See, I don’t remember anything about Cat’s Cradle in terms of its philosophy—when you mentioned all those words, I had to look them up to recall why they meant. I remember liking the youngest son the best, though.

Agreed that Captain Trips is more likely, but you know—Brooks’ zombies come about not from supernatural means, but by a virus called solanum (obviously, not the plant genus): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Zombie_Survival_Guide#Solanum . So it’s also a super infection, just one that reanimates the corpse and turns it into a killing machine. I did like The Stand a lot because of its apocalyptic nature. I like that the disease was man-made, but the actual stand itself is supernatural. The biggest question both books make you ask is: Would I survive? I’m guessing Captain Trips would get me, but I’d put up a hell of a fight in a zombie war. I’m just saying.

But the more I think about it the more implausible a lot of it seems, from the finances (did anyone in that novel actually work for a living, besides tutor guy and the family friend?) to the servants who kept the place for decades and never decided just to sell off the furniture and bail. So anyway, I think the problems go far beyond a woman thing. It’s a plot thing.

I liked Cat’s Cradle because of Bokononism – an interesting take on religion and an interesting philosophy in and of itself. Long after the characters and plot details had left me, I remembered my karasses and my wampeters and my granfalloons. That’s why I mention it.

I do like apocalyptic stuff, to some degree. I’m mostly fascinated by the logistics of it, but also by potential mechanisms. Though I have to say, as a mechanism, Captain Trips seems a lot more likely to me than either zombies or messed-up cell phones. :)

I found Trevor’s characterization of the father to be a bit more believable—the man will clearly do anything for his wife, even if it means cutting ties. The fact that she chose him over his brother kind of cemented that for me. He made family sacrifices before Lucy was even born, so that backstory helped me to believe he’d listen to her in whatever she wanted. Lucy as an adult I did not find plausible. The fact that she felt so guilty about what happened enough to deny her own happiness was unacceptable because her parents had dropped off the face of the planet as far as she knew—I thought she owed it to herself to move on and begin to make amends by leading a better (not sheltered) life. I still think the writing is beautiful, and I don’t regret reading it, but the plot twists really pulled my leg. But I would definitely give him another try because he’s a good writer.

When I was compiling the awards, I decided to exclude Shakespeare and short stories–I decided to focus on novels and the non-fiction I’d read. That’s why Stephen King’s collections didn’t make the list, but I do agree that they’re pretty good.

I did enjoy Cat’s Cradle when I read it. Part of the problem was that I read it so long ago; another part is that I’m not much of a postmodernist, so it’s not going to stick with me that long anyhow. But it was a good recommendation, so thanks. :)

Definitely borrow The Shadow of the Wind when you get a chance.

Worst: Ditto, but I won’t borrow it.

Best Fiction: Whatevs. ;)

Best Plot Twist: Two things about this I especially like. 1) The celebrities decided to tape themselves in a life-or-death situation (for whose entertainment, I wonder) (heck, you don’t even need to be a celebrity to do that these days, apparently), and 2) they holed up on Long Island. This gives me a mental image of Paris Hilton being bludgeoned to death by frenzied, bagel-wielding guidos. (Maybe I should read this book.)

Worst Plot Twist: Agreed that it strains credulity. Not agreed that it reflects Trevor’s ability to write women. I say this because it strains credulity for BOTH sexes. Maybe, unlike the wife, the husband would never have checked in about the kid (though I doubt it), but to never check in on his property/servants/friends/relatives – I could just as well say Trevor can’t write men, either. The protagonist (I guess?) was a woman – what’d you think of her? In short, my take is it’s just an implausible situation, but doesn’t reflect any particular weakness beyond that. It would take reading more of his stuff to test this hypothesis, and I’d probably give him another try. I thought his writing was terrific.

Stephen King: I’m with you on both, but are you also counting the short story collections, because I thought both of those were awesome (though this may in fact reflect my tender young age when I read them)? From a Buick 8 had both wonderful characterization and some bigger-picture musings that I thought were extremely interesting. I thought it was one of his best. Cell seemed like a rush job, weak in all the places you pointed out.

I’m a little disappointed you didn’t think more of Cat’s Cradle. That one stuck with me for a long time after I read it. But different strokes for different strokes, and I know you’re not much of a “postmodernist”. :)