what does it mean when someone says something is a catch 22; does this refer to the book?
Whenever you wonder about a phrase's or a word's meaning, first you should try looking it up at www.onelook.com. I did this for "catch 22" and here are the results:
http://www.onelook.com/?w=catch+22&ls=a
Then click on any of the different dictionaries' results at the left.
=)