- Winning Streak: Tales and Trivia of the 40 Most Popular Board Games
- John-Michael Gariepy
- ASIN : B09FJM3GW6
- Publication date : February 28, 2022
- Language : English
- File size : 80021 KB
- Simultaneous device usage : Unlimited
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Not Enabled
- Word Wise : Not Enabled
- Print length : 274 pages
- Lending : Enabled
I received a copy of this ebook from the author for my honest review
Review: Winning Streak: Tales and Trivia of the 40 Most Popular Board Games
Since Halloween arrives this month, I wanted to look at a book that has a chapter on a topic of a murder mystery game. Skimming through the Chapters listed in John-Michael Gariepy's book Winning Streak: Tales and Trivia of the 40 Most Popular Board Games, I found just that.
Chapter 8 lists Six Reasons Why Clue is the Best Movie Based on a Game of All Time. Here, we find talks of the actors and their roles and comedic genius that helped draw attention to the game and since they mentioned this game I thought it would be fun to review Gariepy's book and highlight some of the games I've played in the review.
If truth be told, I am pretty competitive now and was much more so in childhood. I was pleased to see it mention Candy Land. I appreciate that this book reminds readers that this game was created to entertain children recovering from polio back in the 1940s. I've played the game and it helped focus my attention while interacting with other children. The colors drew my attention but I did not feel challenged. Winning didn't seem to be important and the book mentions that some other kids had a similar reaction.
My brother insisted on storing the 1967 Milton Bradley version of Battleship in his room. I liked this game as it used plastic boards and pegs with miniature plastic ships. The book looks at the aircraft carrier, battleship, cruiser, destroyer, and submarine and the grid of squares that held the ships.
I played the game often with my brother and liked placing the ship strategically on the grid. When one of your ships has all slots filled with red pegs, you must announce your ship is sunk. My brother never wanted to announce I had sunk his ship so I'd exclaim "I Sunk Your Battleship!" Sadly we never had access to the games Axis & Allies or Star Wars mentioned in the book or we may have enjoyed them too.
While the game Monopoly is big in my hometown which appreciates this Classic Family Board Game for 2 to 6 Players, and kids ages 8 and up. I've played the game many times but was never excited by the game's prospect of owning property and charging rent.
The game of Scrabble was always a favorite of mine. Grandma and I would sit at the table and play with the scrabble word dictionary close by. Maybe - just- maybe- that is why I like words so much. Of course, I also think Mary Poppins word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious always made me feel extremely good:) I like that this book gives us the history of the inventor of Scrabble and talks about how difficult it was for him to get the game marketed.
My husband chimed in asking if his favorite board game was listed and it was not. He said he always loved playing a game called Careers. He explained his brother wanted to be an entertainer and that he always wanted to be an astronaut.
Now, a game that I liked but that often stumped me was Operation. No kidding! The book reminded me the object was to act as a surgeon and to collect Funatomy parts by operating on Cavity Sam. I recall that I liked the named parts and coordinating sounds but would often hit the side of Cavity Sam and receive the annoying buzzer - made worse because Cavity Sam's nose would light up and let me know my turn was over. Honestly, I was seldom the most successful surgeon.
Playing board games is a fun way to pass the time and this book includes an old black and white image of Backgammon players in 1920s New York City. It also looks at chess and similar board games.
There were a few of the newer games listed in the book that we'd never played and some games listed that I did not think of as board games.
We know we are not alone in our enjoyment of board games that go back many years as we have a friend who plays board games weekly. She posts images of their group, playing on one of her social media accounts and she actually highlights the crowned winners on her page. She's retired and it is an amusing way for her and her friends to keep their minds active. All appear to be having a lot of fun as they play Ginnykub, Kismet, Scattegories, Scrabble, Water Works, Wordsters. If they get bored with these they have stacks upon stacks of other board games to choose from.
If you want to hone up your skills at a classic detective game like Clue or do a better job at word play or Chess or be crowned a winner by my friend ( not likely) - you may want to check out Winning Streak: Tales and Trivia of the 40 Most Popular Board Games