Ready Player One

Ready Player One
By: Ernest Cline

When this book was published I read several reviews about it,
some good and some bad, so at the time I decided to pass on reading it. Recently, a young lady told me that it was her favorite book. That got my attention, so when I finished the book I was reading I decided to give this book a try. I am so glad I did!

James Donovan Halliday was a genius computer scientist, inventor, and visionary who created video games and developed a virtual reality universe called the OASIS. When he dies having no family or heirs leaves his vast 450 billion dollar fortune and his company Gregarious Software Systems (GSS) to the person who finds his Easter egg hidden inside the OASIS. Immediately people start searching for the egg; some even people even become professional egg hunters, known as gunters for short. The book begins 10 years after Halliday's death in 2044, a dystopian United States, with an 18 year old high school student Wade Watts who his hunting for Halliday's egg.

To find the egg he must decipher clues that reference 80's music, movies, video games, Japanese animation, role playing games, and so much more. Wade not only has competition from millions of other egg hunters but a ruthless telecom called ISI which is exploiting  loopholes in Halliday's will to hunt for the egg, with corporate gunters nicknamed Sixers,  so that they take the money, GSS, and most importantly control the OASIS. ISI will stop at nothing to get to the egg first, endangering Wade and his friends.

There is so much to love about this book! If you are even a little into the growing Geek culture or a fan of things from the 80's you will absolutely love the book. If you like video games, role playing games, anime, you will love the book. If you are someone like me and you like all of the above, you will be in Geek heaven. The book moves quickly most of the time and the more obscure references are explained for those who might be unfamiliar. With a love story that is quick but not overwhelming it adds character and depth.

I liked this book so much that I started looking for other books that were similar to read next and I would say that this is one of the best books that I have read in some time (at least the last year).

The Devil in the White City

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

By: Erik Larson

 

This book covers so many topics and is so entertaining it's hard to know where to start. Centered around Chicago at the end of the nineteenth century, World's Fair of 1893.
Daniel Hudson Burnham, architect, manager, and mastermind of the fair builds the White City, a marvel in itself. Meanwhile Henry H. Holmes is a serial-killer devil, a charismatic young man who calls himself a doctor, but is a con man with blood-curdling obsessions. Holmes builds an apartment building to lure young women into his house of horrors, which stood in the shadows of the greatness of the Fair.

The book covers and includes: Frederick Law Olmstead, George Ferris, Edison, Archduke Ferdinand, Buffalo Bill, Susan B. Anthony and many more. The book shows how the acheivements and the pace of change was at just as break neck of a speed as today. The beauty and the horror created by men, the growing pains of a nation, the personal achievements and conflicts of great men; all wrapped up in a sweeping narrative. As good as any novel, but it's all true!

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

 

By: Sherman Alexi

 There are few books that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you reflect on your life. I will say that even more rare is the book that I want to read more than once.  The book which I believe is partly autobiographical tells the story of a 14-year-old Indian who refers to himself as Junior. He goes to Reardan High School, an all-white school off the reservation (which he refers to as the rez).

Junior wants to be a cartoonist, and he fills this "diary" with funny, reflective, self-deprecating drawings. Junior's best friend is Rowdy, a troubled kid who acts out, violently at times, who may suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome. Rowdy and Junior's relationship becomes strained when he leaves the rez to go to Reardan and much of the book deals with this dynamic. Junior seems to be caught outside of both the world of Reardan and the world of the rez, very much the outsider.

Dealing with very flawed parents, a depressing community, the crushing depression that kids in poverty can feel, and struggling against it all; I could relate with Junior. His story of seeking to do better and rise above it all with humor and creativity feels authentic. I recommend this book to both adults and teens because of its humor and uplifting story which transcends any age.