Game Night – Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm

by Carol2 Comments
Kingsburg: To Forge a Realm Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio, Luca Iennaco Manufacturer: Fantasy Flight Games Year: 2009 Players: 2 - 5 Time: 90 minutes Ages: 10 and up A few weeks ago I wrote about Kingsburg, a fun game where you build buildings, influence the king's advisors and defeat monsters. This is a great expansion. It adds variety and new strategies. Lately I've been feeling a little burned out on expansions, but this one really does help the game. It doesn't feel so much like an expansion for expansion's sake, as some do. Actually, the expansion is more a collection of 5 "modules" that can be used separately or in conjunction to change the base game, add a little something different. The first module is new province sheets. They have the original buildings, but add on two new rows. The second module is single strips of building that can be used over lines in the original province sheets or the new ones. When...
Read More

Winners!

by Carol7 Comments
I 'm sorry I'm a day late on this. Congratulations to the winners of Montana Legacy by R. C. Ryan. I hope you enjoy it! Raspberry Margot Edna Tollison elaing8 Cecile I've e-mailed you all. I just need your mailing addresses to pass on to Hachette Book Group....
Read More

The Butterfly by Hans Christian Andersen

by Carol3 Comments
"The Butterfly" by Hans Christian Andersen I had never heard of "The Butterfly" and even after reading, it isn't familiar at all. It's actually a sad little story. There's a butterfly who is searching for a bride, for a pretty flower to marry. It's early spring and there are many flowers "seated quietly and demurely on their stalks, just as maidens should sit before they are engaged." Too many, actually, so he asks the daisy, a wise flower, which of the many would be the perfect mate for him. She doesn't answer, because he offended her with the way he phrased the question. In spring, he passes by the crocus and the snowdrop. Then he flies by the anemones (too sour), the violets (too sentimental), the lime-blossoms (too small). He passes by the apple-blossoms, the pea-blossom and the honeysuckle, finding some fault with each. Autumn came and still he had no wife. Now, none of the flowers had the fresh, youthful...
Read More

The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen

by Carol5 Comments
The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen I don't read many Young Adult novels in general and those that I do read are fantasy more often than not. I am so glad I read this one, though. It is very "teenagey," but I adored Macy, the main character and loved seeing how she grew throughout the book. The story takes place during the summer Macy is seventeen. She is still coping with her father's death, keeping her grief under wraps by trying to be perfect, earn good grades, participate in the "right" activities. She even has the "perfect" boyfriend who is smart, unemotional, focussed on his goals. Macy thinks her summer is planned out for her. While her boyfriend is away at camp, she'll take over his job at the library, she'll help her mom with the opening of the townhouse section of her development, and of course there's always studying for the SATs. Both Macy and her mom are so concerned that...
Read More

I Has a Hotdog by Professor Happycat and ihasahotdog.com

by Carol7 Comments
I Has a Hotdog by Professor Happycat and ihasahotdog.com This is not my usual type of book. To be honest, I'm not a big fan in general of those cute animal pictures with funny captions. That's just not the kind of thing I find funny usually. But I had to review this one, because, you see, my daughter (10) found it hilarious. The day it came in the mail, she told me grandma has the cat one, which must be I Can Has Cheezburger?, then she sat down, looked at every picture, laughing and giggling and showing me one everyone few minutes. And then David got home, and he had to look through it and laugh too. It really is a cute little book. Fun, light-hearted. Probably not something I personally would spend my money on, I can imagine a lot of people really enjoying it. The pictures included here are from the I Has a Hotdog website. Do you know what your dog's...
Read More