Fiction:

Ready Player One

By Ernest Cline

In the year 2044, the division between haves and have-nots has widened to the point that living conditions for the great mass of humanity are so poor that life within a comprehensive global online Role Playing Game called OASIS is vastly superior to life outside it. Here’s the thing – OASIS was created and controlled by a pretty good guy, James Halliday, who was opposed to the exploitation of OASIS by nefarious corporate types. He insisted that access to OASIS remain free, that its development be essentially open source, and that its inner architecture be a haven for Gamers and the underclass. Halliday died without heirs and has left behind a game whose winner will become his heir. Being a Halliday scholar, essentially reliving his life and sharing in his obsession with 1980s culture in general and 80s gaming technology, loving the films he loved, is essential to having any shot at all at the quest to find the three hidden keys and the golden egg. Ready Player One is a fun loving cultural and technological romp. A re-imaging of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory chock full of innovative concepts, fun 80s trivia and references, and lots of vicarious puzzle solving.

Non Fiction:

American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America By Colin Woodard

Woodard, the author of the excellent Ocean’s End and The Lobster Wars, and a native of Strong, Maine to boot, is back with his most ambitious work to date. Always a thoroughgoing researcher and an excellent storyteller, Woodard here puts forward a very interesting concept, that from a historical and cultural perspective, there are many Americas, and the key to understanding modern America lies in looking at how these regional Americas have developed and how they influence the present.

Coffee Table Book:

Solar System: A Visual Exploration of All the Planets, Moons and Other Heavenly Bodies That Orbit Our Sun By Marcus Chown

The solar system should be at our fingertips, and with a copy of this book on your coffee table it is! With incredible photographs of objects both familiar and obscure, accompanied by engaging text, this book of wonder will appeal to all ages.

Maine Interest:

Robert McCloskey: A Private Life in Words and Pictures By Jane McCloskey

Robert McCloskey’s children’s books are as treasured as his life is obscure. In this delgihtful, illustration-filled memoir by his daughter Jane, his many admirers will have the opportunity to learn more about the man behind such classic Maine children’s books as Blueberries For Sal, Time of Wonder, and One Morning in Maine.

Interactive Book:

Wake Up, Sloth!

By Anouck Boisrobert

An incredible pop-up book with a strong environmental message, Wake Up, Sloth! engages children on many levels. It has a search-and-find element on every page, interesting pull outs, and a vivid three-dimensional lesson on the price of deforestation. Move over Lorax, it’s time to Wake Up, Sloth!

Picture Books:

Friends

By Catherine Thimmesh

This picture book of true stories of unlikely animal friendships: those of a hound dog and an owl, a fox and a skunk, an orangutang baby and a tiger cub, is so completely adorable that the lovely, rhymed sayings and excellent accompanying narratives are only noticed the second time through.

The Wizard Mouse

By Dean Morrissey

The Wizard Mouse brings a fully realized and satisfying fantasy story to life in a picture book format. What could be better than sharing with a child a charming and engaging fantasy tale that takes its time in the telling? A young mouse, bored with country life, heads to the neighboring castle, where he encounters its Wizard and earns the right to be the Wizard’s apprentice. Rather than taking the more traditional line of having the mouse learn to appreciate his old life, the book celebrates adventure and the reward of effort and merit.

Holiday:

Home for Christmas

By Brett, Jan

Perennial favorite Jan Brett sends one right down the middle of the Holiday fairway with this new book, which incorporates many of her most popular themes, trolls, mischief, moose, Christmas, winter, adventure, and the importance of family.

Young Adult and Middle Grade:

Wonderstruck

By Brian Selznick

This amazing dual narrative, one tale told in entirely in drawings, one in text, set fifty years apart, with shared story elements, each character is deaf, each spends time in The Museum of Natural History, is further proof, if any were needed, that the Caldecott wining author of The Invention of Hugo Cabret, is a uniquely talented artist and storyteller. As the two narratives begin to increasingly intertwine readers will find themselves increasingly immersed in this remarkable book.

Icefall

By Mathew J. Kirby

A number of fantasies have been set in a Norse, or Norse like backdrop, but none have come closer to capturing the ethos, depth, and personal drama of the Sagas than this quietly excellent book for 8-12 year olds. Icefall is set in an unnamed Viking Age country, judging from the landscape either Sweden or Norway, circa 900 or so. A king has gone off the war and safeguarded his son and heir and his two daughters in a hidden stronghold. The lead character is the younger of the two daughters, who experiences personal betrayals, the awakening of her own artistic strength as a skald. The small scale of the book strongly develops its themes of personal identity and accountability. Understated and imbued with Norse stoicism, Icefall is a gem of a book that speak strongly to its young readers.

Kenny Brechner is the owner of Devaney Doak & Garrett Booksellers, in Downtown Farmington. He can be reached at kenny@ddgbooks.com, or online at www.ddgbooks.com

Kenny Brechner, DDG Booksellers, 193 Broadway, Farmington.

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