Catch-22

Terrific novel! I really enjoyed the comedy at the beginning, was thrown off by the seriousness of the second half, but loved the ending. The looping narrative was a great idea. The change of tone bothered me at first--I kept waiting for the comedy to return--but then I realized that, after all, this is a war novel and it should be disturbing. The characters were fascinating and original, the comedy was laugh-out-loud funny, the tragedy was moving, and the narrative was varied but always readable. This might actually replace one of the novels on my Top Ten list. I have to think longer on it, but it is certainly up there.

Dracula

Took me a long time to finish this classic of literature. I'm glad I read it, but I doubt I will go back to it. I liked a few of the characters, though for such a long novel (about 400 pages), there weren't many and they were poorly developed, like Lord Arthur Godalming and Quincey Morris and even Jonathan Harker. The two women--Lucy Westenra and Mina Murray-Harker--were interesting and unique, as was the memorable Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, easily the coolest character of the bunch. The lunatic Renfield was more interesting than his doctor (Seward). Told in an epistolary, multi-media style, the novel seemed fragmented and disjointed in its early stages, but it started to make sense later on, and I can see why he did it that way. Stoker paced himself throughout, taking an awfully long time to develop his ideas, and while it seemed to move too slowly early on, the ending was tense. Hard to keep up with the reading early because it was so slow, but the middle was good, once Lucy died. The woman just kept hanging on, disappointingly. Anyway, Dracula himself was uninteresting and actually kind of weak, though his "capture" of Jonathan in the beginning was scary. The final third of the book turned out to be more of a battle of wits than a physical fight, which I liked much more. In almost every physical confrontation, Dracula fled. Kind of a weakling for a creature of ultimate evil. I was actually more afraid of the three Women of Darkness from his castle than I was of him.

The World Without Us

Hey, who wants to be depressed? Raise your hand, and I'll give you this book. Upsetting and discouraging. Like Ishmael with science to back it. The upshot: People suck and we're ruining the earth. Surprised? You would be by the detail and specificity of the research. The author has identified all the wonderful and diverse ways we are destroying our planet. Turns out, we've screwed it up so badly that some of our unique creations--like nuclear waste, plastic, and enriched uranium--will actually outlast the life of our planet. Also, we're adding a million people to the planet every four days. Better save those TV dinners!

The Golden Compass

Good book! I very much enjoyed it. It was touted (on the cover) as another LOTR, and while I don't see it as that significant a text, it is still one of the better fantasy novels I have read in recent years. Original and interesting with clever and creative elements (alternate universe, interesting quest, compelling protagonist), it has some interesting philosophical digressions and a good narrative. Easy read.  Fighting bears are way cool!  I'll hit the other books in the series in a bit (there are three--big surprise).

Where's My Jetpack?

Very funny -- yet scientific -- look at the future that never quite materialized. Not as technical or as thorough as I was hoping for, but still very readable and entertaining: a fast 187 pages. Wilson discusses everything from personal jetpacks to ray guns to robots to space elevators. Best line (discussing cryogenic freezing): "Here you are palming a silly book with your meaty human paws [when] you could be a thousand years in the future, standing in a thin atmosphere and cradling a mutant human baby with your horrific titanium claws." Same author who wrote How to Survive a Robot Uprising.