Dog-eared Saturday

Ok, so I am kicking off "Dog-eared Saturday" with State of Fear by Michael Crichton. No, it does not directly relate to the rest of the blog, but I chose it because I think it is one of the most important and relevant books of our day. In his usual style, Crichton takes actual science, studies, and news reports, and weaves them into a novel that sounds eerily real. State of Fear takes on science itself, the national and global media, big corporations, and politics, all in an effort to find: What really is global warming? In the story the characters find themselves chasing around the globe "eco-terrorists" intent on scaring the population of the world into believing the planet is falling apart. When it is all said and done, the message becomes clear: Goverments, corporations, media, they all thrive off of a crisis. They need it to stay in power, and with the end of the Cold War, global warming quickly rose to the top of the "fear" list. Overall, an outstanding read, and while fiction, clearly points out the flaws in the modern popular way of thinking. Highly recomended read for anybody. You can find it on Amazon here.
Michael Crichton
2004 HarpersCollins Publishers
567 pages (not including notes)