Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

November 6 2017
Share Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt, right? In each of these books, characters play their own games—physical ones involving strategy and chance, and psychological ones involving love, lies, and possibly murder. In some cases, they win. In some cases, they lose. And in others, it’s impossible to determine if anyone’s come out on top.

The Lying Game
by Ruth Ware

Four girls at a second-rate boarding school compete to create the most outlandish lies possible that will still be believable to others. The only rule in “the lying game”? They must never lie to each other. As adults, the girls are brought back together when one of their lies seems ready to emerge with potentially devastating consequences.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo
The Lying Game
Ruth Ware

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo
Close
Gerald's Game
by Stephen King

I’m pretty sure no one should ever agree to a game involving Stephen King. In this case, a sex game between husband and wife goes horribly wrong, ending in deadly consequences and leaving the wife trapped in an isolated lakeside house.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo
Gerald's Game
Stephen King

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo

MENTIONED IN:

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

10 Books to Read Before You See the Movies This Fall

By Tolani Osan | October 3, 2017

Close
The Singles Game
by Lauren Weisberger

The name of this book’s game is tennis. After an injury, tennis prodigy Charlie Silver hires Todd Feltner, a coach famous for grooming champions. Todd turns Charlie into a fierce competitor, on and off the court, but her new image and attitude come with a major price.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo
The Singles Game
Lauren Weisberger

Read with a Cosmo

THE SINGLES GAME is a dishy tell-all novel about Charlotte, a beautiful tennis prodigy who is suddenly thrust into a very glamorous world—one where copious cosmos are surely available. But as she starts to make headlines in her new life of celebrity stylists, private parties, mega-yachts, and secret dates with Hollywood royalty, Charlotte has to decide how much she is willing to change in order to reach her goals on the court.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo Bookshop logo

MENTIONED IN:

9 Fictional Parties Brimming with Joy and Drama

By Jennifer Proffitt | December 28, 2020

Singletons, Meet Your Match with These 9 Books

By Kerry Fiallo | February 15, 2018

12 Sports Novels for Readers Who Hate Sports

By Taylor Noel | February 2, 2018

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Best Beach Reads: 9 Books to Read While Sipping Your Favorite Beach Cocktails

By Off the Shelf Staff | June 6, 2017

Close
The Hating Game
by Sally Thorne

Two rival executive assistants, Lucy and Joshua, play a series of “games” to see who can irritate the other most. When both are up for the same promotion, their battle of wills reaches a boiling point, and while tensions flare, Lucy begins to wonder if maybe she doesn’t hate Joshua—and maybe, Joshua doesn’t hate her either.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo
The Hating Game
Sally Thorne

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

MENTIONED IN:

11 Swoon-Worthy Love Stories for Non-Romance Readers

By Danielle Bucco | August 1, 2019

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Close
Master of the Game
by Sidney Sheldon

In this classic bestseller, Kate Blackwell is a master of the game of business and life. She created an international conglomerate, and on her 90th birthday, she considers the future of her empire, surveying the family she’s crafted, manipulated, and almost destroyed, .

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo
Master of the Game
Sidney Sheldon

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

MENTIONED IN:

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Close
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card

ENDER’S GAME involves mock battle games to prepare child soldiers to fight an invading alien race. When Ender Wiggin is drafted into the military school that is orbiting Earth, he is challenged psychologically and physically, all while the threat of an alien invasion looms closer.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo
Ender's Game
Orson Scott Card

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

MENTIONED IN:

7 Books That Are Completely Different Than Their Adaptations

By Leora Bernstein | May 22, 2019

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Close
The Quiet Game
by Greg Iles

The goal of this book’s game seems to be to keep all the dark secrets buried in one southern town. When widowed Houston prosecutor Penn Cage returns to his Mississippi hometown, he finds himself reopening the most highly charged murder case in the area’s history.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo
The Quiet Game
Greg Iles

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

MENTIONED IN:

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Close
The Glass Bead Game
by Hermann Hesse

Josef Knecht is a twenty-third-century elite intellectual growing up in Castalia, a utopian province. Since childhood, he has been consumed with mastering the glass bead game, which requires a synthesis of mathematics, music, logic, and philosophy. If he achieves his goal, he will become a Magister Ludi (Master of the Game). Hermann Hesse won the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature for this fascinating tale about the complexity of modern life.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo
The Glass Bead Game
Hermann Hesse

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

MENTIONED IN:

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Close
A Game of Thrones
by George R. R. Martin, Daniel Abraham, and Tommy Patterson

A GAME OF THRONES is the ultimate game and an obvious addition to this list. For new and old fans of both the original books and the television show, this graphic novel series is another great way to experience the battle for the Iron Throne.

Amazon logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo
A Game of Thrones
George R. R. Martin, Daniel Abraham, and Tommy Patterson

Amazon logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo Google Play logo iBooks logo

MENTIONED IN:

7 Epic Books Over 400 Pages to Finally Read Now That You Have the Time

By Sharon Van Meter | June 4, 2020

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Close
This Is Not a Game
by Walter Jon Williams

Actually, the title lies, because this book is very much about a game—an alternate-reality game, to be exact, which blurs online gaming with reality. Dagmar is a game designer, who at the beginning of the book is trapped in Jakarta during a revolution and must use all her resources, including millions of online gamers, to get home and solve the murder of one of her friends.

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo
This Is Not a Game
Walter Jon Williams

Amazon logo Audible logo Barnes & Noble logo Books a Million logo

MENTIONED IN:

Win or Lose, You’ll Love These 10 Books About Games

By Erin Madison | November 6, 2017

Close

You must be logged in to add books to your shelf.

Please log in or sign up now.