The New York Times Strictly Medium Crossword Puzzles Volume 1: 200 Medium Puzzles

A rewarding challenge! I’m pretty good at NYTimes Sunday crosswords and this is indeed a nice medium level. Difficult, but solvable. NYTimes puzzles are tricky, and have a theme that can take a lot of time and thought to pin down. If you are not accustomed to NYTimes puzzles, start with the “strictly easy.”

Once I got the hang of the clues. I found this puzzle book very enjoyable. It certainly expands my vocabulary and get my mind working. Great product.this

Overall, this is a great Medium Level crossword book. There are however a few really duds in the book. Some that are way harder than Medium and some that just have the worst clues and very convoluted themes. I do recommend this but be prepared for some head scratchers (and not in the way you want in a crossword).

For whoever loves crosswords, this is the ultimate book for the price.

Twenty of the two hundred puzzles have random boxes where you are supposed to put multiple letters, with no instructions to let you know this on 18 of them. I have also completed a puzzle that just has chunks of random words missing and no particular reason why. Very frustrating, which is not why I do these puzzles. If you buy this, consider marking the weird puzzles before you do any of them, by looking at the solutions pages and marking them by number. The puzzles that aren't badly designed are a good level of difficulty that is not frustrating. I can do 2-3 of them in an evening.

The puzzles are just challenging enough to be enjoyable without being so cryptic it becomes frustrating. I especially love that the paper is thick enough for me to use my favorite crossword pen, Le Pen, and it doesn't bleed through.

bought as a secret santa gift and was perfect!

Struggled our way through the first six puzzles. This is NOT medium level. There are very confusing "themes" and no clues on them. OMG the one where you do not write in the letter "T"??? Or misspelled words? Or actual numbers instead of letters? I consider myself reasonably intelligent. I do the New York Times puzzles all the time on-line. But referencing old time foreign languages and k-pop references that make zero sense in the same puzzle just blew my mind. It is really not fun puzzle book. I don't recommend it. If I could return it, I would.

a good alternative to doing crosswords on my phone, I picked this up so I could spend some time not looking at a screen, and am glad that I got the medium level, as I'm not at the higher difficulties at this moment.

Perfect mix of fun and challenge! Great for relaxing and keeping your brain sharp. Love it!

The clues are often to do with specific US locations and landmarks, as is history and culture - Broadway musicals etc So, although well put together, I would not recommend for those not 100% familiar with US culture.

Good puzzles and convenient size book.

I take this book everywhere with me. They are just hard enough that I need to ask friends to help me get the last few clues in! I would say they’re around Wednesday-level difficulty if you’re familiar with the NYT weekly format.