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What I'm Reading, Watching, Playing February

What I'm Playing

Dinogenics is a board game that my husband backed on kickstarter a long time ago, which reached it's goal and shipped out to backers early this year. So far we've played it three times and I LOVE IT. My favorite board game of all time is Agricola, a "worker placement" style game with lots of rules and a medieval Little House on the Prairie kind of theme, and this game takes my favorite mechanics and fits it into my husband's favorite theme--Jurassic Park. In the game each player is a corporation competing against the other players to make the most successful dinosaur theme park. A successful park has lots of dinosaurs (with amazing dinosaur meeples!) lots of attractions (detailed little tiles that you get to arrange on your island) which which to attract visitors and make money. There is intrigue where cards allow you to sabotage or take advantage of other players, random happenings like typhoons and pest dino infestations, and a good amount of thinking ahead to your next turn and if you play like me, regretting actions you took in your previous turn! There is definitely a learning curve and it is not a fast game to get through, but I really can't say enough good things about it!  I don't know if the creators plan to release a mass market retail version, but if they do, I'll definitely update here! I'm not much into the kickstarter board-gaming world, but this is proof that sometimes it can really be worthwhile to back a project! I can't say enough good things about this game!

What I'm Reading

This month I finished reading Lord of Chaos, the Wheel of Time book 6 by Robert Jordan and started on book 7. I almost stopped and took a break to read a few memoirs that were recommended to me, but I decided to just plow through and finish Wheel of Time first. I'm no longer waiting on John to catch up either, since he gave up halfway through book three. All the books are kind of running together for me, I'm not going to lie, but I am definitely enjoying them! I did like the twists and turns that were revealed in book 6, more political than battle-heavy, though a few of the characters making the same dumb decisions over and over again does get on my nerves!

What I'm Watching

We finished watching Punisher season 2 and it was...what I expected. Very violent, very gory, hard to watch sometimes, but the ending wrapped everything up very nicely. I wouldn't exactly recommend it, but it wasn't as cringy as some of the other Marvel Netflix shows. I got a lot of hexagons basted during this show though, so there's that!

On days that Gunnar works late I've been watching season 2 of The Handmaid's Tale. I read the book years and years ago, and Margaret Atwood is an absolute genius and an incredible writer. The show does a great job of bringing her world to life and season 1 was actually pretty accurate to the book, but season 2 is all the showrunners continuing the story and doing a really good job. It's definitely not for the faint of heart and sometimes I can't stomach the graphic scenes (rape, hangings, etc.) and have to look away, but there's a realness to it that doesn't make those scenes seem gratuitous or disrespectful. My biggest complaint would have to be the monotonous tone of doom and gloom. I can't really binge watch it because each episode is so depressing and so many awful things happen without any break at all. It's not a show that I'm excited to watch more of, but one that I think is current and interesting and gives me a lot to think about.

Now Gunnar and I have started watching The Expanse and we LOVE IT. So far we have watched the first season and it reminds me so much of both Firefly and Mass Effect that I can't wait to watch more! It's very twisty and exciting! My parents and John both highly recommended it to us, and I'm glad we listened. It's amazing!


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