Summer Reading & Play Pile

 “A home without books is a body without soul.”

— Cicero

Midsummer has come and gone. Around here the holiday quite accurately represents the middle point of my son’s academic summer vacation, for a school system that ends classes right before Memorial Day and resumes classes the first grueling hot week in August. So I apologize that my “summer reading” post comes a bit late in the season. I’ve made recommendations for summer reading in the past. Rather than look over what books and games I’d recommend from the past year as appropriate to summertime diversions, I thought I’d take a look at my piles to be read and to be played, with a few recent, notable exceptions.

Alas, media has piled up given my lack of time (and players) even during the summer months. We’ve never been much for vacations lounging at the beach or in the yard (it’s too hot) and prefer to spend our time engaged in history tourism. And I really don’t get much of a vacation from my household/yard duties or my constant and disheartening job search in a terrible market poisoned by the dehumanizing smog of artificial intelligence. Perhaps I need to more diligently set aside time for reading and gaming, though the latter far too often depends on convincing unwilling participants.

Both book and game piles have slowly but steadily grown in the past six months. Some entries have languished since the yuletide holidays brought them as gifts. Others arrived in a semi-annual order of titles from Noble Knight Games. And numerous books trickled in from occasional forays to local stores, notably McKay’s Used Books in Manassas, VA, and Riverby Books in Fredericksburg, VA.

I’ve listed the titles below with a note or two on why they initially caught my eye. Some I’ve actually read or played and still recommend as good summer fare. Perhaps you’ll find something that also engages your interest:

Tales from A Revolution: Bacon’s Rebellion and the Transformation of Early America by James D. Rice (Oxford University Press, 2013). An accessible account of a rebellion in early American history that foreshadows numerous future conflicts and issues, informing our oft-indistinct concept of the time between the earliest settlers at Jamestown in 1607 and the first grumblings of the American War of Independence.

Resistance by Halik Kochanski (Liveright, 2022). I’d sought this title to add to my World War II resistance reading, especially after reading the author’s sweeping The Eagle Unbowed, about the Polish experience during the war. Almost gave up before finding it in a used book store. Covers resistance activity against the Nazis across occupied Europe.

A Question of Honor: The Kosciuszko Squadron by Lynne Olson and Stanley Cloud (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003). Another used book store find and another title in my growing library about the Polish experience in World War II, this one overlapping with my interest in the RAF and Battle of Britain.

Eagle Days: Life and Death for the Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain by Victoria Taylor (Apollo, 2025). I recently finished this history of the Battle of Britain from the German perspective, drawing on personal accounts, newspaper articles, and official documentation. Worth a read for a different perspective on one of the most consequential engagements in World War II.

Royal Navy Wargaming 1929 to 1945 and the Western Approaches Tactical Unit by John Curry and Alvaro Radigales (The History of Wargaming Project, 2025). A practical companion to the story of the Western Approaches Tactical Unit from Simon Parkin’s A Game of Birds and Wolves (which I recommended last year). It offers more detailed, rigorously researched information about the game itself and others used for Royal Navy training.

I’m not a huge comic book and graphic novel reader, but two I recently picked up and devoured really deserve everyone’s attention at some point given their relevance to events that (still) shape our early 21st century world:

Maus I & II: A Survivor’s Tale by Art Spiegelman (Pantheon, 1986, 1992). A two-volume account of the author’s father’s revelation, piecemeal, of his family surviving the Holocaust under Nazi oppression and the ways these experiences still shape who we are.

Persepolis 1 & 2 by Marjane Satrapi (Pantheon, 2004, 2005). Another two-volume tale of survival, this time of a young woman coming of age in revolutionary Iran and making her way as a young woman in Europe and then returning to her homeland. Satrapi passed away in June.

I’ve accumulated a host of tomes on game design, some more for reference, but all of which deserve a more thorough reading to better inform my occasional game-design project:

Building Blocks of Tabletop Game Design: An Encyclopedia of Mechanisms by Geoffrey Engelstein and Isaac Shalev (CRC Press, 2022).

Graphic Design for Board Games by Daniel Solis (CRC Press, 2025).

Paper Time Machines: Critical Game Design and Historical Board Games by Maurice W. Suckling (Routledge, 2025).

In this category I’m also awaiting a pre-ordered book merging my interests in history, games, and learning; it should arrive before the official end of summer:

Designing Historical Games for Classrooms: A Practical Guide for Educators by Jeremiah McCall (Routledge, 2026).

Of course I have a menu of recently acquired games to get to the table, dependent on time and willing players:

The British Way: Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire by Stephen Rangazas (GMT Games, 2023). A recently acquired title I’d wanted since first published. I’m reading up on the rules for Malaya to give the system a try, then plan on exploring the main scenario of interest: Palestine.

Sea & Steel: Columbus’ Voyages by Antonio Vaquera (Neva Wargames, 2025). Another recent acquisition with a difficult theme but a more nuanced way of looking at the “discovery” of the Americas. Glad it comes with solitaire rules given the sensitive subject matter might put off potential players.

ROVE by Dustin Dobson and Milan Zivkovic (Button Shy Games, 2025). Picked this up on a recent pilgrimage to a distant game store. I’d heard about it but the company website offered less information about the game than actually appeared on the back of the box. I’ve given this solitaire puzzle-solving game a few tries as a short stress reliever and its quite enjoyable.

Later this month I expect the annual reminder that I was born and still exist on this earth will bring a few gifts in the form of books and games which I will gladly add to my “to be read” and “to play” piles. While I might not (ever) get to all the books and games in my meager library, I very much subscribe to the belief author Umberto Eco voiced that having such media easily at hand remains as important as a well-stocked medicine cabinet:

“We understand that it is good to have many at home rather than a few: when you want to feel better, then you go to the ‘medicine closet’ and choose a book. Not a random one, but the right book for that moment.”

I hope you find some inspiration for reading and game diversion here...and at the very least that you discover some leisurely and restorative peace in whatever fair weather you must endure.

“The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds of past centuries.”

— Rene Descartes