The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Title: The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

Author: Hugh Lofting

Pages: 270

Genre: Children's Fiction, Newbery Award

Grade: B

Synopsis: In this second book about the life and travels of Doctor Dolittle, young Tommy Stubbins joins him on his voyage that takes him to Spidermonkey Island after a perilous shipwreck. Doctor Dolittle becomes friends with the natives on the island, before escaping back to home in the Mysterious Great Glass Sea Snail.

My Review: This Doctor Dolittle book was not much better than the first, and it also won a Newbery medal! I can't help but think the available candidates for the medal in these early years must have been fairly weak... Once again, it's a kids book, a little ridiculous and very outdated (i.e. racist by today's standards).  The book was published in 1922.

The Story of Doctor Dolittle

Title: The Story of Doctor Dolittle

Author: Hugh Lofting

Pages: 176

Genre: Children's Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Doctor John Dolittle just loves animals and his home is always overflowing with animals of all kinds.He has a dear parrot, Polynesia, who teaches the doctor how to speak to the animals. After this, Doctor Dolittle becomes quite famous in the animal kingdom as he travels the world helping animals in need.

My Review:  This book was ok. It's a kids book, a little ridiculous and very outdated (i.e. racist by today's standards).  The book was published in 1920.

Good Omens

Title: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

Authors: Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

Pages: 412

Genre: Fiction, Humor

Grade: B-

Synopsis: This is a difficult book to describe because it is very strange...  Basically, there is a book that was written in the seventeenth century by a witch, Agnes Nutter and she predicts that the world will end on a Saturday.  She has never been wrong, so everybody expects her to be correct on these counts as well.  The armies of good and evil are gathering together in preparation.  However, there is a demon and an angel who have lived on the earth since Adam and have grown rather fond of their lives here.  They're not ready for Armageddon quite yet. Not to mention, who they thought was the anti-Christ was misplaced at birth.

My Review: This book took me more than a month to get through.  It just wasn't holding my interest.  Although I seemed to carry it with me nearly everywhere during that month, there were many things that I would rather be doing than reading Good Omens. Which, by the way, kind of surprises me.  The book has a bit of a cult following and appears to be very popular in some circles.  That's not to say that I didn't enjoy portions of the book.  It is written as a humorous noel and while some of the jokes are a stretch, generally the humor is wrapped very tidily in with the rest of the book.

From the Book: "(p. 306) I got another bath," she announced to her fellow telephone salespersons. She was well in the lead in the office daily Getting People Out of the Bath stakes, and only needed two more points to win the weekly Coitus Interruptus award."
"She dialed the next number on the list.
"Lisa had never intended to be a telephone salesperson..."

Physics of the Impossible

Title: Physics of the Impossible

Author: Michio Kaku

Pages: 7 discs?

Genre: Non-fiction, Science

Grade: B

Synopsis: Over the last 100 years, there have been many technological advancements that physicists prior would have deemed utterly impossible.  The author, Michio Kaku, explores many science fiction ideas and categorizes them in three categories: possible in the next 100 years, next 1,000 years, or that our understanding of the physical and atomic world would need to change in order for an idea to be possible.  He examines ideas ranging from invisibility and telekinesis to teleportation, space travel and time travel.

My Review:  While the book was interesting, I've never been that enthralled by some of the science fiction ideas that were being explored, so the book didn't grab me like it may others.  There were parts that were more interesting than others, and I think the content is pretty solid (Kaku is a Theoretical physicist with degrees from Harvard and Cal, and now teaching at the City College of New York).  That said, there is a lot of interesting advancements that may take place over the next 100+ years.

Abandon

Title: Abandon

Author: Meg Cabot

Pages: 8 discs

Genre: Fiction

Grade: B

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Pierce is involved in an accident that caused her death and sent her to the underworld.  While there, she met the caretaker of that portion of the underworld but was able to sneak away and return to her body.  When she moved to a new place and started attending a new school, she thought she had been able to escape the caretaker.  When he started showing up more often, Pierce knew she wouldn't be able to get away from him.  The entire trilogy is a re-imagining of the Persephone myth.

My Review: This was an interesting book. Every once in a while I enjoy picking up a book that I know nothing about (and it's often one that I never would have selected had I known more about it...).  This book straddled the line between normalcy and the supernatural, but presented it in a way that almost made it believable.  This is the first book of a trilogy, at this point I would read the other books in the trilogy as well.