Memoirs of a Happy Failure (Saint Benedict Press)

If you're like me, you were probably introduced to Dr. Alice von Hildebrand through EWTN. She appeared on a variety of their shows from "The Journey Home" to "EWTN Bookmark." If you ever watched any of the shows with her on, you could tell that even in her advanced years, she was still a keenly intelligent woman. Despite her brilliance, what she is probably best known for is being married to Dietrich von Hildebrand. Thanks to Saint Benedict Press, we have the opportunity to learn more about her in the book Memoirs of a Happy Failure.

Memoirs of a Happy Failure begins when Alice was 17. She was onboard the SS Washington. She was traveling with her sister when they were informed that all passengers had to leave the ship, because it was intercepted by the Germans and was going to be torpedoed. They made their way to their assigned lifeboat, but it was full, so she expected to die that night. Clearly, she did not, but that had to be a very sobering experience at that early of an age. Chapter Two flashes back to her childhood in Belgium and how sheltered of an existence it was. This provided the necessary contrast in the book for her arrival to America. We then learn of her life in New York, going to school and excelling (despite her aunt and uncle thinking she wouldn't), but a bulk of the book deals with her teaching.

The bulk of the book deals with her as a teacher/professor at Hunter College, because that is primarily what her life was. After all, she taught from 1947 to 1984. That is nearly 40 years of teaching experience and is impressive no matter what level at which you teach. During her time teaching, we see that she faced many professional hardships from her peers who looked to stab her in the back at every turn. A weaker person would not have survived these attacks, but her love of teaching, her love of her students, and her love of the truth gave her the necessary strength and motivation to continue teaching. She knew that she had to keep "preaching" objective truth in a world of moral relativism.

When looking at her career as a teacher, she is considered a "failure" by most accounts, hence the title of her memoirs. One could argue that her students would view her as a happy success instead. She was fiercely devoted to her students and for the most part, the feeling was mutual. There is mention of her husband in this memoir, but he does not overshadow her like he did in real life. Even though, they were published by two separate companies, I believe this book is perfect to pair with her husband's memoir My Battle Against Hitler.

This book was provided to me for free by Saint Benedict Press in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes.

Mad About Monkeys and Wild Animals of the North (Flying Eye Books)

When I think of children's books that are both educational and beautiful, the one publisher that always pops in my head first is Flying Eye Books. Today, I would like to tell you about two of their latest releases - Mad About Monkeys and Wild Animals of the North.

Mad About Monkeys is a 40 page chapter book that is heavily illustrated. The chapters are only two pages each, but it still qualifies as a chapter book. The book begins by talking about what monkeys are and evolution. The next chapter talks about the differences between Old World and New World monkeys. Other chapters talk about differences between large and small monkeys, their social life, and what monkeys are best at certain things, i.e., speed and intelligence. One of the closing chapters discusses monkey mythology, including their importance in the Hindu religion and Chinese zodiac. The final chapter discusses deforestation and the impact it is having on the monkeys of the world. Overall, I found this book to be very informative. It contained a nice mixture of useful knowledge and fun facts. However, the star of this book were the illustrations. Owen Davey does a remarkable job making the many different species of monkeys come alive on the pages. The only complaint I have about the book is the matter of fact statement that humans and monkeys evolved from a common ancestor. This is scientific speculation at best, as it has never been proven. For that reason, I deducted a star from my review. If you end up buying this book and liking it, be sure to check out Davey's next book Smart About Sharks.

Wild Animals of the North is an over-sized picture book that takes the reader through animals of the Northern Hemisphere. The book is divided into three sections for the three different continents - North America, Europe, and Asia. Most (but not all) of the animals are given a two page spread, which includes their name, Latin name, and a brief paragraph that tells information about where the animal lives, what it eats, and other interesting trivia about them. I was disappointed there wasn't this kind of information on the red panda, because it looked like a fascinating creature, but this just encourages the child and their parent to investigate some animals further. The pictures in this book are breathtaking and Dieter Brown is a true artist. If I may be so bold, I would compare this book to John James Audubon's Birds of America. Some might view this as blasphemy of sorts, but you have to see this book and make that judgment for yourselves. Now, I must patiently await the book Wild Animals of the South to complete this beautiful set of books.

These books were provided to me for free by Flying Eye Books in exchange for honest reviews. If you found these reviews helpful, please click here and/or here and hit Yes!

The Grizzled (Cool Mini Or Not)

Allow yourself to travel back in time for a moment. It is August 1914. Austria-Hungary was at war with Serbia. Germany had declared war on Russia and had already entered Luxembourg, most likely to make invading France and/or Belgium easier. France and Belgium had mobilized, but like Britain they were not involved in World War I yet. This is the setting for the cooperative card game called The Grizzled. In this game, you and up to four other players will play as a group of friends, facing the grim reality of war, and trying to not only survive, but all come back alive. Let's get to the setup.

Setup
1. Each player chooses a Grizzled card (character) and places it with the Good Luck Charm side (indicated by a four-leaf clover) face up.
2. Each player gets three Support tiles - one left tile, one right tile, and one random tile (the random one could be left, right, double left, or double right.)
3. Place the Peace card (looks like a dove) and Monument card (looks like a statue) to the center of the table.
4. Shuffle all the Trials cards together. Deal 25 face down on the Peace card. This will form your Trials pile. The remaining 34 will go face down on the Monument card. This is your Morale Reserve.
5. Place the appropriate number of Speech tokens between the Peace card and Monument card (Five tokens in a 2-3 player game, four in a 4 player game, and three in a 5 player game).
6. The Mission Leader token (first player token) is given to the hairiest player, and the game begins.

Game Play - The objective of the game is to complete a series of Missions, trying to empty the Trials pile. The game is won if the Peace card is visible and all players have no cards left in their hands.
1. Preparation - Determine the number of Trial cards each player will be dealt from the Trials pile, with a minimum of one per person. (Note: On the first turn, each player must be dealt three.)
2. The Mission - The players (starting with the Mission Leader) may take one of the four actions:
a. Play a Trials card from their hand to the center of the table known as No Man's Land. Mixed within the Trial cards are Hard Knocks cards which will go next to the player's Grizzled card.
b. Use their Good Luck Charm by flipping their Grizzled card over and removing one card that has a matching Threat symbol (Night, Rain, Snow, Mask, Shell, and Whistle).
c. Make a Speech - use a Speech token by naming one of the six Threats. Each player may discard one card with that matching symbol from their hand.
d. Withdraw from the mission and play a Support tile. Your Support tile is played in secret face down and determines which of your fellow players gains support.
The Mission will end in Success when all players have withdrawn. The Mission will end in failure if there are three matching Threat symbols. With a failure, the cards in No Man's Land are shuffled back into the Trials pile.
3. Support - At the end of the Mission, players reveal their Support tiles and give them to the appropriate player. If someone received a majority (no ties) in Support tiles, they can get rid of two Hard Knocks card or recover their Good Luck Charm (if the mission was a success) or get rid of one Hard Knocks card (if the mission was a failure).
4. Morale Drop - Count the number of cards in all the players' hands and transfer that number of cards (minimum of three) from the Morale Reserve to the Trials pile.
5. The Mission Leader then gains a Speech token and passes the Mission Leader token to their left.

Review
The first thing I noticed about this game was the artwork. It is drawn in a cartoon format, but not a silly type of cartoon, more like political cartoons. This spurred me to do a little investigating, and I learned that the artist for this game was Bernard Verlhac, also known as Tignous. Mr. Verlhac was a cartoonist for the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. He was killed in the attack that took place in Paris in January 2015. As if this game wasn't depressing enough, this added another layer to it. However, just like war is ugly, sometimes, life is as well. The theme of this game is a very somber one, but it is this real theme that permeates the entire game. The biggest example being that some of the characters in the game were real people.

The mechanics of the game are deceptively simple. Play a card and try not to make a set of three on the table. This simple mechanic is complicated by the fact that cards have multiple symbols on them. Add in the Hard Knocks cards, which also add symbols or just create additional hurdles, you must overcome, and you'll find that you lose this game more than you win it. This frustrated me to no end the first couple of times I played it, because I lost every time. I eventually stopped playing just to win the game and to enjoy the experience. Once I started doing that, I finally won a game. That's not to say I've solved the game. You can make all the right moves in this game, but sometimes the cards just don't fall like they should, and you still lose. (Another true to life theme)

About the only thing I didn't like about this game was the 2-player mode. It required the use of a dummy player, and it just came off a bit clunky. Luckily, there is an expansion called The Grizzled: At Your Orders. This expansions help improve 2-player experience and also adds solo play and mission cards of varying difficulty. Ramping up the difficulty is always good for people who find themselves winning too frequently.

When I received this box in the mail, I was surprised by the size of the game. The box is approximately 5.25" x 5.25" x 2", which is quite small for board game boxes. Don't let the size of the box fool you though! It is the perfect size and contains components that are beautifully simple and simply beautiful. The game also carries some weight to it (both in strategy and emotional toll). Even though you are just laying cards down, it still transports you back in time and makes you weigh each decision you make. Will your friendship be enough to get you through the war? Or will the war claim more victims, be it physical, emotional, or psychological? If you are looking to be introduced to the world of cooperative gaming or looking for a new challenge, I strongly encourage you to spend the $20-25 and pick up a copy of The Grizzled. You won't regret it.

This game was provided to me for free by Cool Mini Or Not in exchange for an honest review. If you found this review helpful, please click here and hit Yes!