Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

A few days ago my son told me he wanted to see Ready Player One over April vacation.  I have a personal rule to always read the book before seeing the movie.  I took this out for my son to read.  Not only did he read it in one day, he said I would really like and to read it as well. While it's not going on any of my all-time favorites lists, I did enjoy it and am looking forward to the movie.

A rich gamer legend dies and leaves his fortune to the player who can crack his clues and Easter eggs (side note: listen up kids, gaming Easter eggs have been around a lot longer than you think; us old folks played games with them too....MANY years ago).  First one to solve the final puzzle wins.  Every gamer wants to win, but most importantly beat a power-hungry conglomerate.

Imagine trying to find Willy Wonka's golden tickets inside a virtual Escape the Room inside an even bigger virtual Escape the Room.

Definitely a quick, enjoyable read.

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS
Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. 

Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

WORTH. THE. WAIT.

My son and I pre-ordered this the moment it appeared on Amazon.  Months and months of waiting.  We had to buy two because he and I could not agree which one of us would get to read it first.  Mine is now being donated to the WHHS LMC.

You most definitely need to read Illuminae and Gemina to understand this, the finale of the trilogy.  I reviewed Gemina here, but Illuminae I read for other purposes.  That being said, it did not make a final list somewhere on a technicality.  It might be on another list which will be coming out May 1st.  Infer what you will.

There is so much happening in this non-traditional novel.  Just like its predecessors, the story is told in journal entries, video transcriptions, court records, drawings, photographs, and the sort-of conscience of a murderous artificially intelligent computer system, AIDAN. 

AIDAN, for lack of a better phrase, kills it in this book.  It's amazing that a computer system can be this developed as a character.  Like ugly-crying inducing developed.  And although not a cliff hanger, the door is open for AIDAN to maybe appear again somewhere.

Find this on display with our new books next week!

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS
Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read

All opinion expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

One Of Us Is Lying by Karen M. McManus

Hi there! Yes, it's been quite a while since I've written a review. While I've certainly been reading, a lot of personal stuff has gotten in the way of sitting down to write reviews.  My father-in-law is currently in the hospital, so prayers/kind thoughts/healing vibes are all appreciated.

I have to say I LOVED this book.  5 high school students are in detention together.  A small fender bender happens in the school parking lot.  4 of the students and the teacher run over to the window to see what happened.  The 5th starts having an allergic reaction to something and dies.  It is determined someone put peanut oil into his cup.  All the Epi-pens are missing from the nurses' office. So, who did it?

Told in alternating viewpoints (which I'm typically not a fan of, but in this case works), the reader must try to figure out who hated Simon the most.  Simon ran a gossip website, and all of our suspects have appeared on it.  Even more damaging, each has a post in Simon's draft folder and they start posting, after his death.

I don't want to spoil too much here, but I can honestly say I was WAY wrong on my guess.

Our water business has funded two recent orders, so find this on display next week with the other new books!

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS
Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

This was part of a large donation from an alumni.  Mrs. Taylor had read it and thought I would like it.  She said it was similar to the Langdon series by Dan Brown in that there was much historical mystery and medieval symbology.  While that was in fact true, and I liked the premise, I did not like the novel overall.

Two Princeton roommates are attempting to decipher the codes and riddles of a Renaissance text.  Paul graduate thesis is based upon the work, and Tom is the son of an expert on it.

What follows is in fact a Langdon-esque quest to solve the puzzle.  The two men and their other roommates, though, are thoroughly unlikeable.  There was nothing about any of them that made me care if they lived or died.  I was underwhelmed by the character development and the interpersonal relationships.  The story is also told in flashback and flashforward with no delineation telling the reader we are in the past or present.  It muddled the plot significantly.

Not a book I'd recommend.

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS

Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff

This was an incredibly moving book.  For being only 166 small pages, there was tremendous emotion and character development.  I read this in about an hour, but it has really stuck with me. 

Hollis is a child of the foster care system.  She is a habitual runaway, never staying in one foster home too long.  Her case manager sends her to spend the summer with a family to "get some fresh air" in their summer cabin in the woods.  The small family (Mom, Dad, brother Steven) decide to adopt Hollis, but a tragic accident makes Hollis run again.  Her next foster is a former teacher, who is showing the beginnings of dementia.  Josie seems to forget Hollis has to go to school which suits Hollis just fine.  When the case manager decides Hollis needs more structure, she and Josie run.  Hollis gets them to the cabin, the one place Hollis felt was "home". 

I don't want to spoil more of what happens, but it's really a hard look at the way foster care kids are treated.  For Hollis, it will be a happy ending. 

The story is told in flashback and flashforward, between Hollis's time with the Regans and Josie.  Hollis is an artist, and the descriptions of her work help the reader to see her perspective as to why she does the things she does.

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS

Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

Camp So-and-So by Mary McCoy

I could NOT get into this.  I tried and tried, reading through the first "act".  It felt like a hodge-podge of Caraval and Illuminae. And it didn't work. 

I pretty much disliked every character and the basic premise up to that point. 

Sorry, not much nice to say at all!

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS

Tweet what you're reading #whhs #read

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.

Boundaries by Sally M. Walker

If you've followed this blog a while, you know I'm a fan of American history, especially the Civil War.  The tagline on the cover of this book? How the Mason-Dixon Line settled a family feud and divided a nation.  If you aren't familiar with the Mason-Dixon Line, read up on it before proceeding!  However, much of this book was devoted to HOW to Mason-Dixon Line was drawn by two surveyors.  I just happened to be married to a surveyor.  We ended up looking at many of the charts, illustrations and photos together.  This was a really nifty look at how these two surveyors worked.  Today's surveying is nothing like it.  This is a particular niche that won't hold everyone's interest, but those curious about our nation's history in the colonial period and the Civil War era, as well as those considering careers in boundaries/drafting/surveying will definitely like it.

Follow me on Twitter @RamblingsLMS
Tweet what you're reading #read #whhs

All opinions expressed on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W.