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This week, I read Isis: A Tale of the Supernatural by Douglas Clegg, and The Blue Shoe by Roderick Townley. Both these books were entertaining reads, but neither is so memorable that you’d rank them in your list of favorite books.

I had a hard time deciding whether Isis: A Tale of the Supernatural was a story for kids or adults. It follows a young girl struggling with a disfunctional family. The book begs the question: what would you sacrifice to bring the dead back to life. There are deeper meanings behind the surface story that appeals to a more mature audience. But the book itself is short and the main character is a young girl. Perhaps this was the author’s intention: to target all ages.

The Blue Shoe by Robert Townley was a magical story about a quaint little village, a humble shoemaker and a young thief with good intentions. After stealing a small stone from the beloved Blue Shoe to rescue a girl in trouble, Hap is exiled to Mount Xexnax. But that’s not so bad, especially since his father is somewhere on the mountain too. Now is Hap’s chance to rescue his father. But under the ruthless rule of Mr. Slag, a rescue mission may be a little harder than he anticipated.

For this week’s “Nate categorizes several games he knows that share an oddball common theme with some other game that came out this week” post, I’m going to mention some awesome photography games, because Afrika is coming out this week. Let’s see here, there’s:

1. Pokemon Snap, the sorta famous game in which you ride around and take pictures of pokemon doin’ stuff. Way, way more fun that that sounds, even if you aren’t a Pokemon fan.
2. Endless Ocean, which is a lot like Afrika underwater. Probably even more chilled out than Afrika will be.
3. Fatal Frame, if you get your parents’ permission to play it (rated Teen), is an old PS2 horror game in which you take pictures of the ghosts to defeat them. Does that sound like an odd Japanese game to you? Then you’re right!
4. Beyond Good & Evil, the cult classic, involves photography in its gameplay quite a bit. Of all these four, you should definitely try this one first if you’ve never heard of it. It’s also rated Teen, though, so get permission first, and let your parents watch some gameplay or trailers or something so they can decide.