“The Machine Stops” by E.M. Forster

A prescient, dystopian novella. Written in 1909, it describes humanity as living underground, and so dependent on The Machine that it becomes helpless and out of touch with reality. People no longer interact in person. Luckily, there are homeless people living in the outer world. Hopefully, they will preserve humanity after the machine stops working and destroys its civilization.

"The Drowned World" by J. G. Ballard

This book is very well written and teeming with atmosphere. But I would not inflict it on anyone. The excess of description dulls the mind, and the psychology is totally depressing. Regarding the pacing and the style, the book reminded me of Solaris, and of Joseph Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".

In my estimation, Keran, the protagonist, is a total fool for succumbing to the influence of the drowned world and its jungle atmosphere. Rather than working to overcome the disaster, he integrates himself into it. In the end, I believe he hurts mankind more than Strangman did. And thanks to the book's for British and very descriptive style, I'm not even positive whether or not Strangman survived in the end. And I don't care enough to reread those parts to be sure of the answer. Though I'm pretty sure that Kerans drowned him when he exploded the dam.

“This Perfect Day” by Ira Levin

This book makes you think about what constitutes a perfect society. The writing style is quite wooden but the ideas were interesting.

"Speech Sounds" by Octavia E. Butler

This was another short story from my Dystopian literature class. It is appropriately depressing, describing a world ravaged by an illness that either killed people or left them mentally disabled. It does have a glimmer of hope at the end, with the protagonist's discovery of 2 children who can talk.

"The Water Knife" by Paolo Bacigalupi

This is an excellent dystopian novel about a world that is running out of water. It is well done, but the ending initially disappointed me with its cynical realism. I would have preferred a return to the "good old days', but I realize that was impossible. The world really had changed permanently, and people had to learn to see that.

"The End of the World as We Know It" by Dale Bailey

Read this short story for my Carleton course on dystopian fiction. It was interesting enough. Someone in the class described it as a story inside an essay, which I definitely agree with. The story was too self aware for me to become involved with it emotionally.

"Anne of Green Gables" by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I read this book to compare it with the different tv versions I've seen. It did not ring any bells, so I don't think I ever read it before. And I ended up enjoying it much more than I expected. It is written from an adult perspective, but captures the joy of childhood amazingly well. I can see why this book is so popular in Japan. It is much more than a children's book.

“A Dedicated Man” by Peter Robinson

I enjoyed this second Alan Banks mystery. I find the mysteries to be intellectually stimulating and the police officers to be pleasantly normal. Some aspects of this series, the normal police wife, Sandra Banks, and the scattered British villages remind me of the Midsomer mysteries, which I watched on Netflix.