Cell, a Book Report by Me

I finished Cell last night on the plane and I am afraid I didn't like it as much at the end as at the beginning. There were some major themes:
Technology & Terrorism
Child Behavior
Mind Control (this plays a lot in his books, I think he is afraid of someone reading his mind)
Marriage/Love/Relationships
Of those themes I think he could have delved deeper into the child behavior piece and had a really stunning commentary on how our children behave and how we deal with it. It was still a page turner to the last 10 pages and then I think it fizzled a little. I don't mind books that leave you hanging but this left me puttering. He did put a bold story theme out there around relationships and I do give him kudos for going out on a limb a little around the story line of mentally making hard choices about relationships.
Another book I read this week was Zodiac by, Neale Stephenson. This book also took place in Boston, it was also about technology, except it was about the pollution caused by technology and industry. The I liked the protagonist of Zodiac a lot more than the protagonist of Cell. I had a dad who was a chemist and I think part of him could have been a crazy chemist environmental savior kind of guy if he had been born ten years later. I think my empathy towards the character in Zodiac was a bit stronger than any character (especially the 'phoners') in Cell. I also like my cell phone, there have been times, especially traveling, that it has been really handy. I don't really want it to be something that is evil, as portrayed in the book.
Zodiac was quite different than, say Diamond Age, another Stephenson book which is a great Sci-Fi book. I definitely would recommend Diamond Age, it's about a computer tablet designed to grow with the child as she intellectually develops and how a few different girls develop while using the tablet. It was designed for just one of the girls but illegal copies were made so a few had them instead, really interesting story line. Zodiac seemed totally unbelievable to me even though it took place in modern Boston and the large bad companies pullotuing the Boston Harbor seemed real. Heck, we know it was real, I studied the Boston Harbor as part of an Invertebrate Zoology class in college, it was pretty gross. What was unbelieveble was the way the story moved from place to place and how convenient the protagonists connections were, a little to Dickens for me. Diamond Age, on the other hand, is totally unbelievable at this point in time but it takes place in the future, who knows what will happen then.
All told I would rate the books mentioned in the last fews days as followed:
10 being it is a book that should always be on your shelf; 5 being borrow it from someone else but go ahead and read it; 1 being use it as kindling.
Little Children by Tom Perrotta (Ok, I didn't actually mention this but I found out it is coming out as a movie this year and it is a Great book). Score: 9
Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson. Score: 8 (No moive)
Zodiac by Neal Staphenson: Score: 6 (No moive)
bCell by Stephen King. Score: 5 (No moive)
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. Score: 10 (I haven't seen the movie but I can't imagine they could get the imagery in the book right, no matter who made the movie)



Here is my conspicuous consumption of the month: I got new coffee maker. We use Amazon credit cards so we get coupons after we spend X amount so we got this little beauty:
It Makes some fine coffee and has one of those thermal urns so the coffee doesn't burn. Yummy....