Happiness Sold Separately

2006, Books in Bed, Fiction /

I reserved Happiness Sold Separately from the library because I really liked Lolly Winston’s Good Grief and then sassymonkey blogged about it and reminded me I hadn’t read it. I liked it but not nearly as much as Good Grief.

I’m lucky, I’ve never had fertility problems or faced infertility. And, I find I can’t relate well to stories about women who do have these issues. Not only couldn’t I relate, none of Elinor’s actions felt right to me – right in the, “that’s how I’d feel” or “that’s how I’d react” sort of way. But then again, you don’t really know how you’d feel or how you’d react ’til you go through it, right?

Anyway, I enjoyed the book but it didn’t grab me the way Good Grief did and I didn’t find the characters as likeable as sassymonkey did. I think the only character I really liked was Kat, the next door neighbor. .

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Courtney Love

2006, Books in Bed, Favorites, Non-Fiction /

I am a Courtney Love fan. There, I said it. My children aren’t thrilled about it, (they are in the “it’s all her fault Kurt is dead” camp and while they’ve all outgrown that a bit, part of them still believes it and part of them still blames her.)

I was really looking forward to Dirty Blonde and it didn’t disappoint me at all. I’m not interested in some traditional auto-biography, tell-all thing from Love. That would be out of character and a waste of everyone’s time. Let’s leave the tell-all stuff to Frances, when she’s grown up and ready. That would be the only Love/Cobain tell-all worth reading.

Dirty Blonde feels like Courtney Love – at least the Courtney Love that I know.

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Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman

2006, Books in Bed, short stories /

Is everything written by Haruki Murakami a little odd? First Wind-Up Bird, then Kafka on the Shore and now the short stories in Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman. And what’s with all of the “zoo” stories?

I didn’t dislike any of the stories, though Crabs made me a little ill and I’ve suggested TW might want to skip that one, and some of them I really did like. They were all just a little odd, a little unusual, a little skewed somehow. Like all of Murakami’s books, I guess.

Did you like Kafka on the Shore? If you did, then you’ll probably like these short stories too. If you didn’t – then skip them.

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Daily Dose of Cupcakes

Cupcake Toppers /

grinch.jpgWho knew it was so tough to find grinch figures? Must be a run on faking the joy this year. You can get a 3 piece set w/Max here (of course they have the more traditional Christmas and Hanukkah cupcake toppers too, for you normal people). You might get lucky and track down enough of these Grinch nerds dispensers or maybe you can pick up a few packages of Grinch Trading Cards and call it a day. Happy whatever errr Holidays to all of you Whos down in Whoville!

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Got Game?

Friends & Family, Holidays, Toys & Games /

Last week, on what we (and Santa) called "The second day of Christmas" the children all received a game.  A few days ago, my sister’s gifts for the three youngest children arrived and two more games were added to the mix.  Tonight, we’ve played six of the seven (One is a Goth Horror Trivia game that I don’t think the small kids or TW will be very successful with so that’s why we skipped it.  If you want a review, I’ll get Chris in here to guest post – just say the word. )

1) Swipe.  Easy, easy game and fun too.  And there was no slapping involved which is good because the last game we bought by the folks at Uno included slapping and I have vowed never to play that game again.  It comes in a nice little travel case so it would be good for a trip or a soccer game.  Pop it into the glove box of the car or a diaper bag for the older kids.

2) Cing-o.  It’s a dice game and harder than Swipe, but after a round of talking it out, everyone had the idea.  And, you have to do math (math is hard!) so that’s pretty helpful if you have an 8 year old who isn’t sure of the answer to 3 x 6.  It also comes in a travel case, this one has a nice keyring type clip on it.  Do you like Yatzee?  If you do, then this might be a nice travel game for you.

3) Shut the Box.  This is an excellent "back in the day" type of game and my sister sent the nicest version that I’ve ever seen.  If you are going to buy a game then go all out, spend the $50 and give this one.  You won’t regret it.

4) Stargo by Discovery Toys.  It’s bingo but with constellations.  It comes with a bunch of constellation cards that tell you the myths behind the constellation and you also get information about when and where the constellations are visible.  Plus, a compass to help you find each constellation.  It’s a silly game and at first the 13 year old wasn’t thrilled but he ended up having a blast and we played four rounds before they all headed out for a walk with the compass.  (FYI we really played this to celebrate the Sagan Blogathon, it seemed like a good way to remember Carl Sagan on the 10th anniversary of his death).

5) Art fish.  Go fish with art cards.  Simple and interesting.  The only challenge is in properly pronouncing the artists names.  (That’s not always easy.)

6) Loot was the most difficult game of the bunch, but even the youngest child (who is 8) caught on pretty quickly (the game is listed as a 10 and up game) and won.  There’s strategy involved in trying to sink and plunder other ships or save your won merchant ships.  It can get confusing because you are supposed to point the card you play towards you to remember that it is yours. Also, you draw at the end of your turn and that’s not generally the way card games work.  So that was a problem at various points in the game.  We only played one round and I think the next time we’ll see some players who use a little more strategy than was used the first time.

There you go – our game reviews for this holiday. 

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