Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Ernest Cline, best known for his acclaimed film Fanboys, packs the same joy of all things geeky, intergalactic, and (surprisingly) sentimental in his debut novel, Ready Player One. Set in 2044, a future where the virtual reality program OASIS is an all-encompassing, 24/7 lifestyle for avatars in escape from the dreadful world of oil shortage and overpopulation, young Wade Watts is swept into a frenzied search for the creator's hidden egg: billions of dollars and total control of the hundreds of universes in OASIS. Like the beloved video games of the creator's childhood, the egg can only be found by solving a number of increasingly difficult puzzles based on 80's pop culture. Whether reciting movie dialogues or solving baffling riddles, Wade will have to fight to find the egg before the Sixers, an evil empire with their own plans to turn OASIS into a giant, money-making machine.

Despite the recent over saturated trend towards nostalgia, the ultimate key in appreciating Ready Player One is finding the humor in Cline's earnest devotion to Devo, Monty Python, and Dungeons & Dragons: everything fabulous and geeky pre-1990. With a fast-paced style reminiscent of role playing games and a heavy dose of vintage television shows (spoiler alert! There are robots), Cline's tribute to the intellect of pop culture obsession never overshadows the very real narratives of isolation, the dangers of escape, and the ever-persistent threat of giant corporations. Funny, entertaining, and yes, nostalgic, Cline's take on good versus evil provides the perfect backdrop for this virtual egg hunt.

-Anna

Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber

David Graeber is a former professor of Anthropology at Yale and he currently works in the Social Anthropology Department at Goldsmiths, University of London; he is also an outspoken Anarchist. He has most recently been in the news because of his participation in the General Assemblies of the Occupy Wall Street movement.
Graeber's anarchism is not an antagonistic rebellion, but one that fits in a certain tradition of Anthropology: a fundamental critique of capitalism. That capitalism sprung from a society based on barter and that its monetary system has only made life easier is the basic assumption of modern economics. Graeber denies that any society was ever based on barter and traces the development of both trade and coinage throughout history. He covers ancient Mesopotamia, India, Egypt and Greece through to the global recession of 2008. Moving from one geographical location to another, Graeber reveals commonalities such as the use of debt as currency, periodic forgiveness of debt, and the links between empire and coinage. Some of his claims may be radical, but he presents a well organized and lengthy base for his arguments.
With so many books being published about the current economic situation, Graeber's is unique in its scope. It's worth the read for a fresh perspective on the challenges of our modern economy.

-Mike