Ready Player One

Ready Player One By Ernest Cline Rating	Published [2011] First Sentence "Everyone my age remembers where they were and what they were doing when they first heard about the contest."
Publisher's Description: In the year 2044, reality is an ugly place. The only time teenage Wade Watts really feels alive is when he's jacked into the virtual utopia known as the OASIS. Wade's devoted his life to studying the puzzles hidden within this world's digital confines—puzzles that are based on their creator's obsession with the pop culture of decades past and that promise massive power and fortune to whoever can unlock them.    But when Wade stumbles upon the first clue, he finds himself beset by players willing to kill to take this ultimate prize. The race is on, and if Wade's going to survive, he'll have to win—and confront the real world he's always been so desperate to escape.
Dear Reader, This book is one of my top ten favorites. I listened to it on Audible. It was narrated by Will Wheaton who played Wesley Crusher on the 1980s-90s Star Trek: The Next Generation. This book is a geek-fest for anyone who relished and rolled around in their youthful obsessions. Most interestingly the plot surrounds the history of video gaming. It also takes place in a future dystopian version of the world. I like that Cline make the destruction of the eco-system as the reason why the world is so messed up. Plausible and important to continue to bring the fore-front of readers minds'. I also love that he has virtual reality as the world in which everyone chooses to live their life. With the way that our current world is so engrossed in our technology it makes evolutionary sense that we will end up inside the technology. Those who have ended up on the outskirts of the cool crowd and who played (or still play D&D) and embraced their nerdiness, can completely relate to the main character, Wade Watts/Parzival. I learned so much about how video games evolved since Cline used-semi-historical fiction to build the world of Ready Player One. I also enjoyed the love story between Parzival and Art3mis. Teenage love with the high stakes of the contest. Art3mis is also an equal on this playing field with her knowledge and dedication to what may seem nerdy, I can relate and admire that with my own store of Star Trek, World of Warcraft and Buffy knowledge. I appreciated that the author had the protagonist, Wade utilize his new found money from sponsorship move into the city and set up his studio apartment with security and tech to allow him to maintain his quest. I like that they have a system in which a pizza can be delivered to you through a door slot without ever having to have human contact (if so desired.) Without going into to spoilers, because the movie version is quite different than the book version, I like the undercover lengths that Wade undergoes to achieve his goals and eventually win the contest. Commentary on Movie vs Book. I enjoyed watching the movie in the theater. The trailers had really painted an amazing job on the amount of pop-culture references and Easter eggs and music choices to represent the world of James Halliday. I was disappointed in something such as how quickly Wade and Art3mis meet IRL in the movie since that was really the last 10 pages of the book. Shoto and Daito - uhhh he's not 11 year old kid, why do they speak English so fluently and the consequences are a little more depressing that what happened in the movie. Odgen Morrow's role in helping the kids towards the end of the movie was much more believable than what they had his character do in the movie. Overall I liked the book more than the movie- but isn't that usually the case? Yours, Marsha

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Modern Romance

Modern Romance Aziz Ansari & Eric Klinenberg 4 / 5	Published 2015 First Sentences "Oh, shit! Thanks for buying my book. That money is MINE. But I worked really hard on this, and I think you'll enjoy it."
Publisher's Description: A hilarious, thoughtful, and in-depth exploration of the pleasures and perils of modern romance from one of this generation’s sharpest comedic voices At some point, every one of us embarks on a journey to find love. We meet people, date, get into and out of relationships, all with the hope of finding someone with whom we share a deep connection. This seems standard now, but it’s wildly different from what people did even just decades ago. Single people today have more romantic options than at any point in human history. With technology, our abilities to connect with and sort through these options are staggering. So why are so many people frustrated? Some of our problems are unique to our time. “Why did this guy just text me an emoji of a pizza?” “Should I go out with this girl even though she listed Combos as one of her favorite snack foods? Combos?!” “My girlfriend just got a message from some dude named Nathan. Who’s Nathan? Did he just send her a photo of his penis? Should I check just to be sure?”  But the transformation of our romantic lives can’t be explained by technology alone. In a short period of time, the whole culture of finding love has changed dramatically. A few decades ago, people would find a decent person who lived in their neighborhood. Their families would meet and, after deciding neither party seemed like a murderer, they would get married and soon have a kid, all by the time they were twenty-four. Today, people marry later than ever and spend years of their lives on a quest to find the perfect person, a soul mate. For years, Aziz Ansari has been aiming his comic insight at modern romance, but for Modern Romance, the book, he decided he needed to take things to another level. He teamed up with NYU sociologist Eric Klinenberg and designed a massive research project, including hundreds of interviews and focus groups conducted everywhere from Tokyo to Buenos Aires to Wichita. They analyzed behavioral data and surveys and created their own online research forum on Reddit, which drew thousands of messages. They enlisted the world’s leading social scientists, including Andrew Cherlin, Eli Finkel, Helen Fisher, Sheena Iyengar, Barry Schwartz, Sherry Turkle, and Robb Willer. The result is unlike any social science or humor book we’ve seen before. In Modern Romance, Ansari combines his irreverent humor with cutting-edge social science to give us an unforgettable tour of our new romantic world.
Dear Reader, It me took forever to read this book! Or rather, it took US forever to read this book: I audiobooked it with Troy, and we started it when it was released back in June. But we tend to audiobook together only when we are taking long drives (and very occasionally, long walks), so we picked it up and put it down so many times! Luckily, it was pretty easy to do that, since this didn't have a continuous storyline - just a bunch of interesting chapters. So I started listening to the audiobook (which, by the way, is an entirely different experience from the book - Ansari loves to talk to his listeners in asides, especially about how lazy we are for audiobooking!) because I always love to hear authors read their own work wherever possible. But I hit "pause" quickly - I realized that Troy would also love to listen with me, as we were both huge fans of Parks & Rec, and this was a different sort of celebrity book: instead of memoir, it was a study, and I knew that would appeal to us both. So be began to listen together, which then caused a 6 hour book to end up taking us 4 months to finish! Haha. It might have also taken us so long to read because we were constantly pausing to discuss one point or another! It was a great conversation kindler. Ansari and Klinenberg study people from all ages and walks of life - from an old folks' home in Brooklyn to love hotels in Japan. They explore the world of online dating, of texting (and sexting!), and the huge changes that have taken place both in marriage expectations and in courting rituals in the past hundred years. It was fascinating to consider everything they studied. And Ansari infused the entire thing with his trademark wit, which made even parts that might possibly have come off as dry into humorous episodes! I think this is a great book for our generation to read: it is important to remember we're all in this very odd, unprecedented moment of coupling together. You're not alone if you've received unsolicited "dick pics" or broken up with someone over texts. It's a strange new world we live in, and one where we are so much more conscious of our choices. Sometimes this can be overwhelming, but it is nice to know we're (mostly) all aiming for love rather than just settling down with some kid from the neighborhood. Or doing it for the donuts. Yours, Arianna

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The Word Exchange

The Word Exchange Alena Graedon 4.5 / 5	Published 2014 First Sentence "On a very cold and lonely Friday last November, my father disappeared from the Dictionary."
Publisher's Description: A dystopian novel for the digital age, The Word Exchange offers an inventive, suspenseful, and decidedly original vision of the dangers of technology and of the enduring power of the printed word.  In the not-so-distant future, the forecasted “death of print” has become a reality. Bookstores, libraries, newspapers, and magazines are things of the past, and we spend our time glued to handheld devices called Memes that not only keep us in constant communication but also have become so intuitive that they hail us cabs before we leave our offices, order takeout at the first growl of a hungry stomach, and even create and sell language itself in a marketplace called the Word Exchange.      Anana Johnson works with her father, Doug, at the North American Dictionary of the English Language (NADEL), where Doug is hard at work on the last edition that will ever be printed. Doug is a staunchly anti-Meme, anti-tech intellectual who fondly remembers the days when people used email (everything now is text or videoconference) to communicate—or even actually spoke to one another, for that matter. One evening, Doug disappears from the NADEL offices, leaving a single written clue: ALICE. It’s a code word he devised to signal if he ever fell into harm’s way. And thus begins Anana’s journey down the proverbial rabbit hole . . .      Joined by Bart, her bookish NADEL colleague, Anana’s search for Doug will take her into dark  basements and subterranean passageways; the stacks and reading rooms of the Mercantile Library; and secret meetings of the underground resistance, the Diachronic Society. As Anana penetrates the mystery of her father’s disappearance and a pandemic of decaying language called “word flu” spreads, The Word Exchange becomes a cautionary tale that is at once a technological thriller and a meditation on the high cultural costs of digital technology.
Dear Reader, I don't even know where to begin in writing this review. I really loved a lot about this book, although it was incredibly dense and at times difficult to read. Mostly that was due, however, to the "word flu" infecting the pages of the book, causing the reader to stumble - as if afflicted with aphasia - through passages which contained a melange of real and fake words. What I found ironic was that the author - deliberately, I believe, although at times it also felt somewhat pretentious - used a lot of unique vocabulary even in her "uninfected" writing, which meant that I would occasionally find myself doing the thing the book warns against: looking up a word on my device and taking that definition at face value. While I do own a dictionary and can be certain that those definitions are as consistent as the day they were published, it is of course much more convenient to grab my nearby phone or tablet for reference. The story itself was a mystery-thriller of sorts, but of course one made much more my speed by it being word-related. The story took a little while to get going, and was difficult to really get into right away - I think I gave it a few starts before committing. I think I was first charmed though, by Doug's endearing love of pineapples - to the point that he even named his daughter Anana! So cute. And as I said above, the author's use of ten cent words - while normally I'd dismiss that as pretentious - felt perfectly in line with the feel of the whole book. Chapters alternate between being narrated by Anana, the protaganist, and her father's protege, Bart. The two relate the story of how the word flu became a pandemic shortly after the disappearance of Doug, and how things began to go terribly wrong once the world was unable to communicate without gibberish. I thought it was brilliant how the author referenced Lewis Carroll quite a bit, as he was an author famous for making nonsense popular! (Side note: this year marks the 150th anniversary of the publishing of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland!) I don’t know how to write much more about the book, except for that the characters are ones which I think will stick with me for a while. Even the more minor players were really quite vivid. I enjoyed watching everyone interact with each other. I was pleased to see that Penguin Random House included the book in its “Brave New Worlds: Futures to Fear” poster that it is currently releasing to libraries! (You may also note some other Shelf Notes favorites on here, including Station Eleven and Ready Player One.) For an even more comprehensive list, check out the related Pinterest page: https://www.pinterest.com/rhlibrary/brave-new-worlds-futures-to-fear/   Yours, Arianna P.S. I didn’t want to put these in my main post because they take up so much space, but here are some of my favorite quotes from the book! "Doug's face put on its mask of tragedy. He only took it from its hook when someone died." *****  Re: accelerated obsolescence - "As a nation we've been practicing mass production since before World War II. We believed wastefulness would morph, by magic, into wealth. That if we created enough disposable products, it would help fire consumerism. And it did, for a while. But here's a dirty secret: resources are finite. Waste enough, and eventually it's all used up. Language, too. You can't just coin a word, use it once, and toss it out. But language is just the latest casualty. We always think there's more of everything, even as we deplete it. Not just petroleum or gold, glacial ice or water, bandwidth. Now even our thoughts and memories are disposable." *****  "[T]he 19th century saw the rise of what we came to call linear thought, a way of processing the world that was made possible only by the medium of books. By accident, the bound codex taught us sustained focus, abstract thinking, logic. Our natural tendency is to be distracted--to scan the horizon constantly for predators and prospects. Books made us turn that attention inward, to build higher and higher castles within the quiet kingdoms of our minds. Through the process of reflection and deep thinking, we evolved."

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Mrs. Poe - Review by AmberBug

Mrs. Poe Lynn Cullen 4.5/5	First Sentence "When given bad news, most women of my station can afford to slump into their divans, their china cups slipping from their fingers to the carpet, their hair falling prettily from its pins, their fourteen starched petticoats compacting with a plush crunch."
Publisher's Description: A vivid and compelling novel about a woman who becomes entangled in an affair with Edgar Allan Poe—at the same time she becomes the unwilling confidante of his much-younger wife.   It is 1845, and Frances Osgood is desperately trying to make a living as a writer in New York; not an easy task for a woman—especially one with two children and a philandering portrait painter as her husband. As Frances tries to sell her work, she finds that editors are only interested in writing similar to that of the new renegade literary sensation Edgar Allan Poe, whose poem, “The Raven” has struck a public nerve.   She meets the handsome and mysterious Poe at a literary party, and the two have an immediate connection. Poe wants Frances to meet with his wife since she claims to be an admirer of her poems, and Frances is curious to see the woman whom Edgar married.  As Frances spends more and more time with the intriguing couple, her intense attraction for Edgar brings her into dangerous territory. And Mrs. Poe, who acts like an innocent child, is actually more manipulative and threatening than she appears. As Frances and Edgar’s passionate affair escalates, Frances must decide whether she can walk away before it’s too late...  Set amidst the fascinating world of New York’s literati, this smart and sexy novel offers a unique view into the life of one of history’s most unforgettable literary figures. (Published 2013)
Dear Reader, I absolutely loved everything about this book, starting with the literary references right down to the forbidden romance. Cullen took all the pieces, fact and rumors, about Edgar Allen Poe and the characters around him and wrote a beautiful story that delves into feminism, technological progress, NYC literary society, and so much more. Right away Cullen gives us the setting perfectly, telling us of the NYC smells as horse manure, garbage and urine. This gives us a picture of what NYC was, pushing us into the past. I love when historical fiction adds quaint and factual details such as this. The characters, based on real life, are strong, opinionated and made me want to jump into a time machine to attend one of their conversaziones. Frances Osgood, the struggling poet that has chosen the wrong man to marry and struggles with this throughout the book. Samuel Osgood, the husband of Frances, who is the master charmer portrait artist, one we would call a player in our time. Virginia Poe, the wife of Edgar Poe, sick and fragile but has a dark side. Edgar Allen Poe, the famous poet/writer, creepy yet extremely intelligent and charming (in his own way). Cullen wrote Edgar with finesse, he comes across with dry humor which he even admits, "I do not joke... I never joke". That spoke to me because I'm a believer that the truth is what makes something so funny. As Dane Cook (I believe it was him) says, "It's funny because it's so true". Poe's personality is so dark with macabre retorts that had me enamored, I think I fell in love with him right along with Frances. One of my other favorite characters was Mrs. Fuller, even if she was only a minor part. She loves stirring the pot, has definitive views on feminism and is fantastic at defending her fellow females. Feminism plays a large part in this book, the idea of "free love" is brought up a few times and the conversations that play out around that theme are really interesting. One of the central ideas to "free love" is how "marital relations without the consent of the wife amount to rape." How complicated things were back then, suffocating in a marriage that wasn't right. The inequality of it all, something that is really hard to fathom in present times. The Author actually uses the doomed love of Edgar and Frances to show the injustice of the way things used to be. Shouldn't we be able to be with the one you love? Even now, with such changes in marriage, we suffer with the ideas of adultery and bad relationships. Should you stay with someone out of loyalty even if it means we'd be miserable? Doesn't that just make the person we're with suffer just as much if not more? A great quote from the book sums this up beautifully, "Why must women always deny their desires? Why must most men always deny theirs? It is completely unnatural to do so." This book might seem like a romance, but to me it was so much more. I'd normally run for the hills at the first mushy paragraph... However, this book spoke to my geeky side. Mrs. Poe is chock full of technological progress, like having a fun history lesson; how roads started, NYC indoor plumbing bringing the rats, daguerreotypes, the first x-mas trees, etc. I really loved the argument brought up around daguerreotypes(develops a portrait by exposing chemicals to light.. Ahem, photography anyone?) this brought up the argument of Fine Art vs. Photography, which interested me quite a bit, being an artist myself. Samuel Osgood, the artist, believed that daguerreotypes were a fad that would pass with time. Poe, on the other hand, felt it was a fantastic technology that was truest to the subject. How I would have likes to be a part of these discussions. I really would recommend this book to anyone who loves literature combined with history. Cullen gives us so many literary figures (mentioned or cameo); Walt Whitman, Mr. Audobon, Herman Melville, Nathaniel Hawthorne, even Charles Dickens. It left me star struck and wanting more. I can't wait to pick up another of her books, it left me wanting more. Happy Reading, AmberBug P.S. - Check out Arianna's review of this book... Lynn Cullen commented on her post commending her for understanding where she was coming from, you have to read it!