Sublime puzzling perfection!
936978
This excellent puzzle blurs the line between twisty puzzle and art. The shapes of the pieces lends a "stained glass" appearance, and "jumbling" the puzzle adds the unique element of reshaping the puzzle. Tough to solve, turns super smooth, but does occasionally "fudge", meaning some pieces (the "fish eye" pieces, in particular) will occasionally jump track in an unintended way which results in an illegal/non-solvable state. However, since I have only ever had this happen by using a bit too much force while jumbling, I can't really fault the puzzle for it. This is a puzzle you simply have to experience!
2608099
This game is SO FUN. I gave my version away as a last-minute birthday present and will surely buy again. I don't know if I've had another game make me feel this level of ...enthusiastic stupidity? It's fascinating to me how re-orienting a shape can make your eye totally miss it. I'd love to look into it more.

Loads of fun for anyone of any age, just know that you will get LOUDI left a copy at my friend's apartment and I could hear them (and the one French one of them for whom English is a second language) shouting BRO!...google...guh...GLASSES!!!! mmmBICYCLE! Quest-ce....bahMUSTACHEDOG!

If you feel like hurting your brain (depending on your ability with mathematical planes), this is a very interesting exercise explaining the way the game is created: [...]

Some math teacher should totally use this in class.
3469438
A new book in a favorite series is always a challenge for me, I need it  to be both familiar and unexpected. I want my characters to be their engaging selves and the story to be something I could  never have dreamed up in a million years. Bingo! The Deepest Grave, number six of Harry Bingham's Fiona Griffiths series, gives us Fiona at her most delightfully Fiona-esque, while presenting the freshest, most innovative and well-supported mystery I could never imagine.

One of the things I love most about reading is that delicious moment when I think, "Wow, this is going to be so great!" and sink in. This novel was loaded with Wow moments. Fiona's uncanny brilliance and her fascinating obsessions play out against a suspenseful puzzle that both challenges and satisfies the imagination. The best part is Fiona's smart, wry, quirky voice that gives us her tale and her world.  I loved it.
1394417
Couldn't put this book down! I loved so much about it -- most especially questions of what enlivens vs. what renders us into mere specters of our whole selves and then, what can take hold of us and obsess us and how we live our lives as a result.  Mysterious and compelling characters abound - it wasn't lost on me that Chan's name is quite like the word 'chance' -- there is much here about the vagaries of chance and luck, both good and bad.  I took great delight in the mathematical approach to discerning patterns as the game of Faro unfolded night after night but even more the seeming ability of forceful thought to occasionally, (perhaps, perhaps!), determine an outcome.  The writing in this book conjured up with perfect pitch, the enigma at the heart of every person and of life itself.  An absolutely great read!
3628317
Another piece clicks into the puzzle as Don Jacobsen continues to unfold his saga. The reader should first be familiar with the "Kitty Bennet and the Belle Epoque" story to fully appreciate this installment. Our girl has grown to a wise woman of the world, and this is her swan song, the passing of the baton. Before she stands aside, she has something important to accomplish, and in doing so, she answers many mysteries for us.

Don Jacobson so artfully weaves the Bennet story through the pages of history and legend. The thoughtful reader will smile again and again at his genius in connecting the seemingly obscure and showing it to be significant. Highly recommend to lovers of Pride and Prejudice who also enjoy a titillating mystery!
212035
Sheer perfection... My favorite books of all time!
3675590
I have always been one for great jigsaw puzzles.  I started off small when I was young and as I got older, gradually worked my way up to more intricate and difficult creations.  I would spend hours in my basement putting them together bit by bit, sitting on top of our pool table because that was the only place they would fit by then.

The lure of the jigsaw puzzle, at least for me, was finding that one piece I was looking for to eventually bring me to the final design.  I always knew what the final design was, of course, because it was right on the box that I had bought.  But what if I didn't know what the final construction was?  Wouldn't they be that much more exciting?

John C. Stipa has provided me with my greatest puzzle adventure to date.  No Greater Sacrifice is packed with intricately woven clues that are so fantastically put together, I'm left in awe from how John was able to piece it all together so smoothly.

The use of ancient artifacts, famous heroes and heroines, moving tombstones that uncover secret caverns, and codes used to unlock mysteries, made me feel that I was in an Indiana Jones or National Treasure movie.  No Greater Sacrifice was filled with non-stop action as each clue that was uncovered led to another, until reaching the exhilarating climax, finally allowing you to release your pent-up breath.

The characters in the book were absolutely perfect.  The main characters, Renee and David, were hilarious with their witty dialogue.  The heated attraction for each other was timed and detailed flawlessly throughout the book.  Renee was my favorite type of strong-willed female character.  Finally, the evil antagonists carried the perfect opposing muscle to make Renee and David's adventures treacherous.

No Greater Sacrifice was by far, one of my favorite reads of 2010.  I highly recommend this book to all of you adventure lovers.

LJ of Reader Recommended
[...]
2189569
This is an extremely good puzzle game!  It's very addicting and I have not been able to put it down since receiving it.  It's based on matching three like tiles (kind of like Jewel Quest), but there are assorted tools you earn throughout the game to help you complete the harder levels.  You must clear all highlighted squares by matching the tiles.  Once all highlighted squares are cleared, you must then clear enough tiles to remove the scarab from the board.  This presents an even greater challenge.  I would recommend this to anyone who loves Jewel Quest or those type of matching games.
719071
Just terrific! Neil Shubin's discovery of Tiktaalik is of course groundbreaking. (Per Gary Larsen's famous cartoon of the fish staring at their baseball, knocked out of bounds and onto land -- Tiktaalik would be THOSE guys!)

But the program is beautifully assembled. Charming graphics -- from the first mammal-ish reptile exploring around his storage box, to the pen-and-inkish illustrations of the extremely fuzzy Tree of Life -- Shubin presents the whole process of life and presents it so beautifully.
What comes through is his ENTHUSIASM, his delight in these relationships. The segment on "The Woman Who Is More Fish Than You Are" was especially charming. She has me looking at all my friends, searching for their OUTER  fish.
3924446
My 7-year old son got Perplexus for Christmas, but he also got a Pokemon game on his new DS. This is great for me, because I get to play with the Perplexus without having to fight for it.

Perplexus is smart, brilliant, beautiful, fanciful, and makes me wish I had invented it.  It's captivating--just challenging enough not to be boring and, well, words fail me.

It plays like a video game. You have to concentrate and try things over and over again, and then all of the sudden, you realize that there is no "back button," or "undo last move." It is REAL! The play is happening in *this* world and gravity is the only power source. And that is SO COOL.

To the designer, you have my deepest thanks and my greatest admiration. And even though my 7-year old son and 6-year old daughter haven't fallen in love with this toy/game yet, they have on many occasions curled up against me to watch me work it.  Thanks, Aunt Elise, for getting Perplexus for Lou this year! I love it!
2922638
I have completed both Volume 1 and 2 of this book, and I just love them. They are hands down my favorite kind of puzzles. I throw this book in my purse and always have something to do while I am waiting for appointments and such. The puzzles get more challenging as they progress, so going in order and working your way to the end would be a good idea!
4372057
Prime Obsession is a delight: a book about a hypothesis on the distribution of prime numbers that reads like a gripping mystery. Most fiction isn't this vivid, moving, and well written, and this is no fiction. It is history, biography, philosophy, and, yes, mathematics brought to life with wit and wonder. You have to read this extraordinary book.
This is the story of the Reimann Hypothesis, the greatest unsolved problem in mathematics today. Here it is in all its glory: "All non-trivial zeros of the zeta function have real part one-half."
What on earth does it mean? Mr. Derbyshire, a gifted storyteller, takes the reader on an exhilarating journey of discovery as he painstakingly illuminates the meaning, mystery, and power of those eleven short words.
I have never taken a course in calculus and am intimidated by even moderately complex math notation. There's lots of that in this book, and I had my doubts I could get through it. But Mr. Derbyshire knows that some of his readers will have fear of flying, or only be able to fly for short distances, so he patiently breaks scary-looking formulae into bite-size pieces and gives you the general rules you need to know to digest them. He knows how to explain things with crystal clarity and easy wit. And the man knows how to turn a phrase.
Still, he does not coddle his readers, so you need to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and fasten your seat belt. This is a challenging book, no bones about it. I needed to read it twice just to get a passing feel for chunks of it. Why, you may ask, would I twice read a book I had difficulty comprehending? Because with Mr. Derbyshire's gentle urging I could glimpse the beauty and feel the deep wonder of Bernhard Riemann's hypothesis, even if it remained just beyond grasp. And this was enough, more than enough, to rivet my attention for days and give me hours of entertaining, informative reading.
This is a gem of book. It left me gasping for air and wanting more. I cannot more strongly recommend it.
4147020
I have always been mesmerized by mathematics and its infinte implications; one could call it impassioned. Many people do not share my zeal. Some of these people are my family, friends, and associates. FINALLY I have a book  to recommend that can open each and every one of them to unsuspected  dimensions of this absolutely fascinating subject; the presentation alone  will, I am sure, compel them to read on and on and on. I am awed at the  scientific authenticity and gentleness with which Schneider creates such a  sensible, spiritual, and harmonious synthesis. Utterly awed...and so very  grateful.  I'd love to see an index in the next edition.
It was  difficult to put the book down long enough to type these comments!
1023820
Because it was both my first experience with cryptograms, and a gift, I had absolutely no idea what to expect when I opened this book.  As it turned out, I was extremely pleased with it, and am happy to recommend it to others.

The cryptogram aspect of it took me back to my long lost boyhood, when I and many of my classmates had a cold war fascination with codes and secret writing.  A cryptogram is like what we called a substitution cipher, and "cracking the code" can be quite challenging.  Even the easy ones are about as difficult as a good cross-word.

But these are different, and better, than any cross-word.  When you are done with one of these, you have more than just the satisfaction of a challenge met and overcome.  You have the reward of a snippet of Jane Austen prose, samples of our language when it was, perhaps, at it's peak, rich and readable, full of both (Yes!) sense and sensibility, each a pleasure in itself.

I find myself, again and again, reading back over my SOLVED puzzles.  And that is something I have surely never done with a cross-word!
1018869
WONDERFUL puzzles! I wish there were 100 more books in this series by Frank Longo!
3353059
This book is an astounding work. I listened to the audiobook (read by the incredibly talented Jamye Meri Grant) and was blown away by the scope and intricacy of the plot and the striking beauty of the prose. Brissett has built a complex puzzle that twists and doubles back on itself so that she can make seemingly innocuous phrases grow in power. By the end, her words can caress you and slap you and punch you at the same time. This is a demanding novel, but it's so rewarding if you can stand to be confused until it resolves itself perfectly. I am so greatful to Brissett for the obvious labor that went into crafting this masterpiece.
1129914
I am by no means a puzzle god, but was this puzzle difficult! But also the most fun puzzle I've done to date. I've only done 10-20 puzzles in my lifetime, but nothing with this many pieces! Not only was the design amazing, the puzzle construction was above average as well! The pieces fit very well, with the exception of a couple pieces.

I would recommend this puzzle to all puzzle lovers, especially Disney lovers!