If you have been shopping the aliens and star traveler shelves, you’ve probably noticed a dearth of new (to us) books…well we’ve just restocked the Ben Bova shelf with 14 of his more than 100 sci-fi classics.  Bova is a technically knowledgeable as well as prolific writer, he’s credited with predicting the Star Wars Defense system, and electronic books as well as many other modern marvels.  His bio explains that he was involved in the U.S. space program two years before the creation of NASA.   Later, after focusing on writing, he was editor of Analog and Omni magazines,  a science fiction professor at Harvard, and winner of six Hugo Awards among other accomplishments.  So if escape to a galaxy far, far, away sounds like the perfect antidote to this hot August weather, please come check out the new Ben Nova stock… Mars, Colony,  Being Alien,  Cyberbooks,  Orion, and more! 

If you have made your way to the back of the store, we also have a nice new stack of Jim Butcher, a contemporary author in science fiction and fantasy.  He’s one people are freqently searching for, and our stock is always low.  He is well known for his Dresden series.

How about the “new”genre of dystopian fiction?  Am I the only one who has not heard of that label?  It is the hot ticket for young adult reading now, with the very popular Hunger Games series topping the popularity charts.  (#3, Mockingjay, was just released this month).  My family listened to The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins on a road trip, and it was an excellent, thought provoking, mile burner.  What would happen if one state/community/race controlled all the food and used the rest of the virtual slaves as production minions and reality tv entertainment?  Hmmmm.  I have several new copies on the shelf if you want to give it a try, and I would recommend it for older pre-teens and teens.  Dystopia, in case you are wondering, is defined as:

dys·to·pi·a n. 1. An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.2. A work describing such a place or state: “dystopias such as Brave New World” (Times Literary Supplement)

Apparently it’s a genre with a history since Brave New World qualifies, but don’t look for a new shelf at East Side Books just yet… Hunger Games can be found in Young Adult or on the top of the Children’s shelf.