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

Patron Review: Super Immunity by Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

Want to be healthy for the rest of your life? Want to weigh the same as you did in 9th grade (provided you were not obese then)? Want to avoid disease?

Granted, most people do not want the above, but for the few, who do yearn for health and an ideal weight, get thee to the library and take out Super Immunity, by Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Dr. Fuhrman is also the author of Eat to Live, which was updated in 2011. Both are worthy of your time.

Patients come to Dr. Fuhrman’s New Jersey office with allergies, viruses, cancer, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, well, every disease of modern America. And his advice is always the same: heath=nutrition/calories. Open his Eat to Live book and find the page with the picture of three stomachs. One has 400 calories of oil; the next has 400 calories of meat; the third has 400 calories of greens. The first stomach is about 1/50th filled. The second stomach is about 1/8th filled. The final stomach is completely filled.
You might get the point now. Filling our stomachs with greens, onions, mushrooms, berries, beans, and seeds, not only fills the stomach with low calories foods and satiates us, it supplies our bodies with the nutrients it needs to fight every disease under the sun.

Dr. Fuhrman’s prescription is to work up to a pound of raw vegetables, a pound of cooked vegetables, and a cup of beans daily. He calls the prescriptions of most other doctors “permission slips,” the better to keep doing what we have always done: live a disease prone lifestyle.

Today we learned that Senator Mark Kirk, a supposedly health-conscious person, suffered a stroke. Please do not end up as he has. Get Dr. Fuhrman’s books, go to his website, and live a healthy, disease-free life.

-Janice Gintzler
Acorn patron

The Tassajara Bread Book by Edward Espe Brown

The idea of baking bread from scratch had long fallen into the same category as Beyoncé’s abs circa 2004: enviable but intimidating. But The Tassajara Bread Book has gently eased me into the art of breadmaking, revealing its ease and joy.

Tassajara is a Zen monastery in central California, and this book was developed with simplicity in mind. The ingredients lists for most breads feature four to six basic items, and the directions are straightforward and sweetly whimsical. Does this sound a little austere, perhaps a tad precious? Worry not, as there are also recipes for unabashed delights like Butter Kuchen, Turkish Coffee Cake Cookie Bars, and Coffee Liquor Butter.

This book focuses on enjoying the process as it unfolds before you. Contrary to popular belief, bread is quite independent—it does not require full-time nurturing so much as a roll and a jab a few times throughout the day. And in the end, creating something so aromatic and delicious from nearly nothing is hugely satisfying. I’ll leave it to Mr. Brown to explain:

“Bread makes itself, by your kindness, with your help, with imagination streaming through you, with dough under hand, you are breadmaking itself, which is why breadmaking is so fulfilling and rewarding.”

-Megan

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog explores the inner lives of Renée, an outwardly inert concierge in a fancy Parisian apartment building, and 12-year-old Paloma, a precocious resident. At work, Renée lives up to the (apparent) stereotype of the philistine concierge, indulging in the French equivalents of Cheez Whiz-covered Doritos and In Touch Weekly. At home, Renée is an entirely different beast, one who devours opera and masticates on long passages of Husserl.

Paloma also has a double-life of the mind. Outwardly, she is the docile daughter of two well-meaning but superficial socialites. Inwardly, she is a cauldron of societal dissection, caustic barbs, and--yes, dear reader--suicide ideation. Much of the novel involves Renée and Paloma wittily discussing their ideas of the world and their isolated places in it until the lovely Kakuro moves into the building and unites the building’s misfits.

This novel succeeds in being philosophically rigorous, inspiring, and genuinely sweet. Highly recommended.

Please note: This title is available on Acorn's Touch Nooks, along with these titles. Call the Library to reserve yours!

-Megan

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

Addie Downs and Valerie Adler grew up across the street from each other in the Chicago faux-suburb of Pleasant Ridge, and were, indeed, BFFs until differing high school fates pulled them apart. Whereas Val turned her latchkey childhood into vivacious cheerleaderdom, Addie was surviving her brother’s brain-damaging car accident, the death of both parents, and compulsive overeating.

Ten years later, Addie’s got it together, if not quite got it going on. She’s a successful greeting card illustrator, avid swimmer, and is generally happy. But she’s lonely. So lonely. Imagine Addie’s surprise when Val--now a weather girl/local celebrity--shows up on her doorstep covered in blood after a mishap at the high school reunion. Imagine your surprise when Addie decides to help her former friend conceal her crime by fleecing the hunky, brooding detective and going on a road trip to Florida.

The two reconnect rather seamlessly and with little drama, quickly resolving misunderstandings and bonding over man problems.The weird vigilante subplot then takes over, and you better believe that the detective's interest in the case is not entirely professional. In fact, he’s so smitten with Addie that he chants her name (“Addie...Addie...Addie...”) throughout. Can you handle it? (I could not.)

I listened to this on audiobook, which generally doesn’t work for me in between being cut off by large trucks, avoiding potholes, and berating humanity; but the combination of Weiner’s earnest style and soapy plot made for a good time. Recommended.

-Megan

Downton Abbey, Series One (DVD)

This is British drama at its best -- witty and refined, but never uptight or stodgy. The series takes place at the country home of the fictional Earl of Grantham during the run-up to World War I. Significant time is spent both with the Earl's aristocratic family and their crew of below-the-stairs servants. Much of the series is devoted to the romantic intrigue and familial squabbles, but the series does sometimes delve into more serious issues such as the women’s suffrage movement or the impending Great War. While there are various plots that run throughout the entire first season, each of the seven episodes can also be viewed discretely. Downton Abbey is recommended for those who like their British period pieces with just enough modern sheen to keep things interesting (but not enough to detract from the genre's essential coziness).

-Eric