Happy Easter!
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Game Night- Race for the Galaxy
Race for the Galaxy
Designed by Thomas Lehman
Description:
The players all compete to explore the galaxy by exploring new worlds and developing new technologies. Each turn each player chooses one action, but the others will share in the actions chosen. In the end, the player with the most points is the winner!
My thoughts:
We played this game three times last Saturday, but, for the record, we probably should have quit after the second. It's a blast, just three games is too many. Exploring or conquering new planets, producing and selling goods and purchasing developments all get you victiory points. The player with the most points at the end wins.
This games takes a little while to get a hang of, but after you know how the basics work, there are a wide variety of strategies to win. You can play the military strategy and just take over as many planets as possible, and, hopefully, pick up a development that gets you extra points. You...
Winners!
I've got winners for the I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti by Guilia Melucci giveaway.
rhapsodyinbooks
Kaye (from Pudgy Penguin Perusals)
Freda Mans
Amber G
Deborah R
Congratulations! E-mail me your mailing address and I will send it on to Hachette Book Group. I hope you enjoy the book like I did.
Remember, if you didn't win, you can always purchase it at Amazon....
Library Loot 4/9
Library Loot is a weekly event co-hosted by Eva and Alessandra that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve borrowed from the library.
Check out what other participants are bringing home from their libraries!
I only picked up one this week, and it's a 7-day loan, which moves it to the top of my to-read pile. Amber's got a bunch at home already, and I happen to know that the Easter Bunny's bringing her Moonlight on the Magic Flute(Magic Tree House #41) by Mary Pope Osborne. I don't know if she still believes in the Easter Bunny or not, but that's another subject.
The Perfect Poisonby Amanda Quick...
Wondrous Words Wednesday
I found a few new words this week, at least words that were new to me.
chinoiserie-a style of ornamentation current chiefly in the 18th century in Europe, characterized by intricate patterns and an extensive use of motifs identified as Chinese; an object decorated in this style or an example of this style.
And there's the chinoiserie, a lot of it, stolen probably when my grandfather's forbears turned to privateering. (The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry)
punctilio- a fine point, particular, or detail, as of conduct, ceremony, or procedure; strictness or exactness in the observance of formalities or amenities.
This is not an event to be set to one side in the interest of doctrinal punctilio. ("The Crucifix" by Thomas Howard in Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter)
There were a couple of Greek words in The Turnaround by George Pelecanos that I wasn't familiar with.
malaka- a slang word, whose literal translation is "wanker" but the usage of the term varies widely from the...
Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
Companions of the Night by Vivian Vande Velde
Description:
The romantic horror genre reaches a new level of complexity in this novel, which manages to be simultaneously thought-provoking and blood-curdling. Kerry becomes the unwitting accomplice of an attractive, mysterious boy on the run, only to discover that he is a vampire. Can she trust her feelings for someone so alien to her? Or has she been "seduced by the glamour of evil"?
My thoughts:
I didn't love this book, but I didn't hate it. It just didn't grab me. There were a couple things that I liked, though. Ethan, the vampire, never was anything but a vampire. He's not softened, not made into a perfect romantic hero. He drinks human blood, kills, lies to Kerry left and right, but Kerry still falls in love with him. Of course, she is a teenager and he does know how to manipulate her, but he truly cares about her, too. He just never loses his "vampireness" if that makes...