I just received a copy of Roberto Convenevole and Francesco Bottone’s La Storia di Risiko, a recently-published Italian book detailing the history of Risk. Sadly, the majority of the book is in Italian, a language that I cannot read, but the book does include English rules for a new variant of the game called The Missed Link which features blind army placement and adds a new layer of strategy to the proceedings; also included are four attractive fold-out game boards in the back with labels in various languages. Perhaps I’m hopelessly geeky (well, actually, I know that I’m hopelessly geeky), but the idea of a scholarly history of a board game really appeals to me. We need more books like this in English! If you know a bit of Italian and can’t wait for some bold English-language publisher to commission a translation, more information on the book can be found at the publisher’s site.