Have you ever had a game that you knew would be perfect for one of your friends? We have a friend who is a librarian by day and avid reader by night, so we knew that she needed to play A Place for All My Books. To go along with that, since she’s gluten free, we did these fantastic cranberry orange bars, and they did not last the afternoon! 😋Read on for more, and check out the At a Glance tables for quick stats.

At a Glance…

Cranberry Orange Cookie Bars

Minimalist Baker does it again! She’s such a hit with me since her recipes are so simple and call for common ingredients, and are very flexible to my group’s needs of vegan and usually gluten free. The hardest part of these bars is zesting the orange. Boy do I hate zesting lol. I think the trick is finding the right zestable fruit, but that’s sometimes easier said than done. When in doubt, get a back up fruit! Once the zesting is done, the rest is a piece of cake. Or cookie bar, in this case. Whip up some flour, cranberries, sugar, butter, etc., and voila! Buttery, sugary cranberry orange cookie bars that can be enjoyed by your gluten free, vegan, peanut free friends! Mine accidentally came out of the oven a tad too soon this time, and I didn’t realize it until it was kinda too late. I tried to put them back in, but it didn’t really help. So they ended up a bit undercooked compared to the last time I made them, but there were no complaints and they were devoured just the same. I love kind friends and forgiving recipes!

Our friends also made and brought their homemade honey dill dip, which apparently is a Manitoba thing I was not aware of! It is quite tasty, so I need to try to make it myself sometime!

A Place for All My Books

Actually, we don’t own this game (yet!), but it is delightful and I do recommend it! The friends we played it with don’t own it either. Whose game is it you might ask? It is actually owned by another friend, who we kickstarted it for and gifted it to for her birthday! She kindly let us borrow it so we could play it with our librarian friend who has been trying to get her hands on her own copy. Now I’ve seen some reviewers describe it as a cozy theme but not a cozy game play. I guess that all depends on your definition of cozy of course, and how you feel about crunchy puzzle solving, because this game is full of it! The theme is of course charming. In the game, you are introverted readers, trying to organize your books in the best ways based on private goals (“little projects”) and group goals (“major accomplishments”). You’re also trying to get other “neat stuff”, like stuffed animals, plants, tea, comfy sweaters, etc. All the rearranging happens in the house, sorting stacks, moving books from one room to another, and organizing in various ways. Doing this, and especially “admiring” your completed little projects, gets you energy / social battery, which you can then use out and about in town! As soon as you have enough energy, you can head out to, get more books of course! You can go shopping for the neat stuff, go to the library, visit the park, and more. The puzzle of it comes in the restrictions of the rearranging you can do and trying to accomplish as many things as you can, all before people have made too many trips to town and you run out of time. It’s a lovely game, and anyone who is a fan of books, organizing, or puzzly games should check it out!

After that game, our other friend wanted to play a quick game of Piepmatz, which we were happy to oblige since it’s on our 10×10 and one of our favs. You can read my full review here. It was a lovely afternoon with friends we don’t see often enough!

Want to buy these games? Check out your friendly local game store (FLGS), Amazon [here], or get a first-order discount at Board Game bliss [here].

Or get A Place for All My Books on Amazon.