Second Glance

by Carol2 Comments
Second Glance by Jodi Picoult From the dustjacket: An intricate tale of love, haunting memories, and renewal, Second Glance begins in current-day Vermont, where an old man puts a piece of land up for sale and unintentionally raises protest from the local Abenaki Indian tribe, who insist it's a burial ground. When odd, supernatural events plague the town of Comtosook, a ghost hunter is hired by the developer to help convince the residents that there's nothing spiritual about the property. Enter Ross Wakeman, a suicidal drifter who has put himself in mortal danger time and again. Yet despite his best efforts, life clings to him and pulls him ever deeper into the empty existence he cannot bear since his fiancée's death in a car crash eight years ago. Ross now lives only for the moment he might once again encounter the woman he loves. But in Comtosook, the only discovery Ross can lay claim to is that of Lia Beaumont, a skittsh, mysterious woman who,...
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Game Night

by CarolNo Comments
Puerto Rico designed by Andreas Seyfarth, published by Rio Grande Games Description: The players are plantation owners in Puerto Rico in the days when ships had sails. Growing up to five different kind of crops: Corn, Indigo, Coffee, Sugar and Tobacco, they must try to run their business more efficiently than their close competitors; growing crops and storing them efficiently, developing San Juan with useful buildings, deploying their colonists to best effect, selling crops at the right time, and most importantly, shipping their goods back to Europe for maximum benefit. A novel game system lets players choose the order of the phases in each turn by allowing each player to choose a role from those remaining when it is their turn. No role can be selected twice in the same round. The player who selects the best roles to advance their position during the game will win. My thoughts: Puerto Rico is one of our go-to games on nights when we have five players. We have...
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Size 2 for Life

by Carol13 Comments
Size 2 for Life by Ashley Marriott and Marc L. Paulson, MD Description: We didn't start life as a size 8, 12, 16 or more. So how did we get here? Well, the simple truth is we ate, and we ate, and we ate! So how do we turn things around and get back to the way we deserve? Size 2 for Life shows us how. Presented in clear and easily understood language this amazingly simple new diet and fitness program can make and keep almost any woman a size 2. Included are simple tests to gauge one's current status, a complete diet and exercise program as well as the 21-Day, 2 for Life, quick-start plan for rapid results. Renowned fitness expert, Ashley Marriott and Stanford trained, Dr. Marc Paulsen are on a mission to get people fit and look the way they truly can. My thoughts: I think there's a reason I'm not a Size 2. I just don't have the kind of...
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The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop

by Carol3 Comments
The Case of the Fiendish Flapjack Flop (Humpty Dumpty Jr., Hard Boiled Detective #1) by Nate Evans and Paul Hindman, illustrated by Vince Evans and Nate Evans From the back: Humpty Dumpty, Jr. has always gotten the bad guy. Always. Except once, when the case got too personal. You know that case. The one about his Dad... And now, a frantic call for help tells him that someone is making it personal again. And this time, Humpty better watch out or he might get scrambled. Our thoughts: Amber, 9, gave this one two thumbs up. It's a cute, "egg-citing" mystery and is really funny. I personally enjoy when authors take nursery rhyme characters and mythological creatures and run amok with them. Here we have Humpty Dumpty trying to find Patty Cake, but we run into the Knave of Hearts in the dungeon, a talking walking pancake named  "Johnny" Cakes, and a police sergeant who is a minotaur. Oh, and Humpty has a magic wand that's an egg...
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Eve of the Emperor Penguin

by Carol2 Comments
Eve of the Emperor Penguin (Magic Tree House #40) by Mary Pope Osborne Description: Jack and Annie continue their quest for the secrets of happiness—secrets they need to save Merlin. This time, the Magic Tree House takes them to the one continent they haven’t visited before: Antarctica! What can they hope to learn about happiness in such a barren place? Only the penguins know for sure . . . Jack and Annie are about to find out! My thoughts: This is another great book in the series. Amber and I have read all of them and we saw the musical in Pittsburgh last year, which was a lot of fun by the way. She loves this series because of the blend of fact and fantasy. The nice thing is that we both learn something in most of them, whether it be facts about Antarctica and penguins or what a selkie is in mythology. What I learned this time around is that there is an active volcano on Antarctica,...
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Game Night

by Carol4 Comments
Dominion by Rio Grande Games Author: Donals X. Vaccarino, Development: Valerie Putman & Dale Yu, Illustration & Layout: Matthias Catrein Description: In Dominion, each player starts with an identical, very small deck of cards. In the center of the table is a selection of other cards the players can "buy" as they can afford them. Through their selection of cards to buy, and how they play their hands as they draw them, the players construct their deck on the fly, striving for the most efficient path to the precious victory points by game end. From the back of the box:  You are a monarch, like your parents before you, a ruler of a small pleasant kingdom of rivers and evergreens. Unlike your parents, however, you have hopes and dreams! You want a bigger and more pleasant kingdom, with more rivers and a wider variety of trees. You want a Dominion! In all directions lie fiefs, freeholds, and feodums. All are small bits of land,...
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