Review: Mental Exercises
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 17, 2012
The Grabarchuk Family Puzzlebook: 100 Puzzle Quizzes (in sparkling black and white and interactive!) should become essential workout material for all for those baby boomers who are approaching retirement AND all those beyond retirement age AND for young people excited about polishing their mental skills - a terrific pre-examination jog. What the Grabarchuk family has provided is a transportable gig full of visual aptitude/spatial relations/astute synapse connections tests that are both fun and challenging. Each of the 101 tests requires concentration, decision making skills, quality perception, and focused attention. What at first seems rather obvious to some gradually becomes a book load of brainteasers and testers that will, in the latter pages, challenge even the most practiced aficionado of mental games.What makes this series of brain checkers so 'enjoyable' is that they are all in color and demand an interactive approach: you know at the end of the test whether you arrived at the right answer or not. It may be simple to figure out how to use this interactive book, but the 'simplicity' ends there. These are tough tests and require mature concentration form the user. We are living in a time when people congregate at the gyms for workouts, tape cardiotimers to the arms for walking/jogging/running/ and buy into nutritional programs and that is all a step in the right direction: these activities help fight the war on obesity that is threatening national health. But equally important is providing a workout for the brain - the only inexpensive tactics to fend off creeping senility and dare we say Alzheimer's disease? Perhaps the language is too strong and certainly the Grabarchuk Family does not purport such claims. But these games and puzzles are far more than entertaining: these 100 Puzzle Quizzes are Healthy! Grady Harp, November 12