House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey

What a sad little novel this was. Set in current day England, the novel is split into 4 different perspectives - best friends Dara and Abigail, Abigail's boyfriend Sean, and Dara's father Cameron. The narrative deftly weaves together all four characters, though each individual has to deal with their respective personal triumphs and tragedies (e.g. Sean's struggle to abandon his years-long dissertation on Keats, Abigail's infidelity, etc). The prose is tight, but incredibly moving and emotional.

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"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

Fans of science fiction, video games and pop culture should add New York Times Bestseller “ Ready Player One ” by Ernest Cline to their list of must-reads. USA Today has referred to it as "Willy Wonka meets The Matrix.” Although this may seem to be a strange comparison, nothing could be quite so accurate. On planet Earth in 2044, real life is pretty dismal. Most of society, including teenager Wade Watts, spends its waking hours plugged into the OASIS, an immense & fully interactive virtual world. OASIS users can be anyone and do anything that they choose. Think of the OASIS as a giant role-playing game…except the main character is you . Users can explore countless planets, purchase real estate, slay monsters and even attend school (as Wade does). Wade's life changes when James Halliday, the enigmatic & reclusive creator of the OASIS, dies...leaving behind an enormous fortune and a mysterious contest. Halliday can best be descr

OCFPL Book Club - January

Welcome to the 2023 OCFPL Book Club season. We chose quite the range of books this year. We hope you can join us in our monthly virtual discussions as we set off on this year's reading adventure. This month we discussed The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan. Overall many members of our book club enjoyed this book. They loved how the stories of the various characters intertwined with each other. Bridging the past to the present. Going back and forth with these stories at first does not make sense until the end, when the final puzzle piece is placed do you see the whole picture and it is quite delightful to see all that unfold. One of the elements of this book is the story of how random things that are found have stories to them. A lost puzzle piece found on the road or a random hair bobble found on the ground in the park may mean nothing to a simple person who may walk right past it. Yet for Anthony, our keeper of lost things, revered these items. Carefully recorded where and

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

This is the selection for the upcoming March book club. I had originally read TTW several years ago and fell in love with it (oddly enough, before I became a librarian). Henry and Clare have had an unorthodox relationship to say the least. As one might infer from the title, Henry is a time traveler (and a librarian!). Clare met Henry when she was a little girl when he traveled there as a middle aged adult. They meet again when Clare is 20, but Henry has no idea of their relationship, though she has known him all her life. And so, a passionate affair begins between the 2 of them as they struggle to work out a relationship that is plagued by Henry's absences and Clare's former knowledge. It sounds confusing, but things make sense after awhile. On reading this a second time around, I wasn't as captivated by the romance as I was before - if anything, the book (and Henry/Clare's relationship) seemed more depressing than anything else (I wonder what that says about me?). Ther

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