Books & Board Games
If You Like That, Try This: Books and Board Games
By: Brittany Shields
What do I like to do with my free time?
Read books. And play board games.
So I’ve put together a list of both.
If you like that book, then try this board game!
You could even go all out and make a whole themed party out of it with costumes, book discussion, and game-playing!
This post is to recommend books but also to share some really fun games. So even if you don’t like reading or aren’t interested in the books, give these games a try. If you’re used to playing games like Apples to Apples and Scattegories, upgrade your gaming experience to some fun and challenging games like these!
Share your favorite games in the comments below- we’re always looking for new ones!
And if you have a book/board game combo of your own, share that in the comments as well.
Happy reading/gaming!
If you liked The Rose Code…. try playing Decrypto!
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn is a historical fiction novel about the famed Bletchley Mansion during WWII and the people responsible for breaking the Enigma code. Check out my review HERE for some video links on how they decoded the messages!
Decrypto is a code-breaking game. People are divided into two teams and take turns giving clues that each team tries to decode. Clue-givers must successfully ‘pass’ a coded ‘message’ to their own team without the other team intercepting it.
Players: 3-8+. You can play with more but I would say 3 per team is probably the sweet spot.
Time: 30 minutes to play depending how long you allow people to think about their clues or deliberate on their answers.
It’s a fun game that forces your mind to think outside the box with word associations.
Replayability Factor: High- you have new combinations of code words each time and different clue givers, no game is the same
*2019 UK Games Expo Best Party Game People's Choice Winner
If you liked The Line Between or Pandemic…. try playing Pandemic!
The Line Between is the first book in a duology by Tosca Lee. Wynter has recently escaped a doomsday cult only to be thrust into a new nightmare that is an outbreak of early onset dementia of apocalyptic proportions. Wynter holds valuable information that could help find the cure and must figure out how to both help and survive! My review HERE.
Pandemic by A.G. Riddle is aptly titled as it follows CDC employees trying to stop a rapid and deadly outbreak of an Ebola-like disease that is ravaging the world. [FYI this was written in 2017] The characters must unravel the conspiracy behind the pandemic while also finding a cure! My review HERE.
Pandemic, the game, may hit a little too close to home right now. But having played it before Covid and after Covid, having lived the pandemic life, the game takes on all new meaning. Actions like ‘Travel Ban,’ ‘Quarantine,’ and ‘Rapid Vaccine Deployment’ make more sense. The best part of this game is that it is collaborative— everyone wins or loses together. Players with special jobs and powers work together to treat four diseases that have broken out across the world and find cures before it’s too late.
There are a lot of expansions, including ‘Virulent Strain’ that creates new chaos when new strains react differently, or ‘In the Lab’ that has new actions for sequencing the disease and the option to play as rival teams.
Players: 2-5 players. I would say playing with two players is often harder so 3 or 4 is the most fun.
Time: 30-45 minutes to play depending how much discussion and collaborating you do.
The expansions increase the difficulty and we tend to lose the game more than we win. We like the challenge and strategy of figuring out where to prioritize our actions to get the desired outcomes.
Replayability Factor: High- each game is different because your character combinations change from game to game and the way the disease infects the world is different every time
*2008 JoTa Best Cooperative Board Game Winner
If you liked Eragon or Lord of the Rings… try playing Small World!
Both Eragon and Lord of the Rings are series that involve epic adventures filled with magic and creatures like ogres, dwarves, elves, dragons, wizards, etc. I read the Eragon series before I started reviewing books and I’ve only seen the LOTR movies but they are both awesome series. Some feel like Eragon ripped off the LOTR story but I think it has it’s own story and characters and niche that is pretty different than LOTR. It also handles magic differently and focuses on the relationship between Eragon and his dragon, Saphira.
Small World, like both series above, is full of different creatures (like wizards, dwarves, ogres, trolls, etc) with special powers. It’s like these books meets the game Risk. There are a ton of different combinations of ‘races’ of characters and ‘powers’ that help you conquer territories on the board. You play several different combinations throughout the game trying to defeat other players’ races and get the most points.
FYI- I hate the game Risk. I don’t like how long it takes or that players are out and just have to watch the rest of the game and that there is so much luck involved. Small World is way better. It’s a shorter game, all players play the entire game and it’s points-based not last-man-standing. So if you hate Risk, don’t let that scare you from this game.
Players: 2-4
Time: 60 minutes
Replayability: High- the character combination options are different every time and change the game play
*2010 Games Magazine Game of the Year Winner
If you liked Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children… try playing Wingspan!
Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children seems like an odd series. I get it. It was recommended to me and I didn’t think I would like it. I didn’t try it until several years after. But I’m glad I did. It is a YA/Fantasy series but I found it super creative, fun, and suspenseful. Miss Peregrine is one of the embrynes— which are women who can turn into birds and have magical powers. They take care of children who have their own special powers. But there are people who are trying to destroy peculiars and steal their magic. Characters travel across the peculiar/normal world on a variety of missions to save people and defeat the bad guys. My reviews can be found HERE.
Wingspan, like the Peculiar series, seemed odd and boring at first. Most people don’t first pick up a game about birds. But I was pleasantly surprised and it was a really fun game. Also like the Peculiar series, there are many birds with different powers. The goal is to add birds to three different kinds of habitats and gain points through different ways like laying eggs or growing flocks. There is a lot of strategy. Every person we’ve taught this game to has really liked it!
The quality of the game is high. It was created beautifully and creatively, playing on the strengths and qualities of actual birds. There are also expansions with birds from other places in the world.
Players: 1-5
Time: 60 minutes
Replayability: High- the goals of each game (ways of getting points) change which makes your strategy change each game
*2019 Golden Geek Board Game of the Year Winner
*2019 Board Game Quest Awards Game of the Year Winner
If you liked Little Fires Everywhere or Big Little Lies… try playing Suburbia!
Little Fires Everywhere and Big Little Lies are books set in suburbia. They’re about secrets and appearances and the things we do to maintain them. I read Big Little Lies before I started reviewing books but my review for Little Fires Everywhere can be found HERE. I actually found the book distressing to read and it didn’t quite live up to the hype I’d heard about it.
Suburbia is a great game that really has nothing to do with secrets but everything to do with… well… suburbia. Using tiles with various elements of a suburban community, like parks, factories, business, industry, and lakes, you create your own community while balancing your money and your reputation based on the features you choose and where you place them in relation to each other.
Players: 2-4
Time: 60 minutes
Replayability: High- the goals of each game (ways of getting points) change and tiles available on your turn changes every time
*2013 Mensa Select Winner
If you liked The Eighth Sister… try playing The Resistance!
The Eighth Sister is the first book in a great series written by Robert Dugoni. Charles Jenkins is a former CIA case officer starting his family late in life. He is approached with a risky and dangerous mission to go undercover in Russia to locate an agent who is killing a group of secret US spies known as The Seven Sisters. There is suspense and espionage and chases and escapes and the important mantra- Trust No One. My review can be found HERE.
The Resistance plays on deception. It’s a great group game similar to mafia where you don’t know who is who. People must complete missions without being sabotaged by spies within their group. You don’t know who to trust yet you must build reliable teams to be successful. Luckily you do not have to go to Russia during this game.
It might not be a great game if members in the group can’t separate lies in a game from people’s real life character and trustworthiness.
Players: 5-10
Time: 30 minutes
Replayability: Moderate- the format and play of of the game is the same every time. People’s roles change but this game is more about deception than strategy and a lot of games play out the same way in the end.
*2010 Golden Geek Best Party Board Game Nominee
If you liked Where the Deer and the Antelope Play or Leave Only Footprints… try playing Trekking the National Parks!
Where the Deer and the Antelope Play is written by Nick Offerman. As you can read in my review HERE it was not as much about national parks as I had hoped and the ‘natural elements’ were often overshadowed by politics and pretentious language, but it did talk about some national parks and therefore goes well with the game!
Leave Only Footprints: My Acadia to Zion Journey Through Every National Park is a book I have not read yet but have on my list. I believe it will do more of what Offerman’s book fails to do in discussing more of the beauty of each national park rather than ranting about straight white male’s failures of nature and life in general. I’ll update with a review link once I finish it.
Trekking the National Parks requires you to literally visit every national park in order to win the game. Just kidding, that would get expensive and highly impractical. The board looks a little like Ticket to Ride and players travel the USA collecting national parks. I haven’t personally played this one but our friends have it and I’m working on inviting myself over to check it out! Will update with a more personal review once I’ve achieved my mission.
Players: 2-5
Time: 30-60 minutes
Replayability: I don’t know yet but I would guess it’s fairly similar to the game Ticket to Ride, there is variance but the board looks the same every time.
*Mensa Select Award
If you liked You Can’t Catch Me or Gone Girl… try playing Sheriff of Nottingham!
Both You Can’t Catch Me by Catherine McKenzie (reviewed HERE) and Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (reviewed HERE) are books with deception in identity. Can we take what people say at face value? Can we believe what people tell us?
In the same way, players must deceive the sheriff in the game Sheriff of Nottingham. You must get contraband past the sheriff by declaring what’s in your bag out loud. The sheriff must discern whether they can believe you or not. But they can’t challenge everyone. Which is more beneficial- telling the truth or lying?
This game is maybe more about the funny memories than the actual strategery
Similar to The Resistance, games of deception can be tricky to play without causing some relational problems. This game can also be frustrating and hard to win.
Players: 3-5 (maybe more with expansions…?)
Time: 60 minutes
Replayability: Moderate-There is not much variance to the game and the strategy only changes psychologically as each player gets a turn to be the sheriff.
*2016 Mensa Recommended
If you liked The Great Gatsby… try playing Bootleggers!
The Great Gatsby is not a book I’ve reviewed but we all know that it takes place in the 1920s in the middle of prohibition. And alcohol was an integral part of the story.
So it only makes sense to connect it to the game Bootleggers. In this game players try to make money in their own speakeasies by producing and selling moonshine. Players have to control distribution centers and pay off law enforcement to make their buck. It would be the perfect game for a 1920s themed party with costumes and such.
I’ll be honest- I’ve only played this game one time and I lost big time. I’m a sore loser so I haven’t played it since. I’ve been working on my attitude so I might have a different experience with it now, but based on that first experience it seemed like once you were behind other players it was hard to catch up. But I’m better at games now so who knows??
Players: 3-6
Time: 90 minutes
Replayability: Unknown… it seems like this would have a higher replayability if you have a better attitude than me.
*At the time of this article’s publishing this game is not offered on Amazon
If you liked Star Mother or Star Father… try playing Photosynthesis!
Star Mother and Star Father are part of a Fantasy genre duology. It takes place in a world where mortal and celestial beings interact and fall in love. A world where the moon goddess and the sun god war against each other. They are stories of light and dark.
Photosynthesis is a game of light and dark! In this game each person is trying to grow their trees strategically. The sun moves around the board causing shade to fall on certain trees and slow their growth. Players must plant and sow their trees at the right places and times to score more points. There is also war in this game as you try to block your opponents from getting sun. Light brings energy and more points, darkness prevents growth. I think there is a deep existential rabbit trail here but I will resist…
Kinda like Wingspan, it seems like it would be a boring game, but it’s actually pretty fun! Also, side not, this game is really pretty! There are four kinds of trees and the board ends up looking like a forest I would love to walk through.
Players: 2-4
Time: 45 minutes
Replayability: I’ve only played this once so far, but from what I’ve seen I think it has moderate to high replayability because your strategy will depend on the other players. I think playing with more players will help with replayability or it could end up like Chess, which, to me, feels like it would end up being the same moves every time.
*2018 Mensa Select Winner
If you like The Happy Rant… try playing Cards Christians Like!
The Happy Rant is a book that is set to be released August of 2022 and is named for the podcast hosted by the authors. They market both the book and podcast has a humorous and thought-provoking critique of Christian culture. Since it hasn’t been released yet, I haven’t read the book, but it is on my list of Most Anticipated Books of 2022!
Cards Christians Like (having not actually read The Happy Rant) is the book but in game form. It’s like the ‘clean’ version of Cards Against Humanity and pokes fun at Christian culture. If you haven’t grown up in the church or have any church experience, some of the humor might not land for you, but we’ve played this numerous times with fellow ‘church people’ and we’ve all had a lot of laughs!! Great game to make memories and inside jokes.
Players: 2+
Time: 20 minutes (really just for however long you want to play for, it’s flexible)
Replayability: Generally high but you wouldn’t want to play it every day. The card combinations will be different every time but the cards will lose their punch if you get too familiar with them. Luckily they continue to come up with expansion card packs to add to your supply.
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