Brave New World, By Aldous Huxley-The Complete Book

I found this futuristic book fascinating. This classic was written in the early 30s. The book is about a Utopian society ruled by a totalitarian government. The government ruled society with science and technology. There was no such thing as marriage, and people did not have parents. In what is basically a factory, they produce many embryos. The society consists of many castes each of which is assigned a Greek letter (with alpha being the highest caste, then beta, etc.). Each caste consists of similarly made up people; both in terms of physical and intellectual characteristics. The higher casts are conditioned to be more physically and intellectually impressive. The people who are part of the society consider themselves to be "civilized," while they call people who are not part of this society "savages." In addition, when one is different from the rest of his/her caste rumors fly around about things happening to this person's embryo during their development. For example, since Bernard is "different" from the rest of his caste, people say that alcohol got into his embryo and that is the reason he has turned out the way he has.
Relationships in this society are also very interesting. It is not only accepted, but also encouraged for people to be involved with multiple people of the opposite sex at the same time. The concept of love is not known/accepted in the society.
The way the children learn is also very interesting. Instead of actually teaching the children, when the children are asleep they listen to lessons being repeated over and over again. They have done scientific experiments proving the fact that this is the most effective learning strategy.
Another interesting thing about the book is the characters' use of something called soma. This has a similar affect to alcohol and is used in the book as an answer to everything.

Deception Point, By Dan Brown-The Complete Book

I finished Deception Point a few weeks ago, and am well into Brave New World (which is very interesting) but never got to post a final blog for Deception Point so I thought I'd do it now. Dan Brown amazed me yet again with another great ending to a fantastic, exciting book. By the end of the story, I couldn't put the book down with constant surprises, the book was very exciting. Dan Brown did a great job of making the ending very dramatic. I liked his creativity in how Senator Sexton's story ended as his assistant and daughter worked together to set him up to let all of his secrets out and cost his campaign, while at the same time getting President Herney out of the mess with respect.
Overall I really enjoyed the book. The overall plot was similar to other books I have read by Brown in that all of them had ups and downs in the plot at similar points in the book. They also had similar surprises in that many of the people are not actually who they appear to be at the beginning.
I'd also like to take this time to comment on Dan Brown's writing. While it is true that he is not the best writer, his ideas are very good, and his plots and characters are very developed as well. I also like how he writes many different plots at the same time that eventually all come together. While this all seems very confusing at first, it does not take long until you understand it and it really makes it fun to read. There is never a dull moment in his books.