Search
Search results
Nine Lives of William Shakespeare
Book
Acclaimed as the greatest dramatist of all time, William Shakespeare needs little introduction. Or...
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Ticket to Ride: USA 1910 in Tabletop Games
Aug 11, 2021
In the expansion review series, we take a look at a game expansion to discuss whether it is a necessary purchase/addition to one’s collection.
This breakdown is for the classic entry-level train game Ticket to Ride‘s expansion USA 1910.
This expansion fixes a giant problem that original Ticket to Ride suffered: the cards were all too small! The larger-sized cards can be seen below alongside the original tiny cards. In addition to larger train cards and destination cards, included are new destination cards and a special Globetrotter card to be earned at the end of the game. A minor rule adjustment is suggested in the USA 1910 rulebook, and a new variation of destination card mode can also be found in these rules.
I really have nothing to say here except I simply WILL NOT play Ticket to Ride without using the USA 1910 expansion. I am a big-handed man and having larger cards to handle are an absolute must for me. The new destination cards are also nice, but icing for me.
Official recommendation: Absolutely add this expansion to your game. No matter the cost.
This breakdown is for the classic entry-level train game Ticket to Ride‘s expansion USA 1910.
This expansion fixes a giant problem that original Ticket to Ride suffered: the cards were all too small! The larger-sized cards can be seen below alongside the original tiny cards. In addition to larger train cards and destination cards, included are new destination cards and a special Globetrotter card to be earned at the end of the game. A minor rule adjustment is suggested in the USA 1910 rulebook, and a new variation of destination card mode can also be found in these rules.
I really have nothing to say here except I simply WILL NOT play Ticket to Ride without using the USA 1910 expansion. I am a big-handed man and having larger cards to handle are an absolute must for me. The new destination cards are also nice, but icing for me.
Official recommendation: Absolutely add this expansion to your game. No matter the cost.
David McK (3496 KP) rated The Truth (Discworld, #25; Industrial Revolution, #2) in Books
Sep 11, 2022
The Truth shall set you Fret!
<2022 update>
Still as good as ever!
<original review below>
So, over the weekend I watched a BBC documentary about the late, great, Sir Terry Pratchett (Terry Pratchett: Back in Black) as part of which they brought up the fact that his earliest job had been as a reporter for his local paper (and saw his first corpse a few hours later, work experience meaning something in those days ...) .
Experience that shows in this novel.
The second of the so-called Industrial Revolutions (after Moving Pictures) sub-series of the Discworld novels, this is - IMO - the first to really get into the meat of said revolution, and concerns itself with Ankh-Morporks first newspaper, alongside a plot to depose the Patrician - a character, I feel, who (whilst mostly in the background in the earlier novels) comes more to the fore in this, as do the likes of Foul Ol' Ron, Coffin Henry, The Duck Man and Gaspode
Of course, it wouldn't be a Pratchett novel without a generous portion of puns running alongside the satire, parody and memorable characters (such as, say, Otto von Chriek: the vampire with a thing for flash photography ...)
Still as good as ever!
<original review below>
So, over the weekend I watched a BBC documentary about the late, great, Sir Terry Pratchett (Terry Pratchett: Back in Black) as part of which they brought up the fact that his earliest job had been as a reporter for his local paper (and saw his first corpse a few hours later, work experience meaning something in those days ...) .
Experience that shows in this novel.
The second of the so-called Industrial Revolutions (after Moving Pictures) sub-series of the Discworld novels, this is - IMO - the first to really get into the meat of said revolution, and concerns itself with Ankh-Morporks first newspaper, alongside a plot to depose the Patrician - a character, I feel, who (whilst mostly in the background in the earlier novels) comes more to the fore in this, as do the likes of Foul Ol' Ron, Coffin Henry, The Duck Man and Gaspode
Of course, it wouldn't be a Pratchett novel without a generous portion of puns running alongside the satire, parody and memorable characters (such as, say, Otto von Chriek: the vampire with a thing for flash photography ...)
My Professor Sweetheart (Sweetheart Escapes)
10.0
Rate It
Book
Jamie What is fun? Sure, I go out occasionally with my best friend and I have my MMA fights, but...
Contemporary MM Romance
ClareR (5784 KP) rated Killing Jericho in Books
May 28, 2023
Killing Jericho was a thrilling, suspenseful ride!
Scott Jericho is back living with his traveller fairground family after a prison sentence that saw the end of his career as a CID Police Officer. He had violently attacked a Knight of Saint George - a far right thug he had been interviewing about the death of three Polish children. This also meant that he couldn’t be charged for the crime.
There’s some history of fairground travellers in this - all true, and both interesting and nice to know that we don’t call those more unusual fairground acts “freaks” anymore.
Believe it or not, Jericho has more problems than being an ex-con: he’s using drugs, has boyfriend trouble, and the man he was charged with attacking can’t seem to keep himself away.
Jericho’s life is complicated.
The murders are gruesome and really rather inventive!
And no one is as they seem, either. It’s a dark read.
There are a lot of surprises, and I enjoyed them all!
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and to William Hussey for reading along too. This is the first of a new series, and I’ll be interested to know what happens to Scott Jericho next!
Scott Jericho is back living with his traveller fairground family after a prison sentence that saw the end of his career as a CID Police Officer. He had violently attacked a Knight of Saint George - a far right thug he had been interviewing about the death of three Polish children. This also meant that he couldn’t be charged for the crime.
There’s some history of fairground travellers in this - all true, and both interesting and nice to know that we don’t call those more unusual fairground acts “freaks” anymore.
Believe it or not, Jericho has more problems than being an ex-con: he’s using drugs, has boyfriend trouble, and the man he was charged with attacking can’t seem to keep himself away.
Jericho’s life is complicated.
The murders are gruesome and really rather inventive!
And no one is as they seem, either. It’s a dark read.
There are a lot of surprises, and I enjoyed them all!
Many thanks to The Pigeonhole and to William Hussey for reading along too. This is the first of a new series, and I’ll be interested to know what happens to Scott Jericho next!
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) rated The Witcher in TV
Dec 30, 2019
I learned of The Witcher through the video games. When I heard Netflix was making a series about it, I was ecstatic. I will say the series doesn't disappoint!
The plot and other story lines in this are solid. There is plenty of action with a tiny bit of romance thrown in. This series follows the books very closely. The sword fighting scenes are epic and are choreographed brilliantly! One of the things that I found very confusing though was the timelines taking place. It's all over the place, and you don't really know whether you're watching something in the present or something that happened previously in each scene. It would have been nice to have something on the bottom of the screen saying "10 year earlier" or something similar.
The acting is spot on in The Witcher. Henry Cavill plays Geralt perfectly. While the actress who plays Yennefer is a great actress, I don't think she's a great fit for Yennefer. Yennefer is supposed to be very beautiful, but Anya Chalotra is a bit too plain. There are so many actresses they could have had to play Yennefer, yet they go with the one who's not very striking. The man who plays Jaskier was also a good fit, and Freya Allen (Ciri) was also perfect. I also thought Triss was also perfectly casted. (In the books, Triss' hair is a chestnut/auburn color. It's only in the games where she has red hair.)
I hate waiting over a year for the next season, but it is what it is. I will definitely be watching though!
The plot and other story lines in this are solid. There is plenty of action with a tiny bit of romance thrown in. This series follows the books very closely. The sword fighting scenes are epic and are choreographed brilliantly! One of the things that I found very confusing though was the timelines taking place. It's all over the place, and you don't really know whether you're watching something in the present or something that happened previously in each scene. It would have been nice to have something on the bottom of the screen saying "10 year earlier" or something similar.
The acting is spot on in The Witcher. Henry Cavill plays Geralt perfectly. While the actress who plays Yennefer is a great actress, I don't think she's a great fit for Yennefer. Yennefer is supposed to be very beautiful, but Anya Chalotra is a bit too plain. There are so many actresses they could have had to play Yennefer, yet they go with the one who's not very striking. The man who plays Jaskier was also a good fit, and Freya Allen (Ciri) was also perfect. I also thought Triss was also perfectly casted. (In the books, Triss' hair is a chestnut/auburn color. It's only in the games where she has red hair.)
I hate waiting over a year for the next season, but it is what it is. I will definitely be watching though!
El Lissitzky
Book
El (Eleazar) Lissitzky (1890-1941) was a vital force in the revolutionary period in Russia. Having...
Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2273 KP) rated A Deadly Inside Scoop in Books
Jul 17, 2020
An Opening Scoop of Murder
Bronwyn “Win” Crewse is ready to reopen Crewse Creamery, the ice cream parlor founded by her grandparents in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, after some renovations. Unfortunately, opening day sees an early October snow storm and no customers. However, Win’s day gets even worse when she stumbles upon a dead body after she’s closed the shop for the day. The man turns out to be someone who crossed paths with Win’s family years ago, and not for the better. Before Win knows it, the police are looking at her father as the killer. Now, Win needs to figure out what really happened so she can clear him of a crime she knows he didn’t commit. Can she do that and get customers into the ice cream parlor?
I love ice cream, so that was a draw to this series, and the ice cream descriptions definitely made me drool. The delicious sounding recipes at the end will help with that. The mystery started out a little slowly. It did eventually get going, and we had some good suspects and twists before Win figured everything out. The characters were a mixed bag. I loved Win, and her family is wonderful as well. I especially appreciated the close relationship she has with both her parents and her grandfather. Her friends were more caricatures than fully developed characters, and as a result, they amused me at times and annoyed me at others. I can see them getting more developed as the series goes along, however. This is still a tasty treat, and I can see it developing into a favorite series for many.
I love ice cream, so that was a draw to this series, and the ice cream descriptions definitely made me drool. The delicious sounding recipes at the end will help with that. The mystery started out a little slowly. It did eventually get going, and we had some good suspects and twists before Win figured everything out. The characters were a mixed bag. I loved Win, and her family is wonderful as well. I especially appreciated the close relationship she has with both her parents and her grandfather. Her friends were more caricatures than fully developed characters, and as a result, they amused me at times and annoyed me at others. I can see them getting more developed as the series goes along, however. This is still a tasty treat, and I can see it developing into a favorite series for many.
Sacrifice (Detective Madison Knight Series Book 3)
8.0
Rate It
Book
Sometimes, justice comes at a high price… When a young man washes up on the shore of the...
fiction series crime mystery police procedural Carolyn Arnold
Really plays with your emotions (2 more)
Creepy
Twists and turns
Stalking through the eyes of the stalker!
Joe is just an ordinary man who works in a book store - or that is was he wants everyone to think.
Joe becomes fixated with women, and uses modern technology to stalk them, strategically placing himself in their way in order to get them to notice him, whilst at the same time getting rid of the opposition (literally). The series has him following Beck, an aspiring writer.
The cast was well picked, with particular credit to Penn Badgley, who plays Joe- who makes a really believable butter wouldn’t melt book guy, frequently turning into psychopathic killer!
The script uses dark humour very well, which add a little light heartedness into an otherwise very dark story. It is also truest scary from a personal perspective, as to how much information Joe is able to use form people’s fb/ twitter (e.t.c.) accounts!
What I particularly enjoyed about this show, was that it is primarily shown through the perspective of Joe, an unusual twist, as on one side we really want to support Joe (being the main character), and we are forced to try to empathise with him, however, deep down, we know that he is a truest dark character.
I do hope that there will be a second series of this.
Joe becomes fixated with women, and uses modern technology to stalk them, strategically placing himself in their way in order to get them to notice him, whilst at the same time getting rid of the opposition (literally). The series has him following Beck, an aspiring writer.
The cast was well picked, with particular credit to Penn Badgley, who plays Joe- who makes a really believable butter wouldn’t melt book guy, frequently turning into psychopathic killer!
The script uses dark humour very well, which add a little light heartedness into an otherwise very dark story. It is also truest scary from a personal perspective, as to how much information Joe is able to use form people’s fb/ twitter (e.t.c.) accounts!
What I particularly enjoyed about this show, was that it is primarily shown through the perspective of Joe, an unusual twist, as on one side we really want to support Joe (being the main character), and we are forced to try to empathise with him, however, deep down, we know that he is a truest dark character.
I do hope that there will be a second series of this.