Press play on our October book of the month

For my friends and family, games are an important part of how we socialize and interact with each other. We play boardgames and card games and video games, we do puzzles and crosswords. I used to be into tabletop roleplaying games, but now my teenage son has taken up the mantle and become an avid Dungeons & Dragons player. Play and games are part of the fabric of our lives, and they occupy a zone that almost nothing else can.

That’s why I’m excited to say that Across The Board: How Games Makes Us Human by Tim Clare is our pick for October 2025.

Clare is a British poet, writer and games obsessive, and he has written a fun, readable history of games that is one of my favorite books of the year so far.

Released in the US earlier this year, Across The Board is a fascinating and charming piece of work, stuffed with historical detail and brimming with information that was new to me. It looks at different games, and different types of games, and even different items used in different types of games. It skitters across time, and rolls all around the world—from Mesopotamia's Game of Ur to modern America’s Game of Life; from Japan’s incredible, poetic card game Karuta, to the mancala games taken by African slaves across the Atlantic. 

But most of all, this book looks at why games matter to us—individually and as a society. The UK edition of the book was subtitled “How Playing Games Changed the World and Can Change You Too”, a description that seems exceedingly well chosen. 

This is a funny, endearing and enlightening book… which makes it a perfect match for us.

Books are on their way to club members right now, but there’s still time to sign up.

I hope you enjoy reading it!

Onwards

Bobbie