Customer Reviews

The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The folks at Puzzability used to be contributors to Games Magazine in its heyday when they published visual puzzles that were both amusing and innovative. Now, they've taken this same approach and applied it to the vast archive of cartoons from the New Yorker. While I was skeptical at first whether the puzzle aspect of this book would be gratuitous, I was won over quickly as I paged through the contents. The puzzle authors have clearly done their homework, finding ways to turn the New Yorker's cartoons into genuine, interesting challenges.

Is this a book of New Yorker cartoons or a puzzle book? Well, it's a little of both, and the result is a novel way to laugh and exercise your brain at the same time. Most of the 83 puzzles consist of cartoons that are missing words, captions, or picture components. By figuring out the missing elements and sometimes combining them with acrostics, crossword puzzles, or other word grids, the cartoon humor is revealed.

For the most part, the puzzles are of only moderate difficulty, although there are a few difficult ones (at least for me) that involve matching a cartoon with the decade in which it was created or matching cartoons from early and late in a cartoonist's career. Frequent puzzle solvers will recognize many of the familiar puzzle types from Games Magazine and other media that Puzzability publishes in. The foreword to the book contains a casual and loosely coupled conversation between New Yorker cartoon editor Robert Mankoff and New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz.

This is an entertaining book that you'll hate to throw away when it's been completed because of all the witty cartoons it contains. Enjoy!

Eileen Rieback

The folks at Puzzability -- Mike Shenk, Amy Goldstein, and Robert Leighton, all "Games" magazine alums and world-class puzzle constructors -- have done an outstanding job of putting together classic "New Yorker" cartoons with an entertaining selection of different kinds of word puzzles. Sometimes you'll work from the cartoon to the puzzle, and sometimes from the puzzle to the cartoon, but you'll end each page with both a smile and a feeling of solving satisfaction. The puzzles are extremely well crafted -- hard enough to be fun and challenging, but well this side of frustrating -- and really enhance the impact of the cartoons.

Strongly recommended.

I love word puzzles though I'm not a serious puzzler - I do a few crosswords a week and have owned maybe three puzzle books as an adult. I am, however, a big cartoon fan, though honestly I've been more FoxTrot & Calvin than I am the New Yorker. So, my favorite puzzles are cryptograms with cartoons. Don't find them much - but when I searched specifically for this, I discovered this book.

I enjoy the New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games (and have purchased a second copy for a friend) because the combo of puzzle and cartoon has proven very relaxing - I involve myself in a semi-hard puzzle, but then find a laugh waiting for me once it's solved. New Yorker cartoons do typically contain some of the least expected twists, and I found that here.

However, I don't think a serious puzzle person would be happy with this book, unless he were interested in the New Yorker cartoons. I say this only because the puzzles range from easy to medium difficulty for an adult. (A teen or younger might enjoy more of a challenge.) I still recommend this though - for a more relaxed puzzler like myself it's a good mental stroll.

Though not typically a history buff, I found it a pleasant surprise that the editors included the history of New Yorker cartoons, and with it a history of the U.S, WITHIN quite a few puzzles. Several times you are asked to place the puzzles in the correct time period (and the New Yorker puzzles go back at least to the 1920's) or even with the correct author/cartoonist. The puzzles are just challenging enough to give me a think (similar to a midweek newspaper crossword perhaps) but not overly hard. And there is an ABUNDANCE OF GREAT CARTOONS - usually five or six to each puzzle and often grouped in interesting ways/topics.

But what of those cryptograms? Good news is that they were well done, and with increasing difficulty; Disappointment is that there were only three pages of cryptograms while other types of puzzles were represented more. It does seem that the editors missed out on utilizing the perfect collaboration of crypts and cartoons.

I give it a 4 - enjoyed the cartoon aspect, most puzzles fun but some just too easy for an adult. Still worth the stroll.

I was just cruising through my Big Box Bookstore to see what was appearing on the shelves for the upcoming Christmas season.In the Games section ,between a bunch of Crossword Puzzle books and what is becoming a flood of Sudoku and other number puzzle books,I spotted this little Gem.Most people who do crosswords know of Will Shortz of the NY Times Crossword puzzle fame,Robert Mankoff of Games Magazine and the famous New Yorker Magazine's Cartoons. Well, all these are combined and with some great "Thinking Outside the Box" have come up with a puzzle book that will entertain and challenge you.Some of the other reviewers have made reasonable attempts to describe these puzzles;so I won't try.What I suggest is to search it out in the store and get a feel for them.

This book is just the thing needed for those who have become obsessed with those Sudoku puzzles,have been doing nothing but crosswords for years, or even those who have never done much in the way of puzzles.

I'll tell you one thing;if you like puzzles,and who doesn't,and also like cartoons,and who doesn't;then you'll love this latest addition to the world of puzzles.

I love the New Yorker cartoons, and I love puzzles - so this is a perfect combination. I bought four of the books. One for myself, and three to give as gifts for Christmas. They are bound very nicely, in the spiral manner that allows the book to stay open as you solve it. The production values are very good overall.

I just saw Word Play with Will Shortz who wrote the forward for this book, and must say he aligns himself with winners (I am a New York Times crossword puzzle fan, in addition to loving New Yorker cartoons.)

Most reviews on this book focus on the content alone - I purchased because I wanted mixed puzzles in a book that was spiral bound so that I could flip the book open and work on a puzzle without trying to hold it open and/or write on a curved edge. I find using this book to be almost as difficult as a non-spiral bound book because they routinely wrapped the puzzle between the facing pages so I'm either trying to hold open the book to look at both sides simultaneously or I'm flipping it back and forth (and it's a very wide book). I also wouldn't choose this content again, the cartoons combined with puzzles is enjoyable but too much of the page is taken up with big drawings so the puzzles are shorter and therefore quicker to complete.

If it's a bigger draw for you to look at who composed the puzzles and the inclusion of the New Yorker cartoons and content then I (along with most everyone else!) recommend it, you'll enjoy it.

If you're looking for a varied puzzle book with the convenience of spiral binding and want to occupy a lot of time with it - not recommended.

This is an inspired book in two ways....the puzzles and cartoons themselves that are presented...and the way they are arranged with head-scratching calculations needed to "solve" each page. While not ordered in a particular way the categories are comprised of things like match the caption with the appropriate cartoon, acrostics, two-step processes and a couple of terrific cartoon "disassemblages".

"The New Yorker Book of Cartoon Puzzles and Games" is perfect for a long car or plane trip, (it's spiral-bound to make things easier) for a rainy day, or a quick romp through one or more of the fantastic offerings. I highly recommend it and the reader/solver will have lots of fun with it!

The uniqueness of this puzzle book is that its puzzles are mostly gleaned from the annals of the New Yorker's cartoon library, and that makes it a joy to tackle. The only downside to this book -- and it isn't a huge one -- is the size of the book. With over-sized pages and spiral binding, and the fact that many of the puzzles cover two pages, you often must have the book all the way open (i.e., lying flat) to work the puzzles, and that can be a bit cumbersome, depending on where you are as you work the puzzles. Speaking of spiral binding, this is one of the recent spate of puzzle books that is spiral-bound, a wonderful addition to the puzzle-book genre -- even if it does add the cost of the buyer generally getting fewer puzzles per book than has been seen in the past for the same price. Personally, that's a price I'm willing to pay -- it's that great a feature. In fact, I won't even buy a puzzle book any more that isn't spiral-bound. All-in-all, this collection of puzzles is a lot of fun -- in more ways than one!

A wide variety of different styles of puzzles, each with the payoff of several very good New Yorker cartoons, makes this book a blast to play with. I work hard to limit myself to only a couple of puzzles each time I pick it up (and so far I've refused to share the book with the gift-giver.) I've enjoyed it so much, I'm buying a copy for my mother for her birthday.