Puzzles Books

If you are close to or north of 50 years old you likely grew up leafing through the copies of Life and Look magazine that your parents subscribed to. They were large format magazines that relied more on pictures than text to make their points, but the text was still of good to high quality. Their vast library of photographs have been mined for several very nice books and special commemorative issues on various topics such as the Space Race, the Kennedy Assassination, and the war in Vietnam.

This book pulls out photographs published in life on notorious crimes in American history. Obviously, some of the photographs of the Lincoln assassination and the Lizzie Borden murders involve historical photos, but the crimes after the mid-20th Century are from Life's libraries. There are several dozen crimes collected here and they are grouped under politics, passion, profit, and pointless mayhem.

It starts off with the assassination of Lincoln, JFK, the Rosenberg trial and executions, Mississippi Burning, the murders of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, Watergate, Patty Hearst, the shooting of Ronald Reagan, the Oklahoma City bombing and others.

The Passion section has a number of strange cases, many of which are not famous anymore. But it does cover Pamela Smart, Amy Fisher, OJ, and Laci Peterson.

The Profit section covers Sacco & Vanzetti, various Mob related stories, the Lindbergh baby kidnapping and murder, the story behind Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood", and Enron.

Pointless Mayhem covers Lizzie Borden, Leopold and Loeb, Sam Sheppard, Psycho, The Boston Strangler, Richard Speck, Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, the Beltway Snipers, the murder of John Lennon, and others.

The articles accompanying the pictures are a tad sensationalistic and don't come down as definitely on one side of the case or the other as partisans might wish, but they do honestly capture the facts of the cases, the ambiguities, and are written in an interesting way.

This book makes for interesting reading, especially if you are interested in these crimes and provide some insight to the seamier side of American History. Obviously, in this format you can't expect an exhaustive examination of the various cases. This is meant to be a page-turner and something you talk about with family and friends rather than an intellectual exercise. The pictures are very good to fabulous and many sear themselves into your memory and it is the pictures, after all, that Life magazine was really about.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

From the assassination of Abraham Lincoln , John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King Jr., to the kidnaping of Patty Hearst and the Lindbergh Baby, to the notorious Charles Manson family, to the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre, "The Most Notorious Crimes In American History" is an illustrated history of famous and infamous American crimes and criminals, both historic and contemporary. The murders of Laci Peterson and John Lennon, the unsolved mystery of the Black Dahlia Murder, the nation chilling Oklahoma City Bombing, all these and so many more are showcased and highlighted in a unique and highly recommended volume of American criminal history.

Review: A very nice piece of "fluff" reading. Each of the crimes are discussed in one to four pages of simple prose and liberal photos. Only the basic facts of the crimes are presented, so if you are looking for hard-hitting, in-depth coverage, you'd best pass this one by. It's a decent coffee table book, as it allows the reader to only read a bit at a time.

Grade: A-

This book rates a solid five stars with me. The book is divided into four parts: crimes involving 1. "Politics" such as political assassinations (the Kennedys, Martin Luther King), the Rosenbergs, and the civil rights workers in Philadelphia, Mississippi. 2. "Passion" such as Pamela Smart case, the O.J. Simpson case, and the shooting of Stanford White. 3. "Profit" such as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the Clutter family murders in Kansas, and the Lindbergh baby kidnapping. 4. "Pointless Mayhem" such as Son of Sam, Ted Bundy, Leopold and Loeb, Richard Speck, Charles Manson, and several others. Each case covers two to four pages in length with several photographs many in color. I would have included Austin, Texas, sniper Charles Whitman, the kidnapping and murder of Bobby Greenlease by Carl Hall and Bonnie Heady, and the murders of the Dartmouth professors by Robert Tulloch and James Parker, but I highly recommend this book. Although most of us have no desire to be criminals it is still fascinating to read about the motives of those who take part in infamous activities.

I am teaching my young teenagers to play poker. Our family games are more fun with this book. The kids are always coming up with new fun games they got from the book.

This is a handy reference on different poker games for Dealer's Choice night. It's not exhaustive (several of our favorites aren't in it, though similar ones are).

I bought a copy to take to my weekly (for over seven years) poker game. We loved it! Most of our favorite dealer's choice games were in there, although the rules were often a little different. We enjoyed leafing through and picking out new games. We loved playing the old games "by the book." There are loads of ideas with 90 games described inside. I was forced to leave my copy there, to use regularly, so I'm shopping for an extra copy. I've bought several other books that described dealer's choice games, but none as thorough as this one. Tips, strategies, quotes, and loads of games. I'd have given it 6 stars out of 5, if that were possible!

A friend brought this book to my New Year's Eve poker party.
It clearly explains Dealer's Choice games even for the
novice players and the more experienced players used it to choose
games they'd never tried before. Spiral binding a plus. We had a blast!

Let me say that this is invariably the most necessary and useful supplement published for Mage the Awakening. If it is the only book you get beyond the main rule book it will be sufficient. This book provides invaluable information on creating your own spells (chapter 1). An indepth explanation and treatise on the 13 magical practices of Mage (chapter 1), how to describe magic and casting spells in role playing terms (chap. 2), interacting with other supernaturals in the world of darkness (chap 3), magical dueling (chap 3), enchanting spells and magical items (chap 4). Also, rules on abyssal magic and the fabled Archmastery are treated in chapter 5.

All in all this book is beautifully illustrated, well edited and written and has consistenty clear and readable layout. My favorite section is the clear explanation of the 13 practices of magic, something that should definitely have been included in the main Mage rulebook.

The best Mage supplement put out yet.
Get it!

nWoD Mage excels at clarifying rules at the expense of the in depth story of the old game. I won't say that this book completely brings awakenings flavor on par with the old game, but its a step in the right direction.

Other books in the series so far have established the game mechanics, and the Mages themselves, but don't really go into the nity gritty of what magic itself is, how it feels, what it does, etc. This book is essentially filled with options and sugestions on how to make magic more then just dice rolls. A very usefull chapter that I didn't think I would like explains the feel and look of magic, how it interacts with the Imago, and presents a few ideas and theories that should keep players interested. For those storytellers who have a problem being descriptive, its a godsend. Also, the book is filled with rotes tha arn't just more nifty powers, but are sure to set paradigm to a great extent. Theres a whole lot of spells and spell options tha alter other spells, items, an generally just make magic even more customizable with a minimum of more difficult rules. It is also filled with rules calls and rules options: rules calls as in clarification to things that were always a grey area (how powerful can extended spells become, can death magic interfere with vampires gifts, can you make vampire blood, should a mage be able to go toe to toe with a werewolf...) and rules options as in nifty new things you can do if the storyteller allows it. For example, risking huge paradox to cast a spell more powerful then you should be able to, or (my favorite) casting magic useing the abyss.

Overall, this book is easilly the most important Mage book next to the base book. I strongly reccomend it.

I find Mage The Awakening very complex and sometimes overly so. I like this particular book because it helps clarify some game mechanics and role-playing flavor. It helps codify power levels and add flavor to the way Willworkers can cast magic. It also has a few pages on mage magic and how it interacts with other WoD creatures like werewolves and vampires. As someone who runs a game with both Mages and Vampires, I could read a lot more about that, but it's still a good start.

Tome of the Mysteries is a new sourcebook for Mage the Awakening RPG, geared towards both players and Storytellers. Inside these 188 pages is a vast treasure trove of material dealing with the art of making magic. As with all White Wolf products, these are not just dull narratives about rules and what not, but carefully crafted within the framework of each game with examples to help players along the way.

Chapter one is The Way of Fire - Making Magic. Here players will learn the progression of creating magics and each spell is accompanied by its magical symbol. These begin with the lowest level or the first dot of power as its called in the book. The more dots to a spell, the more powerful. For example, a five dot spell, extremely lethal in scope, is the practice of "Unmaking", a spell which simply causes matter to cease to exist. This is perhaps the most important chapter in the book as it deals with the creation and progression of magic, its causes and effects, and is extremely detailed. I'd highly suggest that this chapter be well read before progressing on to the next chapter.

The next three chapters deal with the way of air, Water, and Earth respectively. Like the first chapter, there are dozens of progressively more difficult spells provided, each dealing with these particular elements although it's not as cut and dried as one may think looking at the chapter titles. The Air chapter features spells which deal with fate, the mind and emotion and includes diverse spells such as love spells and disguising spells. Likewise the Earth chapter has many spells dealing with life and death and features perhaps the most potent arcane arts in the book, at least through the first four chapters until...

...You get to chapter Five and the Way of the void. It is in the final chapters where players will learn of Abyssmal magic. Here mages will draw upon the forces of the Abyss, a practice which requires an extreme amount of will. And even one time usage of Abyssmal can leave the user forever tempted to use it again, a kind of magical addiction.

To say that this book is a welcomed, no required book for Mage the Awakening would be an understatement. You'll probably wonder how you got along without it. The art is up to White Wolf's usual high standards, particularly the outstanding cover by Jason Chan.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Magic Quizdom is a must-have for any Disneyland fan. With three levels of difficulty, every Disneyland aficionado will be able to join in the fun.
The Magic Quizdom is a fantastic book to bring when going to Disneyland. It's especially useful when waiting in long lines, like the one for Nemo's Submarine Voyage. You can quiz your friends or make new friends and quiz others around you. It's a blast for everyone.

This book gives you some great little unknown facts in a fun format. A must if you are a true Disney nut!

Kevin Yee (of the best Disney website on the Internet: Miceage.com) and Jason Schultz have put together a terrific treasure trove of little known facts and trivia about Disneyland. While Gordon and Mumford's Disneyland: The Nickle Tour is STILL the best book ever produced about the theme park, this surprisingly dense effort offers in words a perfect companion to what they provide in photographs. Together, they provide a wonderful two volume reference set about the Happiest Place on Earth. My one and only complaint is that it's, well, organized as a multiple choice trivia book, albeit with paragraph long answers that go far beyond the question asked. I feel that more could have been accomplished had it just been written as a book, and thus I found myself skipping the question sections altogether and just reading the "answer" sections because that's where the true magic of this book is. All in all, it's great. This is one of the first books about Disneyland without pictures that I absolutely couldn't put down! Purchase this at Miceage and support Kevin!

As someone who frequents Disneyland about 40 times a year thanks to an annual pass, I thought I knew everything about Disneyland. This book gives valuable insight to little known facts. Sure, maybe they can be looked up on the internet or are common knowledge to some, but it's nice to have it all in a nice, inexpensive little book. In fact, my wife and I have taken this book to Disneyland to verify some of the information. If you want a different slant on history, background and secrets of Disneyland, this is a good place to start.

This book was amazing. It helped so much with Mario Party 3!! I would definetly reccomend this book!

Mario Party 3 Strategy Guide successefully helped me complete the game. It was very helpful. I reccomend this book.

Mario Party 3 Strategy Guide successefully helped me complete the game. It was very helpful. I reccomend this book.

This book was amazing. It helped so much with Mario Party 3!! I would definetly reccomend this book!

I have followed Timothy Bradstreet's artistic progression since his collaboration with Tim Truman on Dragon Chiang. He has a style and an intrepretation of his subjects that is unrivaled and unequaled by the popular artists that glut the market today. Maximum Black shows the progression and graphic expressionism of his world. This is a world that everyone should be able to become immersed in, to lose your soul only to have it renewed and hopefully expanded. Discover Mr. Bradstreet and experience Maximum Black you will not be disappointed.

This is a fascinating work,definitely worth placing a special order for. How can beings so threatening be so beautiful? Bradstreet combines, in all his work, a sense of both easy grace and very real menace. The tattoos adorning his characters are as integral a part of them as the pelt markings of a leopard or tiger are to those animals: they are patterns of both power and beauty. Now,if we can ever get to see Red Sky Diary...!

Every illustration seemed to jump out and strangle you. Every image is beautiful, scary, erotic and exotic. The techniques used by the artist are great, with wonderful exactness and precision, but somehow out of control at the same time. The reading is quite interesting as well. Especially interesting are the sketches.

I have met Tim Bradstreet, and he like his work are simply amazing. His book, Maximum Black issimply outstanding. His use of the basic black and white create touching, erotic, and images that strike awe in the viewer. Overall, his book is only a piece of what mastery the man has over the pencil, pen, and ink!

The book I received was in new condition. It was sent to me quickly. I am very happy with this transaction

My son has spent hours with this book. He loves the intricate drawings and sees something new everytime he re-visits it. A "must have!"

Book is great. It has 13 mazes to complete both forward and backward. All are streets on which you drive paper cars. Each maze is different - city, neighborhood, zoo, golf course, rural, mountains, etc. Not only do you complete the maze, but you are also challenged to find objects in the maze that begin with a certain letter, and you are asked to find certain hidden letters on each page, plus more challenges. My 5 year old son loves to trace through the maze and find the objects (especially the different cars and trucks). He spends hours with it and hasn't tired of it yet. The mazes are very detailed and illustrated beautifully.

We have another one of her books, Blimps, which we enjoy. So my son picked this one out at the library. We had a lot of fun with it. We sat for almost half an hour looking at the pictures. My son had fun showing me things he found on his own. We went every maze and traced it with out fingers. Then we had to look for the letters and pictures that he liked. This was very helpful, since he's just learning his letters.

Great book!

This strategy guide is very specific, and very helpful. It helps explain the whole game, even after you pass the final boss. It helps alot with both games, Red Sun and Blue Moon. One should really get it.

This guide gave me the tools I needed to beat the 'final' boss, Duo. And since I hadn't played any of the other Battle Network games, it provided good explanations for the Program Advances and how all of that worked, which definitely was a big help. By the way, my name is in the end credits--I'm the guy who won the contest from Washington, DC, but they left the 'o' out of my first name. That's okay, Capcom, I forgive you... I highly recommend the guide. Absolutely.

This is a great strategy guide but the game isn't that good. Enough said.

WOW!!! This book does a good job of presenting the game, the only thing that keeps it from the fifth star is the fact that both stories are intertwined in the book instead of being separated. The p.a (program advance) list is extensive and the battle chip list is great along with the soul unison list. Everything you need is in this book.

Terry Stickles has done it again! His 2002
mind stretch puzzle calender contains a wide
variety of logic, math and word puzzles.
It is a continuation of his "so you think your
smart" book.

I just received the calendar for Christmas. Once everyone had left, I opened it up and got hooked. I know I'm supposed to do one a day, but I was having too much fun trying to solve all the puzzles. I got mid-way through February in that sitting. My 13 year old nephew came over and we worked on them together. It was good, thinking fun. I recommend it highly.

I just visited Nashville on Thanksgiving and was in the Kidd Bookstore there and saw the page-a-day calendar section, and there was Terry Stickels' "Mindstretch". It wasn't an accident that Terry's calendars were almost all gone, while his competition was still well-stocked.

I've been following Terry Stickels ever since he hit the earth's atmosphere somewhere back in the early `90s - I might even have bought his first calendar. His latest - the 2002 Mindstretch - which I already own and have peeked ahead for 365 days, will definitely be included in his greatest hits album should he ever actually land on earth and choose to do one. Why? Because there are puzzles for every appetite - Type A...type whatever personality...spatial, math, words , and puzzlers that lure us into connecting synapses we didn't even realize we had. Mindstretch 2002 is the easy answer for anyone on your gift list who needs to get connected.

This is the ultimate in intellectual inventiveness in a calendar. I'm Michael Michalko the author of books on creative thinking, including the classic Thinkertoys (A Handbook of Business Creativity) and review most books and products that pertain to creative thinking. I've become well familiar with Terry's work over the years and can say, without hesitation, that this is Terry's best calender yet!!!!! Outstanding mental games that will give your brain a fun workout for each day of 2002. I always start my day pondering one of Stickle's creative brainteasers or framegames and find myself using many of Terry's puzzling gems in my seminars on creative thinking. Thanks Terry for another collection of mind-stretching mental games. This calender is truly OUTSTANDING!!!

My 8 year old daughter received the Mini Mysteries book as a gift and she loves it. The stories are just the right length and difficulty for her age (nearly 9 years old) and she really gets a kick out of reading them out loud to the entire family, at the dinner table. We all try to solve the mystery but thus far have been stumped each time. I highly recommend the book for a 7 to, say, 10 or 11 year old girl.

My grandaughter picked this as her favorite of the 4 books I got her for her birthday.

I love mysteries I got this for Christmas last year and LOVED it!

If you love to uncover clues look inside Mini Mysteries! Well if your wondering why it's called Mini Mysteries it is because this is one book with a lot of mini mysteries.

All of these mysteries have the same main characters. Their names are Marie, Hailey, Noelle, Brook, Hope, Meagan, Sage, Faith, and Rose. These girls make sitting in the house on a rainy day seem like going on the fastest rollercoaster ever!

I absolutely adore this book! If you're wondering why it is because these mysteries are so exciting and because the author is so creative and makes this book glued to your mind.

I recommend this book to someone who loves mysteries and to elementary schools. I hope you enjoy this marvelous mystery.