Daniel Gauthier is dressed as Frodo from “The Lord of the Rings’’ at a science fiction, fantasy, and gaming convention.
(Dave Nelson)
Shelf Life
That fantasy life
Daniel Gauthier is dressed as Frodo from “The Lord of the Rings’’ at a science fiction, fantasy, and gaming convention.
(Dave Nelson)
Playing Dungeons and Dragons helped Somerville writer Ethan Gilsdorf through his adolescence in small-town New Hampshire. His family life had unraveled after his mother suffered a debilitating aneurysm. Playing the fantasy game was a welcome distraction from the sadness and loss.
Decades later, Gilsdorf’s fascination with fantasy worlds was reawakened when he came across his old D&D paraphernalia. So he crisscrossed the country and traveled to Europe and New Zealand to explore the subculture of online gamers and fantasy role-players. The result is a blend of travelogue, memoir, and pop culture analysis called “Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms’’ (Lyons).
Gilsdorf’s book launch at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Harvard Book Store promises to kick off the fall literary season in proper geek fashion. Prizes will be awarded to anyone dressed as a fantasy character or creature. The audience will be tested on its knowledge of trivia from D&D, “Lord of the Rings,’’ Harry Potter, and Monty Python. The evening will end with an unplugged set by Harry and the Potters “wizard rock’’ band.
A Lexington lesson
Stanley Harris says he couldn’t find a novel about the Battle of Lexington suitable for his 9-year-old granddaughter, so he wrote one.Harris followed up “The First Shot’’ this year with “Evacuation Day: A Boy’s Trip Through Time to George Washington’s Victory’’ (Critical Choices). A Boston native, Harris used to enjoy the school holiday on March 17, but any celebration of Evacuation Day was overshadowed by St. Patrick’s Day.
Now he’s on a mission to educate schoolchildren about the significance of that day. It was on March 17, 1776, eight years after British soldiers arrived in Boston, that they were driven out of the city. In Harris’s young adult novel, 11-year-old Charles in present-day Lexington is visited late at night by Ben, 11, who lived in the same house in the late 1700s. Together they travel back in time to rescue Ben’s father from a British jail in Boston.
Back for more
Hollis, N.H., resident Sara Backer’s 2001 debut novel “American Fuji’’ is getting a second lease on life. Based on cultural observations that Backer made while living in Japan during the 1990s, the quirky novel centers on a pair of Americans who cross paths at a Japanese funeral parlor called Gone With the Wind.The book was always a favorite of Leslie Gelbman, the publisher at Berkley, which is reissuing it this week with a new cover. Another fan is bookseller Marilyn Lustig at the Wellesley Booksmith. The shop will host a reading by Backer, who teaches at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, at 7 p.m. Sept. 10.
Coming out
■ “Overcoming ADHD: Helping Your Child Become Calm, Engaged, and Focused - Without a Pill,’’ by Stanley I. Greenspan with Jacob Greenspan (Da Capo)■ “On the Line,’’ by Serena Williams with Daniel Paisner (Grand Central)
■ “Children of Armenia: A Forgotten Genocide and the Century-Long Struggle for Justice,’’ by Michael Bobelian (Simon & Schuster)
Pick of the week
Tova Beiser of Brown University Bookstore in Providence recommends “Sacred Hearts’’ by Sarah Dunant (Random House): “Set in a convent in Italy in the mid-16th century, this impeccably crafted novel is centered on a reluctant novice and her relationships to the world within and without the convent walls. It offers a fascinating look at a time when women’s options were limited to service to an earthly husband or to their heavenly father.’’Jan Gardner can be reached at JanLGardner@yahoo.com. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
