In All Families are Psychotic, author Douglas Coupland creates a sort of funhouse mirror of what family life is like. Sure, it’s often distorted and even frightening, perhaps, but there remains an element of our own truth staring back at us.
Winter: A Novel of a Berlin Family by Len Deighton is a familial masterpiece. Starting with Harald Winter and focusing on his two sons, Peter and Paul Winter, this novel follows the family’s journey as their spouses and friends are all intertwined in chaotic and random events as history unfolds with World War I and World War II.
The story of Scooter, and its titular protagonist, Scooter Riley, is an authentic piece of fiction about parts of New York City from 1964 to 1978, using baseball as a measuring stick as many fans do.
More than a decade after its release and the time I first opened its pages, I returned to Ethan Gilsdorf’s Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms. The trip back has reminded me why there is merit to rereading certain books.
First released in 2009, when I was just Jason and not Agent Palmer, I had no blog, no podcast, a boring job, and I was really just trying to find my way in the world. It was the perfect time to first pick up this book. This second time, I have a blog, a podcast, no job, and I’m still just trying to find my way in the world.
It didn’t take too long to become reacquainted with Parzival, Art3mis, Aech, Shoto, and the OASIS in Ready Player Two. Once you get going, it’s not easy to stop, similar to an addiction, which is part of the discussion and joy of Ready Player Two, Ernest Cline’s much-anticipated sequel to the best-seller Ready Player One.