PENTAMAGIC by Pentagram (Fireside/Simon & Schuster: $16.99;...

PENTAMAGIC by Pentagram (Fireside/Simon & Schuster: $16.99; 160 pp., illustrated). This snazzy book of puzzles, games and optical illusions was created by the staff of the hip international design firm Pentagram. The diversions range from hidden portraits of Marilyn Monroe to pairs of lines that look as if they couldn’t possibly be the same length to 17th-Century anamorphic images that require a cylindrical mirror to be seen (a sheet of reflective Mylar that can be rolled into a tube is included). Although many of these tricks are familiar, the sophisticated presentation endows them with a renewed vigor.