I sit here typing this on the last day of 2019. I can't believe that another year has FLOWN by so quickly! I love keeping track of the books that I want to read and have read over at Goodreads because then I never lose my list :) Today I'm posting a list of 24 books TBR (To Be Read) in 2020. It was hard just coming up with 24, but I know that I'll read many more than those on this list :)




1) Nikki Boyd's flight into Nashville was routine--up until the crash landing at the airport. When the dust settles, Nikki discovers that the woman who had been seated next to her on the plane is missing--and no one will admit she was ever there. Erika Hamilton had been flying to Nashville with an air marshal as a key witness in an upcoming grand jury trial. When she flees from the crash, is she running from trouble or straight into it? Before Nikki can even see her family, she and her team are pulled into a missing persons case where the motives are as unclear as the suspects.

2) When two Jane Does are killed on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, detective and behavioral specialist Avery North discovers they share something in common--a tattoo of a magnolia on their shoulders. Suspecting a serial killer, Avery joins forces with medical examiner Jackson Bryant to solve the crimes and prevent another murder. But it doesn't take long for them to realize that there is much more to the case than meets the eye. As they venture deep into a sinister world of human trafficking, Avery and Jackson are taken to the very edge of their abilities--and their hearts.

3) What would you be willing to give up to experience the presence of God in your life again?

Many of us sign up for a physical detox program, thinking that if our bodies are healthier, then we're healthier. But a healthy body doesn't do us a lot of good if we are spiritually malnourished.

Welcome to the 40-Day Sugar Fast, a fast that begins with us giving Jesus our sugar and ends with Jesus giving us more of himself--the only thing that can ever truly satisfy our soul's deep hunger. On this 40-day journey you'll learn how to stop fixating on food and other things you use to fill the voids in life and instead fix your eyes on Christ.

Anyone who runs to sugar for comfort or a reward, who eats mindlessly or out of boredom, who feels physically and spiritually lethargic, or who struggles with self-control will discover here not only freedom from their cravings but an entirely new appetite for the good things God has for us.

4) In times of doubt, fear, and loss, we turn to the songs and hymns that remind us that this world is not all there is--that what awaits us as followers of Jesus is a heavenly kingdom. Songs like "Face to Face," "Amazing Grace," "Heaven Came Down," "Victory in Jesus," and "I'll Fly Away." And behind every song about heaven is a story. So many were written amid circumstances of great personal pain on the part of the songwriter. And in sharing their story, we can find even more comfort in our own circumstances.

5) Join CA Miljavac on a journey of joy.

 
She believes with all her heart that laughter is a gift, providing a sliver of distraction from whatever struggle you might be facing. . .relief when you need rescuing. . .hope in the midst of hardship.
 
Though her life has been dotted with disaster, it’s through laughter that she found the strength and courage to persevere. . .joy for the journey. And she’ll help you discover all the ways laughter can carry you through your very own painful situations.
 
In ten laugh-till-you-cry chapters, Miljavac shares how laughter has been an essential and valuable part of her own healing, plus hilarious true stories will help you get started on the path to a life of peace and joy.

6) Getting--and staying--organized is a challenge in and of itself. Add motherhood to the mix, and you've got a whole new dimension of difficulty. So how does a busy mom stay on top of the daily chaos that children inevitably bring along with them?

No matter what your situation is, Kristi Clover's home organization systems will work for you. Her foundational rules are highly adaptable and will help you make your home more efficient no matter where you live or how many kids you have (and how messy they are). She helps you prioritize, break down big jobs, declutter, develop age-appropriate chores for your kids, tackle the endless piles of laundry, and so much more. If you long to have a functional and fabulous home for your family and you're tired of feeling overwhelmed by all the work, this life-changing book is for you!

7) It's impossible to deny—most moms continue to do way more household work and childcare than most dads. Working full time, raising kids, cooking dinner, making sure every appointment and activity is lined up and that everyone gets there on time... no wonder you're tired! But despite all the books and articles lamenting the crushing mental load and emotional labor women bear for their families, no one has come up with a plan to actually make things change. Until now.

The Manager Mom Epidemic is the first book that not only acknowledges the fact that moms are burning out, but shows you how to transfer responsibility for daily tasks from yourself to your partner and also (gasp!) your kids. Clinical psychologist and child discipline expert Thomas W. Phelan, PhD explains how we got into this mess in the first place, and how we can get out of it through a calm, systematic approach to teaching our families how to take initiative and contribute in meaningful ways. Dr. Phelan walks you through real-life situations and shows you how to step back from the things that are dragging you down. For example:

Your Maternal Identity—the things you tell yourself you have to do in order to be a "good" mom The oppressive trap of chronic supervision Our society's curious underestimation of children's capabilities How to eliminate primary childcare with tweens and teens How to manager resistant or traditionalist dads

Realistic and simple enough to implement in your home right away, The Manager Mom Epidemic provides a roadmap for you to take your life back and proves that the happiest families share the work and the fun equally.

7, 8 & 9

10) When their sixteen-year-old daughter Meg is abducted in her high school parking lot after basketball practice, investigative reporter Jillian and detective Colton are frantic to find her. More than most, they understand her perilous situation and are willing to do whatever it takes to get her back. But how can they negotiate with a kidnapper who has no demands . . . beyond revenge?

11) When Maddy McKay and Quinn Holcombe don't show up for Quinn's surprise birthday party, his friends know that something is very wrong. Their search turns up little beyond evidence that Quinn and Maddy just decided to take off for a long overdue vacation. But it soon becomes apparent that they did not leave of their own accord. Maddy awakens in a cement room with no idea where she is. But it's not long before she realizes she's in the clutches of a madman exacting revenge by hunting. His prey of choice? Humans. Now Maddy and Quinn must run for their lives, hoping to find their killer before the next game begins. Because if they don't win this game, they die.

12) Join the Hochstetler twin sisters on stage as they bumble their way through baking a cake for a charity auction in front of a live audience. The take-charge Elma and the klutzy optimist Thelma manage to entertain their audience—and attract the admiration of two bachelors, an outspoken woodworker and a shy harness maker from a neighboring Amish community. As fall leads into the Christmas season, could romance be blossoming for one or more of the Hochstetler twins?

13) Living alone for the first time in her life is lonely for Elma Hochstetler, whose twin sister Thelma recently married. Though they share the running of a general store, more and more of Thelma’s time is taken up by her growing family. Elma has dated some, but she wonders if she is just too picky to find love.Through a mishap at the farmers’ market, Elma meets Ben Wagler and instantly likes him. But there is a problem. He lives in Grabill—50 miles away! But Elma has tried long-distance dating before, and it won’t work for her. Besides the store needs her. Her sister needs her. Elma feels love will forever remain beyond her grasp.Elma has a habit of putting others before her own needs. Can she learn to take a risk at following the desires of her heart? How did Thelma meet her husband?

14) Lucy Jarrett is at a crossroads in her life, still haunted by her father's unresolved death a decade earlier. She returns to her hometown in Upstate New York, The Lake of Dreams, and, late one night, she cracks the lock of a window seat and discovers a collection of objects. They appear to be idle curiosities, but soon Lucy realizes that she has stumbled across a dark secret from her family's past, one that will radically change her—and the future of her family—forever.

15) Even in a drunken stupor it is hard for Captain Cape Thomas to ignore his recurring vision of a beautiful woman and the swaddled baby she holds. On a rare, sober day he begins a casual search through college yearbooks and yellowed courthouse records in hopes of finding the one who got away. Instead, an unrecorded codicil suggests their one union was fruitful and reveals a possible heir to an old-moneyed family used to scams and scammers making claims against the estate. After run-ins with a cabal of bankers, lawyers, in-laws, outlaws, and even the F.A.A. Cape begins to put the pieces of the puzzle together...

16) A grand love story and an epic tale of three brothers whose lives are torn apart by war.

Paris, 1937. Andras Lévi, a Hungarian Jewish architecture student, arrives from Budapest with a scholarship, a single suitcase, and a mysterious letter he has promised to deliver to C. Morgenstern on the rue de Sévigné. As he becomes involved with the letter’s recipient, his elder brother takes up medical studies in Modena, their younger brother leaves school for the stage—and Europe’s unfolding tragedy sends each of their lives into terrifying uncertainty.

From the Hungarian village of Konyár to the grand opera houses of Budapest and Paris, from the lonely chill of Andras’s garret to the enduring passion he discovers on the rue de Sévigné, from the despair of a Carpathian winter to an unimaginable life in forced labor camps and beyond, The Invisible Bridge tells the unforgettable story of brothers bound by history and love, of a marriage tested by disaster, of a Jewish family’s struggle against annihilation, and of the dangerous power of art in a time of war.

17) In a Balkan country mending from years of conflict, Natalia, a young doctor, arrives on a mission of mercy at an orphanage by the sea. By the time she and her lifelong friend Zóra begin to inoculate the children there, she feels age-old superstitions and secrets gathering everywhere around her. Secrets her outwardly cheerful hosts have chosen not to tell her. Secrets involving the strange family digging for something in the surrounding vineyards. Secrets hidden in the landscape itself.But Natalia is also confronting a private, hurtful mystery of her own: the inexplicable circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. After telling her grandmother that he was on his way to meet Natalia, he instead set off for a ramshackle settlement none of their family had ever heard of and died there alone. A famed physician, her grandfather must have known that he was too ill to travel. Why he left home becomes a riddle Natalia is compelled to unravel.Grief struck and searching for clues to her grandfather’s final state of mind, she turns to the stories he told her when she was a child. On their weeklytrips to the zoo he would read to her from a worn copy of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, which he carried with him everywhere; later, he told her stories of his own encounters over many years with “the deathless man,” a vagabond who claimed to be immortal and appeared never to age. But the most extraordinary story of all is the one her grandfather never told her, the one Natalia must discover for herself. One winter during the Second World War, his childhood village was snowbound, cut off even from the encroaching German invaders but haunted by another, fierce presence: a tiger who comes ever closer under cover of darkness. “These stories,” Natalia comes to understand, “run like secret rivers through all the other stories” of her grandfather’s life. And it is ultimately within these rich, luminous narratives that she will find the answer she is looking for. 

18)Mackenzie Allen Phillips's youngest daughter, Missy, has been abducted during a family vacation, and evidence that she may have been brutally murdered is found in an abandoned shack deep in the Oregon wilderness. Four years later, in the midst of his Great Sadness, Mack receives a suspicious note, apparently from God, inviting him back to that shack for a weekend. Against his better judgment he arrives at the shack on a wintry afternoon and walks back into his darkest nightmare. What he find there will change his life forever. In an age where religion seems to grow increasingly irrelevant,The Shack wrestles with the timeless question: Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? Discover the answers that astounded and transformed Mack in this special leather edition, and find out why The Shack has stolen the hearts of millions for ten years. 

19) Wendy McClure is on a quest to find the world of beloved Little House on the Prairie author Laura Ingalls Wilder-a fantastic realm of fiction, history, and places she's never been to, yet somehow knows by heart. She retraces the pioneer journey of the Ingalls family- 

20) Call her superficial, but Susie B Anthony Rabinowitz Gersten assumed her marriage was great—and why not? Jonah Gersten, MD, a Park Avenue plastic surgeon, clearly adored her. He was handsome, successful, and a doting dad to their four-year-old triplets. But when Jonah is found dead in the Upper East Side apartment of second-rate “escort” Dorinda Dillon, Susie is overwhelmed with questions left unanswered. It’s bad enough to know your husband’s been murdered, but even worse when you’re universally pitied (and quietly mocked) because of the sleaze factor. None of it makes sense to Susie—not a sexual liaison with someone like Dorinda, not the “better not to discuss it” response from Jonah’s partners. With help from her tough-talking, high-style grandma Ethel, who flies in from Miami, she takes on her snooty in-laws, her husband’s partners, the NYPD, and the DA as she tries to prove that her wonderful life with Jonah was no lie.

21) Once again, Geraldine Brooks takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, Brooks has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of Caleb's Crossing is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless and curious, she yearns after an education that is closed to her by her sex. As often as she can, she slips away to explore the island's glistening beaches and observe its native Wampanoag inhabitants. At twelve, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and the two forge a tentative secret friendship that draws each into the alien world of the other. Bethia's minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, awakening the wrath of the tribe's shaman, against whose magic he must test his own beliefs. One of his projects becomes the education of Caleb, and a year later, Caleb is in Cambridge, studying Latin and Greek among the colonial elite. There, Bethia finds herself reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper and can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures.

22) Harriet Vanger, a scion of one of Sweden’s wealthiest families disappeared over forty years ago. All these years later, her aged uncle continues to seek the truth. He hires Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently trapped by a libel conviction, to investigate. He is aided by the pierced and tattooed punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander. Together they tap into a vein of unfathomable iniquity and astonishing corruption.

23) Jacob Hunt is a teen with Asperger's syndrome. He's hopeless at reading social cues or expressing himself well to others, though he is brilliant in many ways. But he has a special focus on one subject - forensic analysis. A police scanner in his room clues him in to crime scenes, and he's always showing up and telling the cops what to do. And he's usually right.But when Jacob's small hometown is rocked by a terrible murder, law enforcement comes to him. Jacob's behaviors are hallmark Asperger's, but they look a lot like guilt to the local police. Suddenly the Hunt family, who only want to fit in, are directly in the spotlight. For Jacob's mother, Emma, it's a brutal reminder of the intolerance and misunderstanding that always threaten her family. For his brother, Theo, it's another indication why nothing is normal because of Jacob.

24) A candid and moving memoir from the critically acclaimed singer and songwriter For thirty years as a musician, Rosanne Cash has enjoyed both critical and commercial success, releasing a series of albums that are as notable for their lyrical intelligence as for their musical excellence. Now, in her memoir, Cash writes compellingly about her upbringing in Southern California as the child of country legend Johnny Cash, and of her relationships with her mother and her famous stepmother, June Carter Cash. In her account of her development as an artist she shares memories of a hilarious stint as a twenty-year-old working for Columbia Records in London, recording her own first album on a German label, working her way to success, her marriage to Rodney Crowell, a union that made them Nashville's premier couple, her relationship with the country music establishment, taking a new direction in her music and leaving Nashville to move to New York. As well as motherhood, dealing with the deaths of her parents, in part through music, the process of songwriting, and the fulfillment she has found with her current husband and musical collaborator, John Leventhal. Cash has written an unconventional and compelling memoir that, in the tradition of M. F. K. Fisher's The Gastronomical Me and Frank Conroy's Stop-Time, is a series of linked pieces that combine to form a luminous and brilliant whole. 

If you made it to the end thank you!! :) I realized many of these books were added to my Goodreads list back in 2011!! I've decided this is the year to work from the beginning and either read them or maybe take them off the list :)  Happy reading in 2020!

Review: Deadly Intentions by Lisa Harris

Lisa Harris is an author that I found when I started reviewing books for Revell several years ago. I quickly fell in love with her style of writing. Her books are typically full of romance and suspense and just really all around great reads.  Deadly Intentions was just as amazing as I expected! After Caitlyn Lindsey's friend and research partner dies in a home invasion Caitlyn starts realizing that several people she had worked with have had "accidents" over the recent months. Not sure who to trust or if something is even suspicious Caitlyn reaches out to to the husband of one of her deceased co-workers. Detective Josh Solomon is still dealing with his wife's death in his own way when he's approached by Caitlyn. When she tells him her theory he doesn't see how his wife could have been involved in anything that would have gotten her killed. As he starts talking more and more to Caitlyn strange things start to happen and he wonders if she's on to something. Working together they aren't sure who they can trust and what information is real anymore.

Lisa Harris is an amazingly talented writer.  Lisa lives with her husband in Mozambique where they are church-planting missionaries. Lisa sees her writing as an extension of her ministry. I highly recommend Lisa Harris if you have an interest in a mixture of Christian Fiction, Romance and Suspense. 

"I received a copy of this book free from Revell for my honest review." 

Review: Amish Front Porch Stories

I've loved reading stories about the Amish for years. I'm drawn to the way the focus on faith and not so much of the world. I love the "idea" of their life, but I know that I could never do without most of the modern appliances that I currently use. I'm also drawn to the community that they seem to have built. People come together in the good times and the bad. They visit and they work together for the good of everyone. In Amish Front Porch Stories the author tells us 18 short tales of Faith and Wisdom. I really liked the idea of these short stories because they each focused on a trait. Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness and Temperance.  I often don't enjoy short stories because I feel I don't get to know the characters. I didn't have to worry about this with Wanda E., Jean and Richelle Brunstetter as the authors.  Each story was so well developed and I truly felt touched by the traits that were being taught. This is a book that I'll read again and again just as a reminder of how we all need to work on ourselves and do better to help others. 

For more information on this book or others check out Wanda E. Brunstetter, Jean Brunstetter and Richelle Brunstetter.  These ladies have written some amazing books.

"I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review."

Review: The String by Caleb Breakey

Most of us have fond memories of the games we played as children. Even as adults we enjoy playing games with our children or other friends. What if you were contacted and told you were in a game and it was run by the "conductor" and you had NO say so? He tells you there are two rules! 1) Participation is mandatory and 2) If any one person refuses to play, the threats to all players will come to pass. It doesn't sound like a "fun" game now!

The String by Caleb Breakey is a thriller novel that revolves around all character participating in a game. This game is not fun, but rather dangerous, violent and chaotic.  University cop, Markus Haas, find himself in the middle of the game.  As he learns more about what he's involved in he finds they are all "knots" in a "string" and if even one of them doesn't do what they are told they all suffer. As Markus works to find the "conductor" he encounters other willing to help him in his mission. The only problem is that the "conductor" seems to know every move they make. Time is running out before those that Markus cares about are hurt. Can he find out who the mysterious "conductor" is before it's too late?

The String is the first book in The Deadly Games Book series. To find out more about the author or when the next book will be out check Instagram and Facebook.  

**I received a free copy of this book from Revell for my honest review**

Review: In The Cradle Lies by Olivia Newport

I received In The Cradle Lies by Olivia Newport from Barbour Publishing a while back. Sadly I had so many books on my shelf and so little time that I just got around to reading it recently.  The author is new to me, but one I will be checking out for sure now that I've read this book. In The Cradle Lies in the second book in the Tree of Life series. I didn't realize that while reading it, but will definitely be going back and reading book one. Even though I jumped into the series it was, for me, a book that could easily stand on it's own.  

As the books starts one of the main characters, Tucker, is dealing with some internal demons in the best way he knows how. He's spending his family wealth all around the town of Canyon Mines, Colorado. Tucker loves to ski and has come to town in search of the famous hill, Hidden Run. It's an overgrown, unused ski hill that hasn't been used in decades. Tucker is an amazing skier, but is willing to risk his life to ski Hidden Run.  While he's researching the hill he makes friends with all the town locals.  He finds a ski buddy in Kris, but her ultimate motive is to convince him NOT to ski Hidden Run.  Her friend, Jillian and her dad are in on the plot to find out what is behind Tucker's need to ski down Hidden Run as well as why he's spending money like the world is ending.  Jillian is a genealogist and works behind the scenes trying to figure out Tucker's family history and what has set him off on this dangerous course.  As the three work together to friend Tucker and try to help him deal with his past more comes to light than any of the three could ever imagine.

I plan to go back and read The Inn At Hidden Run which is the first book in the Tree of Life Series.  When I Meet You will be available in May 2020 and What You Said To Me will be available in November 2020.  Can't wait to see what's to come!  For up-to-date information on these books check out Facebook and Twitter.  


"I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review." 

  

Review: Hey Clay Bugs

Playing with clay has been something that I've done with all my children from a very early age. They've loved being creative, but are often upset that they can't really keep their creations longer than the day they played with it.  When I learned about Hey Clay and that it's a pliable clay that can dry I was really interested to check it out. This way your child can make their bugs and continue to have creative play with them long after the day they were made.  Even though this item is part of the Timberdoodle Fourth Grade Curriculum Kit I knew my 12 year old son would enjoy it.  

Hey Clay Bugs is a really cool kit that arrived with 18 containers of air-dry clay. This clay is different than anything we've used before. It's a little stiff when first opened, but after working with the clay for a few minutes it softens up a bit.  This clay also has more of a sponge type texture and even after it dries it feels like nothing we've ever used before! One thing that is very cool about this product is the interactive app that you can download from either Google Play or the Apple App Store. It walks you step-by-step through how to make each of the 6 bugs features on the box of the kit. Clay is provided to make a spider, caterpillar, praying mantis, snail, ladybug or dragonfly.  The app is set up for all users to be able to succeed by allowing the user as much time as needed as well as the ability to back up if needed.  There are many these days with allergies that stop them from being able to use certain materials.  Hey Clay is wheat & gluten free as well as nontoxic and nonstaining. This can be so very important for our children while they are expressing their creative side.

Issac and I each decided to pick one bug as well as Issac chose to do something totally off the wall and NOT follow the directions :) I chose to do the caterpillar and Issac chose the 6-eyed spider.  I found the clay super easy to work with as well as the instructions were easy to follow. My only issue that I had was often I didn't really know how much of the clay I should be using. I wish there was a little better suggestion on the size or maybe even a template included that showed the sizes we needed to be using. I was often a little worried if I used too much maybe I wouldn't have enough to do another bug. When I was done I set my caterpillar to the side and was happily surprised the next morning to see how sturdy it had become.  

Issac chose to do the 6-eyed spider and enjoyed the silliness of the creation.  He does struggle with fine-motor skills, so he had a little trouble getting his legs just right.  He struggled with the eyes as well as I did and didn't care for the idea of using a pencil. He felt the pencil was a tad to large. We just changed the plan a little and I suggested he put the eyes together and then put them on the spider.  Thankfully Hey Clay Bugs is easily adaptable.

Overall even though Issac is 12 he really enjoyed the Hey Clay Bugs. He enjoyed it so much that he even wrote his own review and posted it on his YouTube channel.  This item is listed as 3+ and its definitely one of those items that works for a variety of ages.   I liked that the texture was a little stiffer in the beginning because that can be good for those with fine motor issues. The variety of colors was great and there is plenty to do all the bugs pictures.  In this day and age of technology often times I think our kids are losing the creative aspect that was there before technology. Have this app combines the best of both worlds I feel. It gives the artist the ability to follow the directions and have a great product or adapt as their creativity suggests and still come up with a great product. 

If bugs aren't your thing check out Hey Clay Animals.  Both of these items can be found at Timberdoodle.com as well as tons of other great items.  

Review: DJECO Scratch Boards

Issac and I have been having fun working on our DECO Cosmic Mission Scratch Boards these last few weeks.  Neither of my boys have really enjoyed coloring like my daughter and I have over the years. That's one of the reasons I was excited to try out these scratch boards because it's not really coloring. Boys typically don't have the patience and sometimes not the fine motor skills to do intricate coloring like many others can. What attracted me to these were that Issac didn't have to do anything in a particular order and could "scratch" in any random order he liked and still come out with a great looking product.  

The items arrived all nicely packaged in a decorative envelope.  There are four scratch boards, an idea booklet and the tool used to "scratch".  I liked that if we wanted to take this out with us that it easily would fit in a purse and not take up much space.  Issac and I decided that we'd both do one of the boards, so we each picked one that we liked. We both really liked the cosmic theme and our boards turned out very colorful and had a nice sheen to them as well.  They were so nice looking that you could even frame one to help decorate a child's room! We both enjoyed working on these boards and I found them to be very relaxing. It didn't take long to complete one, so that was nice for my son to see a finished product fairly quickly. One complaint that we both had was the actual tool. My son struggles with fine motor skills and he complained that his hand hurt using this tool. I noticed after working on my picture that I felt the same. It seemed that the edges were kind of hard to work on with the tool.  It was great for intricate areas, but not for larger areas that we wanted to scratch. My daughter and I were brainstorming about what we could use and ran across a paintbrush. The end was pretty flat and worked amazing. I thought it did a much better job on the edges and for the larger spaces. I would love to see the tool maybe have a larger, flat piece on one side.  

This item is part of the Timberdoodle 5th Grade Curriculum Kit. I think this is one of those items that almost anyone of any age can enjoy. My son is 12 and I won't say how old I am, but we both greatly enjoyed this item. It would make a great gift or just something to have on hand for a rainy day or a long doctor's appointment.  I definitely plan to get more of these, but honestly not sure I plan to share them with my son.  This is one of those items that was for my child, but I really and truly enjoyed doing on my own.