Books and games, charted the way I chart everything else. 10 games logged · 10 books logged
Reid's Notes

Reid's Notes

The Thursday Murder Club: four retirees are better at this than half my coworkers Book · Aug 19, 2026 Four residents of a retirement village meet weekly to pick over cold cases for fun, until an actual murder lands in their laps. Cozy, sharp, and easy to pick back up mid shift.
Marcus Is Moving to Days Note · Aug 18, 2026 The guy who started all of this is switching to day shift in the fall. I'm happy for him. It's going to change more than I expected.
The Housemaid: fast, twisty, forgettable by morning Book · Aug 2, 2026 A woman with a record takes a live-in housekeeping job for a family that isn't what it looks like from the outside, and the twists come fast and cheap.
The Full Moon Is Not a Real Thing (We Still Check) Note · Jul 27, 2026 Every night crew has a superstition. Ours is the moon calendar taped to the supply closet, and nobody will admit how much we actually believe it.
Project Hail Mary: the best break-room book I've had in years Book · Jul 11, 2026 A guy wakes up alone on a spaceship with amnesia and the fate of Earth riding on him figuring out chemistry problems, and somehow it's a comfort read.
Spirit Island demands more than a shift can give Game · Jul 5, 2026 A cooperative colonization resistance game with real depth and real teeth, but one that needs an uninterrupted block of hours I almost never actually have.
Klara and the Sun: an AI narrator who triages better than most people I work with Book · Apr 25, 2026 An artificial friend watches a sick child from a store window and then from her bedroom, trying to figure out how to save her. Quiet, careful, and it wrecked me a little.
Please Stop Asking for My Craziest Story Note · Apr 21, 2026 It's the first question almost everyone asks once they find out what I do, and it's the one question I actually can't answer honestly.
Ticket to Ride Is the Reliable Coworker of My Game Shelf Game · Apr 5, 2026 A train route building classic that's easy to teach and easy to pick back up, just not one that sticks with me after the box closes.
Point Salad, or how to kill fifteen minutes correctly Game · Mar 29, 2026 A quick vegetable card drafting filler that resets fast enough to play three times in a row without anyone getting antsy, which on break is exactly what you need.
Codenames and the ten minute miracle Game · Mar 21, 2026 A word association party game that somehow works for four people or fourteen, which makes it the single most reliable pick for a break room full of tired coworkers.
Anxious People: a hostage situation that's actually a support group Book · Mar 19, 2026 A failed bank robber takes a group of apartment viewers hostage and it turns into the gentlest, saddest, funniest interrogation transcript I've read all year.
Piranesi: quiet, strange, and not for a 6am brain Book · Mar 8, 2026 A man lives alone in a vast house of statues and tides, keeping meticulous records of a world that isn't what it first appears to be.
The Crew Made Trick Taking Make Sense to Me Finally Game · Mar 2, 2026 A cooperative trick taking game in a deck of cards and an envelope, that quietly turns into one of the hardest puzzle campaigns on the shelf.
Three Years on Permanent Nights Note · Feb 15, 2026 I picked permanent nights on purpose. It still took about a year to actually adjust to what I'd picked.
Just One Survives Interruptions Better Than Anything Else I Own Game · Feb 12, 2026 A cooperative word guessing game with zero setup and zero learning curve, which on a night shift is basically the whole ballgame.
The Silent Patient: I clocked the twist, that's not the point Book · Feb 3, 2026 A woman stops speaking after shooting her husband, and the psychotherapist assigned to her case gets a little too invested. Fast, twisty, and I saw the shape of the ending coming from a ways off.
How the Paperback Shelf Started Note · Jan 30, 2026 The break room reading swap wasn't anyone's idea. It just accumulated, the way most good habits at work do.
The Chair by the Window Note · Jan 25, 2026 One chair, one lamp, one shelf. It took a while to admit that's all I actually needed.
Sagrada: pretty, but it needs a real block of time Game · Jan 17, 2026 A dice drafting stained glass window game that looks incredible on the table but punishes you hard if you have to walk away mid draft.
Pandemic Was the Gateway Drug and I'm Not Even Mad Game · Jan 9, 2026 The coop disease game a coworker dragged to the nurses' station on slow overnight shifts is the reason I own a board game shelf at all.
Circe: a slow burn that earned the wait Book · Dec 28, 2025 A goddess's exile turned into the best kind of slow-drip read, the kind that rewards you for coming back instead of punishing you for leaving.
Verity: a manuscript that should come with a warning Book · Dec 22, 2025 A struggling writer takes a job finishing a bestselling author's series and finds a manuscript in the house that she was probably never meant to read.
Azul: the calm before whatever's next Game · Dec 17, 2025 A tile drafting game that survives being set down mid turn better than almost anything on my shelf, which for a night shift nurse is the whole ballgame.
The Drive Home at Seven Note · Dec 15, 2025 Twenty two minutes, same route every time, and it's the closest thing I have to a ritual.
The Night We Lost Pandemic Because of Our Own Argument Note · Dec 14, 2025 We were winning. Then Marcus and I got into a genuinely heated debate about optimal turn order and let the board fall apart underneath us.
The Sanatorium: gorgeous setting, plot kept losing me at the pass off Book · Dec 4, 2025 A detective on leave attends her brother's engagement party at a converted tuberculosis sanatorium in the Swiss Alps, and people start disappearing during a snowstorm.
Wingspan Is Gorgeous and Also Kind of a Solitaire Engine, Discuss Game · Dec 1, 2025 Beautiful bird engine builder that plays great solo or two player and gets a little quieter, socially, once the table fills up.
What I Do After a Bad One Note · Nov 23, 2025 I'm not going to describe the shift. I'm going to describe the two hours after it, which is the part I actually have some control over.
The Guy Who Brought Pandemic Note · Nov 18, 2025 I've mentioned the coworker who dragged a ziploc bag of cardboard tokens into the break room a few years ago. Never actually named him. Here's Marcus.