Ready Player One -- Ernest Cline‘The year is 2044 and the world is in near-ruins. The Great Recession has taken its toll on the world's economy, and resources are scarce. The Internet and gaming culture have evolved into a creation known as OASIS, a massive multiplayer online simulation game created by James Halliday and Ogden Morrow of Gregarious Simulation Systems (GSS), formerly known as Gregarious Games... ...The video says that whoever can collect three keys (Copper, Jade, and Crystal) that are hidden throughout the universe of OASIS and pass through the matching gates will receive his fortune and controlling stake in GSS.’ (from Wikipedia)Sounds awesome -- total escapist geekdom, n'est-ce pas? What's my prob?
The Shadow of the Sun by Ryszard Kapuscinski
I picked up his book Imperium not because I knew anything about him, his writing style or his opinions. Oh my, no. Imperium in paperback had a lovely silver cover with black text. The color and design sold me plus it looked, from a quick scan in Raven Used Books, like a journal of the author’s travels through Russia during interesting times.
‘...now bears witness in Imperium to the disintegration of the Soviet Union. This magisterial book combines childhood memory with unblinking journalism, a radar for the truth with a keen appreciation of the absurd.’It was deep, heavy going but lyrical as well. His manner of storytelling made a tremendous impression. I truly am psyched to read The Shadow of the Sun.
Just not this week.
Neal Stephenson’s latest, Readme
‘Neal Stephenson's new novel begins with a family reunion in the Idaho panhandle, near the Canadian border, during which the "reserved, even hardbitten" men of the extended Forthrast clan engage in shooting practice with an impressive assortment of firearms.’ (from a review in The Guardian)I absolutely LOVED Snow Crash so it oughta be a given that I’d get lost in Readme, right? Em...maybe not this week.
Sherman Alexie’s newest, Blasphemy is on my nightstand now. He’s totally my fav author. I make an effort to buy his books in hardcover because I know I’ll read them over and again plus six times more.
Nope, can't get started.
There's Jayne Anne Phillips' Lark & Termite
Her first book Black Tickets, a collection of short stories, hit me big. Subtle, spare, poetic writing about hard times and difficult people.
"These stories of America's disenfranchised - men and women light years away from the American dream - are unlike any in our literature.I just don’t have the emotional energy (or cojones) to open up Lark & Termite right now.
She's an original, and this book of hers is a crooked beauty."- Raymond Carver
I tried a couple of mysteries -- Donna Leon’s Drawing Conclusions. Her protagonist, Commissario Guido Brunetti is honest and warm -- he feels real. The Commissario understands that nothing is black and white in this world and unequivocal, happy endings are rare.
Started it -- found it filled with so many of the ambiguities contained in real life (duh and of course) -- had to put it down.
Lynda La Plante a fab television writer (Prime Suspect) and novelist. I have her recent mystery/police procedural Blood Line.
At the moment, it's just too gritty.
Earlier today I gave up, knocked on Jen’s door and announced ‘I can’t get into any of the books on my bed table. Clearly I need something really light. And funny. Possibly trashy. Wanna go to the bookstore with me?’
We entered the store with Jen allowing that she’d be in the children’s section hunting up some divine belles-lettres for her niece and nephew.
‘Cool, I’ll be over in Trash.’
What did I come home with?
My Life As A White Trash Zombie by Diana Rowland
and
Jam by Yahtzee Croshaw
First sentence of the book?
“I woke up one morning to find that the entire city had been covered in a three-foot layer of man-eating jam.”Yep, this’ll do me up just fine.
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