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Check It Out: Ready Player One
By Jessi Wakefield • Apr 26, 2016
Jessi Wakefield recommends Ready Player One
Before his death, video-game designer James Halliday created the virtual world known as the OASIS; a place where people could escape the humdrum of everyday life by creating an online persona to endlessly travel through the many worlds of the virtual universe. OASIS made Halliday one of the wealthiest people in the world, but he had no one to take over the company when he died. Upon his death in in the year 2044, Halliday had one last message for the world. That message launched a contest to look for the hidden "Easter Egg" within the OASIS, and the winner receiving Halliday's vast fortune and ultimate control over OASIS.
Think of this book as a higher stakes Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, complete with more sinister bad guys and the understanding that 80s pop culture is the key to it all.
The main hero of this story is 18-year-old Wade Watts who lives in abject poverty with his uncaring and cruel aunt. Wade's life is so grim, he spends almost all of his time in OASIS. He has devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within the confines of the digital world. His vast knowledge, bordering on obsession of all things Halliday and 80's related enables him to figure out the first clue left by Halliday. The race is on, and if Wade is going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
Ready Player One is a quest novel of the highest order in the grand tradition of great fantasy literature. I grew up in the 1980s and felt as if this book was created specifically with my generation in mind. Chockfull of 80s movie, music, and video games nostalgia, this book is a beautiful treat to behold. Each pop culture reference is well thought out and woven perfectly into the story to create one of the most interesting and fun books I've read in a long time.
But don't worry if you aren't a big video game player or don't remember a lot about the 80's, anyone can follow along. If you are a big 80s buff, you will only enjoy it more. The story is both innovate and old-fashioned and will appeal to anyone who loves to lose themselves in a good novel. Ready Player One has even been picked up by famed director Steven Spielberg to be made into a movie due out in 2018.
Check out this dynamic work of science fiction fantasy and many more like it at the Sioux City Public Library.
Check It Out: The Widow's Season
By Angie Sewalson • Mar 15, 2016
Today, I am recommending a suspenseful, page-turning novel called The Widow's Season by Laura Brodie. This debut novel is a mesmerizing tale about love, grief, and the ghosts who show up where we least expect them.
Check It Out: The Graveyard Book
By Kelsey Patterson • Mar 8, 2016
"There was a hand in the darkness, and it held a knife." This forbidding first line begins one of Neil Gaiman's most adored juvenile works, The Graveyard Book. Darkly humorous and filled with quirky characters, this Newberry Medal winner is a pleasure to read. Though it's promoted as a book for children 10 and up, Gaiman's witty writing and the moving storyline make it an appealing book for readers of any age. I first read this book a couple of years ago and since then it has become one of my all-time favorites!
Check It Out: Lies You Wanted to Hear
By Angie Sewalson • Feb 23, 2016
Today, I'm recommending a captivating story of love-gone-wrong titled Lies You Wanted to Hear by James Whitfield Thomson. With this first novel, Thomson proves that he is an author-to-watch with this page-turning, beautifully written story, of how over the years, the smallest crack in a relationship, can slowly become a canyon too wide to cross.
Check It Out: The Spellman Files
By Mark Munger • Nov 24, 2015
Today, I'm recommending a comedic work of crime fiction called The Spellman Files by Lisa Lutz. This book was Lutz's debut novel and has since led to five more books chronicling the dysfunctional but lovable Spellman family.
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