Ready Player One

This is a book perfect for gaming nerds, and I really enjoyed it - despite being TOO nerdy for it. See, I never played the adventure, shoot 'em up, wizard & dragon games. My favorite computer game was Civilization. Yes - you could spend the game waging war and taking over the earth, which I suppose would be pretty badass. I say "suppose" because I always preferred to win using SCIENCE and become the first civilization to reach Alpha Centauri. I WAS SUCH A GODDAMNED NERD.

Anyway, I have friends now and I have kissed a boy, so it's fine. And my lack of experience with 80s arcade staples and dice-based adventures did not diminish my enjoyment of Ready Player One. It's set in a dystopian future where everyone spends most of their time plugged into a massive online role-playing game. When the eccentric, 80s-obssesed creator dies, he wills his vast fortune and control of the game to whoever can first solve a series of clues that will lead them to three challenges, three keys, and three gates.

My only complaint is a pretty literal deus ex machina that pops up near the end - but by that time you're already casting the inevitable movie version of the story* so I guess I'll allow it.

4 epic Rush guitar solos out of 5.

*Wade = Donald Glover , Art3mis = Lena Dunham, Sorrento = Willem Dafoe. Are you telling me you wouldn't watch that movie? Exactly.

The Art of Fielding

This book is so wonderful and lovely, you should all read it.

"But Jane I don't like baseball -"

Okay, first of all: how very un-American of you. This country was cobbled together in a baseball dugout from cherry pie filling and bald eagle sweat. Still, even freedom-haters like you will find yourself engrossed in this bittersweet story set in a small Midwestern college. It's "about" baseball in the same way Moby Dick is "about" whale watching - it's all about the characters, knucklehead! Also there are a ton of Moby Dick references (the protagonist is named Henry Skrimshander. Skrimshander! Epic character names 101, have a goddamned seat).

If you are a human, reading this book will involve nodding along, chuckling, and maybe wiping away a tear, all while your inner monologue is saying over and over again: "I know that feel, bro."

This was Harbach's first novel I CAN'T EVEN.

5 out of 5 navy & ecru striped school ties.