This series aims to capture new and exciting work in Recreational Mathematics, loosely defined as ‘mathematics arising from recreational and esthetic pursuits’, though we are happy to bend that definition to accommodate almost anything that explores mathematics with a spirit of creativity, and curiosity. In the past century, Recreational Mathematics has proven itself as a way to engage a wider audience with the subject, and also as a catalyst for deep research in the field.
The remit of the series is extremely broad, featuring books taking a mathematical approach to puzzles, games, origami, visual arts, literary arts, performing arts, history, magic and more besides.
We welcome all manner of text-types, though we do especially value those books that can be used in an educational setting and which are accessible to readers with minimal mathematical background.
If you have a manuscript, proposal, or even just the beginnings of an idea, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
By John H. Conway, Heidi Burgiel, Chaim Goodman-Strauss
July 02, 2025
The Magic Theorem, a Greatly-Expanded, Much-Abridged Edition of The Symmetries of Things is a unique re-imagining of the classic book The Symmetries of Things, returning to the authors' original vision of a stand-alone elementary introduction to the orbifold signature notation and the theory behind...
By Scott Sherman, Yossi Elran, Ann Schwartz
March 20, 2025
The hexaflexagon is a folded paper strip of colored triangles that has long delighted people with how it “magically” changes its appearance when “flexed”. This hands-on, comprehensive book goes beyond the hexaflexagon, the standard version of this folded puzzle, exponentially expanding the barely ...
By Snezana Lawrence
February 24, 2025
Mathematical Meditations identifies, explores, and celebrates those aspects of mathematics that are good for you and your overall wellbeing. It is necessary for everyone to have a little time to think every so often: to contemplate, meditate, and try to understand where you are and what is going on...
By Thomas Waters
December 02, 2024
The Four Corners of Mathematics: A Brief History, from Pythagoras to Perelman describes the historical development of the ‘big ideas’ in mathematics in an accessible and intuitive manner. In delivering this bird's-eye view of the history of mathematics, the author uses engaging diagrams and images ...
By Katherine Seaton
November 29, 2024
A Stitch in Line: Mathematics and One-Stitch Sashiko provides readers with instructions for creating hitomezashi items with minimum outlay. The reader is guided through the practical steps involved in creating each design, and then the mathematics which underpins it is explained in a friendly, ...
By Mark Bollman
November 25, 2024
Intermediate Poker Mathematics provides a fascinating collection of mathematical questions set in the diverse world of poker. While it is absolutely possible that a poker player will glean some insight that will improve their skill at the table, this book is not intended primarily as a players’ ...
By Samuel Dittmer, Hiram Golze, Grant Molnar, Caleb Stanford
August 13, 2024
Puzzle and Proof: A Decade of Problems from the Utah Math Olympiad is a compilation of the problems and solutions for the first 10 years of the Utah Math Olympiad. The problems are challenging but should be understandable at a high school level. Besides putting all problems in one place (70 in...
By Aaron Montgomery
July 24, 2024
Mathematics of Tabletop Games provides a bridge between mathematics and hobby tabletop gaming. Instead of focusing on games mathematicians play, such as nim and chomp, this book starts with the tabletop games played by avid gamers and hopes to address the question: which field of mathematics ...
By David Angell, Thomas Britz
June 27, 2024
Parabola is a mathematics magazine published by UNSW, Sydney. Among other things, each issue of Parabola has contained a collection of puzzles/problems, on various mathematical topics and at a suitable level for younger (but mathematically sophisticated) readers. Parabolic Problems: 60 Years of ...
By Peter Winkler
June 21, 2024
Research in mathematics is much more than solving puzzles, but most people will agree that solving puzzles is not just fun: it helps focus the mind and increases one's armory of techniques for doing mathematics. Mathematical Puzzles makes this connection explicit by isolating important mathematical...
By Hans Zantema
April 22, 2024
This is a book about infinity — specifically the infinity of numbers, and how one kind of infinity is greater than all the rest. Along the way the author will demonstrate how infinity can be made to create beautiful ‘art’, and how this process can help us to understand the fundamental nature of ...
By Stephen Erfle
February 20, 2024
String art is a well-known and popular activity that uses string, a board, and nails to produce artistic images (although there are variations that use different modalities). This activity is beloved because simple counting rules are used to create beautiful images that can both adorn walls and ...