Review: The Martian by Andy Weir

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I am late to The Martian party, people. I was told by every person I know (and a few people I didn’t) that I would LOVE this book. And, I said, “Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. I’ll put it on the list.” And, I did put it on the list. Then, they made a film out of it and I thought, “Oh, I’ll read it before I see the film.” And, then the film was released and I thought, “That really does look good.”

And, then my friend gave me the audio book to listen to on a road trip. R.C. Bray read the audio book and he nailed the main character. I’m in love with Mark Watney. Seriously. If Mark Watney were a real dude I’d have his poster in my office. He’s like the Chris Hadfield of fictional astronauts. Mark Watney might be my new book boyfriend.

In case you don’t know the story, it’s like this: We’ve gone to Mars! And, Watney is an astronaut on a Mars mission who accidentally gets stranded on the planet. Oops. The whole novel is about how we works to survive on the surface. How he feeds himself, how he makes contact with NASA, how he’s eventually rescued. There were so many tense moments and so many funny moments and so many wonderful, “let’s work this problem” moments. This book reminded me why thirteen year old Kate wanted to work for NASA. (She didn’t want to be an astronaut. She wanted to be one of the nerds on the ground that runs eleven thousand different scenarios so that things don’t explode or go wrong (and so there is a back up plan when things do explode and go wrong.) Thirteen year old Kate, much like [redacted] year old Kate is claustrophobic and could never be an astronaut. Riding on the subway freaks out her a little. Especially when it stops between stations, for the love of god.)

So, this was a really excellent book and I want to sing the praises of the narrator of the audio book for a moment. I can’t say enough good things about them. Bray did such an amazing job that two things have happened. 1. I’ve looked for other audio books they’ve narrated just because they narrated it and 2. I’ve pretty much decided that I’m never going to see the movie because Matt Damon isn’t Mark Watney. He won’t sound right.

I highly recommend this book. If you somehow also missed the hype and you’re interested in space, suspense, and occasional comic relief, she should pick this book up!

This counts as my Audiobook for the Diverse Stacks, Diverse Lives Reading Challenge.

#Bookreaderproblems

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The Glass Sword came out yesterday.  I preordered my copy over a month ago thinking I would get it by today because that is what I was told to expect it.  Well, it wasn’t shipped until yesterday and I’m not supposed to get it until Friday.  FRIDAY! I finished Deadfall on my commute home last night.  So what do I read now?  This is my dilemma. Do I read something new and run the risk of not finishing it by the time Glass Sword gets here? And then do I finish reading the new book or do I start Glass Sword because that’s what I really want to read? I’ve never been a fan of stopping and starting books.  I like to read them all the way through.  It’s part of why I mostly only read one back at a time, though I have done the two books before. So my other option is to read something I’ve already read before.  It won’t be that hard for me to stop in the middle if I don’t finish because I’ll know how it ends.  That would make the most sense but then I’ll lose my momentum on my book challenge.  Not that my challenge is all that difficult since I know I can read 65 books in a year but I do hate to lose.  Do you have this problem?  What do I do?

Review: Mysterious Acts by My People by Valerie Wetlaufer

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So, full disclosure: I’ve known Valerie Wetlaufer since high school and I’m tremendously proud of her.  You should also know that I have no idea how to review a book of poetry.  But, since I have this book of poetry it only seemed natural to me that I would should read it (and not just a poem here and there whenever it catches my eye from its spot on my desk) and say a few words about how I feel about it.

Sometimes, the words and the structure of the poem seem so spare; like you’re only getting a quarter of the story when you really prefer the whole thing.  But, then you are happy to only have part of the story because just a brief glance has already brought a tear to your eye (Your Body will Haunt Me).  I loved the jealous and angry in this book (Bad Wife Spankings).  And, I’m so curious about the secrets (Letter to A.)  I love the breathless rush of it (I gave you my–)
I think that is what poetry can bring into our lives.  This reminder that we’re only ever privy to part of any act or event and that our reaction to it can be mixed (heartbroken but happy) and genuine and our own.
Mysterious Acts by my People is from Sibling Rivalry Press and is Ms. Wetlaufer’s first full length book.  (She has also published some chapbooks, which are shorter.  I’m also woefully ignorant of the ways of poetry publishing.)  It has three sections and each of the sections has its own flavor. Some of the poems have stuck with me. (I find myself quoting “The One with Violets in her Lap” and I just discovered the title was taken from a poem from Sappho.)
I really enjoyed reading these poems and I really look forward to Wetlaufer’s second book coming out this year.

Review: Blackbird by Anna Carey

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blackbird I admit that I have had this book sitting on my Nook for awhile now.  It was one of those it’s on sale impulse buys.  I read Anna Carey’s her Eve series.  It was great until the last book.  I was really frustrated with how Eve spends the entire series running away from getting pregnant to only get pregnant anyway. So I bought this book but held off reading it and really only decided to read it because it’s not that long.  Only about 186 pages on the Nook.  It’s completely different from Eve.  Instead of of being another dystopian novel, it’s a contemporary novel.  Our heroine wakes on a LA subway track with no memory of who she is or how she got there.  All she has on her is a bookbag, money, a fresh shirt and a notebook that instructs her to stay away from the police and call this number.  She does and arrives at the appointed office to find that it’s empty and the safe is open with money missing.  She’s been set up and forced to be on the run.  She quickly realizes that she’s being followed and some of them want to kill her.  She turns for help to Ben.  A boy she caught selling pot on her first day.  The two set out to try to figure out who she is and what is going on.  Why are people trying to kill her?  Who is orchestrating it?  Who is she? Is there anyone one looking for her?

The intriguing thing about this book is that it’s written in the second person.  I’m not sure I’ve read a book written in that voice before.  In short stories yes but not a novel.  It lends it well to the narrative.  It really adds to the uncertainty and paranoia of our character. However it took a while for me to get used to it.  “Sunny” as she calls herself since she doesn’t remember her name is resourceful.  She has small snippets of her past but she doesn’t know if they are real or not or how they relate to what is going on with her.  She finds that she knows how to do things that suggest that maybe she wasn’t all that innocent as she would like.  She knows how to pick locks and how to evade people who are following her.  She also knows how to fight.  This makes her a little uneasy about herself.  I like her, she’s quick on her feet and smart.  She comes to the same conclusion of what is going on the same time I did but her story isn’t over yet.  We have one book to go to find out more about the people who are hunting her and if she finally be able to out run them or take them down.

Review: Nimona by Noelle Stevenson

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nimonaSo It may surprise you or at least my friends who read this blog but this was the first graphic novel I’ve ever read.  Yeah, I know.  I talk a good game.  Kate and I watched the Saturday morning cartoons of X-Men and Spider-Man when were kids and, well, I pay attention.  I listened to my friends and customers when they talked about various superheroes.  I’ve pretty much seen all the movies.  I’ve read various articles and critiques.  I love Agent Carter.  So I’ve paid attention and have been able to piece together this and that, enough that when I talk about comic characters and movies, I’ve come off as I know what I’m talking about.  I’m a total fraud and I know it.  I’m trying to fix that.

Nimona isn’t your typical superhero story.  Actually she a villain’s sidekick.  One day she shows up at Lord Blackheart’s place telling him she is going to be his sidekick and help him take over the kingdom and finally defeat his nemesis, Sir Goldenloin and the Institution of Law Enforcement and Heroics.  Blackheart is resistant at first since there are rules but Nimona will not take no and once she shows him her shape-shifting abilities, he gives her a chance.  At first, she’s a little bit too enthusiastic and dives in head first but eventually she and Blackheart find the perfect working relationship.  After their first mission into the Institution, they come across the Institution’s questionable plans and it makes you ask who are the heroes and who are the villains.

There are many things I liked about this book.  One is Nimona.  She’s spunky, funny, loyal, brave, vulnerable, angry, lonely, friendly.  She’s all those things and more.  She clearly hasn’t had an easy upbringing.  Her ability has made her an outsider, a monster, but really she is just a little girl looking for somewhere to belong. Lord Blackheart is a smart, curious man who feels he has been wronged and then took up the role he thought he was expected to play.  He is really the first to see Nimona for who she really is.  The world is not black and white.  There is both good and bad and all of us.  I was really taken with the story.  The artwork was very nice.  I liked the medieval aesthetic with a modern twist.  Nimona is drawn as a sorta emo girl with pink and purple half shaven hair.  She’s round not thin.  She’s real.  I was really touched by the story.  It wasn’t just good versus evil or what does it mean to be good and evil but also finding our place in the world.  Hoping to be judged on who they actually are and not what they are perceived to be.  Isn’t that what we all ultimately want?  I truly loved this book and I can say my first foray into graphic novels has been a success.

This Month in Reality: Witches, Midwives and Nurses! Oh, My!

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2016 has really started off with a bang. You could maybe tell by my lack of posting? I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. But, I have managed to get a little reading done (just not a lot of review writing. I have been writing, but that’s another story.)

The bang 2016 started out with was a family member in the hospital. (They’re fine now.) While they were in the hospital, I tried to do my best and not panic. If I’m calm, they had no reason to not be calm, right? They had to be taken out of the room for various tests (Again, they’re fine now) and to occupy myself while they were out of the room I read a book on my phone. I read Witches, Midwives, and Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English.

I thought that was an appropriate thing to read in a hospital.

This is a short pamphlet of a book written in the 1970s. It discussed midwifery, the rise of medical professionals (as opposed to healers), the popular health movement of the 1830s and 40s, and feminism and the need for women in medicine today. This was a really short book; it was only 59 pages, but I learned a lot from it. I didn’t know about the popular health movement. Or, I knew about it tangentially because I know a little bit about patent medicine from visiting the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta. (And, even though there was probably a lot wrong with some of the ideas the popular health movement was spreading, there was also probably a lot right about it.) Ehrenreich and English tell us a story about the movement pushing the equivalent of know-your-body courses (still a good idea) and also supporting a lot of self-advocating amongst patients. (The movement is described as espousing the virtues of frequent bathing, loose-fitting clothing for women, temperance and eating whole grain cereals. Any of that sound familiar?) The movement they describe also seems to have been initially supportive of women and minorities and in line with the cause of civil rights. While some of the professional societies out right banned women and minorities from their ranks, schools in the popular health movement did not do so (at least with the same frequency.) Unfortunately, from the description that Ehrenreich and English give, it would also seem that women threw other minorities under the bus in order to gain legitimacy and when favor to their causes. No cool, bros. So, I learned a little about the insidious underbelly of the history of the women’s rights movement.

What I found most interesting about this book (and also incredibly sad) were the conclusions. They conclude that the medical profession isn’t just an institution that discriminates against women, it is one that has been designed to exclude them. That was probably true in the 70s and it is still true today. Last year I reviewed the book the First Twenty Minutes and one of the things I found hardest to swallow about that book was the amount of research the author presented that was done only on male bodies. Women and men are different! There is a fairly large amount of scientific evidence to support that! (Also, there’s probably not just men and women! Gender as a binary is probably not a real thing!) Just as examples from recent news: women have different heart attack symptoms than men (and new research shows women aren’t aware of this) and women with ADHD present differently than men. They also conclude that we have become mystified by science and don’t know how to argue for what we need in the face of a scientific (or scientific sounding) argument. (Recent blow ups of twitter about whether or not the Earth is round seems to show that we still have a lack of scientific literacy.) They suggest that there needs to be an opening of the medical profession so that all women can have access to medical expertise when they need it. I still think that’s true.

So, this was a good read and a quick read. Not a bad way to start out the year in reality!