The older I get, the less forgiving I become about the books I read. If I’m reading one and it doesn’t grab me within the first couple chapters, I simply put it down and move onto another rather than make myself finish it. We all have only so much time in this world, and no one should waste such a precious resource on subpar entertainment.

I’m happy to say that V. E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic (book 1 of the Shades of Magic trilogy) hooked me in the first few pages. I knew before the first chapter ended that this one’s a keeper — I only wish I’d gotten to it sooner, since it released nearly a decade ago.

The story is set in a universe where four parallel Londons exist — each with varying degrees of magical influence, with the least magical one being essentially our world in the early 1800s — and all (well, three) of them have been crafted with a great degree of detail.

I went in thinking I would have a hard time keeping them all straight in my mind, but that was never a problem — Schwab’s writing style makes everything fun and easy to follow. I found myself glued to the pages as this fun, fast-paced, and high-stakes adventure played out, and man do I wish I could visit Red London for a while to check out all the sweet magical stuff they have there.

Here’s the story description:

Kell is one of the last Antari—magicians with a rare, coveted ability to travel between parallel Londons; Red, Grey, White, and, once upon a time, Black.

Kell was raised in Arnes—Red London—and officially serves the Maresh Empire as an ambassador, traveling between the frequent bloody regime changes in White London and the court of George III in the dullest of Londons, the one without any magic left to see.

Unofficially, Kell is a smuggler, servicing people willing to pay for even the smallest glimpses of a world they’ll never see. It’s a defiant hobby with dangerous consequences, which Kell is now seeing firsthand.

After an exchange goes awry, Kell escapes to Grey London and runs into Delilah Bard, a cut-purse with lofty aspirations. She first robs him, then saves him from a deadly enemy, and finally forces Kell to spirit her to another world for a proper adventure.

Now perilous magic is afoot, and treachery lurks at every turn. To save all of the worlds, they’ll first need to stay alive.

For me, the inventive world-building and intriguing magic system are the highlights of A Darker Shade of Magic, and if you’re like week-ago-me and haven’t gotten around to reading it yet, I highly recommend giving it a shot. As for me, I’m eagerly anticipating reading book two!

Get the book in these formats:

• Kindle ($13)
• Apple Books ($13)
• Hardcover ($)
• Paperback ($15)
• Audible audiobook ($16)
• Audio CD ($13)

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Crossword puzzles have been a fixture of New York magazine ever since its first issue published in 1968, in which the puzzle was actually created by legendary composer Stephen Sondheim, of all people.

Over the years, quite a few of those puzzles have been concocted by prolific and pun-happy puzzler Cathy Allis, and in 2019 the magazine’s editors assembled fifty of them (plus the original Sondheim one) into a large, spiral-bound book that opens flat for the most addictive and entertaining (not to mention screen-free) puzzle solving experience.

I like this bit from the book description:

Every year, millions of people attempt to complete a crossword puzzle, whether in print or online. Recent studies have even shown that the actual number is growing, owing to a rising public desire for less screen time and more activities that keep brains active. A number of research trials have found that regular crossword activity is among the most effective ways to preserve memory and cognitive function, and a recent trial from the NIH found that these benefits can last as long as ten years.

Treat your brain to a satisfyingly fun daily workout by picking up this crossword book for $17.

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As the title above states, Tumbling Timbers is essentially an oversized version of the classic Jenga block-stacking tower game (and it costs way less than the official “Jumbo” edition).

The premise is exactly the same: Stack the blocks into a tall tower, take turns removing a single block (one-handed) to be placed atop the structure, and try not to be the person who makes it all fall down in the process.

The blocks are hand-cut from sustainably sourced New Zealand pine wood and sanded smooth for comfortable play. They come with a nylon carry bag for easy transport, so it’ll be a hit at every party, cookout, tailgate, and beach/lake hangout you take it to this summer.

You can get Tumbling Timbers in three tower/block sizes:

• Giant (21 inches tall) — $42 for natural, $62 for stained
• Large (24 inches tall) — $49 for natural, $73 for stained
• Large Jr. (30 inches tall) — $80 for natural, $89 for stained

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I’m not sure how it’s escaped my attention until now, but I was recently introduced to the card game Chronology, which was apparently released back in the 1990s and has come in more than one form over that time.

In any case, I’m glad my mother-in-law broke out this game when we visited her the other day. My wife and I love learning about history, so this was right up our alley.

The object of Chronology is to build your own timeline of 10 historical event cards before your opponents can. For you to obtain a card (beyond the first one given to you at the start of the game), another player will draw a card from the stack and read you the event written on it, but they won’t tell you the year. Using that info, you have to guess where it fits on your existing timeline.

Which came first, the invention of mayonnaise or decaf coffee? Was the bikini introduced before or after man landed on the moon? These are the kinds of questions you’ll have to answer.

As the game progresses and you accumulate events, it gets a bit more difficult to guess exactly where something might go. If you guess wrong, the person next to you gets to try, and they’ll have an advantage because you’ve narrowed down the date range for them.

Chronology is simple yet addictive, and you’ll learn quite a few interesting things along the way. Get it for $24 on Amazon, or pick up the Disney edition for $15.

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A few years ago, if you’d told me Netflix would be the best competitor to Apple Arcade and are in fact doing an arguably better job these days of building a library of compelling mobile games, I wouldn’t have believed it. And yet here we are, with a whole bunch of awesome titles available to subscribers, including…

• The classic Grand Theft Auto trilogy (i.e. GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas)
• OXENFREE II
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
• Into the Breach
• Before Your Eyes
• Dead Cells
• Laya’s Horizon

And now they’ve landed probably their best exclusive yet: Hades by Supergiant Games!

In case you missed the last time I wrote about the game, Hades is a Greek mythology-inspired action-RPG — technically classified as a ‘roguelike’ — wherein you play as the rebellious and immortal son of Hades who seeks to finally break free of his father’s clutches and escape the Underworld.

But battling out of hell is no easy feat, as you discover in short order. As you send the protagonist into fierce hack-and-slash battle through a series of randomly generated dungeons — each run different from the last — he will die a LOT, each time being returned to his room in Hades’ palace to try again…and again…and again…

With each respawn however, you’ll have the chance to spend your hard-won earnings on new skills and weapons so you can handle threats more easily. You’ll also unravel more of your character’s mysterious history and begin drawing the support of other Olympian gods who, as you develop stronger bonds with them, will grant you various boons to aid you in your escape attempts.

To port the game to mobile, developer Supergiant Games teamed up with Secret 6 to bring along everything you loved about the original game — the lush visuals, pumping soundtrack, wonderful character interactions, and top-notch voice acting — with the addition of all-new, highly customizable touch controls. You can also use a Bluetooth controller if you prefer.

Hades for iOS is free to download for all Netflix subscribers.

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These days, having a way to entertain yourself in quiet moments without a screen in front of your face is a blessing. In a world inundated with digital distractions, finding solace in the pages of a good book offers a refreshing escape.

Stephanie von Reiswitz’s Murder Most Puzzling provides just that — an intriguing murder mystery that not only engages your mind but also encourages you to put your problem-solving skills to the test.

This elegantly illustrated yet darkly humorous book combines traditional whodunit storytelling with logic puzzles, presenting you with a series of twenty different murder mysteries to solve, all set in the early twentieth century.

It’s all very Agatha Christie, except now you’re the one who gets to do the sleuthing!

From the book’s description:

A body in the topiary garden, a death at a clairvoyants’ convention, and the mysterious accident at the boating lake—prepare for a whirlwind adventure, laced with humor and a dash of the macabre!

Murder Most Puzzling is a gorgeous and witty book that invites readers to solve 20 puzzling murder mysteries. Cast as the faithful sidekick to amateur sleuth Medea Thorne, you will meet a cast of colorful characters, from ghost hunter extraordinaire Augustin Artaud to Leonard Fanshawe, a competitor in the Annual Perfect Pickled Foods Festival.

Using deductive tactics and eye-spy searching skills, you will sleuth your way to unveiling whodunit in this witty riff on the classic murder mystery book.

Murder Most Puzzling offers the perfect blend of suspense and intellectual challenge to help you unwind before bed each night. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through your phone, binge-watching TV shows, or even idly listening to true crime podcasts, retreat into a world of intrique by immersing yourself in the intricacies of this cleverly crafted whodunit.

I recommend the hardcover edition for best results, but Kindle and Apple Books editions are also available and both cost very little.

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One of the shared gifts our kids received for Christmas this year was a copy of Sushi Go!, a fun card game our family’s been having a blast playing together. It’s also been making me super hungry for dim sum

The basic gist is, you and the other players pass around hands of sushi-themed cards, each person laying a card face-down and revealing it each turn, with the hopes of assembling the highest-scoring combination of sushi dishes by the end of the round (when all the cards are used up).

Every card type has a unique set of conditions and/or point values. For example…

• Playing a single dumpling earns only 1 point, but as you play them in multiples, the point values grow in larger increments (1 → 3 → 6 → 10 → 15 points).
• Meanwhile, sashimi rolls have no value individually, but if you manage to play a set of three (which is easily blocked by another player who sees what you’re trying to set up), you get 10 points.
• Chopsticks earn no points at all, but can be used to play two cards at once on a later turn, allowing for big plays to swing the game in your favor.
• Alone, wasabi does nothing, but place a nigiri (worth 1, 2, or 3 points) on top of it and you triple its value.
• …and the list goes on.

This guy’s 5-minute video gives a great rundown of the game rules:

The game is very approachable and easy to get into, and the game’s whole design aesthetic is cute so it doesn’t feel intimidating for little ones like our 4yo daughter. It also goes by relatively quickly, so you don’t have to dedicate an entire evening if you don’t want to.

However, because the hands are always being passed around, and because you can predict future plays being set up early by your opponents, there’s this whole other level of strategy you can get into that involves 1) remembering who is holding what, 2) when a particular card might come back to you, and 3) possible chances to block someone else from pulling off a devastating combo (at the risk of stalling your own progress).

This is a great little card drafting game that I highly recommend for any family or friend group. Get it for just $12 on Amazon.

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“I wonder what would happen if someone crossed Dungeons & Dragons with a Hallmark movie?” is a thought that has never once crossed my mind. At least, that was the case before I heard of Travis Baldree’s 2022 novel, Legends & Lattes.

In this widely loved addition to the increasingly popular ‘cozy fantasy’ genre, we follow the opening of (what else) a coffee shop by an unlikely individual: a battle-hardened orc barbarian named Viv who longs to retire from her days of adventuring and finally realize her dream of reinventing herself and building a peaceful existence.

One of the first problems she faces? No one else in the city has the slightest clue what “coffee” is. From the book description:

Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen.

However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve.

A hot cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth.

Legends & Lattes is high fantasy with low stakes, and in place of epic battles and dark twists, you instead get a lot of wholesome friendship building and the tiny slice-of-life moments that all business creators can relate to — not to mention enough descriptions of delectable pastries to throw anyone off their diet.

Get the book in these formats:

• Kindle ($13)
• Apple Books ($13)
• Hardcover ($27)
• Paperback ($9)
• Audible audiobook ($15)

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TVs are getting thinner and thinner by the year, and this often comes at the expense of having decent built-in speakers. No one wants a super crisp, detailed image paired with subpar (my nice way of saying “absolute crap”) audio, so there are typically two choices: invest in and install a complicated surround sound setup, or simply get a soundbar to emulate that surround experience without all the hassle.

With that in mind, let me introduce you to Bose’s new Smart Ultra Soundbar, successor to the Smart Soundbar 900 from a couple years ago.

Actually, I should quickly mention that if you already have the Smart Soundbar 900, go ahead and hang onto it. Its feature set is almost exactly the same as the Smart Ultra Soundbar’s — the physical design is very similar, it supports Dolby Atmos-encoded content, it utilizes Bose’s “TrueSpace” spatial processing to analyze and upmix everything else, and you can use the “ADAPTiQ” feature to calibrate the soundbar to the specific acoustics of whatever space it’s in.

The main selling point of the Smart Ultra over the 900? A.I. Dialogue Mode. This new AI-powered feature automatically brings out the clarity and intelligibility of spoken dialogue so you can always hear what’s being said, without losing the impact of other audio within the scene.

The Smart Ultra Soundbar is available for $899 on Amazon and comes in your choice of Black or Arctic White.

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As I mentioned in a recent post, visiting Evermore Park was one of the neater experiences my family has had of late. While there, my son and I spoke with artist Jared Horton of the shop Petulant Pudgies, where he makes cool stuff like D&D character creator dice, original sculptures, and his very own passion project card game, Monster Workshop.

I knew right off the bat that Monster Workshop was exactly the sort of game my 11yo son would be into. In it, you play as a mad scientist racing to construct a monster out of various types of body parts (plus a special power or two) before the other players at your table can. Just as an example, your monster could be comprised of robotic legs, the torso of a yeti, the head of a space alien, and the arms of a nightmare.

The first two scientists (out of six max) to finish their monsters get to have their creations battle one another, and whoever wins two fights wins the game.

Each game takes only 15 minutes to complete and the strategy is relatively light, so it’s perfect for kids and adults with short attention spans (*raises hand*).

“When it comes to Monster Workshop, I am the very definition of biased, but I feel like we’ve come up with a wonderful game that is fun and exactly what I’d hoped it would be. The feedback I’ve gotten from everyone, including strangers has been very positive, and my inner child couldn’t be more delighted.”

—Jared Horton (creator)

You can get the game for $24 on Amazon, where it’s being sold by friends and business partners of Horton (which is why you see it listed as “Witty Emporium” rather than “Petulant Pudgies”) who helped him put the finishing touches on the game before it went to market. However, it’s also available directly from his own site for $30 in case you prefer to buy that way.

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We all know how fun it is to build stuff with LEGO bricks. You might’ve even made a sweet race car or two with them. Think about this, though: What if you could not only build your dream ride, but use it in actual races against other people?

That’s exactly what you get to do in LEGO 2K Drive, a brand new open-world driving adventure game that can be thought of as the spiritual successor to LEGO Racers from way back in the N64/PS1 days.

LEGO 2K Drive takes place in BrickLandia, a brick-filled world with various distinct regions and biomes to explore. Whether you’re racing on a track or simply seeing the sights, your car has the ability to automatically transform between Street, Off-Road, and Water forms based on terrain (although you can switch to manual transformation if you need more of a challenge).

Additionally, you have various driving abilities at your disposal such as boosting, jumping, quick-turning, and drifting. There are also power-ups you can pick up throughout races to liven up the competition a bit. Perhaps most importantly, there’s a Garage mode where you can build and modify vehicles to your heart’s content, brick by brick.

I could list out more features and such, but honestly I recommend just watching the IGN review for an honest and well-considered opinion on the game, plus a good look at that car building mode I mentioned:

As mentioned in that review, the fact that LEGO 2K Drive has a $60–$70 price tag yet still offers microtransactions and a season pass on top of that will definitely be a turn-off for some. However, if you can ignore that aspect of the game entirely, you’ll find it a super fun and humorous racing title that should satisfy your inner Master Builder.

The standard edition of LEGO 2K Drive is available on the following platforms:

• PlayStation 5 ($70)
• PlayStation 4 ($60)
• Xbox Series X ($70)
• Xbox One ($60)
• Nintendo Switch ($60)
• PC / Windows 10 ($60)

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As a kid, one of my favorite ways to spend a long road trip was solving a book of logic puzzles, one of the few things that could keep my brain occupied and engaged on that sort of time scale. Sadly, I don’t do as much of that type of puzzling these days, outside of picking up my phone to play Nonograms Katana, which mostly tickles the same itch.

I’ve been feeling long overdue for dipping my toes back into the world of puzzle solving, and in researching good ways to do that, I came across The Master Theorem book of puzzles, written by a mysterious character known only as M.

Throughout this beautifully illustrated book, you get to tackle over 40 encrypted logic puzzles, each one open-ended in nature but always solved by decoding a specific word or phrase. They’re almost like escape rooms in book form.

In the author’s own words:

My puzzles, called Theorems, are not your average Sudoku or crossword puzzles. Free spirits like their creator, Theorems are more open-ended in nature, with no instructions per se. Each one is different, but solutions will always be a word or phrase. To find that word or phrase answer, you’ll need to get creative.

There are over 40 Theorems in each book. With somewhat of a poetic cadence to them, I recommend you solve them in order. There’s no shame in skipping one or two if you get stuck, but it’ll be more fun for the both of us if you go first to last.

He goes on to explain the hints provided for each puzzle, should you need them:

I get that you’re new at this, so I’ve given you three hints per Theorem in the back of each book. Use them at your own discretion, but like Double Stuf Oreos, stay away from them unless you really need them. If you find yourself licking your lips, start with Hint #1 since it gives away the least. Move on to Hint #2 only as needed. Hint #3 won’t leave much to the imagination, so if you’re still stuck after that…well, we can no longer be friends.

Just kidding; you’re alright.

Join the ranks of elite puzzle solvers by picking up The Master Theorem book for $30 on Amazon. If you get through the entire thing and need even more mind-bending brain teasers of this ilk, there’s an ‘Elite’ second installment of the book for you to follow up with.

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Upgrade is the latest sci-fi novel by Blake Crouch, who you may remember from the bestselling book Dark Matter (which is soon being adapted as an Apple TV+ series). This time around, instead of focusing on alternate realities and potential versions of oneself, he’s examining the ethics of genetic modification and the dangers of tampering with human evolution — told through the lens of a nail-biting near-future thriller story.

From the description:

“You are the next step in human evolution.”

At first, Logan Ramsay isn’t sure if anything’s different. He just feels a little . . . sharper. Better able to concentrate. Better at multitasking. Reading a bit faster, memorizing better, needing less sleep.

But before long, he can’t deny it: Something’s happening to his brain. To his body. He’s starting to see the world, and those around him—even those he loves most—in whole new ways.

The truth is, Logan’s genome has been hacked. And there’s a reason he’s been targeted for this upgrade. A reason that goes back decades to the darkest part of his past, and a horrific family legacy.

Worse still, what’s happening to him is just the first step in a much larger plan, one that will inflict the same changes on humanity at large—at a terrifying cost.

Because of his new abilities, Logan’s the one person in the world capable of stopping what’s been set in motion. But to have a chance at winning this war, he’ll have to become something other than himself. Maybe even something other than human.

And even as he’s fighting, he can’t help wondering: what if humanity’s only hope for a future really does lie in engineering our own evolution?

Imagine being part of an agency whose sole purpose is regulating and cracking down on a particular field of science, then finding yourself on the receiving end of that science. You can guess how quickly things become complicated for our protagonist, morally and otherwise.

By the end, you’ll probably have a whole new perspective on gene-editing technologies like CRISPR that already exist today. The ramifications of these scientific advances have only begun to be explored, and Upgrade is certainly an interesting take on the subject, in its page-turning way.

Get the book in these formats:

• Kindle ($15)
• Apple Books ($15)
• Hardcover ($20)
• Paperback, large print ($24)
• Audible audiobook ($15)

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Just over a month from now, Nintendo Switch gamers will be treated to the release of Splatoon 3, the follow-up to the mega-popular sequel from 2017. Here’s what I wrote about that game:

Yes, it’s technically a “shooter”, but there are no bullets or blood — in this game, your weapon is ink. The “Turf War” game mode has two teams of four players battling to claim territory by “inking” as much of the ground as possible in their teams’ respective colors in three minutes. Players can splat one another as well, but rather than dying, they simply disappear and go back to respawn.

[…]

In terms of in-game communication, there’s no voice chat or anything built into the game. Teammates can only communicate with one another though a handful of simple emotes like Booyah! and Ouch! As far as shooter games go, Splatoon 2 is as kid-friendly as they come.

Splatoon 3 promises to bring more of the same zany ink-splatting action to the Switch, along with a revamped co-op mode (aka “Salmon Run Next Wave”), new weapons (like the “Tri-Stringer” triple-shooting bow and arrow), a new desert region to explore called the Splatlands, and an all-new single-player story mode that should be fun to try out whenever a break is needed from those crazy online battles.

This gameplay video should give you a nice taste of what to expect:

Splatoon 3 is set to release for Nintendo Switch on September 9th, 2022 and can be pre-ordered now for $60 on Amazon.

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Anker’s sub-brand Nebula, which focuses on designing high-quality movie projectors, recently released a pair of high-definition “Cosmos Laser” projectors that will let you turn any space with a flat surface into an impressive home theater experience.

Available in 1080P ($1,700) and 4K ($2,200) resolutions, these portable projectors make every last pixel pop as they beam brightly across a huge 150″ screen (or all the way down to 60″) at an intense 2,400 ISO lumens, so you can see every detail at any time of day — indoors or outdoors, lights on or off.

On top of that, they make use of a special technology that intelligently analyzes any space you’re using it in (including the furniture and decorations) so it can automatically focus, perform keystone correction, and adjust the alignment to your screen size. Doesn’t matter if you bump into the projector or move it to another location; you don’t have to spend time fiddling with focus settings or tilting the device to get a better picture. It just works.

Another neat feature is something they call “Eye Guard”, which dims the projector light whenever someone walks in front of it so they’re not blinded by all those lumens. It even sends an alert to your phone when this happens.

There are plenty more awesome details to learn about these projectors, so head over to the Amazon page and read on as you prepare to give your home media setup a nice upgrade and start planning those backyard movie nights with friends.

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