Puzzles Books

Our family loves these books. We originially came across them at the library and purchased this one to have in our collection. The illustrations are so beautifully done, I would highly recommend purchasing the full-sized hardback books. The smaller paperback book collections just don't seem to be as much fun to read.

When my first born turned one (almost 12 years ago), a friend gave this to her for a birthday present. Over the years, and with the addition of our second child, this book continues to be in our top 3 books. We still pull it out to read -- it's never far away!

I now "pass it forward" and buy it as a gift for baby/young children presents.

This sweet book is one of my four-year-olds favorites, and mine too. I enjoy reading it to her as much as she enjoys hearing it. The illustrations say as much or more than the words. It's a great story for validating the child who loves home and the one who loves to "visit".

I have become a HUGE fan of every Toot and Puddle book available and want to collect them all. I've found they have a wide age appeal, from 2 years on up to....well, I'm 28. Such clever adventures and experiences are depicted in each book and the illustrations could be the artwork in my child's room. In fact, I'd buy the prints if they were available. Great book!

This adventure with Toot and Puddle is one of my all-time favorites. It is an adorable story about two friends, one who loves to travel the world and the other who loves just staying at home in Woodcock Pocket, USA. The postcards that Toot sends Puddle from his world travels are cute and humorous! The illustrations in this book are incredible. This is a book that adults and children alike will enjoy together. I never get tired of reading this one over and over. It is a book my children will keep and pass on to their children!!

The format gets an A+ for me -- compact book with lots of room to write, and the glossy paper erases easily, which is great.

My only quibbles - the difficulty level is not consistent. Some of the moderate puzzles are walkoff easy, and some are really miserably hard. And my other quibble really is a quibble... I miss the symmetric format of the starting squares, which is customary with Sudoku.

So the format gets five stars from me, and the content three, and overall I guess that averages out to four stars!

The book is divided into ability sections. There is plenty of room to write the numbers with white space around the puzzle to make notes. It provides hours of challenge!

There are many ways to find Sudoku puzzles; but, what is unique about this book of puzzles is that it is a spiral notebook. Much easier to open the pages flat to do the puzzles. Other bound books must be held open by one hand while marking with the other. This book lies flat and is much easier to use.

Nice book of sudoku.
It has 4 sections of 100 puzzles.(levels of challenge).
-Light (serious sudokuers will fisnish in one day)
-Moderate (Nice n easy )
-Hard (relaxing)
-Hardest (brain storm)

The book has a very nice spiral design .
Small and easy to carry. Keeps busy when you are commuting to work ..
It took me 3 weeks to finish on an easy pace.
Best Sudoku book I had so far..

There are 400 puzzles inside but 2 of them are same so you actually get to resolve 399.

I have to say this is a great little book. I love the fact that it is spiral bound, plus the high-quality paper it is written on is great for erasures. I recently ordered about five sudoku books from Amazon and this is, by far, my favorite. Love Will's books.

This book turns out to be far more than a mere catalogue of mates. There are many fully analyzed games, colorful comments on history, and many exercises to help cement the ideas. You would think that everybody has read this book and therefore it would be impossible to place these mates. However, the authors show you how to find the essentials in a position so that you can create new variations that aren't in the book.

Conclusion: Far more than a mating manual, also serves good introduction to tactics in the middlegame. An excellent value.

What's the point of writing yet another review for this book? Well, I couldn't help it! This book is fantastic. Two features I really enjoy: the patterns are mostly explained through entire game miniatures and the authors give extensive historical notes on the players.

I have bought and sold hundred's of chess books over the years, this one is a keeper . My copy is well worn from heavy use. It is the best book of its type I have ever come across! Teaches ALL the basic mateing patterns, and how to apply them, in a very simple, but USEFUL way.

Art of the Checkmate is an awesome book. I've read it, put the patterns and quizzes into "Chess Workbook" software, and I've drilled through it at least 5-6 times. If there is one thing that you need to learn how to do in chess, is to checkmate your opponent. Each form of the mating patterns should be memorized. I found that after drilling through this book a couple of times, I am far more dangerous than before. I instantly, recognize and operate my pieces toward checkmating the king. It became effortless for me to become a dangerous player. After I read this book the guys at my club were suddenly shocked to find their king so often in my cross-hairs for potential checkmates. Against good players, these threats rarely lead to checkmates, but they lead to bad trades, bad sacrifices, loss of tempi, and bad moves by my opponent which ultimately weaken my opponent.

Get this book and become a dangerous chess player. It's for beginners, but the only problem is the descriptive notation.

The Art of the Checkmate is a book I purchased about 10 years ago and feel this book deserves to be an essential part of any chess players library. The book focuses on checkmates (no surprise) that at some point you will face as a chess player. Don't think that these moves are just a novelty and not played in todays games, many examples in the book show GM's being defeated from these moves. With smothered mates, corridor mates, Boden's mate, pseudo-sacrifice, and double checks, as well as a host of others you will benefit from knowing these moves. The book can be purchased for less than a few days lunch so there's no reason to skip this one. Overall I think this book is required reading by all ratings from novice to GM.

This book has a perfect combination of variety and quantity. Problems are broken down by type. Each type is introduced and explained step by step, then 50 or 100 practice problems of that type are provided for drill. The solutions are at the back of each section. There are separate sections for Mates in 1, 2, 3, and even 4 moves, as well as pins, discoveries, double attacks, etc... I have her father's massive collection of mate problems. This book is less overwhelming and will be approachable to a wider audience.

Susan Polgar's book intrigued me from the start as it focused rather like her father's book on prolems and working to figure out what your first move. The only drawback is that it is heavily influenced towards the White pieces. Overall, though, Polgar's book really helps you develop an idea of playing 'for the future and not just for the now' (i.e. you need to play smarter and not just better).

The idea is also to develop the ideas about looking 2-3-4 moves ahead and that will benefit all players enormously!

This book is perfect, with lots of excercises and lots of important tactics discussed and overviewed. An exceptional piece of work!!!

This is another excellent book by Susan Polgar. Her first book is similar to this one, but with the major difference being the difficulty of the chess puzzles. The first book was elementary compared to this one. This book really tested my skills and eyes for the correct move. It basically deals with developing the art of seeing the tactic or creating the winning move with little instruction. The chess puzzles help the speed player. This book is great practice in using the art of tactics. It has helped my play by supporting wins over a high 1400, 1500, 1600 this week. An excellent book for the intermediate player.

This is an incredible chess book!!! You want to improve your chess?? Read this book and solve the puzzles, but solve them seriously! Dont look for the answer at the end of the chapter, some of them are not easy, but keep practicing, every day solve some puzzles, you will not notice your improvement while you are reading but after some chapters if you play against your friends again, you will see it and they too!! In less than two months practicing you will see results!!

This book start from easy problems, you will solve them easily, next chapter you will think "Oh c'mon give something better than this!!", but after a few chapters you will be playing much better and solving puzzles that never before you could solve... in just seconds!!.

I play against my computer and also online in yahoo chess, my rating usually is around 1400 to 1500, and never more than that. This night I just beat a 1600 guy!. He couldnt see what I could!! Even I offer him a queen sacrifice!! (unfortunally he didnt take it because it was mate, but he lost a knight instead!:)

Amazing book!! Thanks Susan!! I will buy all the Polgar family books!!!
Here are some of them:
A World Champion's Guide to Chess: Step-by-step instructions for winning chess the Polgar way (Chess) and
Chess: 5334 Problems, Combinations and Games

Some Advices from just a (still) regular player:
1. When you find a puzzle that you cant solve after 15/20 minutes thinking, just leave it and go to the next one, dont look for the answer!. Later, next day or next week try again and you will find the right move for sure!
2. May be I shouldnt say this, but just in case... dont be tricky with yourself! Make the moves in your mind, do NOT touch the pieces until you find the moves just thinking. If you dont do this, the excercise will be useless for you and a waste of time because you will not improve your game doing this.

This is an awesome game for in the car. It doesn't matter if we are going on a short trip or a long one, my son (9years old) always reaches for the deck of Rubberneckers first thing. We keep it in the car so we know we won't be without it. Even we adults have fun searching for the objects on the cards. Would definitely recommend it!

This game is the BEST. It is a lot of fun for all ages. It makes car rides much more interesting and fun. I would recommend this to anyone that likes to lighten it up once and a while.

This game is awesome! It makes the time fly by for our ADHD son. The whole family gets involved. After a long trip, we find ourselves still looking for items for a few weeks after we are home. Sometimes we let him make up the rules of the game.

This was definately a good purchase. My 9 year old twin girls loved it. The game challenges you to find certain road signs, types of cars, ect while on your road trip. The best part are the cards that ask you to get the attention of another car near you. The object being to wave or do some other instruction and get the other car to acknowledge you. It was a good time and did make the trip go that much quicker. It's great just to leave in the car even when you are on short trips.

Rubberneckers is a great game to keep in the car for longer rides. The cards tell you to look for various things - types of signs, license plates, cars, businesses and restaurants, etc.. Wave at someone in another car and see if they wave back at you, see if you spot a police car that has pulled someone over. You score points based on what you find. Our nine- and eleven-year olds love it!

Michael Craig (ed.), The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide: Tournament Edition (Grand Central, 2007)

"Comprehensive" is not the way to describe this book, but I'm not entirely sure what is. Why is it that so many poker books are so... imposing? This isn't quite the doorstop the two Super/System offerings are, but it certainly aspires-- well over four hundred pages. As with those two books, this one contains a number of chapters contributed by a number of different high-profile poker stars, among them Mike Matusow, Howard Lederer, and Huck Seed. Unlike most of the poker books I've seen recently (and like the Super/System books), The Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide doesn't limit itself to Hold'em, taking on such esoteric subjects as Omaha/8. There's even a Razz chapter. (Thus the presence of Huck Seed, most of whose WSOP bracelets have come in Razz events.)

A lot of it's stuff you've read before, but it never hurts to hear it again, and-- especially if you've spent most of your time reading about Hold'em-- there's much to be learned here as well. Personally, I think it's worth the price of admission just for the Omaha/8 chapter. ****

Buy this book, its one of the best out there and it covers many gametypes

Brilliant all round book, which I've learnt and gained much more poker knowledge from. Im not one for reading books but I couldn't put this one down!

In the world of poker literature, no limit hold em advice dries up and becomes useless pretty quickly these days. One year after its release, this underrated and underread book still holds advice that has yet to find its way into most tournaments. Almost every chapter regarding NLHE offers insights into the game that blows almost everything else away. Dare I say it, I think it even makes HOH begin to look dated.

Andy Bloch's chapter on preflop play is worthy of its own 5-star-rated book (even if I disagree with some of his advice, such as reraising with middle pairs while in position). Lederer's chapter on leverage is knowledge only a miniscule percentage of your opponents will be even vaguely aware of. Chris Ferguson's chapter on bet sizes is all you'll ever need to know about that subject. Gavin Smith's chapter on LAG play is a must-read for both the player wanting to learn to play that dangerous style, or for the TAG wanting to understand his loose-aggressive opponent.

In addition, there are great chapters on other poker games such as Omaha, Stud, and Razz (the Razz chapter being my personal fave). I honestly don't think there is a better tournament book out there. I also honestly hope it continues to fly under the radar for at least another year.

As an avid poker player (I play at least 5 hours a week) who makes decent money, I was looking forward to this edition. The problem with books these days is that there isn't much new material out there. Doyle wrote his supersystem which laid the groundwork for aggressive play which wasn't the norm back in the day. Then Harrington came out with his three volumes which are the definitive go-to for all no-limit holdem play.

If you want the best no-limit holdem book out there, then this probably isn't your book. The Harrington books trump this book by a long shot. However, if you're looking for a one-stop-shop for the other games then this is the answer. The only section that I felt was subpar was the section on Razz which gave very subpar advice, data, or basic strategy. The stud sections are excellent and lay very good groundwork for both cash and tournament play.

So...if you're only going to stick with NL holdem, then go with the Harrington books...if you're looking for a little bit of everything, then i highly recommend this book.

Fantastic bit of fun that is bright, colourful, clever, simple and appeals to all age groups! A true classic in the making!

My kids fight to be the one holding this book. They love the search as the pages turn to the next challenge.

This is such a beautiful book. I recommend everyone to add a copy of this book to their library. I picked up this book in the classroom I work in to engage a 3 year old child with autism. She didn't take her eyes off this book and wanted to play with it again and again. I am now getting one for my three year old son. Every child and adult will love this book. It is truly amazing. Never have I seen such wonderful pop up art done.

For 3 years now, I've been a David A. Carter fan. Why 3 years? You put two and two together. He's the author of these three *very* cool pop-up books that are unlike any pop-up books I've ever seen. They are like individual works of art only they're purchasable at any generic bookstore. It's "Pop" art. Get the double entendre? Well, if not, take a look at the pics above.

My first introduction to his work was with the book: "One Red Dot." Since then he's created "600 Black Spots" and "Blue 2." I purchased these in "new" condition for half of their purchase price on Amazon. However, if you're the type of parent who lets their child run amok with their baby books (not a bad thing) this may have to take a backseat for a year or two. I had to be very careful with my daughter when reading this book. Like any one-year-old her first instinct was to grab then ensuingly tear off the colorful fluttering paper. But I did manage to keep the book "relatively" unscathed and usable for my second daughter.

He's written a couple more "traditional" pop up books about bugs but these were the ones that hooked me. Oh and one more thing, one of the pages makes a great sawing noise when the blades scrape against the paper as you open the page. Clever.
'Kathleen Dougherty
http://the-tum-tum-tree.blogspot.com/

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R34SQ3IXMD8XCL

In Regards to Eheieh Ain Soph .... wtf

Crowley was a man, I'm sure his potential was higher then any womans could ever be....

Otherwise this deck is awesome and so is the man who is behind them.

This is the first deck i have ever worked with, and the only one i will ever work with. Its colours are amazing and every time i see it i want to work with it. I recomend it to anyone who likes Crowley, or his system. You will not be dissapointed with this deck.

I bought this deck along with another more well-known deck. I am new to Tarot and have been reading some books. When these decks arrived...I looked at each card. Personally...this deck is not for me. I am sure many people like this deck since it is quite colorful and the pictures are powerful. But it didn't feel right in my hands. I highly recommend that if you are "ify" about this deck...to visit some other Tarot sites to get a better look at the cards. If you are a beginner, try using the deck that goes along with your beginner book. If you are experienced...this may be an excellent deck.

I didn't know there were two kinds of decks, green and this one. My first deck was the green one and I never really bonded with it. Then one of the cards just vanished, so I couldn't use it. Maybe I wasn't supposed to use it. Comparing the two, this deck is so much nicer. It has a much higher vibration to it than the green one.

I purchased this deck expecting to receive the one pictured that is printed in Switzerland. All of the other reviews exclaim happily that it is as well. Instead of getting the red and white packaged deck in the mail I got a purple and coloured package from Game Systems U.S.A. that is printed in Belgium. Very dissapointing. The colours are greenish in hue and not true to the originals. I wish that the picture of the item and the reviews hadn't been so misleading, as I never would have purchased them if I had known.

Very clear and easy to understand. Covers odds and house advantage of various casino games. If you want to understand the math and odds the book gives good examples that are clear. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand this book. Got a copy for my retired uncle and he loves it for his casino trips. Clearly explains the house has an advantage, but teaches you how to minimize that so your money and free drinks last longer.

This book will explain to you, in no uncertain terms, exactly why you can't win at most games. However, it will give you tips on how to win more often. And, it will show you a few games where you actually have a chance to beat the house.

for anyone that spends any time or money gambling, you really ought to read this book.

...but, if you do make a trip to Vegas and lose, you'll know you did your very best and not be filled with complete regret about placing sucker and egotistical bets and getting taken in by the atmosphere in general. The author talks in detail about the emotional roller-coaster that is casino gambling, and this book will help you smooth out those bumps in the roller coaster.

Brisman is also very clear that no matter how skilled your decisions, the odds WILL remain in favor of the house at all times.

I'm not a particularly serious gambler - I go to casinos maybe 2-3 times a year. I bought this book several years ago before my first trip to vegas and read it on the plane on my way out (and have gone back and consulted it countless times since), and I'm very happy with it.

The book contains a few introductory chapters followed by 12 chapters devoted to common casino games (followed by a few misc. chapters at the end). It's very straightforward and takes a no-nonsense approach, backed by statistics/probability, to disect each game. For each casino game, the book tells you what the odds are if you play 'by the book', and describes various strategies for playing. In my opinion, this book (or a similar work) is a MUST if you are a beginning gambler and will probably be very useful if you are an intermediate level gambler. It's easy to understand, but at the same time it isn't dumbed down, so should remain a useful reference for all but the most serious/knowledgable gamblers.

I purchased this book primarily to learn blackjack, and specifically to learn basic strategy. The Blackjack chapter is very well laid out and should allow a beginner to learn basic strategy in a fairly short period of time, as it did in my case. If you play blackjack (or plan to play) and don't know basic strategy (or worse - don't know what basic strategy is!) then this book is an absolute must. I feel like I got my money's worth out of the blackjack chapter alone, with the rest of the book a very much appreciated added bonus.

The book has 16 chapters, 2 of which are introductory, and 13 are dedicated to the games themselves. If you've ever visited a casino, you know how easy it is to get overwhelmed by flashing lights and sounds of coins falling everywhere, and then perhaps make an errant decision about playing a slot game or joining a roulette table.

This book does a good job on teaching the fundamentals and rules of each game, and it goes further to tell you why the game is profitable for the casino and how fast you should expect to lose money on it. Since the only game that might possibly be played to the player's advantage is blackjack, Chapter 3, which deals with blackjack, is one of the largest in the book. The author also discusses popular "winning" systems and with mathematical detail displays their faults.

It's an excellent guide to all the games and casino business in general. However, the book serves a dual purpose - after I learned about the odds and the house edge in each game, it's unlikely I will ever gamble at a casino again.

I was suprised at how good this book was. It's very well written and I look forward to reading more from Mary Herbert.

Probably my favorite out of the bridges of time series.

I finished this book 2 days ago after letting it sit in my library for nearly 3 years. I have to say that I find the book uncompelling and simple. I mean, with the word "simple", that the charecters have no depth at all, when the author needs a person, boom, he/she's there.

What disappointed me most was the dragon Cobalt. I understand that dragons can be fond of their riders (and don'T get me wrong I've been reading DL for quite some time now) but this one is just childish. Almost as if he's a pet. He is lacking depth as well. The main plot of the book is unclear until the last 60 or so pages. The reader has no idea what the book's all about.

But, the book takes hold of the reader now and then. Some parts of the book is definitely exiciting but all in all not a very good effort on Herbert's part.

What a wonderful Book. I recieved it, and read it cover to cover all in the same day! I don't usually do that, but what a damn good book.

This story is centered around Sara Dunstan, whom is still grieving over her adopted son Steel Brightblade three years after the summer of chaos. In the begining, she is living as a exile from the Knights of Tahkisis, and is pretty miserable. Then she starts having some dreams that call to her for help. Eventually, she sets out to find the source of the dreams and comes upon a wounded and riderless blue dragon whom she nurses back to health.

Thats all I'm telling you about this book. But It was page turning. I just added Mary H Herbert, to the list amazing Dragonlance storytellers, right under Richard A Knaack, whom we all know is the best. I Cannot wait to learn more about the "Leigon Of Steel" which is founded in the end of this work!

By Huma's Shield, this was a Fantastic Book!

Like i wrote in the title this has been on of the first dragonlance's beautiful books from the very first page.
This could be only my opinion, but if you like dragons stories this is your book....even if i can't tell you this is the best, for sure it is very good story filled by action and quite linear plot, easy and pleasant to read.
It's explain someting about dragon riders,dragon training and dark knights.
Read it and enjoy!

Unlike the first book in this series (Chris Pierson's SPIRIT OF THE WIND), this book doesn't have a compelling plot that draws the reader into the book. There is a bare semblance of a plot, but nothing truly engaging. It's about Sara Dunstan's (Steel Brightblade's foster mother) infiltration of the regrouped Knights of Takhisis. Herbert tells this story with no real goal observable to the reader. There is an ultimate goal of the book, but it's really just to set up a story element that will appear in subsequent books in the Dragonlance universe.

The big redeeming quality of this book is the character of Sara Dunstan. Readers were first introduced to her in Weis & Hickman's THE SECOND GENERATION and we saw more of her in their DRAGONS OF SUMMER FLAME. This book fleshes here character out much more than those two did. Since the book is told from her point of view, we get to observe the various facets of her character. This is important since I get the feeling that she will be playing a larger role down the road, possibly in Weis & Hickman's War of Souls trilogy (which I have yet to read).

The writing in the book was solid, although the supporting characters all seemed pretty one dimensional. The new general of the Knights of Takhisis was kind of interesting and it would be neat to see her fleshed out in another book at some point. Herbert does a good job of telling the story and getting to the point where the necessary things (I don't want to ruin things for people who haven't read it yet) are established for use in later books. I just wasn't engrossed in the story since there wasn't much of a plot to get involved in. Decent book and Dragonlance fans might find it useful in understanding these new concepts that I'm not mentioning. If you're not a completist, though, you can probably skip it and not miss out on much.