What I'm reading/watching/playing December

Reading

The Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

I didn't love it. I didn't dislike it enough to stop reading it, but I definitely only read the bare minimum and it took me almost the entire month to read it.  I'm not even sure what I don't like about it, to be honest...maybe it's too "hard" of sci-fi for me? There is a lot of tactics and warfare. Maybe it's the random use of alternate words for normal things (like calling all the ships moths) that made it really hard to figure out what was going in..I don't know. I do like the main character and the situation she's in, but it's just not dramatic enough, and didn't pull me in.


The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Didn't Finish)

I hated it and couldn't finish. I got about 1/3 of the way through and was so not into it, so I read a bunch of reviews to see if it was going to get better, and the things described in the reviews were not things that I particularly wanted to read about, and so I stopped! I know lots of people who love this whole series (John included!) but it just wasn't my cup of tea!

Watching

The Mandalorian

Is anyone NOT watching this? Is anyone NOT liking it? Because me and Gunnar and John and Diana and my mom and dad all are watching it and we all LOVE IT. And not just because of the baby! I really love the music, the pacing, the cinematography, the story, the homages, the puppetry...basically everything! It definitely feels like Star Wars, and a western, and brings in a lot of the depth from the extended universe that the movies have been lacking. I'm a pretty solid Star Wars fan and have read a fair amount  of the Extended Universe novels and comics, and I've watched Rebels and Clone Wars and stuff too, and The Mandalorian makes me so very, very happy. I can't wait to see what they do with it and it's something I think I'll want to rewatch very soon too.

Playing

Smash Up

We played this a bunch this month, actually. While it's a game that we've had for several years, I always get Gunnar a few more of the card expansions for his birthday or Christmas and at this point we have so many decks (they are interchangeable) that it's a different game every time. it's simple, funny, and fun and we love it! The premise is that you have a bunch of factions (Vampires, Magical girls, Zombies, Bears, etc) and Everyone who is playing picks two, shuffles them together, and then you play against each other. There is a lot of variety and clever jokes, and I think the boys will really like it when they are older! 

Since Holidays are great for gaming with family and friends, we also played some Call to Adventure, Code Names, Settlers of Catan, and Family Feud. It felt like it had been a while since we've gotten to play a lot of games, so this holiday season was really great for that!