There’s more to games than family game night! In the world of tabletop games there are many new and exciting games to discover. This book takes a look at games, with each pithy chapter “unboxing” a specific game or type of game. The authors write with an easy-going style as they dissect games most of us have played, such as Scrabble and Monopoly, and party games like Scattegories and Cards Against Humanity. We learn more about role playing games, like Dungeons and Dragons, and tactical wargames.

My favorite chapter was about The Game of Life and author Joan Moriarity (the authors alternate chapters, like taking turns in a game!) really does bring this game to life. The Game of Life was my second favorite game when I was a kid, playing with my neighborhood friends on our front porch. The history of the game is wonderful. The Checkered Game of Life was produced by Milton Bradley in 1860 and was a winner from the start. This was a track-based game like Snakes & Ladders, but it introduced the concept of choice. The original game was set-up like a checkerboard, with small drawings, but what I remember is the new version in 1960, with its plastic hills, bridges buildings and the best- the cars with the pink and blue people! The original purpose of the game, to edify and teach values and virtues, was re-focused more on wealth and success. Whatever- as kids we loved watching our pink and blue family grow and I’m sure we thought real life would be about the same.

The authors examine game playing behavior and show us why they immerse themselves in role playing game worlds and tactical wargames. Both authors encourage us to find our own groups and our own games. They also recommend more diversity in game design. I enjoyed reading this fast-paced book and its take on games, relationships and modern life.
Oh, and if The Game of Life was my second favorite game, what was my first? The Barbie Game!! Getting my prom dress, date and going to the prom- I loved it!!
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Sutherland House for a digital review copy. This is my honest review.

First, I'm not sure what the intended audience for this book is. It isn't me (a deeply invested board gamer). The book reads like it's trying to capitalize on the broadening interest in board games... but also seems to have very little insight or depth. That said, it didn't hold my attention past chapter five.

Second, Chapter 2 introduces designer and publisher Phil Eklund to illustrate a change in the kinds of games that have driven board game design innovation in the last thirty years. I was surprised by this, to say the least, because Eklund is one of the most notoriously racist game designers currently active and the only one of which I know who attaches his racism to many of his games in the forms of essays and rule book commentary. To then subsequently quote Eklund reflecting on an early design as 'more or less a racist concept' because it involved human beings fighting science fiction alien races in space is almost unfathomable, as it effectively hides Eklund's very real, very current hostility toward and insistence on the inferiority of non-white, non-Western human beings. I couldn't stomach reading Kay's chapters further, particularly not his deeper reflection on Eklund's psuedo-scientific alt-history 'Greenland' in which he takes another opportunity to reflect on the superiority of (often anachronistic) proto-Western ideals.

In short, alternately boring and disturbing.

The back and forth of the two authors' analysis of the assortment of games discussed in this book was delightful to read. Each had insight to offer as he or she explained how each game is played and what we as a society can learn from it. What a great book!

Through connections to board games, Moriarty and Kay clue us in on what we're really after when we're playing these, with results that can have you staring blankly at the page with its jaw-dropping profoundness at one end, and cackling like a fool at the other.

Before you even get into the philosophical minutiae and observations of human behavior, a reader could glean a pretty good education on board games alone (especially if, like me, you're out of the mix on what's "cool" nowadays) without getting too specific. The prose of each of the two authors makes for some easy reading--something you definitely learn to miss when that attribute's just not there.

Establishing the downsides (by and large) of Monopoly, Scattergories, and Cards Against Humanity while waxing poetic about D&D and other popular role-playing board games might seem like it's vomit coming from a purist, but take heart, because the book's keenly aware of this, and Kay/Moriarty are working through things just like you are...they just probably know more about board games than you do. Their insight into these games, what they say about us, what we seek to get out of them, etc. is all up for question here.

As it approaches its conclusion, the book does feel like it decelerates to a finish, but not to its detriment. There's a poignant moment or two that demands a call back to your own childhood, back when you probably used some of these same board games to spend time with family and friends, helped to establish long-standing relationships (or figured out that it was time to let a few sputter out), maybe even a time when you experienced some level of self-realization.

It's a work to be proud of. Hopefully it gets the recognition it deserves.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Sutherland House for the advance review.

I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading this book: it's interesting, quick and entertaining, and I would recommend it to tabletop gamer veterans as well as to people new to the hobby. In their series of quick-fire essays, the authors consider various games through sociological and economic lenses - linking them to topics such as the Prisoner's Dilemma, Edward Said's 'Orientalism' and cultural appropriation - to name just a few.

I expected to prefer the chapters about games that I have myself played, but as each part of the book takes a fresh and different approach this was not actually the case, and instead I now have a list of new games that I need to seek out and play. Another worry I had on starting out with the book was that it would mainly focus on the old 'classics' like Monopoly and Scrabble, but this was totally unfounded: whilst the authors look at the more conventional titles, they consider them alongside a much more diverse selection including Dungeons and Dragons, Catan, Greenland, Chinatown, Pandemic etc...

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.