Brain Games for Dummies

Puzzles have become not just a way to spend some free time doing something fun and challenging. Now, they supposedly have the benefit of keeping your brain young, putting off the onset of dementia or Alzheimer's. So, Parker, the senior crossword puzzle editor for USA Today, has collected more than 250 puzzles, in seven different categories (crosswords, word search, Sudoku, riddles, logic, word scrambles, and cryptograms) and in four difficulty levels (easy to treacherous). The bulk of the book is crosswords and Sudoku, but the riddles and cryptograms were a nice addition. There is a short introduction on the benefit of keeping your brain "exercised", tips on solving the puzzles include in the book, and a final chapter on other puzzle-like things to do (jigsaw puzzles, math, Scrabble, Chess). the small format makes it easy to carry around on your commute, or for when every you have a few minutes and want to stretch your mental capacity some.