Crayon games I played this weekend:

• Empire Builder (with Mexico)
• India Rails
• Nippon Rails
• Euro Rails
• British Rails
• Iron Dragon
• Middle Earth Rails (partial game, to learn/see only)

Other games played this weekend (so far):

• Metro
• Ticket to Ride: 1910
• 1830
• Express

Books completed during this weekend:

• The Host by Stephenie Meyer – In many ways, it was a better story than the Twilight series. However, having read Twilight and its sequels, you definitely see a common thread or two such that it becomes clear that Meyer both idealizes motherhood and fantasizes about being the object of two men’s affections.
• Kushiel’s Avatar by Jacqueline Carey – You know, I really enjoyed the first two books, and this one left me a bit wanting. I slogged through a ton of exposition (meant to make the book readable by new inductees to the series), and it felt like the payoff was minimal. I may have to accept that I liked this series for the sex scenes more than for the plot. (Oh, and I should mention that I found the central romance, between Joscelin(sp?) and Phedre, tiresome from the start. I like Phedre/Hyacinth much more…so that biases me a bit.)