Saturday, June 3, 2017

Recent Updates and Currently Reading | June 3

Posted Last Week


I'm finally starting to get my reviewing mojo back so hopefully I will start posting more frequent reviews.

Book Review | The Return by Joseph Helmreic
Upcoming June 2017 Book Releases in Fantasy, Horror, and Science Fiction

Currently Reading


Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar The Cutaway by Christina Kovac

I finished reading Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. I really enjoyed it. It's a quick read. If you love Stephen King, you should pick it up.

(I'm putting the pause on Night Film for a couple of books. I'm really loving it, but I'm burning out on it and I don't want to get stuck in a rut.)

I read The Cutaway this week. I will review it very soon. (I didn't like it much.)

Review Copies


Whispered Echoes by Paul F. Olson

Whispered Echoes by Paul F. Olson - Old-school horror creeps back to life in this stunning new collection from Paul F. Olson. Featuring tales of uneasy spirits, buried secrets, dark beings, and untold mysteries, originally published in the ‘80s and ‘90s and out-of-print for decades.

Current Distractions


Pictionary Board Game

Summertime board games have begun. My kids are obsessed with Pictionary right now so we've been staying up late drawing clues and having a good time.

I would love to hear your favorite board games if you have any that you like to play.

So what about you? Let me know what you're reading (or playing) this week or leave me some links!


This post is being shared as part of Book Date's It's Monday! What Are You Reading?, Tynga's Reviews' Stacking the Shelves, and Caffeinated Book Reviewer's The Sunday Post.

36 comments:

  1. Aw, board games. I remember spending hours and hours playing monopoly. Good times.

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    1. I loved Monopoly as a kid. I haven't played it in a long time. My mother is obsessed with Monopoly so we have *several* Monopoly games she has given us over the years.

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  2. I'm hooked on the board game 10 Days in Africa and also "It was a dark and stormy night" which is a board game of bookish first lines. They're both a lot of fun!

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    1. Thanks! I will have to look those up. I would think a bookish first lines game would be hard!! It sounds fun, though. :)

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  3. Love board games but have a hard time finding people to play them. My kid is six so we play the children version of Cataan and Ticket to Ride and enjoy it a lot. I used to play Axis and Allies a lot. And growing up it was all about Scattegories.

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    1. I wish I had more people to play them, too. My kids are still pretty little. The oldest of three is 10. I will look up Cataan and Ticket to Ride. Ticket to Ride sounds familiar, but we don't have either of those. Am I remembering Axis and Allies to be like Risk? I will look that one up, too. I've forgotten about that one. YES to Scattegories. I actually went shopping yesterday and looked for Scattegories. The box said 13+ so I'm thinking I may wait on that one a little while longer.

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  4. That's a shame about The Cutaway, I was going to say that's a new one and it sounds interesting! I'd be curious about what worked and what didn't

    ~Mogsy @ BiblioSanctum

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    1. It sounds very interesting, but it's actually not even a psychological thriller. I was expecting a much different book (more Gone Girl, less Angela Lansbury).

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  5. Yes... family board games. My small grandson is just starting to get involved, but Monopoly tends to send him over the edge. However our favourite game these days is a strategy game called Callisto for 2-4 players, it is one of the best games I've played. I hope you have a great reading week and thank you for swinging by earlier:)

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    1. I will definitely look into Callisto. Thank you!

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  6. Aw bummer about The Cutaway. Whispered Echoes looks like it could be good though...

    Board games. You know we're not very adventurous with those, mostly Monopoly lol. Or LIFE. Although I have my eye on a game called Hobbit Tales- it's a storytelling kinda card game. Here's a link.

    http://cubicle7.co.uk/our-games/hobbit-tales/

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    1. We really need to play Life. We have a Star Wars edition, but we've never played it!

      Hobbit Tales looks like a good game to play at our local brewery (sans kids!). :)

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  7. Oh family board games sounds fun!! My kids are young so we play games but I can't wait until we can play some for the older kids. I love Scategories personally :) Hope you have a great week!!

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  8. Hmmm...I've never played Pictionary. I need to play it sometime!

    Here’s my Sunday Post!

    Ronyell @ Rabbit Ears Book Blog and join in this week’s Book Photo Sundays!

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    1. Pictionary is fun! We obviously have a very old edition. The new ones don't come with near as many cards. :(

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  9. I had The Cutaway on my wishlist. I'm sorry to hear you didn't like it.

    Board games can be alot of fun.

    Have a great week!

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    1. You may have better luck with The Cutaway than I did.

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  10. We love to do family board games once school gets out for the summer. Monopoly and Life are usually big hits, as is a Star Wars themed trivia game that my son got for Christmas.

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    1. We have Star Wars Trivial Pursuit. It was the first Christmas present I bought my husband 18 years ago. :)

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  11. Glad to hear that you're starting to enjoy reviewing books again. I hope you enjoy these books. Have a wonderful week. :)

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  12. I loved The Cutaway. And board games take me back to childhood moments...although Scrabble is one I have loved in adulthood.

    Enjoy your week...and here are MY WEEKLY UPDATES

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    1. I'm glad you loved The Cutaway. My expectations were so wrong for that one. We have been playing Up Words (by the Scrabble people), but we really need to buy the original Scrabble game.

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  13. I love that you guys play board games as a family. There is a used bookstore in my town that recently started a board game section where people can buy them or else they have game nights and for a small fee ($2.00) kids and families can come and play for hours. Whispered Echos looks awesome.

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  14. Gwendy's Button Box is gorgeous and the first Stephen King book I've been genuinely excited about in a long time. Armchair Book Expo, getting ready to move, drama club, and a volunteers' tea. Come see what I'm reading this week.

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    1. If you wind up enjoying Gwendy's Button Box, you should go back and read King's Joyland and 11/22/63. They have a similar feel.

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  15. Wonderful that you are enjoying a good board game - I bet there are lots of laughs.

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  16. I haven't played Pictionary in years! With only two of us in the house anymore, it's hard to find good games (other than the old traditional 2-player games like backgammon, chess, and checkers.) With the larger family, we've enjoyed Apples to Apples, Taboo, and Things, none of which are actually board games though they do come in a box. When the cousins were school-age, they liked Clue and Monopoly; in high school, they gravitated to Risk.

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    1. I've been considering Apples to Apples, but I've never played it before. Thank you for the recommendation! I loved Clue as a kid! I met a game maker at Comicpalooza a few weeks back that made an adult card game very much like Clue. I will probably get that one at some point. I played Monopoly with my 8 year old this week, and he's now super into that now.

      There might be some great dice games for 2 players. We just ordered "Roll For It". We've also been playing a game called Squaremino when it's just 2 of us.

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  17. Summer seems like a perfect time for board games! I haven't played in forever, but my cousin's family has been big time into them this year. They are enjoying Settlers of Catan, and some other game that has a train on it? Lol. I will find out what it is called.

    Whispered Echoes looks so good, and creepy!!

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    1. I know what train game you are talking about! It's Ticket to Ride! I've looked at that one and Settlers of Catan. I'm not really into a lot of the long strategy games or games with complicated rules, but those two look good for beginners.

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  18. I'm sorry! I'm a week late at getting back to blog hopping! Thanks for stopping by my blog last weekend!

    Boardgames late into the night sounds like so much fun and pictionary is always a winner. We also love Cranium which is like a mashup of pictionary, trivial pursuit and more. It's such fun!

    Hope you've had a great week!

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    1. I love Cranium! I think some of the tasks are too difficult for my little ones. I remember having to hum songs and answer trivia that they probably wouldn't know. We do own an edition of Cranium, though, so one day! I saw a family edition of Trivial Pursuit that has easy cards for the kids and harder cards for the adults. We may do that one for a bit. :)

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