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The Who Sell Out by The Who
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The Who Sell Out's pirate-radio concept goes south in the album's second half--the Who ran out of...
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Tom Wolfe's debut collection of essays - a brilliant, form-bending dive into the future of America...
Mulan (2009)
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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Treasure Hunter in Tabletop Games
Jun 28, 2019
Indiana Jones. Lara Croft. Benjamin Franklin Gates. These were all great treasure hunters. All of them had to overcome incredible riddles, curses, traps, and death-craving dark places to claim their loot. In Treasure Hunter you will be searching for your treasures using mules, scarecrows, and locals in a frozen tundra, a jungle, and a volcano. So, like, exactly the same as Indy and Tomb Raider and the dude from National Treasure.
Obviously I am making light of the theme of this card drafting, set collection, hand management game from Queen Games, but it’s just so fun to imagine yourself as a genuine treasure hunter. DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES??
DISCLAIMER: There are several expansions to this game, but we are not reviewing them at this time. Should we review them in the future we will either update this review or post a link to the new material here. -T
To setup the game, shuffle the cards and the treasure tiles and place them in their respective resting spots. Place a treasure tile on the MIN and MAX sections of each terrain type on the main board. Assign three goblin tiles to their spots on the cave sections of the main board to be dealt with after your adventure round. Each player receives 15 starting gold to begin their adventure. Deal each player nine cards and you are ready to begin!
To start the game, look at the hand of cards that were dealt, choose one and pass the rest to the leftmost neighbor. This should be familiar if you have ever played any other card drafting game (like Sushi Go!, 7 Wonders, etc). Once you have your complete hand of nine cards you drafted, the hunt may begin. During you draft phase you will have already assessed the main board and decided how you would like your draft to go – do want the maximum red treasure? The minimum blue treasure? All the dogs?? Each terrain type will be scored in order from top down, so whomever has amassed the minimum number of blue values will receive the tile on the MIN section of the tundra, while they who gathered the most value in blue cards will receive the MAX tile. There are cards that can affect your values using a +/- mechanic so that you can hopefully come in the victor on your chosen field.
Once the main treasure hunt is complete and everyone has their treasure tiles, you must figuratively store your treasures in the cave. Predictably, goblins will visit your cave to try to steal your goods, so I hope you had drafted some guard dogs in the first phase of the game to protect your shinies. If not, you will be parting with some of your gold (which are ultimately VPs)! At the end of five rounds following this structure, and reversing draft direction, you flip over the main board to reveal the scoreboard where you can record your earnings (findings?) and determine victory for the greatest Treasure Hunter!
Components: this game comes with a good amount of components – just the way I like it. The main board, treasure tiles, money chits, and goblin tiles are all thick cardboard that are of great Queen Games quality. The cards are great quality too. I really like the double-sided game board that also serves as score board. Another great component collection from Queen Games!
Ok, so I really like this game a lot. I received this game from my wife, who has an uncanny ability to choose games for me that are not on my wish list, but that end up being simply wonderful (see Azul, Saboteur). I really enjoy card drafting games, and when you can go into a draft with a strategy that just is completely obliterated by someone else’s draft is unpredictable fun! So many times I have played this and just KNEW that my 2 of Red was going to win me the MIN tile. But then my opponent busts out a 3 of Red with a -2 card and snags it away from me. It can be frustrating, but it’s also just a testament to really good drafting and counter-strategy. Using the guard dogs to scare off goblins is cool, and the goblin tiles provide you with VPs too. I know it’s kinda kooky and silly, but I really enjoy this one. Richard Garfield has another hit on his hands for me, and I’m not the only one who recognizes it. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a sneaky 14 / 18.
Obviously I am making light of the theme of this card drafting, set collection, hand management game from Queen Games, but it’s just so fun to imagine yourself as a genuine treasure hunter. DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES??
DISCLAIMER: There are several expansions to this game, but we are not reviewing them at this time. Should we review them in the future we will either update this review or post a link to the new material here. -T
To setup the game, shuffle the cards and the treasure tiles and place them in their respective resting spots. Place a treasure tile on the MIN and MAX sections of each terrain type on the main board. Assign three goblin tiles to their spots on the cave sections of the main board to be dealt with after your adventure round. Each player receives 15 starting gold to begin their adventure. Deal each player nine cards and you are ready to begin!
To start the game, look at the hand of cards that were dealt, choose one and pass the rest to the leftmost neighbor. This should be familiar if you have ever played any other card drafting game (like Sushi Go!, 7 Wonders, etc). Once you have your complete hand of nine cards you drafted, the hunt may begin. During you draft phase you will have already assessed the main board and decided how you would like your draft to go – do want the maximum red treasure? The minimum blue treasure? All the dogs?? Each terrain type will be scored in order from top down, so whomever has amassed the minimum number of blue values will receive the tile on the MIN section of the tundra, while they who gathered the most value in blue cards will receive the MAX tile. There are cards that can affect your values using a +/- mechanic so that you can hopefully come in the victor on your chosen field.
Once the main treasure hunt is complete and everyone has their treasure tiles, you must figuratively store your treasures in the cave. Predictably, goblins will visit your cave to try to steal your goods, so I hope you had drafted some guard dogs in the first phase of the game to protect your shinies. If not, you will be parting with some of your gold (which are ultimately VPs)! At the end of five rounds following this structure, and reversing draft direction, you flip over the main board to reveal the scoreboard where you can record your earnings (findings?) and determine victory for the greatest Treasure Hunter!
Components: this game comes with a good amount of components – just the way I like it. The main board, treasure tiles, money chits, and goblin tiles are all thick cardboard that are of great Queen Games quality. The cards are great quality too. I really like the double-sided game board that also serves as score board. Another great component collection from Queen Games!
Ok, so I really like this game a lot. I received this game from my wife, who has an uncanny ability to choose games for me that are not on my wish list, but that end up being simply wonderful (see Azul, Saboteur). I really enjoy card drafting games, and when you can go into a draft with a strategy that just is completely obliterated by someone else’s draft is unpredictable fun! So many times I have played this and just KNEW that my 2 of Red was going to win me the MIN tile. But then my opponent busts out a 3 of Red with a -2 card and snags it away from me. It can be frustrating, but it’s also just a testament to really good drafting and counter-strategy. Using the guard dogs to scare off goblins is cool, and the goblin tiles provide you with VPs too. I know it’s kinda kooky and silly, but I really enjoy this one. Richard Garfield has another hit on his hands for me, and I’m not the only one who recognizes it. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a sneaky 14 / 18.
Rachel King (13 KP) rated On Writing in Books
Feb 11, 2019
I have not now nor ever been a fan of Stephen King's fiction, nor do I intend to change that pattern. His personal brand of fiction is simply not for me. But since this book is non-fiction, curiosity got the better of me. I am glad that I read this book very much, for both the memoir of his writing life, as well as the writing skills he attempts to impart.
The first half of the book is largely a memoir of King's life, with a focus on his writing career. The reader learns things such as what inspired him, what he liked in fiction, his initial forays into getting published, as well as his many rejections and criticisms. I found it both interesting and ironic that his first big book, Carrie, was accomplished largely thanks to his wife's encouragement, as he never really cared for the main character. He could take the simplest ideas, put two random thoughts together, and make them into these successful stories. All of this is woven into the more mundane aspects of his life, from schooling, to various jobs, to meeting his future wife.
The second part of the book is all about what King considers good writing practices, as well some of the advice that King has received over the years, such as when writing a second draft, subtract 10% from the original. He even goes into the details of good grammar and repeatedly refers to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. He finishes off this section by showing a section of a first draft he wrote, and then the edited second draft of it to give the reader an idea of how to approach the editing process.
A final section in the book goes into the details of when King was hit and nearly killed by a "blue van" and the effect that it had on his life and his writing. The accident actually occurs before he begins the second part of this book, giving the manuscript the possibility of never being completed. This was probably the most intriguing part of the book for me, as he was able to remember in vivid detail what happened to him, and yet he seemed to be oddly emotionally-detached from its long-term consequences for his life. There is only one short paragraph in which I actually pick up on some emotion, when he discusses how quickly the driver of the blue van will likely be returning to the road. At one point he also made the observation that the driver could have stepped from the pages of one of his novels. What I do love is that his passion for writing helped him to overcome his injuries and regenerate that need to keep putting words to the page.
The first half of the book is largely a memoir of King's life, with a focus on his writing career. The reader learns things such as what inspired him, what he liked in fiction, his initial forays into getting published, as well as his many rejections and criticisms. I found it both interesting and ironic that his first big book, Carrie, was accomplished largely thanks to his wife's encouragement, as he never really cared for the main character. He could take the simplest ideas, put two random thoughts together, and make them into these successful stories. All of this is woven into the more mundane aspects of his life, from schooling, to various jobs, to meeting his future wife.
The second part of the book is all about what King considers good writing practices, as well some of the advice that King has received over the years, such as when writing a second draft, subtract 10% from the original. He even goes into the details of good grammar and repeatedly refers to Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. He finishes off this section by showing a section of a first draft he wrote, and then the edited second draft of it to give the reader an idea of how to approach the editing process.
A final section in the book goes into the details of when King was hit and nearly killed by a "blue van" and the effect that it had on his life and his writing. The accident actually occurs before he begins the second part of this book, giving the manuscript the possibility of never being completed. This was probably the most intriguing part of the book for me, as he was able to remember in vivid detail what happened to him, and yet he seemed to be oddly emotionally-detached from its long-term consequences for his life. There is only one short paragraph in which I actually pick up on some emotion, when he discusses how quickly the driver of the blue van will likely be returning to the road. At one point he also made the observation that the driver could have stepped from the pages of one of his novels. What I do love is that his passion for writing helped him to overcome his injuries and regenerate that need to keep putting words to the page.
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2304 KP) rated Fillet of Murder (Deep Fried Mystery #1) in Books
Mar 9, 2018
After going through a transition, Talia finds herself working at her friend Bea’s fish and chips restaurant again. When a neighboring shop owner is murder and the police start to focus on Bea, Talia decides to start looking for the real killer.
This is the first in a series, and a lot of people seemed to love it, but it felt like it needed another draft to polish things up. The characters weren’t quite as well developed as they could have been, and the plot has some serious pacing issues. It wasn’t a bad debut, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
NOTE: I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher in hopes that I would review it.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2015/11/book-review-fillet-of-murder-by-linda.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
This is the first in a series, and a lot of people seemed to love it, but it felt like it needed another draft to polish things up. The characters weren’t quite as well developed as they could have been, and the plot has some serious pacing issues. It wasn’t a bad debut, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.
NOTE: I was sent a copy of this book by the publisher in hopes that I would review it.
Read my full review at <a href="http://carstairsconsiders.blogspot.com/2015/11/book-review-fillet-of-murder-by-linda.html">Carstairs Considers</a>.
Allison Knapp (118 KP) created a post
Jan 18, 2019
The Blind Side (2009)
8.1
Rate It
Movie Watch
Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) knows little about family. Less about football. What the homeless teen...
TG
The Girlboss Workbook: An Interactive Journal for Winning at Life
8.0
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Book
Hot on the heels of the Netflix show based on #GIRLBOSS comes Sophia Amoruso's new workbook of tips,...
TravelersWife4Life (31 KP) rated Samson & Amish Delilah in Books
Feb 24, 2021
I love stories with horses!
I have worked with horses for most of my life and I am always looking for ways to be around them. In this book Thomas Nye shows his love of horses in this book quite well, I love his descriptions of the big draft horses and what they can do. I hope to own a pair of draft horses like them someday too!
Samson and Delilah’s story was an interesting tale and not really what I expected. This book had a couple of firsts for me. One I have never read an Amish book by a male author, and male authors have very different writing styles then females and that makes books interesting. Second, I have never read a book about Sampson and Delilah. Most people don’t write about them, I am not sure why. However, this book is very loosely related to their story, as in if you didn’t know their names to be looking for that specific storyline you probably wouldn’t notice it. I loved the twists in this book and thought It was a great ending to the story… or a possible lead into the next book in the series?
For me, the start of this book was quite slow, and I had a lot of trouble following the story and getting engaged with the characters. There seemed to be a lot of over expressed emotions and things repeated (which is somewhat understandable with the characters reading a book that closely follows what is happening in the book). I was very excited to read this book based off the description; however, the story fell short on what I expected and hoped for. Based on the overall book I give this story a 3 out of 5 stars for the creativity of Thomas Nye in crafting a dual storyline, for the interesting premise, and the great ending… or beginning?
I have worked with horses for most of my life and I am always looking for ways to be around them. In this book Thomas Nye shows his love of horses in this book quite well, I love his descriptions of the big draft horses and what they can do. I hope to own a pair of draft horses like them someday too!
Samson and Delilah’s story was an interesting tale and not really what I expected. This book had a couple of firsts for me. One I have never read an Amish book by a male author, and male authors have very different writing styles then females and that makes books interesting. Second, I have never read a book about Sampson and Delilah. Most people don’t write about them, I am not sure why. However, this book is very loosely related to their story, as in if you didn’t know their names to be looking for that specific storyline you probably wouldn’t notice it. I loved the twists in this book and thought It was a great ending to the story… or a possible lead into the next book in the series?
For me, the start of this book was quite slow, and I had a lot of trouble following the story and getting engaged with the characters. There seemed to be a lot of over expressed emotions and things repeated (which is somewhat understandable with the characters reading a book that closely follows what is happening in the book). I was very excited to read this book based off the description; however, the story fell short on what I expected and hoped for. Based on the overall book I give this story a 3 out of 5 stars for the creativity of Thomas Nye in crafting a dual storyline, for the interesting premise, and the great ending… or beginning?