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jigsaw puzzle hd real games

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Puzzles & Jigsaws is a beautiful jigsaw puzzle game. It is a highly addictive and relaxing pastime...

Gloria (27 KP) rated Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders in Books

Jul 18, 2017

Desert Blood: The Juarez Murders

Alicia Gaspar de Alba | 2005 | Fiction & Poetry, Gender Studies

7.0

(1 Ratings)

Book Rating

A page-turner of frightening speed. (0 more)

A Mystery Unlike Any Other

Gaspar de Alba brings a fine writer's sensitivity and the open heart of her heritage. The result is a novel that takes your breath away, page after page, and grabs your heart.

Desert Blood is a mystery unlike any other. Gripping, heart-wrenching, set against the tough, lacerating reality of border-town engaging mystery, but it is more than well-written entertainment. It is an important book that sheds light on the Juárez murders--the ongoing slaughter of young Mexican women in the border city of Juárez by persons unknown. Desert Blood weaves together its fictional tale and the known facts of these notorious crimes in a way that reveals the cultural and political attitudes that have allowed these murders to continue with the indifference--if not the outright complicity--of Mexican authorities.

Gaspar de Alba not only crafts a suspenseful plot but tackles prejudice in many of its ugly forms: against gays, against Hispanics, against the poor. It's an in-your-face, no-holds-barred story full of brutality, graphic violence, and ultimately, redemption. Offering a powerful depiction of social injustice and serial murder on the U.S.-Mexican border, this is an essential purchase for both mystery and Hispanic fiction collections.

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Peter Shephard (2822 KP) rated Catan in Tabletop Games

May 26, 2019

Catan

1995 | Economic, Territory Building

8.3

(40 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating Watch

Good replayability, simple mechanics, easy to pick up (0 more)

Can be overplayed/samey (0 more)

Classic family friendly game

I do enjoy Catan, my wife and family enjoys Catan. It is a nice and easy enough game to play. It is challenging enough without being difficult, and I would go as far as to suggest the age bracket is slightly lower than the suggested. It's one of the games we turn to when there isn't enough time left for Agricola or Terrforming Mars or a similar, long length game.

The game itself is varied each time you play, and although there is a lot of commonality between games, it only takes a couple if minor changes (even as random as a particularly lucky or unlucky roll) and the game can take a drastically different direction. Playing a Road card, instead of saving for a settlement, can come back to haunt you when the resource you *nearly* got would have been vital.

Having played the base game for a good few years, we are looking for the expansions, but they are either/both difficult to get hold of, or quite expensive. The base game is a staple which should be in most collections, especially for casual gamers.

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Red Otter (340 KP) rated Targi in Tabletop Games

Jun 6, 2019

Targi

2012 | Card Game, Civilization

8.4

(7 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

Targi is a 2-player game where players play as opposing desert tribes. Both sides try to collect as many points, either through grabbing additional VP tokens or by gathering various tribe cards. These tribe cards belong to one of 5 sets, with additional points for gathering sets, either of the same kind or one of each.

The game is played with a with an ever changing 5x5 grid of goods and tribe cards, with a outer ring of cards that can almost ways been selected. A robber goes around blocks off some of the outer rings of cards and serves as a timer for the game. The worker placement portion is interesting, 3 workers are placed on the outside ring, and the intersections they create between themselves are where you ace your next two.

Targi is a relatively simple game with depth. It requires outthinking your opponent as it is relatively easy to deny the other player what they want, but not necessarily get what you need at the same time. The balance comes from trying to acquire points while at the same time getting the resources to buy those cards in the first placrz especially with the heavy emphasis on points from set collections. A great game for couples

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Cyn Armistead (14 KP) rated Unfettered in Books

Mar 1, 2018

What a wonderful anthology! I have fallen off on reading collections lately, but I am such a total Kevin Hearne fangirl that I started looking for this one as soon as he mentioned it on Facebook. I bought it as soon as I heard of its release, and womanfully resisted skipping straight to the Iron Druid story.

I truly enjoyed most of the stories included. I did just stop reading the baseball story when I realized that it was horror, and skipped over "Dogs" for the same reason. Terry Brooks' piece did nothing for me, but that probably had more to do with the fact that I haven't read anything of the novels that seem to be vital to having it truly make sense. I haven't read any of The Wheel of Time, either, but the Sanderson/Jordan contribution was a good enough story that it stood on its own. I will definitely be seeking out more of some authors' works, like Speakman and O'Roullian. Getting leads on more good reading is always exciting!

All in all, the book is more than worth its cover price. There is absolutely no question of it being worth the time spent reading it.