Anyone with a handheld device these days know about Angry Birds. And if you don’t, you will soon enough if you have a Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360. Angry Birds are everywhere! Why? What’s so awesome about Angry Birds?The back story: Birds are protective of eggs. Pigs stole eggs. Revenge begins!
The whole game consists of catapulting 5 different types of birds with different abilities to eliminate the pigs. Similarly other catapult games have been on the market before, so what make Angry Birds so appealing? For me, it’s the artwork and the music. I’ve never seen birds this angry before. It’s kind of… amusing. And for anyone that have played Angry Birds and listened to the opening sequence, who did not find themselves humming along. It’s catchy!
The game combines puzzle and physics together, throwing in a storyline to create the perfect meme game for the decade. The snotty green pigs will shield themselves with wood, glass, steel, and helmets. The players are armed with a slingshot and the following birds:
- Red Bird – Your regular angry bird.
- Blue Bird – When tapped, it splits into three little blue birds.
- Yellow Bird – When tapped, goes really fast.
- Black Bird – Rolls around, then explodes. Also explodes when tapped.
- White Bird – When tapped, drops an egg and bounces away.
As I come back to writing this post after setting the Angry Birds theme song as my ringtone, I think Angry Birds is a crazy phenomenon that could be the next Bejeweled or Tetris. I see people playing it on the subway. I see people playing it while waiting anywhere. My mother is playing it (well, I introduced it to her, but that’s another story). People that never played video games before are playing Angry Birds. And Rovio recently came out with a Halloween and Christmas edition.
There is no stopping it. The 2010s is decade of Angry Birds. (That’s just my opinion. Please don’t try to fling actually birds on slingshots; it’s against the law).
If you pay attention to book buzz on Twitter and at publisher previews, the 1920s are the new vampires. Whether or not that's true, Diamond Ruby is thoroughly enjoyable. The book opens with a young girl, Ruby Thomas, at Ebbets Field, attending a baseball game where she catches a foul ball and begins her fascination with the game. Called "Monkey Girl" for her long arms, Ruby soon discovers a talent with her captured ball: she call throw far, she can throw fast, she can throw hard.
Five years later, the Spanish influenza strikes New York City, killing most members of Ruby's family, and leaving her to care for her young nieces who have been orphaned by her sister-in-law's death and brother's descent into alcoholism. Unable to receive any sort of aid, since her brother should be supporting them, Ruby begins to provide for the family any way possible: catching squirrels for stew, posing in sexy lingerie, packing dates, beading, and finally heading to Coney Island: the "one other place you could still go when you'd fallen as far as she had." She lands a gig as "Diamond Ruby" -- the girl who can throw faster than anyone. After a few news stories, she begins to attract attention and her life becomes a whirlwind of celebrity, hanging out with Babe Ruth and Jack Dempsey, and intrigue as she find herself tangled up in the business of rumrunners, mobsters, the KKK, a Prohibition agent, and a shady Coney Island boss. The fun really starts when Ruby begins to pitch for an otherwise all-male minor league team.
Wallace has a flair for the time period and subject, and the writing is solid. I love the baseball/moon on the cover. Ruby's determined spirit is inspirational without being overly cheesy. She is a girl who thinks she can do anything because such an attitude is required in order to take care of her.