Whether or not you celebrate love day, it can be nice to dive into some romance. In this episode, Brenna shares her top 5 romance books and Orin shares 5 boardgames themed around love. We'd love to hear your favourites as well! You can find us on social media @thehobbyshelf, or send us an email at [email protected]. And remember, keep expanding your shelf!

Books: 

Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker & Wendy Zu

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren 

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Armorers Handbook by Heavyarms

Strongholds and Followers by Mathew Colville

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Everything leads to You by Nina LaCour

Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali

The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Games:

Ticket To Ride

Dice Forge

Wavelength

Azul

Fog of Love

Love Letter

Red Flags

Valentine's Day

Love Will Tear Us Apart

Recs:

Imaginary Friends

Encore 

Evan Lewis joins us today for a deep dive into Dungeons and Dragons! If you're interested in tabletop RPGs, this is the episode for you. We discuss our favourite parts of D&D and give some insights from both a player perspective and a DM perspective. All the games and books we mention in the episode are in the show notes, along with our recommendations of the week. And remember, keep expanding your shelf!

Games:

Wingspan

Dungeons and Dragons

Pathfinder

Books:

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Living a Feminist Life by Sara Ahmed

"The Lady's Dressing Room" and "Description of a City Shower" by Jonathan Swift

The Illuminae Files by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

The Stormlight Archive series by Brandon Sanderson

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Recs:

Mythender by Ryan Macklin

Ehdrigohr by Allen Turner

DawnforgedCast

MonarchsFactory

MrRhexx

XP to Level 3

RuneSmith

Go play D&D!

Do you want to publish a book? Are you interested in designing or publishing a boardgame? This is the perfect episode for you! In this episode, we look at the production process for both books and boardgames. We give tips for finding editors, publishing your book, designing and play-testing a boardgame, and more. All the books and games we mention are in the show notes. And remember, keep expanding your shelf!

Books:

Ten Blind Dates by Ashley Elston

Twice in a Blue Moon by Christina Lauren

The Library of the Unwritten by A.J. Hackwith

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark by Cecilia Watson

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Games:

Dungeons and Dragons

Wingspan

TINYforming Mars

Wavelength

Everdell

Skyrise -  Roxley Games late 2020

Gorilla Marketing - Roxley Games being announced in February

Santorini sequel - Roxley Games 3rd or 4th quarter 2020

Resources:

The Boardgame Design Lab with Gabe Barret

Board Game Business Podcast with Bryan and Jeremy

Stonemaier Games Kickstart Blog

5 Podcasts for Writers

Writer Beware: Vanity/Subsidy Publishers

Louise Harnby Fiction Writing Resources

Why Do You Need An Editor?

What Type of Editing Do You Need?

Finding An Editor

Self-Publishing vs. Traditional Publishing

Time for a deep dive! This is our first in-depth review episode, and we're looking at Everdell and Ninth House. All of the books and games we mention in the show are in the show notes, and we would love to hear your recommendations. You can send us an email at [email protected], or you can find us on Twitter and Insta at @thehobbyshelf. Remember, keep expanding your shelf!

Our discussion of Ninth House begins at 40:20.

We apologize for messing up one of the character names—whenever we say "Dean Sanderson" we mean "Dean Sandow."

Games:

Prêt-à-Porter by Portal Games

Everdell by Starling Games

Wingspan by Stonemaier Games

Everdell: Pearlbrook by Starling Games

Books:

Scythe by Neal Shusterman

Front Lines by Michael Grant

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

It's a new year, and there are tons of new books and boardgames coming out. In this episode, we share a few of our anticipated 2020 releases.

We'd also like some feedback so we can make the podcast even better. What do you like about our show? What books and/or boardgames would you like us to talk about? What are your top recommendations? Let us know on Twitter or Instagram (@thehobbyshelf) or send us an email at [email protected].

All of the books and boardgames we mention in the show are in the show notes. And remember, keep expanding your shelf!

Games:

Black Angel

Everdell

Everdell: Pearlbrook

Kemet: Blood and Sand

Mariposas

Ride the Rails

Return to Dark Tower

Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef

Tekhenu: Obelisk of the Sun

Wavelength 

The Great Wall 

Hunted

Almanac: The Dragon Road

Books:

Before the Devil Breaks You by Libba Bray

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson

The King of Crows by Libba Bray

The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

Cracked Up to Be by Courtney Summers

Sadie by Courtney Summers

Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon

The Subtweet by Vivek Shraya

Out Now: Queer We Go Again ed. Saundra Mitchell

It's the first episode of 2020! Since it's a new year, we decided to set some book- and boardgames-related goals. What are your goals? Share them with us on our Twitter or Instagram (@thehobbyshelf) or send us an email at [email protected]. All of the books and game we mention in this episode are here in the show notes. And remember, keep expanding your shelf!

Games:

Everdell

Santorini

Black Angel

Wingspan: European Expansion

7 Wonders

Gloomhaven

Frosthaven

Books:

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin

Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Vengeful by V.E. Schwab

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff

Recs:

Focus on your Mental Health, we recommend Headspace

Orin's Goals:

Play 30 new Boardgames

Keep diversity in mind when choosing new boardgames

Finish the base game of Gloomhaven

Run at least 12 tabletop roleplaying sessions

Create 10 new CG models

Create and playtest a boardgame

Read 10 books alone

Support Brenna's writing by doing NaNoWriMo with her

Brenna's Goals:

Read 50 Books

Read more books that I own

Support local libraries and bookstores

Read more diversely 

Keep track of all books that I read on paper

Participate in NaNoWriMo & Preptober

2019 is almost over, so it's time to review the year. We share our favourite books and boardgames of 2019, and we discuss how our years went in general. You can find all of the books and boardgames we mention in the show notes along with our recommendations of the week. Keep expanding your shelf!

Games:

Terraforming Mars

Keyper

Snowdonia

Gloomhaven

On Tour

Welcome To...

Wingspan

Clank! In! Space!

Dice Forge: Rebellion

Scythe

Splendor

Tiny Epic Zombies

Wavelength

The Final Flicktier

The Island of El Dorado

Frosthaven

Books:

The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester 

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A Flynn

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin 

Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams

How Long ’til Black Future Month by NK Jemisin

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O'Neill

The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Alex Haley

The Library Book by Susan Orlean

Recs:

Wyrmwood

Rosalynne Love (@rosalynnelove)

Looking for something wintery to read or play? We have a list of great recommendations for you. All of the books and boardgames we mention in the show are in the show notes. And remember, keep expanding your shelf!

Games:

Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game

Champions of Midgard

Reavers of Midgard

Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries

The Final Flicktier

Flip Ships

Risk: Game of Thrones

Books:

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Highway of Tears by Jessica McDiarmid

Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

Between Shades of Gray by Ruta Sepetys

East by Edith Pattou

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Scion of the Fox by SM Beiko

The Alice Network by Kate Quinn

Front Lines by Michael Grant

The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Recommendations of the week:

Do a puzzle

Cheg (chai latte with eggnog)

It's the holiday season, so we're sharing our 2019 wish lists! What's on your wish list? You can find all the books and games we mentioned in the show notes along with our recommendations of the week. Keep expanding your shelf!

Games:

Clank! In! Space!

Edge of Darkness

Smash Up

Sleeping Gods

Above and Below

Brass: Birmingham

Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Root

Tapestry

Everdell

Dice Throne

Books:

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

Pressure Cooker Love Bomb by Sharanpal Ruprai

Some Great Thing by Lawrence Hill

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Highway of Tears  by Jessica McDiarmid

Summer of Salt by Katrina Leno

The Library of the Unwritten by AJ Hackwith

Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark by Cecelia Watson

The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen A Flynn

Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys 

The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin

Recommendations:

Roxley Game Laboratory

Food Network Baking Championships

*Some spoilers* We love gushing about our favourite things, and on today's episode we talk about our favourite game mechanics and book tropes! You can find all of the books and games we mentioned in the show notes along with our recommendations of the week. Keep expanding your shelf!

Games:

Quirkle

Clank! In! Space!

Charterstone

Lords of Waterdeep

Dice Forge

Dominion

Legendary

Scythe

Small World

Villainous

Gloomhaven

Final Flicktier

Root

Carcassonne

Catan: Seafarers

Betrayal at House on the Hill

Books:

Women of the Dunes by Sarah Maine

The Truth About Magic by Atticus

The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Harry's Trees by Jon Cohen

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han

Lair of Dreams by Libba Bray

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin

Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien

The Outsiders by SE Hinton

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Recs:

Black Sails

Not Too Deep by Grace Helbig

Divinity Original Sin