Anyone up for a game?

I love games.  Anyone who knows me knows that I am constantly begging to play some sort of game and if you are hosting a game night you had better believe I will be there.  Luckily my boyfriend also loves games so when he came to visit me at my parents place we were able to talk everyone into a game of monopoly.  Now of all the games monopoly is a hard one to convince people to play because it is such a commitment.  Also I am known to be competitive so a game like monopoly can get pretty cutthroat. And while our game did have its share of hard bargains it was nothing compared to those in Ellen Raskin's The Westing Game.

Confession time: I tried reading this book as a child and quit.  When reading it this time I found it equally hard to get into.  This time I did finish the book and it was better than anticipated but still not my style.  But that's ok.  I don't have to love every book I read, and I am glad I finished this book (it has one of the most satisfying endings ever!  Raskin takes the time to finish every characters story so you know exactly how everything plays out).

Since I knew I would be blogging about this I tried to think of a concrete reason as to why I didn't like this book. Well, thats not really fair I didn't not like the book, it was hard to get into but satisfying at the end-so overall this book was just ok (for me). The book is written in a unique style and each chapter is divided into tiny little snippets.  There are many many characters and many layers if story.  There is mystery, suspense, intrigue, romance, and humor-and at the end you get all the answers, nothing is left hanging.  It sounds like a book I would love!  But I didn't love it.  Maybe I was clouded by my first attempt all those years ago, but just because I didn't love it doesn't mean you won't.  So read-keep reading, that's the whole point of this little adventure anyways.  All of those characters in The Westing Game didn't always want to play the game-but they kept going.

Playing the game...that's kids stuff.