On The Beach by Nevil Shute

This book was delivered to my work mailbox after my boss thoughtful acquired it for me. We were talking about scifi books, and I mentioned that I had never heard of this one when it came up. It deals with how humans might handle knowing that they would certainly die from the fallout of a nuclear world war. It is incredible and most definitely a product of the late 1950s. So good on so many levels.

The City and the City by China Miéville

I missed political science fiction! I took a self-imposed hiatus from it after my junior year class of the same name, but it felt good to return to an old favorite genre.

It took awhile to get into this book, but when I did it became impossible to put down. The premise is that there are two city-states that exist in the same physical location. The citizens of each city cannot interact or acknowledge citizens of the other without "breaching," which leads to uncertain but serious consequences. So when a murder occurs that involved the crossing of these murky international borders, it causes a slew of unforseen consequences for the dectives involved. Obviously, Miéville takes this idea to an extreme, but how many times have you walked around Memphis and "unseen" what is going on around you? How many cities exist inside of this one?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Don't panic, and don't forget your towel. I found the book much more enjoyable than the movie; the British humor comes across better in print. As a side note, I tried to break my humanoid fascination with digital watches a few years ago, but I frequently find myself with one strapped on my wrist in spite of my best intentions. What a backwards thing to do in such an enlightened galaxy as ours.