The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“The survival value of human intelligence has never been satisfactorily demonstrated.”
“A crisis is made by men, who enter into the crisis with their own prejudices, propensities, and predispositions. A crisis is the sum of intuition and blind spots, a blend of facts noted and facts ignored. Yet underlying the uniqueness of each crisis is a disturbing sameness. A characteristic of all crises is their predictability, in retrospect. They seem to have a certain inevitability, they seem predestined.”
“Human intelligence was more trouble than it was worth. It was more destructive than creative, more confusing than revealing, more discouraging than satisfying, more spiteful than charitable.”
The Andromeda Strain is about a contamination that happens on Earth due to a satellite falling from space. It lands in a town where subsequently everyone dies except for two people who are on opposite ends of the life spectrum. A group of carefully pre-chosen scientists gather to try and figure out what is going on. They are in this highly classified and scientifically advanced facility deep underground. They do scientific processes to try and understand what the thing is. The government is involved. What is this thing that is infectious and dangerous? Will they figure it out in time? Will humanity be safe?
Michael Crichton, from Jurassic Park fame, wrote this book and I thought it would be better. This one was too scientific and the flow was interrupted by the interjection of details that an everyday reader would get lost in. It could have been cut out and filled in with more tense moments. I know that this was written decades ago but I found it lacking women. It was very patriarchal. There were a couple techniques that were employed that foreshadowed what conflict there was to come and I thought it was well done. It isn’t something I have come across before. I liked how I knew something would go wrong before it happened and then still, I was excited to read how it would truly unfold. It was a quick, engaging read. Stories around natural disasters like tornadoes or viruses are ones I love. When people are working together towards a common goal and are given separate tasks that all help with the bigger goal make me happy. It is like each person has their own skill and the group is relying on them. Even though there was a tense portion of the story towards the end I was very disappointed with the overall conclusion. It went out with a whimper instead of a bang and I was left wanting more. Mr. Crichton could have had so much fun with it. The words that I came across here that grabbed my attention were misanthropic, effete, and elucidating. I was surprised especially after reading Jurassic Park. This is exactly the type of book to read only the first 75%.
View all my reviews
Tag: book
European Gay And Learning Love
The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The trouble with children is that they’re not returnable.”
“’The most terrible poverty is loneliness.’”
“Chocolate like this was good for the soul, and the finer things good for the heart.”
“Feelings for adults are like treasures. And by that I mean we should bury them.”
The Guncle Abroad brings back our favorite gay uncle and his family. This time they are in Europe preparing for a wedding. Patrick, Maisie, Grant, and Greg all make a return but all a little bit older. It has been five years since the events of the first book and Patrick is about to be 50. Greg is looking to get remarried. Maisie is a teenager and Grant is becoming his own person. Greg again asks Patrick to take the kids for a bit so they travel around to several countries in Europe before landing at the destination of the wedding in Italy, on the beautiful Lake Como. There are hijinks and fun and learning aplenty. We get to meet some great new characters including a launt! Will the wedding go off without a hitch? Who will learn all about love and family? Will Patrick handle turning 50?
I thought that Steven Rowley wrote another great book but I don’t think it was as good as the first one. I still loved it though! There were returning and new characters but still everyone was fresh, exciting, relatable, and realistic. The first book had grief as the topic that permeated everything whereas this book had love. It was minutely too lovey-dovey but very manageable. No nausea from being too sickly sweet thankfully. The first thing I noticed though was before I even started the book. The jacket summary mentioned the kids being teenagers but Grant was only 11. It also had two minds about whether Patrick was actually 50 or not. But I quickly got back into the swing of things with smiling at the pop culture references, especially ones that I love and identify with. Page 5 had a mention of The First Wives Club and the judgement from the cover quickly turned to excitement about the novel I was about to read. I knew I was in for a treat in all its gay glory. The wit and snark are pure treats. It is just clever and funny. Grant talking about gay men and lesbians marrying because they are both gay. I also learned that the Bellagio in Las Vegas is based on a real location in Italy…on Lake Como! There was a mention of a movie that I loved that I feel that not a lot of people know about and that is RRR. It is so good! There was also this whole part where they went on The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg and I recognized all the details because I did that too! It was an amazing time and I would love to do it again. I could spend weeks in Austria. Reading it was like being back there and it was so vivid. It bears mentioning again but Steven continued making me laugh out loud with the witty, sarcastic, and funny back and forth. There was a joke about fathoms in response to the depth of “Twenty thousand leagues under the sea” and “’By the way, stay away from mimes, they’re all hands.’” In addition to the laughs, there were plenty of thoughts that were thoughtful and life-lessony like “there’s nothing money can buy that beats life’s free joys with the people you care about” and “growing older, as they say, was not for the faint of heart.” The paragraph on page 156 was all about our relationship with our phones and especially as a person who knew life before smartphones, was very relatable. There was a lot of spitting of bon mots. This book had a lot of words that I wrote down because I enjoyed reading, learning, and speaking them out loud. They are marchesa, dyspeptic, panoply, funicular, vivacity, and mellifluous. I also loved how instead of tourists, we were provided with more elevated terminology like itinerants, birds of passage, and bon vivants. I highly recommend reading this too. This is exactly the type of book I recommend if you read the first one or want some gay wit and fabulousness!
View all my reviews
How To Steal A Quarter Of A Billion Dollars And Impossibly Intriguing Investigations
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Trouble is much like love: when the time is ready, it will find you.”
“’You choose your family these days.’”
“’Life is sprung on us.’”
The Impossible Fortune is a continuation of The Thursday Murder Club. It is the 5th book in the series written by Richard Osman. This time the gang is just coming off the highs of a wedding and the lows of a death. Joyce’s daughter just got married and the best man at the wedding approaches Elizabeth for help. He subsequently disappears and his business partner could hold some answers. There is something they have that is worth a lot…like a lot a lot but is it worth killing over? The gang rushes to find out the answers before someone else gets hurt. Will they solve it in time? The family of another member is in trouble as well. Will the gang be able to save everyone? Will relationships remain intact?
Richard Osman sure can write an engaging story. Chapter 1 starts with Joanna writing. There is mention of the Backstreet Boys and opinions on Americans right away which made me smile. Maybe I forgot or it was never mentioned but Ron has a daughter? There were so many moments of humor and situations I related to. One is where this young man is listening to something on his phone without a listening device, so it is blaring for everyone to hear. How many times have you encountered this at an airport or just out in public? Does it make you a little ticked off? Wish you could do something about it? Besides this minor, annoying character, another bigger character I didn’t like very much was Joanna. She seemed mean and unnecessarily antagonistic. Some words of wisdom were sprinkled throughout and it was nice to see when reading a captivating novel. “Too many people thinking too much was the key problem with the modern world…think about some things you have some actual power over, but everybody spending all day thinking about things they couldn’t influence, where did that lead?” and “’If you’re scared of something you should find out all about it.’” The word I came across that I hadn’t heard of was a type of fish, turbot. Another was clement. I always heard of inclement weather but didn’t put any thought into the opposite until I saw this word in this book. I was like…interesting…you learn something new every day. I smiled at this. I read this book in less than a day as I didn’t want to put it down. Richard has really fleshed out these characters and they are still going strong through the fifth book. I cannot wait to read more! This is exactly the type of book if you want to continue the series and love a good mystery.
View all my reviews
The Common Good And The Failings Of Modern Society
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
“’Whether…civilization has most promoted or most injured the general happiness of man is a question that may be strongly contested’’…”’[Both] the most affluent and the most miserable of the human race are to be found in the countries that are called civilized.’”
“Humans don’t mind hardship, in fact they thrive on it; what they mind is not feeling necessary. Modern society has perfected the art of making people not feel necessary.”
“’In effect, humans have dragged a body with a long hominid history into an overfed, malnourished, sedentary, sunlight-deficient, sleep-deprived, competitive, inequitable, and socially-isolating environment with dire consequences.’”
“’We are not good to each other. Our tribalism is to an extremely narrow group of people, our children, our spouse, maybe our parents. Our society is alienating, technical, cold, and mystifying. Our fundamental desire, as human beings, is to be close to others, and our society does not allow for that.’”
Tribe is about how our Western society could be doing a lot better. It talked about tribal societies and the good of the group over the individual. Sacrifice and thinking of shared humanity versus differences was a huge topic. Also, how disaster and war bringing people together could have its benefits. This was a nonfiction book that was critical of our world today especially in Europe and the US. It was interlaced with anecdotes and stories from various people on their feelings and thoughts on hardship, mental health, and the common good. It talks about how modern society doesn’t have the common good in mind and can create a host of problems as a trade off for the good things.
Sebastian Junger wrote this book. I am not sure how I feel about it to be honest. There were some viewpoints that were put forth that I found a little iffy. The first thing was how he referred to Indigenous People as Indians or American Indians and how he used the term civilization as an opposing descriptive word. It felt very antiquated and made me a little uncomfortable throughout the book. It is as if Indigenous People can only be talked about in relation to the USA or what we deem as modern society. They were here first. I question statements like “Virtually all of the Indian tribes…practiced deeply sickening forms of torture.” Some things I did find agreeable were his conversation around billionaires and the negatives of our current way of living. Sebastian wrote about modern society creating more mental health issues and “a desperate cycle of work, financial obligation, and more work.” I think his main point was how we have gotten so individualistic and materialistic instead of focusing on the common good with a tribal mentality. People can survive by themselves now instead of relying on a group for food and protection but it can create loneliness. “Financial independence can lead to isolation, and isolation can put people at a greatly increased risk of depression and suicide.” The part around how we put extrinsic values ahead of intrinsic was interesting. The three basic things humans need to be content are a “need to feel competent at what they do; they need to feel authentic in their lives; and they need to feel connected to others.” Another topic I was ambivalent about was the dishonesty and fraud portion. He talked about how people cheat social welfare programs but also talked about how people and corporations get away with it. There was no accountability for the collapse in 2008 and companies getting bailouts were still giving out bonuses. In modern society, it is easier to get away with dishonesty whereas in the past with smaller tribes it could spell disaster for the group. We tend to put business ahead of humanity. The author also talked a lot about war and disasters. One quote I liked a lot when referring to a war between France and Britain where a lighthouse was proposed to be destroyed. “’Sir,’ an English admiral reminded the king, ‘we are at war with the French, not the entire human race.’” Some people are good and think bigger than themselves. He then goes on to talk about PTSD and how people can fake it but that we don’t take care of veterans like we should. This part was hard for me to grasp his point. He also talked about the United States in particular at the end. How we have such contempt and critiques of our fellow citizens. It was a fair argument. We are pitted against each other. Lastly, the thing I noticed about halfway through reading was the fact that he put a picture of himself on the cover. Not very representative of the common good or tribe mentality. This is exactly the type of book to read if you want to shake your head in disagreement and frustration but also nod your head in agreement and hope every couple of pages.
View all my reviews
California Grieving And The Edu-gay-tion Of Family
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Do not punch a child, do not punch a child.”
“Guncle Rule number five: If a gay man hands you his phone, look only at what he’s showing you. If it’s a photo, don’t swipe. And for god’s sake, don’t open any unfamiliar apps.”
“Boys can do girl things and girls can do boy things. That’s not even a Guncle Rule, there shouldn’t even be boy things and girl things to begin with. People should just do what they want.”
The Guncle is about an actor, who was on a popular show but who has been hiding away in Palm Spring, who loses his best friend/sister-in-law and must take care of her/his brother’s kids. Patrick is the guncle. He lost his partner and is still in the grieving process. Maisie, his niece, and Grant, his nephew, lost their mother (Sara) and subsequently spend the summer with their GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick). Their dad is dealing with his own personal health issue. How will Patrick be able to handle taking care of kids for 3 whole months without going crazy? Will the kids start their grieving process and what will they learn from their GUP? If Patrick moves on with this life, how will he do it?
Steven Rowley wrote such a fun and enjoyable book! I laughed out loud so many times and wanted to devour it. “’We don’t eat bacon…Bacon is pigs and pigs are our friends. Do you want to eat your friends?’ (Patrick) Without hesitation. ‘If they taste like bacon.’” (Grant). I was excited to find out there was a sequel too! The Guncle Rules that permeated the book were perfect. It matched caring, humor, and a gay sensibility all in a simple, helpful rule. For example, when Patrick gave his niece his phone to record him in a video. “’Higher…Honestly, its like you want me to have four chins. Guncle Rule – What number are we on? Know your angles. Everyone has a good side. Even children, who should be photographable from all sides but aren’t.’” There was so much gay culture sprinkled in such a natural way that it would be easy to miss if you weren’t well versed. Right away Grease, Grease 2, Olivia Newton-John, and Stockard Channing were mentioned when GUP was trying to make a point. So much wit. Patrick gave them an ‘edu-gay-tion.” The messaging is something I thought was much needed but not too heavy handed. I found myself agreeing and wishing society as a whole felt the same way. Whatever you like or want, you do you. “What do you think gay people do? Have done for generations? We adopt a safe version of ourselves for the public, for protection, and then as adults we excavate our true selves from the parts we’ve invented to protect us.” Things like this felt true and hit home. It is the story of a lot of gay people. There are conversations around grief and the way the book approached it was nice. It was described well. “Grief orbits the heart. Some days the circle is greater. Those are the good days. You have room to move and dance and breathe. Some days the circle is tighter. Those are the hard ones.” A word that stuck out to me in this book was maudlin. Steven filled this book with so many witticisms. This is exactly the type of book that I will pick up whenever I need a smile and laugh.
View all my reviews
The Secret Affair And Musings From The Legendary Set
The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“This isn’t a hairdo, it’s a hair don’t.”
“I never had what I wanted because I would never want what I had.”
“I need a vacation from myself.”
“I wish you would love me more so that I could love you less.”
The Princess Diarist is a book written by Carrie Fisher. It is based around the journals she wrote while filming the first Star Wars film. It also covers the affair she had with Harrison Ford. It is a personal and emotional look at what she was feeling and thinking during that time in her life. It also shows some actual excerpts from her writings from that time. It touches briefly on her childhood and her famous mother. Carrie talks about fame, drugs, and alcohol. It is an intimate look at her and the time she spent on the most famous film set of all time.
This was a quick read. Carrie tells a lot of stories. I liked how she referenced old Hollywood especially surrounding her parents. She also talked a lot about sex. When she referred to gay men, that made me happy. Especially during a time when it wasn’t as readily accepted in public. She started the book describing events of 1976 and there were a lot of things mentioned. It was information overload but some of it was cool to delve deeper into online. There were some points she made and thoughts that she expressed that resonated a little bit with me like “Back then I was always looking ahead to who I wanted to be versus who I didn’t realize I already was”. There was one specific event that she recalled that I was surprised to read about because it was so closely aligned to something I said. A few years back at a friend’s wedding during the summer, when it was exceptionally hot, and I was standing up, I walked up to the bar to ask for the largest legal-size glass of water they could serve me. Carrie asked “’Could I have a Coke with ice, please? In as big a glass as you’ve got?’” and I smiled. She was kind of funny too but overall I felt she was trying too hard. The book, in general, seemed very manic and all over the place. It was like she was desperate for the reader to like and understand her. There were a lot of parts that felt like rambling and using too many words. Was she just needing to write so she had enough for a book? I think she even hinted at it too when she said “I try to put the feelings into thoughts or words but it always seems to come out in disjointed sweeping statements. Adolescent jargon peppered with random selections from a fairly gaudy vocabulary.” However, when the actual diaries were brought in, I thought that much of her writing was very insightful and revealing. Some of the words I liked were brogue, garrulous, assignation, and louche. A couple whole pages really resonated with me but here is a small excerpt from page 117. “How do you think people see you? Or don’t you let them near enough to see. You make up their minds for them…You make people come to you and, when they eventually do, you punish them with your smugness.” There was also a part about spending time making mountains out of molehills. One of the rare instances I grabbed something from the Acknowledgements…when she was acknowledging Paul Slansky. “We row-row-rowed these words gently till I screamed – wearily, wearily, and finally cheerfully, this manuscript we redeemed.” I thought it was ingenious. I like Carrie Fisher as a person and her work in Star Wars but I am not sure about this literary side of her. This is exactly the type of book to read if you are in love with Princess Leia or Star Wars.
View all my reviews
Creepy Men With Deadly Secrets And Greek Tragedy Rituals
The Maidens by Alex Michaelides
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
“Reading about life was no preparation for living it”
“My argument with so much of psychoanalysis is the preconception that suffering is a mistake, or a sign of weakness, or a sign even of illness. When in fact, possibly the greatest truths we know have come out of people’s suffering.”
“The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day.”
“What if, like the Lady of Shalott, she stopped looking at life through a mirror – and turned, and stared at it directly?”
The Maidens is about a murder that occurs at Cambridge. A former student, Mariana, has a niece, Zoe, who currently attends the university. One night she receives a phone call from Zoe who seems upset as she thinks her roommate might be the murder victim. Mariana goes to the college for support and ends up being a bigger part of the investigation than she intends. Mariana is a group therapist who looks at things with that lens. She has a patient that causes issues and could be dangerous. There is a professor, Edward Fosca, who seems like a good candidate for the main suspect. There is a group of women called The Maidens that he teaches and the victim was part of that group. Then another victim is found from that same group. What is going on at this university? Who is the murderer? Will Mariana be able to figure it out before she becomes the next victim?
Alex Michaelides creates a mood of suspense while integrating fun connections with ancient culture. I loved the setting of an old university like Cambridge. It creates this sense of history and lore that permeates the novel. I felt transported to a different time even though the story takes place in the modern age. Mariana is a tough character to like. She seems like a pushover and some of her conclusions didn’t really at up like when she associated intelligence with trauma or that police onsite talking to the dean meant the victim could only be this one particular person. Also, why would she choose to run down an alley? I didn’t understand Mariana. Zoe was also unlikeable as she constantly came across as not liking her aunt and treating her badly. Edward is conceited and a little creepy. There are a lot of creepy men in this book…”men are not to be trusted.” The first person to be assumed a suspect (one of the few not creepy men) and the subsequent interview is where the book really grabbed my interest. Up until that point I was coasting along a lazy river but then this point of the book is where the rapids began. I was carried along at a nice clip, interested in finding out how it wrapped up. There was a scene where Gauloises cigarettes were mentioned which evoked a vivid memory of me smoking those in Paris. It brought a smile to my face. On the flip side, there was a description of watching your mother cry and I related fiercely with it. “It’s horrible watching your mother cry. You feel so impotent, so powerless.” I know it is pedantic of me but Alex used the term serial killer when only two murders happened whereas the definition includes 3 or more victims. He also missed an opportunity to really bring in the gay male fans. He described a guy on stage that was shirtless with the torso dripping in sweat but didn’t go any further in descriptive detail. He could have described the abs or muscles or something but nope. I love when I make connections between books. In this one, there was two points I wanted to call out. One is when the Goldberg Variations were brought up and I read The Gold-Bug Variations in college. I listened to Bach as well. The other was by the author himself in a self-referential moment. He brought in a character from another book, a book I actually read as well. It was cool and clever with a little wink implied. Some of the words I ran across that I liked were menis, Byronic, stygian, and anagnorisis. Alex did have me guessing on who the killer could be and I never guessed how it would wrap up. Though I didn’t like how it ended, it was a surprise. It was a little too weird and out there for me. This is exactly the type of book I would pick up because it referenced ancient cultures, murder, rituals, and mythology.
Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/3JagXYf
View all my reviews
Historical Horror And A New Imagining Of The Donner Party
The Hunger by Alma Katsu
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Snow kept secrets.”
“Hope…could be a very dangerous thing, especially when dealt to desperate hands.”
“Maybe that was the curse of these mountains – they turned you mad, then reflected your own madness back at you, incarnate.”
The Hunger is about the infamous Donner-Reed Party and their ill-fated attempt on the Oregon Trail. It is a well-known story but this take adds a little more supernatural element. The author took some liberties but a lot of the places and people are real. Some of the main characters are Charles Stanton who is single and has a past he berates himself for all the time. He is described as hardy and resourceful but attractive. Tamsen Dooner who is the wife of one of the leaders of the party at certain points. She is very attractive but everyone thinks of her as a type of witch. James Reed who was the leader of the party at one point as well. He was presented as much more urban than country and he had a secret that he would do anything to protect. Edwin Bryant who was on a mission to learn about Indigenous people and had a bit of medical history. This novel takes us on their journey as they try and survive their trek to California. They run into a lot of issues that were all part of the typical expedition but a few more that made this trip scarier. Who will survive and who will succumb to the natural and unnatural alike?
I think that Alma Katsu did a phenomenal job writing this book. Her descriptions are so vivid and real without being too verbose. “Whoever had first thought to call the pioneers’ wagons ‘prairie schooners’ was quite clever; the canopies did look like the sails of ships, blazing white under the brilliant morning sun. And the thick clouds of dust kicked up by wagon wheels could almost be mistaken for the swell of waves carrying their miniature ships across a desert sea.” You can just visualize what this looks like. Some scenes were so pastoral, homey, and calming. “She reached out and let her fingertips dance over the wildflower blossoms. For a moment, she thought of the yellow coneflowers that dotted her brother Jory’s vast wheat fields, untamable and abundant…The blossoms bent and swayed at her touch, so delicate they almost tickled.” The author really knows how to convey apt elucidations that conjure up a very detailed and specific image in my head. “His laugh was like water running over stones in the creek – fast and free and clear” and “thinking of Lydia still brought an ache to his chest, like the first deep breath of cold air.” The way women were depicted seems to align with the time but still can sound familiar in today’s world. It is sad and frustrating in general. “Women were always forced to smile.” I am not sure if this is a positive or negative thought but “So many women seemed to turn their words over in their mouths like sugar cubes, until you could never be sure of the shape of the original thought” was such a good turn of phrase. The horrible attitudes displayed also holds true for how the Indigenous people were treated. It angered me to read about it, especially knowing those attitudes still exist. One scene boiled my blood. One of the themes that I noted took place throughout the book was the idea of truths. What is truth? When should you tell it and when is it good to hold back? “For many people did not like the truth, it seemed – thought it was a dirty and distasteful thing, impolite and complicated…Many simply preferred the sweet, momentary pleasure of hearing whatever they wanted to hear.” There was a scene where the truth was going to come out but didn’t and I gooped out loud. The author was able to write some very tense scenes where it felt like a thriller/horror film was playing out in my head and my body physically reacted by contracting muscles. Granted it wasn’t total world-building but the development of the fictitious elements was incredible. The thoughtfulness and depth behind it shone through. Some of the words I discovered and liked in this novel were sluice, miasma, indefatigable, fetlock, and ravenous. You know how you read some books, and it is just one cliché after another and it seems like they are trying too hard? Well Alma was able to convey a lot of wisdom and thought-provoking phrases without resorting to well-worn and eye-rolling platitudes. One minor thing that did detract from the book was the fact that there were so many characters and it was hard to keep track of the ancillary characters. I did enjoy the ending though. It was angering, surprising, and well done. This is exactly the type of book I would recommend to someone who likes amazing descriptions, getting lost in the scenery, and historical fiction. Well worth it!
Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/47o43Pu
View all my reviews
dICEy Immigration And Realizing Love
“US citizens were getting thrown in cages indefinitely for not having their papers on them.”
“That anyone had that kind of power made me sick.”
“It wasn’t fair that people like him could get whatever they wanted by making threats. That kind of thing should have been illegal. Then again, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the law benefited people like them and not people like Han or Tatiana.”
The Broposal is about these two friends who are living together. Han is straight, undocumented, and has family both here and in Mexico. Kenny is bisexual but has a girlfriend. They are just trying to live life but a lot of things happen to challenge them. They were voted most likely to get married in high school and everyone still thinks that is the case. That is exactly what happens, but they are doing for a green card and not for love. Or are feelings there? They have known each other for a long time and have been best bros. Is there something more going on? Will they end up with different reasons for marrying? Will anyone or anything stand in their way?
Sonora Reyes wrote a book. It is an easy read. It is definitely a queer book but also one rooted in everything immigrant from Mexico. I did like how a lot of gay terms like shablam were used. It made me feel like an insider as I knew exactly to what it referred. I did also like how it touched on and really hit home on hard topics like immigration, racism, and being undocumented. I think the author did well to showcase the tension and fear of having to always be extra careful and look over your shoulder. With Han being undocumented, you could really understand his wariness and hesitation in a lot of situations. With that being said, I was not an overall fan of this book. I was rushing through to just get it finished as it was making me angry. Yes, I was angry about what Kenny and Han had to endure but what was worse was the teenage drama aspect of it all. I don’t know how many times Kenny said the word rebound in reference to Han. It was annoying. The internal dialogue and actions of the characters, like hugging and quickly forgiving, just made me roll my eyes and want to throw the book across the room. I didn’t think it was going to be that kind of book but I also didn’t think it would get as graphic in a few parts as it did. I was pleasantly surprised that it went there. Jackie was such an evil character, the boss was an ass, and Kenny was pathetic in my eyes. I made a note referencing his weakness twice in my notebook. I think I liked Han the best and then Leti secondly. Then, honestly, Cornelius. The little succulent they got as a “kid”. That was adorable and I loved it. I did also like the inclusion of a non-binary character. But one thing I really didn’t like was the reference to Destiny’s Child, Ciara, and Mariah Carey as oldies. That hurt. This is exactly the type of book that I am fine with reading once and forgetting about forever.
Life Triumphs And Scientific Greed
“But most disturbing is the fact that no watchdogs are found among scientists themselves.”
“’Story of our species…Everybody knows it’s coming, but not so soon.’”
“’Personally, I would never help mankind.’”
“’Scientists are actually preoccupied with accomplishment. So they are focused on whether they can do something. They never stop to ask if they should do something…Discovery is always a rape of the natural world.’”
Jurassic Park is about a theme part centered around bringing dinosaurs back to life but I think a majority of people already know this. This book and the subsequent movie are about 30 years old. There have been numerous spinoffs and the cultural awareness is strong. We follow a group of people who were invited to the park as a sort of vetting and analysis process. We have paleontologists, kids, a mathematician, and a lawyer trying to survive. John Hammond is the brains behind this and wants to make tons of money from his endeavor. Something goes wrong and there are multiple problems that occur. The dinosaurs escape and the humans are trying to figure out how to get everything back on track. Who will survive and will nature triumph?
I grew up with Jurassic Park and I finally got to reading the novel that it was based on. It is so good and it had so much more than the movie. The movie was still fantastic and what Steven Spielberg was able to do with the dinosaurs was nothing short of brilliant. He brought the book to life. The movie is a classic and I think more people should read the book too. Michael Crichton starts off with an introduction that should send chills down most people’s spines. The change in science and the focus on profits is scary. He was so technical in his descriptions of everything. The details regarding medicine, technology, and science really created a realistic aura while reading. There were some good and fun words like rapacious. Let’s talk about the differences between the movie and book. First, there was a part of the book that was describing a little elephant that Hammond carried around. He used it to showcase genetic work and to bring in donations. That would have been cute to see on the screen as elephants are my favorite animal. There were also speeches that occurred in a different part of the story or different location or were attributed to a different person. For example, in the movie the lawyer talks about money they could charge per day but in the book, it is the rival of InGen. The water droplet down the hand was Arnold in the book, not Malcom. Lex is younger than Tim in the book. One of my biggest issues with the book and this is where I think the movie got it right, was with Hammond. In the book, he was less caring and more concerned about money. He didn’t seem to care about his grandchildren very much. In the movie, Hammond was this misguided but loveable, concerned person. In the book, he was hard and self-centered. There were many more characters that had big roles in the book. Gennaro was more fleshed out and was described as being muscular in the book. Also, many more main characters died in the book, which I thought made it more realistic and complex. In the book it is explicitly said that Grant likes kids. I won’t go into all the differences but there are plenty so find out for yourself! The scene where the Tyrannosaur breaks out was exciting and thrilling in the movie and was equally as exciting to read about. However, in the book, did Grant not know that dinosaurs vision was based on movement because in the movie it was very clear. I know that if the movie was extremely true to the book that it would be hours longer, but I found it fascinating that a scene in this book was not brought to the screen until this latest movie…the one that was released in 2025…the seventh film in the franchise! There were a couple scenes that occurred in other films. I think Michael Crichton brings up some very interesting and thought-provoking topics such as power, discipline, and profit. There are many good points and it gets one to really think about the state of the world. I really have a new appreciation for the author and this book. This is exactly the type of book I would want to read for pure pleasure and enjoyment, to relive a cherished childhood movie, and to view science & humanity in a different light.
Affiliate Link: https://amzn.to/4mSlU5N