“[A] timely book . . . a wonderfully entertaining trip around the board, through 4,000 years of game history.” —The Wall Street Journal Board games have been with us even longer than the written word. But what is it about this pastime that continues to captivate us well into the age of smartphones and instant gratification? In It’s All a Game, Tristan Donovan, British journalist and author of Replay: The History of Video Games, opens the box on the incredible and often surprising history and psychology of board games. He traces the evolution of the game across cultures, time periods, and continents, from the paranoid Chicago toy genius behind classics like Operation and Mouse Trap, to the role of Monopoly in helping prisoners of war escape the Nazis, and even the scientific use of board games today to teach artificial intelligence how to reason and how to win. With these compelling stories and characters, Donovan ultimately reveals why board games—from chess to Monopoly to Risk and more—have captured hearts and minds all over the world for generations. “Splendid . . . A quick and breezy read, it doesn’t just tell the fascinating stories of the (often struggling) individuals who created our favorite games. It also manages to convey the entire sweep of board game history, from the earliest forms of checkers to modern-day surprise hits like Settlers of Catan.” —Mashable “Artfully weaves together culture, business, and ways games impact society.” —Booklist “A fascinating and insightful discussion not only of games past, but the socioeconomic and historical factors that contributed to their popularity.” —Chicago Review of Books

Talented and driven Indigo Wade is entrenched in the daily rigors of her frenzied life. Hemmed in by disillusionment with her engineering career, the expectations of a tyrannical mother and bloodless matches with her lover, Reed she yearns for a life of her own design. A whiskey soaked voice from her childhood pulls her back to her island roots to face the father whose instincts capsizes notions of kinship and trust. What begins as a reluctant trip home becomes an odyssey of discovery and truth-telling. Set in New Orleans and Jamaica, Journey to the Land of Look Behind illustrates what's left amidst the wreckage of a woman abandoned by a father who navigates relationships like a chess grandmaster. From the intoxicating bacchanal of New Orleans' speakeasies to the green grottoes of Port Antonio, hers is a journey beyond the bounds of family and obligation to full self-emancipation.