The Circle - Dave Eggers

I read this just after reading an article on Facebook's 'like' button and the tendency of social media to drift towards a disconnected and extreme experience, so I was receptive to the overall premise of this satire about what happens when an innovative internet technology company goes too far. I found some of it hard to believe (in particular the main character's tendency to agree and blame herself when she's criticised for not 'participating' sufficiently online), but most of it was both funny and scary. The way that the sinister 'circle' of surveillance and control was built up from individual projects that all started with good intentions was horribly plausible, as was the justification that constant surveillance would eliminate shame as well as aberrant behaviour because "when everything is known, everything acceptable will be accepted".

A Tale for the Time Being - Ruth Ozeki

An engrossing story about a Japanese girl's diary and the Canadian woman who finds it washed up near her island home, full of thought-provoking material about radioactive flotsam, kamikaze pilots, Zen monks, moral responsibility, and the tangled relationship between writer, reader and narrative. There is a potentially alienating magical element, but it is introduced late in the story, once the characters have been established as real and likeable, and it is made less jarring by relating it to a discussion about quantum theory.

A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin

Like the TV adaptation that first piqued my interest, I found this huge book to be almost addictive, but on reflection I have decided to continue with the TV version rather than read further books in the series. The screen version works extremely well for the complex story's combination of the brutal and the salacious (made likeable by some strangely charming characters), and also brings to life the epic world-building that the author does excellently but I lack the visual imagination to appreciate as a reader.