shortz | 4.05

The New York Times Tuesday Crossword Puzzle Omnibus

200 Easy Puzzles from the Pages of The New York Times

The New York Times | 4.05

USA TODAY Crossword 3

USA TODAY | 4.04

The New York Times Coffee, Tea or Crosswords

75 Light and Easy Puzzles

Will Shortz | 4.04

The New York Times Mini Crosswords: 150 Easy Fun-Sized Puzzles

Mini Crosswords Volume 1

The New York Times | 4.04

The Big Book of TV Guide Crosswords, #1

Test Your TV IQ With More Than 250 Great Puzzles from TV Guide!

TV Guide Editors | 4.04

The New York Times Will Shortz's Favorite Sunday Crossword Puzzles

The New York Times, Will Shortz | 4.04

Simon and Schuster Super Crossword Puzzle Book #12

John M. Samson, Eugene T. Maleska | 4.03

Chicago Tribune Sunday Crossword Puzzles, Volume 4

Wayne Robert Williams | 4.03

Getting Warmer (Cato Kwong, #2)

Alan Carter | 4.03

Sunday Cookout Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.03

The New York Times Best of the Week Series: Wednesday Crosswords

The New York Times | 4.03

The Wall Street Journal Blue-Chip Sunday Crosswords

72 AAA-Rated Puzzles

Mike Shenk | 4.03

All-Star Weekend Crosswords

Stanley Newman | 4.02

The New York Times Best of the Week Series: Friday Crosswords

The New York Times | 4.02

Crossword Puzzle Challenges for Dummies

Patrick Berry | 4.02

Sunday Stroll Crosswords

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12 Best Crossword Puzzle Books You Must Try in 2021

If there was any time to get better and become a pro at crossword, this is it.

Not only because all of you are stuck at home amid lockdown but because you are living in the golden age of crossword.

According to Will Shortz, The New York Times crossword editor, puzzles have become very interesting.

They are well-made today as compared to earlier times because they are not as bookish as they used to be.

The themes have become unique and are based on real time events. This is the reason why people have started trying online crossword games, solving crossword books, etc.

Many crossword constructors and lovers have written many puzzle books.

We have curated the list of best crossword puzzle books of all times that you must buy and solve:

1) simon & schuster mega crossword book #19.

Author: Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster celebrates 95 years of crossword puzzles. It introduces 300 new, never published before Thursday to Sunday sized mind-boggling puzzles. Now is the time to sharpen your pencils and get going.

In 1924, Simon & Schuster published their first book ever “The Crossword Puzzle Book”.

This was the first book on crossword ever printed in history.

After ninety-five years later today, Simon & Schuster’s legendary legacy still continues with this Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Book.

It offers crossword lovers hours of challenging fun at a different level altogether.

Constructed by the best crossword constructors and then edited by the top puzzle master, John M Samson.

The book- Simon & Schuster Mega Crossword Puzzle Book #19 is specifically designed by keeping convenience in mind and features perforated pages so that the solver can tear out puzzles and then work on them. 

With the help of this timeless and unique collection of puzzles, this interesting book will certainly delight long-time puzzle stalwarts.

2) The New York Times Greatest Hits of Monday Crossword Puzzles: 100 Easy Puzzles

Author: Will Shortz

Everyone knows Monday New York Times puzzles are amazing. How do you get them for solving?

Well, The New York Times Greatest Hits of Monday Puzzles: 100 Easy Puzzles offers the most interesting puzzles of all time.

• 100 Monday puzzles
• Bold and fun series cover design
• Edited by Will Shortz 

3) Diagramless Crossword

Author: Richard Emmons

Do you know what diagramless puzzles are? Never heard about them before? 

Diagramless puzzles are similar to standard crosswords having only one major difference-the crossword grid is absolutely blank.

You not only have to find the clue answers but also figure out where the black squares go. 

This big book crossword has 60 diagramless puzzles having varied difficulty levels.

The grid size is also different for different daily puzzles. It ranges from 13×13 squares all the way to 23×23 squares. The solutions are in the book itself.

You may have heard many books about crosswords but this one is unique.

However, there is a separate section on tips for solving these challenging crossword puzzles.

If you need some hint or help regarding the solution, you will be given the starting square for the first answer in the back of the book. For more help, the first word is also given.

4) Challenge Accepted! 100 Word Searches 

Author: Andy Kravis

What do you think, how exciting crossword puzzle books for seniors can be?

This one, Challenge Accepted! 100 Word Searches is easy to read a collection of large-print word searches that help enhance skills for novice crossword solvers and veterans alike .

Do you want to get better in solving crossword puzzles? 

Well, get 100-word search crosswords featuring 25+ clues each. You know what, you get more diagonals and shared letters than your standard word search books for adults.

• This general knowledge crossword book for adults helps in developing memory, concentration, and focus.
• You can explore new and interesting words that are drawn from a variety of themes available.
• Large, clean and clear layouts make them easy puzzles.

Take on one of the most engaging word search books for adults you’ve ever seen.

What are you waiting for now, purchase the book and take on one of the most engaging large book crosswords for adults.

Enjoy hours of brain testing and have fun.

5) Triple Decker Trivia

Author: Joon Pahk

Triple Decker Trivia has cool themes quizzes that gives a solver something extra to figure out. This takes the trivia game to another level. 

You have to figure out the right answers for the given questions. Find their connection and move one step ahead towards the final destination. On every step, you will find four quizzes that have a missing link. 

For example, the answer to one quiz is “Pawn Stars” and Ellery Queen, having a connection with chess.

You have to link up the theme with other puzzles like Chicago and popular cats to find the best and final connection.

You will certainly fall in love with the multilayered challenge.

6) 100 Years 100 Crosswords

Author: Peter Gordon

If you are a real crossword enthusiast, you will be aware of the fact that it has been more than 100 years that crosswords were first published in a newspaper. 

Well, what better way to celebrate that century with 100 puzzles from the best crossword constructors.

The fiction crossword range from the sublime-Lindbergh’s solo flight across the Atlantic-to the ridiculous-2004’s Super Bowl “wardrobe malfunction. 

All the crossword aficionados will definitely fall in love with the amazing collection of this centenary collection of puzzles.

7) Food for Thought

Author: Erik Agard

Are you a book lover crossword aficionado?

If yes, you can feed your brain with the 72 delicious tasty puzzles that have astonishing fun related puns as well as themes.

The menu has options that range from the simplest to most difficult puzzles. The unique book ensures that there is something for everyone.

Bon appétit!

8)  Thinking Inside the Box 

Author: Adrienne Raphel

As soon as the first ever crossword was published in the newspaper 100 years ago, it was a massive hit. 

In 1913 the New York World newspaper was looking to fill the empty space of the newspaper with a new interesting game, then crossword was discovered.

Ever since this amazing crossword puzzle quiz game has been an essential element of every newspaper having a grid of black and white squares.

It has been an important ingredient of any newspaper. The puzzle solvers range from a small kid to the elderly. 

Popular celebrities like Martha Stewart, Bill Clinton, and Yo-Yo Ma are core crossword lovers.

Today, the popularity of quick crossword books has also helped crossword lovers solve their favorite puzzles.

The crossword love is so much that the quiz game has managed to make its way to the breakfast tables, nightstands commutes and also given rise to competitive crossword tournaments.

At the biggest crossword tournament, The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, Adrienne Raphel dives into the secret of the classic pastime of solving crosswords.

She analyses the mindset of the crossword pro and also visited the home and office of The New York Times crossword editor, Will, Shortz. 

As ingenious as it is fun, Thinking Inside the Box is the best quiz book in the crossword book store that is a treat for the die-hard cruciverbalists.

9) The Million Word Crossword Dictionary 

Authors: Stanley Newman and Daniel Stark

Meticulously compiled by two different professionals, Stanley Newman and Daniel Stark, they have fifty years in the field of crosswords.

Based on the massive analysis of the current puzzles, there has never been a crossword dictionary with the ideal breadth, depth, and accuracy as this one. 

Well, the wide range of entries includes more than 500000 synonyms, 3000+ films, 20000 different popular celebrities from all fields and more than 50000 fill in blanks.

Featuring the introduction by the New York Times puzzles editor Will Shortz, this Million Word Crossword Dictionary makes every other crossword dictionary obsolete. 

This one is the updated edition that has thousands of new entries like slang, brand names, celebrity names, sports personalities, novelists and more. The larger size makes it easy to find the answers to the clues. 

10) Wickedly Hard Fireball Crossword

Author: P. Gordon

It can’t get more challenging than this. 

If you are someone who loves Friday and Saturday New York Times Crossword, these puzzles will take a toll on your mind.

All the 45 puzzles are going to test your mind as they have wickedly tricky themes, cunning clues, and many fun facts.

Solve them and have a good time.

11) Maverick Crosswords Paperback 

Author: Andrew J. Ries

The classic crossword constructor, Andrew J. Ries, wants to make the Inde puzzle scene popular.

This is because topics and language are not limited to the artistic freedom reigns. They’re not even a single look regarding how the grid must look.

These 72 crosswords are originally created for this book that ranges from easy to hard puzzles.

They lively fill life, currently vocabulary and first-state themes. It has everything that a modern crossword solver wants.

12) The Tims Big Book of Cryptic Crossword 6

By the Times Mind Games

This is one of the most popular cryptic crossword puzzle books of all time. 

If you are seeking mental stimulation and want to test your analytical skills, put the puzzling skills to test with these crosswords.

In this 6th volume, the book gives you the opportunity to test lateral thinking with plenty of crossword quizzes offering hours of entertainment.

We hope you liked the list of top crossword books we have shortlisted for you.

Go ahead to purchase any of these books and have amazing time solving the clues and filling in the blanks. 

Happy puzzling!

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By Judith Newman

• April 26, 2022

THE PUZZLER One Man’s Quest to Solve the Most Baffling Puzzles Ever, From Crosswords to Jigsaws to the Meaning of Life By A.J. Jacobs

Two months before I graduated from college, I stopped going to class and started doing crossword puzzles. I wasn’t very good. But one thing I knew: I was better at doing crossword puzzles than I was at doing life. I had no particular goals, no idea how to find a job or a place to live or someone who would love me. But if I just stayed in bed, with a bowl of cereal and my glorious squares and words, fulfillment was within reach. At least I could resolve something. Puzzles kept me from enlisting in the Army out of sheer panic. I always wished I’d had a chance to personally thank the New York Times crossword editor back then, Eugene T. Maleska , for saving me during the year I watched “Private Benjamin” once too often.

But at least I can thank A.J. Jacobs for putting into words and thought and deed what I never quite managed to do. I hope I’m not making his weirdly fascinating new book, “The Puzzler,” sound solemn; it’s quite the opposite — a romp, both fun and funny. Jacobs explains, in a way I never could, how at various points in our lives puzzles can save us. Far from a waste of time, they soothe, focus, excite; they can, Jacobs argues, “make us better thinkers, more creative, more incisive, more persistent,” while giving us “that dopamine rush of discovery.”

“It’s been my experience,” he adds, “that puzzles can shift our worldview. They can nudge us to adopt the puzzle mind-set — a mind-set of ceaseless curiosity about everything in the world, from politics to science to human relationships — and a desire to find solutions.” While Jacobs used Covidtime to write a book about puzzles, the rest of us, it seems, helped cope with the stress and isolation of lockdowns and closings by doing puzzles. At the beginning of the pandemic, jigsaws were especially infectious, with sales exploding exponentially.

There are lots of different kinds of puzzles. Lots. Crosswords, anagrams, rebuses, jigsaws, mazes, chess problems, math and logic, ciphers/secret codes, visuals (think “Where’s Waldo”), cryptics: The list goes on and on, and Jacobs delves into each one with relish. His previous books (like “ The Year of Living Biblically ” and “ The Know-It-All ”) involve what he calls “lifestyle experiments” — and “The Puzzler” is no exception. A puzzle fanatic himself, Jacobs gonzos his way into everything from C.I.A. headquarters (to investigate Kryptos , the copper sculpture embedded with a secret message that continues to defy cryptanalysts) to the World National Jigsaw championships. He flew to Spain to compete and apparently, since no one else from the United States signed up, he and his wife and three kids represented the United States. They finished second to last, which Jacobs quite rightly saw as a win. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Along the way we meet all manner of puzzle masters, as well as the merely possessed. There are the speedcubers, people who memorize hundreds — and sometimes thousands — of algorithms to reduce the number of turns per solve. (If you think that nothing is more boring to watch than golf, just know that speedcubing tournaments have spectators, as well as fantasy leagues where you can gamble on your favorite champions.) There is Adrian Fisher, who modestly calls himself the most prolific maze designer “in the history of humankind”: His work includes a Beatles-themed maze in Liverpool, a maze in the passenger terminal of Singapore’s Changi Airport and one on the side of a building in Dubai, “which shouldn’t be attempted unless you’re Spider-Man.” And of course there is Will Shortz himself, the NPR/New York Times editor who is to puzzles what Kim Kardashian is to buttocks: There is none finer, or more discussed among aficionados. On the walls of Shortz’s living room hangs a personal letter to him from Bill Clinton: “Even when I can’t finish them, they’re the only part of The New York Times that guarantees a good feeling.”

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Latinx Files: Bringing color to black and white squares

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Periodically, the Latinx Files will feature a guest writer. This week, we’ve asked De Los contributing columnist Alex Zaragoza to fill in. If you have not subscribed to our weekly newsletter, you can do so here .

Juliana Pache has always loved crossword puzzles. They intersect with her lifelong obsession with language, culture and history, though she says they’ve always felt a bit inaccessible.

“I struggle with them still because some of what [the puzzlemakers] are expecting me to know and what they’re considering easy is just out of my realm of knowledge,” said Pache, a native of Queens, New York, whose parents emigrated from Cuba and the Dominican Republic.

She recalls how the clues in one particular New York Times mini crossword puzzle from October 2022 were, as Pache described to me, “more white than usual.” Coincidentally, that day she had a song stuck in her head, one she unabashedly loves — the 2010 parody “Lemme Smang It” by Yung Humma ft. Flynt Flossy . Anyone who was around for the song’s dominance over the internet can recall its catchiness and certified freaky lyrics — “smang” is a portmanteau of “smash” and “bang,” two slang terms for having intercourse.

“I thought to myself, ‘It would be so funny if the word smang was in a crossword puzzle,’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘That’s so niche and so internet brain.’ Black internet brain specifically.”

That random thought led her to search online for crossword puzzles that centered Black culture. When she came up empty, Pache decided to make one herself. Thus Black Crossword, a daily online mini crossword puzzle that caters to the Black diaspora, was born. The project has since turned into a book, “Black Crossword: 100 Mini Puzzles Celebrating the African Diaspora,” out now via HarperCollins.

In an Associated Press story on Black Crossword, data journalist Michelle Pera-McGhee explained that women and racial and ethnic minority groups have long been underrepresented in crossword clues, citing a 2020 study she conducted for the data journalism website The Pudding.

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Crosswords are supposed to tap into general knowledge, and Pache acknowledges that they’re “supposed to challenge you.” However, what some might consider general knowledge could — and often does — leave many out of the fun of crosswords.

“Some of what’s covered in mainstream crossword puzzles are very specific to white audiences that are maybe economically better off and male,” Pache said.

This exclusion, whether intentional or not, is what Pache hoped to combat in creating Black Crossword, a project she undertook knowing nothing about how to actually build a puzzle.

“I hear this all the time, where people are like, ‘I’m really bad at crossword puzzles,’ or, ‘I’m usually not good at crossword puzzles, but I’m good at these.’”

It’s no surprise that her crosswords have a growing fanbase, with the site averaging about 3,500 hits a day, and has had 1.2 million total game plays since launching in 2023. The book stands to only help Pache grow her project even further.

“I think the big difference is that what I consider to be our common knowledge is different from what someone at a mainstream crossword puzzle outlet is going to consider common knowledge,” she adds.

From the very inception of Black Crossword, Pache says she wanted to ensure Black cultures from all across the diaspora would be visible in her puzzles, and has long amplified the histories of Black Latinx people, including through the popular Twitter hashtag #blacklatinxhistory , which she started in 2016.

“I think from my experience, both of my parents are from the Caribbean. I was born and raised here in the U.S., so I have ties to so many different experiences within Blackness,” she explained. “And then also growing up in Queens, where there’s every type of Black person from everywhere. It just felt right, and it felt natural to incorporate the entire diaspora. It would otherwise be kind of limiting.”

Her puzzles include staples and figures of Black Latinx culture, like the Dominican dish mangú, Puerto Rican writer and historian Arturo Schomburg, Dominican farming activist Mamá Tingó and runner Marileidy Paulino, who became the first woman to win a gold medal for the Dominican Republic at the Olympics this summer.

Through this project, Pache confronts the erasure and exclusion of Black people not just in white anglo media but also Latinx media, which still suffers from and continues to uphold anti-Blackness within its many spaces, from music to publishing to history books to television shows.

“I think something that I’m trying to do with Black Crossword is to challenge that narrative,” Pache said. “Because there is so much rich Black history, not just in the Spanish speaking Caribbean, but all across, all across Latin America.”

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Ultimate Crosswords Puzzle Book Paperback – April 1, 2022

• Print length 80 pages
• Language English
• Publisher Kappa Books Publishers
• Publication date April 1, 2022
• ISBN-10 1559910356
• ISBN-13 978-1559910354
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The Kappa Difference

A world leader in puzzles, Kappa Books Publishers provides a large variety of puzzles to challenge and delight the enthusiast in everyone. We are dedicated to providing entertaining and challenging puzzles for every type of solver. Our diverse portfolio of products keep your mind sharp. From Word Searches to Sudoku and more, Kappa is the trusted brand for quality puzzle entertainment.

Kappa Books Crossword Puzzles

Kappa Crosswords are best in class and created by our top notch editorial staff appealing to everyone from the causal solver to cruciverbalist. Kappa crosswords come in size that is right for you…Large Print, Full size, or Pocket size for on the go fun. Whether you’re relaxing on the beach or training your brain, Kappa Crosswords are perfect for you.

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About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Kappa Books Publishers (April 1, 2022)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 80 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1559910356
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1559910354
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.4 ounces
• #160,940 in Puzzles & Games

About the author

Kappa books publishers.

Kappa Books Publishers, LLC provides a large variety of puzzles to challenge and delight the enthusiast in everyone. We are dedicated to providing the most entertaining and challenging puzzles for every type of solver. Our diverse portfolio of products keep your mind sharp. From Word Searches to Sudoku and more, Kappa is the trusted brand for quality puzzle entertainment. Kappa is family owned and manufactures in the USA.

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