Category Archives: Books

What I’m Reading: The Martian

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18007564From Goodreads.com:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars’ surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won’t have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old “human error” are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark’s not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills — and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength – he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive – but Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.

Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel that manages to read like a real-life survival tale.

My review:

I’m not going to lie: I picked up The Martian because of two reasons: Others thought the book was great and there’s a lot of buzz behind the movie starring Matt Damon. (The internet meme stating how Hollywood has spend a lot of money saving Matt Damon made me laugh. A lot.) I’ve yet to watch the movie (Kyle wanted to rent it but I told him I wanted to finish the book first), so I have nothing else to compare it to.

That being said, I am glad I did decide to pick it up and read it. It was pretty entertaining, and I found Mark Watney’s humour to be excellent. (Maybe that’s why the movie was in the Comedy category at the Golden Globes?) Even all the technical, nerdy, science talk didn’t bore me because the humour made it easier to “get.”

At first I thought The Martian was going to be just a day to day (or would it be sol-to-sol?) diary of Watney’s time on Mars. I was happy to read the “on earth” portions to help balance his story and bulk up the book. I found myself itching to reach the next section just to see how the folks at NASA reacted to what Watney was doing. It’s a definite page-turner and while the ending didn’t surprise me, some of the stuff that happens to Watney did. (Can’t the dude just catch a break?!)

I don’t want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn’t yet read or watched it, so I’ll wrap things up by saying that I’m looking forward to watching the movie. As for the book, I’m going to give it 4.5 stars out of 5. Why is it missing half a star? I wish we got to know more about Watney other than the simple fact that he has parents. The learned about the other astronaut’s families a little, so it was a bit of a let down that we didn’t get to know more about Watney’s.

What I’m Reading: Big Little Lies

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image via Goodreads

From Goodreads.com:
Big Little Lies follows three women, each at a crossroads:

Madeline is a force to be reckoned with. She’s funny and biting, passionate, she remembers everything and forgives no one. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community, and their daughter is in the same kindergarten class as Madeline’s youngest (how is this possible?). And to top it all off, Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her. (How. Is. This. Possible?).

Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. While she may seem a bit flustered at times, who wouldn’t be, with those rambunctious twin boys? Now that the boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body. But royalty often comes at a price, and Celeste is grappling with how much more she is willing to pay.

New to town, single mom Jane is so young that another mother mistakes her for the nanny. Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son. But why? While Madeline and Celeste soon take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.

Big Little Lies is a brilliant take on ex-husbands and second wives, mothers and daughters, schoolyard scandal, and the dangerous little lies we tell ourselves just to survive.

My review:
This is the second Liane Moriarty book that I’ve finished (the first being The Husband’s Secret) and it’s safe to say that she’s becoming one of my favourite authors. Spare time to sit down and read is a rare thing for me and I found myself opening up Big Little Lies whenever I could!

I adored all of the main characters and the storyline was amazing, although at times I found Madeline to be a little bit self-absorbed and annoying. Moriarty was very clever to “give away” (kind of) what happens at the beginning of the book and use that to build up the rest of the story, which is probably why I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened, dammit!

I also really loved how Moriarty used humour but still kept to the seriousness of the subject matter. The lesson learned for sure in Big Little Lies is “Nothing is ever what it seems.”

Despite me being annoyed by Madeline, I still give Big Little Lies 5 out of 5 stars. I’m looking forward to reading my next Moriarty book, for sure!

What I’m Reading: The Rosie Effect

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From Goodreads.com:
Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. If you were swept away by Graeme Simsion’s international smash hit The Rosie Project, you will love The Rosie Effect.

The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge.

Rosie is pregnant.

Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he’s left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie.

As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia back together, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him most.

Get ready to fall in love all over again.

My review:
I finally decided to download The Rosie Effect last week after much deliberation. It’s been over a year since I read the first story of Don and Rosie in The Rosie Project (link to my review here), and I once found myself cheering for Don. There’s something strangely loveable about him and I couldn’t help but want him to “win.”

The actions of some of the characters in this book were rather irritating, however. Rosie, who should know how Don’s brain is programmed to work, should have done more to keep him in the pregnancy loop. Granted, she was busy with everything going on in her own life, but knowing that you have to give Don specific instructions if you need him to complete a task, I feel she was too quick to judge Don for his emotional detachment. And unless I missed something – why did Rosie not discuss having a baby before, *ahem*, pulling the goalie and getting pregnant?

I’m thankful for Don’s team of friends for supporting him while he tries to figure out how to be a father and how to save his marriage. The story could have done without George though; I felt he didn’t particularly add anything to the storyline that was essential to Don’s development. The only thing he seemed to teach Don was to maybe not tell your kids to go ahead and try drugs. (Parent of the Year, right there.)

Despite my slight irritations, I still really enjoyed the second instalment of Don & Rosie’s journey, and I’m going to give it 4 stars out of 5. I dare you to read it without picturing Sheldon Cooper as Don.