I think I read most of Crichton’s works one summer (I was hugely pregnant with twins and mostly bedridden.) There’s a lot of great stories in the man. However, I must have missed this one (perhaps it is newer than 2006? Yep, 2008) and honestly, I’m not so thrilled with the fact that I “went back” for this. It’s no Timeline or Andromeda Strain. It’s kind of close in sphere to Jurassic Park, but it lacks the humanizing qualities. This is a story of man […]
The Stand: Not a book you want to read when coming down with a cold…
So my first proper book I’ve read this year is The Stand. To be honest, I can’t believe I haven’t read it before. I tried about ten years ago, when I was probably early on in my undergrad, and… just couldn’t get through it. I think I got stuck on an early Larry chapter at some point (because let’s face it, he is The Worst) and just found I didn’t care enough about any of the characters to go on. This time, though, I was hooked. A […]
Manic Pixie Dream World
I knew nothing about Ready Player One when I picked it up. Somewhere along the way I had gotten the impression that it was in the Hunger Games/Running Man kinda book–this was way off. Ready Player One is the story of a dystopian future USA, dominated by a virtual reality universe called OASIS. James Halliday, the man who created OASIS, before he died, hid a series of clues within it. The person who finds and solves these clues (Easter eggs) will be rewarded with Halliday’s […]
Two books for the price of no thanks
These two detective stories have made me realize I need to do a better job of picking mystery novels. I’ve been completely spoiled by Tana French who manages to make even the most basic characters interesting. One could even argue that her mystery plots aren’t all that complex or interesting and yet, I’m always enthralled. These two books squandered super interesting premises on garbage characters. Brilliance is a bookish take on the X-Men premise of humans being born with super abilities. These abilities are a […]