Jurassic Park – Michael Crichton

Rating: 4/5

Lost References:

When Paulo worries about the (noisy) Smoke Monster, Nikki tells him the Island’s not like Jurassic Park.

Thoughts:

Two things that surprised me about this book: Some of the scenes from the book that hadn’t made it into the movie I still recognized from the sequels, and there was a whole lot of faux-science. The second one I didn’t mind; it made me appreciate the movies more (I’ll admit to liking the dinosaur action and Malcolm’s wit). The second point, I wasn’t crazy about. I could stomach the chaos theory quotes at the section openings, but all the fake genetics sections bored me. Apparently, Crichton’s famous for fake, topical science, but this was my first of his books, so I didn’t know that then. I’ve read some more since, and I’m learning to tune him out when he gets into his spiels. If you can do that, you’re in for an exciting read. And another good Crichton book is Timeline.

Above: the Crichtonsaurus bohlini – a new species of ankylosaurus named for Crichton and Swedish paleontologist Birger Bohlin.

Evil under the Sun – Agatha Christie

Rating: 5/5

Lost References:

Sawyer is reading this book when Nikki interrupts him in Exposé. Ironically, the book is about the murder of a beautiful, flirtatious actress. The episode is about the same thing – the death of Nikki. (Of course, Paolo dies at the same time, in what I believe is Lost’s third funniest death scene. Frogurt… I mean Neil… comes in at #2 while Ilana and Arzt tie for #1.)

Thoughts:

Agatha Christie is the Queen of Mystery for a reason. She has her duds, like everyone else, but even her duds are better than most writers’ masterpieces. She writes spectacular stories. This particular novel (which I first heard as an audiobook with my family as we made the long drive to visit my grandparents) is no exception.

If you are familiar with Agatha Chrisite, you’ll know she has a few detectives that she favors. This one is a Poirot novel. (She also writes a lot about Miss Marple, although I’m rather fond of two detectives who don’t star in so many works – Tommy and Tuppence.) Poirot is brilliant and he knows it, and he solves the murder in Evil under the Sun with his usual aplomb.