Frank Longo (2)

It's amazing how hard it is to see word patterns when the vowels are missingand all the usual cues are gone. This wonderful book features, tough, wide-open grids and the puzzling entries invariably make you go "aha" once you figure them out.

This is a book of logic puzzles based on the popular Sudoku game. However, instead of using the numbers 1-9, these puzzles use letters. Each puzzle uses a different set of 9 letters. As a final test that you've completed it successfully, one of the lines will spell out a word. It's an interesting concept, but essentially it's still Sudoku.

The puzzles get increasingly difficult with the final set of puzzles giving you only 8 of the letters and you have to accurately guess the 9th letter. I show more found these ones near impossible and ended up cheating slightly by taking a peek at the answers found at the back of the book.

As a whole, this is an enjoyable book for a little light entertainment as you sit on a beach or patio, or when you're indoors listening to a podcast or some music. show less

I have never been a crossword puzzle enthusiast, having rarely, if ever, completed a crossword puzzle. But I love to play Scrabble and enjoy activities that improve my ability to do better in the game. As the book boasts, all 26 letters of the alphabet are used in each puzzle, and every word is a playable word in Scrabble. Though I am still working on the second puzzle, I have already used some of the words in games that I have played. And not only that but probably more importantly, it is show more increasing my vocabulary and my knowledge of the English language. My favorite word learned in the second puzzle is "decennia", meaning a period of ten years. And did you know that "aarrghh" is a word? The clues deal directly with the definition of the word, but some of the definitions are puns on the words. For examples, What are nostalgic numbers? Oldies, of course. I am not in a hurry to go through this book. I work for a few minutes or until I get stumped, and come back to it later. I'm having a lot of fun with this book. show less

I picked this up from the NPL minicon prize table, since if I bought a sudoku book it would mean the terrorists have won. Proceeded to spend way too much time solving.