These sure are crazy times we are living in, we hope you are all staying well.  I’m grateful so many people are reading at home and that we are able to continue shipping, we know the important role books play during times like these as there is no better escape!

When life seems stranger than fiction, some people like to read fiction that is really far out there, perhaps finding solace in what couldn’t possibly come true! (Is there such a thing any more?)  Others like their reading to be more grounded and soothing with characters and plots that stay within the confines of what we think is our own reality and history.  My reading list this week offers a little bit of both!

HG Wells was one of the inventors of the Science Fiction genre and his books were way ahead of their time, wildly imaginative and entertaining for all ages.  While the news media is certainly scary these days, look up the 1938 War of the Worlds radio drama, based upon one of his books, that led some to believe that we were experiencing a real alien invasion! 

If you’re looking for a book series that will see you through the stay-at-home orders and beyond, The Wheel of Time, will probably fit the bill. It’s an epic fantasy series in 15 books, that takes place in the past and the future. It will consume a lot of your time and brainpower keeping track of the characters and plots, in a good way!

If you like your reading to be based on Planet Earth or perhaps even about Planet Earth, we have a new Earth Day set (Earth Day was April 22).  If you’re dreaming about life getting back to normal and hopefully spending some time at the beach, our surfing book set will provide some hope and inspiration. And if you’re simply looking for some good old fashioned classics, the kind that your parents read and their parents before them, I’d recommend building a collection of some of the Penguin Classics or Word Cloud Classics. They have stood the test of time and will be there for your children and grandchildren.

As many of you know, Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite writers. I started rereading Timequake this weekend and am always amazed by Vonnegut’s clean and witty writing, also his timeless grasp of the universe and our place in it.  I’ll leave you with a Vonnegut quote from The Player Piano, his first novel that perhaps ties all of this together, fact and fiction, past, present, and future.

 

“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”

― Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano

Thatcher Wine
Founder, Juniper Books