Summer Science Fiction

Summer is here and with it has come a few hot months, perfect for lounging in the sun and holding backyard barbeques. Lemonade and iced tea stands spring up along the street curbs of developments, and scarcely a Monday goes by where you don't see a newly tanned neighbor standing in her driveway emptying sneakers and beach bags of wayward sand grains. If you're not too busy flagging down ice cream trucks (and anything like me — a lab rat waiting out long incubation periods in air conditioning), then you have some free time on your hands. What's on the summer science reading list? While I don't usually find myself curling up with the latest Neal Stephenson novel, here are some of my favorites you might enjoy too:

Ender's Game (1985) by Orson Scott Card

Juvenile? Definitely not. While many of you probably read Ender's Game when you were still in middle school, I have found throughout the years that it is one novel that never gets old. Not to mention, corrupt military governments, a Lord of the Flies-band of children, and aliens — what's not to like?

Brave New World (1931) by Aldous Huxley and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell

Both Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four are not only classics in the world of science fiction but also paradigms of twentieth-century political fiction. If you did not have the pleasure of encountering these books in your high school curriculum, or simply cannot remember John the Savage, pick them up, dust them off, and reread!

Never Let Me Go (2005) by Kazuo Ishiguro

A different type of dystopian novel from Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four, Never Let Me Go follows the lives of three children as they grow up at the mysterious Hailsham Boarding School. Unlike Huxley and Orwell, Ishiguro (critically-acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day) reveals the horrifying reality behind the children's lives gradually, utilizing a sort of literary prestidigitation that often catches the reader unaware and off-balance.

The Cobra Event (1998) by Richard Preston

This page-turner will have you on the edge of your beach chair. A lone bioterrorist engineers "Cobra," a new virus that is as contagious as the common cold but far more lethal. What happens when a series of mysterious deaths start plaguing a community? Read and find out!

Omnivore's Dilemma (2006) by Michael Pollan

Have you ever wondered where your food comes from? Whether you walk to Whole Foods, drive your Hummer to the grocery store down the street, or get most of your vegetables from a garden in your backyard, Pollan puts your food in context for you. How do seeds in the ground turn into supper on the table? Something to gnaw on . . .

Intuition (2006) by Allegra Goodman

So this isn't science fiction per se, but it is a neat and eerily accurate look into the social and political life of the laboratory. If you have never worked in a lab before, prepare for a glimpse of a scientific community just as complicated as the molecules and experiments that dominate it. And if you have, you might just find this novel's dramatic relationships — between lab directors and postdocs, and amongst the postdocs themselves — resonating with your own experiences and observations.

PS. Save a tree and support your local library.

Image Credits: http://amazon.com