read: The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal ★★★★

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: ★★★★

I am loving this series from Mary Robinette Kowal. It pushes all of my buttons as a boomer child of the space age, telling stories of an alternate, sped up space race pitted against nature, rather than Russia. Mary Robinette has done her research and it shows, without getting too pedantic. After spending the previous novel looking into developments at Artemis Base on the moon with Nicole Wargin, this book returns to Elma York and her work on Mars getting things settled in at Earth's new habitat (not colony) there.

Of course, things do not go smoothly. Elma senses something is wrong from the minute she lands with the second expedition and finds certain details mysteriously out of place. But the members of the first expedition are united in their silence about what might have happened on their first trip. The mysteries are set aside while more urgent threats to the mission are addressed. Yet even those situations spark more questions about the first expedition.

A couple of things kept this from being a five star experience for me. The biggest was the repetitiveness of Elma's passive ponderings about the first expedition's problems. I kept wanting her to be the badass she was in her first two novels and get to the bottom of things. She did exhibit great agency when it came to piloting tasks. But it seemed to take forever for her to grab hold of the reigns of command and drive the mission. This bogged things down for me.

On the whole, the storytelling is top notch, even with a bunch of technobabble and cultural conflict. The reader is always rooting for everyone to stay safe, stay happy and be successful in mixing and matching cultures and build a new society on a new planet.

Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for allowing me to preview this book.

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My 2021 in Books

[I wrote this up on December 28, 2021 and never posted it to this blog. Better late than never? I'm not going to bother fixing up the formatting issues due to pasting from OneNote.]

According to the Goodreads 2021 Reading Challenge, I read 50 books (so far) this year. That's 26 more than my goal of 24 (208%). That sounds like an amazing over-achievement, until I reveal that 1) this year's goal was half of what I set in 2020, with an eye toward reading longer works with about the same amount of reading time, and 2) I retired at the end of April, which allowed me to spend more time reading than before (though not as much as I anticipated). 

Here are some highlights: 

 

1. Non-fiction. 12 titles of the 50 were non-fiction and several of those were focused on writing. A few stand out: 

   1. Supreme Inequality: The Supreme Court's Fifty-Year Battle for a More Unjust America by Adam Cohen - I learned a lot about how the court has impacted policy and politics and vice versa. 

   2. But He Doesn't Know the Territory! by Meredith Wilson - A fun journey with the creator of the Broadway musical The Music Man from concept to opening night. 

   3. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway - A classic. Spend time in Paris and elsewhere during the earlier part of the famous author's career. 

   4. Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age by Gupta, Sanjay - learn about how you learn and how to keep exercising your mental muscle throughout your life.  

 

2. Inspirational. I wanted to expand my reading of Christian literature. But I only managed one (it's pretty dense). 

   1. Knowing God by J.I. Packer - A classic with some deep thoughts about the nature of God and the Bible. 

 

3. Netgalley. My original plan was to limit myself to preview 5 or fewer titles on Netgalley this year and focus on authors I don't usually read. But with retirement, and a bunch of new books from favorite authors coming out, I was happy to post early reviews for about 10. The most notable: 

   1. A Thousand Steps by T. Jefferson Parker ★★★★★ - Having spent my high school years not too far from Laguna Beach and not too many years after the setting of the book, I was transfixed by the 16-year-old protagonist's coming of age amidst more than one family crisis and turbulent times. 

   2. The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni - This historical look at the Viet Nam war and its impact on various lives hits the sweet spot of character and story and setting Dugoni brings to all his writing. I'm more fond of Dugoni's mystery and spy titles (I also previewed In Her Tracks [Tracy Crosswhite #8] and The Silent Sisters [Charles Jenkins #3] and recommend both). 

   3. Fan Fiction by Brent Spiner - (yes, that Brent Spiner; Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, if you still don't know). This isn't a memoir, though he includes some personal vignettes. It's also not really noir, though there is some mystery and some dark characters. It's a good, goofy novel for fans of STTNG. 

   4. Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - The first half of this novel felt like too much work for me and I only stuck with it because I made the commitment to review it. But around the halfway point, the story really got rolling and I enjoyed the rest of it quite a bit. 

 

Some other treats this year: 

1. This Tender Land by William Kent Kreuger ★★★★★ - A delightful coming-of-age story mashing up Tom Sawyer and The Great Depression and good Midwestern values. 

2. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles ★★★★★ - A book I didn't want to end. The gentleman in question is a lesser nobleman compelled by the Soviet government to remain in the luxury hotel where he is already somewhat of a fixture. A perpetual house-arrest. We spend many years with him and his friends, adapting to changing bureaucrats and circumstances.  

3. Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson - One of those longer works I wanted to read this year, about 2,000 pages of fantasy. This is not Tolkien. But it is well-written and entertaining with wit and magic and thoughtful characters. 

4. Dune by Frank Herbert - I reread this before the new film premiered - another long work. 

 

That's not 50. You can see more of my reactions (not reviews) to books on my blog at https://perpetualreboot.blogspot.com/ And you can see my Goodreads.com 2021 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user_challenges/25255662.  

 

I'm going to aim a little higher in 2022: 50 books again. I still want to reduce my TBR pile and keep up with some current titles, choosing authors I don't usually read. And I'll be sure to read some challenging non-fiction. I'll also continue to tackle those longer works and series that I've been putting off until I had more time. I've got my eye on The Expanse series. I really enjoyed the first book. 

 

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend. 

My 2024 in Books

Glossing over the fact that I'm a bad blogger and haven't done a book-year-in-review since 2021 (and I didn't even post that one), here is my summary of 2024 and a few thoughts about 2025:

According to the Goodreads 2024 Reading Challenge, I read 39 books last year. That's 9 short of my goal of 48 (I thought I was a bit closer, but discovered that Goodreads had somehow double-counted several books). I'm a bit disappointed I didn't finish stronger. But I'm not surprised, given that I read some longer works, did not mix in enough shorter works and got a little too focused on phone scrolling. As a retired person I would think I could consume a book a week without breaking a sweat (which is the other problem, I should have walked and exercised more and knocked off several audio books). 

Here are some highlights:

1. Non-fiction. Only 7 titles of the 39 were non-fiction. A few stand out:
1. The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee ★★★★★ - One of those longer books I mentioned. But well worth it to learn more about life on our planet and in our bodies.
2. Churchill's Secret Warriors: The Explosive True Story of the Special Forces Desperadoes of WWII by Damien Lewis ★★★★ - Inspiration for the film "The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare" and a well-told-tale of true-life secret heroes of WWII.
3. The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly: Life Wisdom from Someone Who Will (Probably) Die Before You by Margareta Magnusson ★★★★ - Essays about living from the author of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning.
4. The Guns of August by Barbara W. Tuchman ★★★★ - I didn't realize that this was not a recently released title until I was well into it (published in 1962). Even so, I was fascinated by the intricacies of pre-World War politics and early World War I warfare and all the things I (and probably most people) I did not know about it.
   
   
2. Inspirational. I had intended to expand my reading of Christian literature. But I only managed one and it's not worth mentioning. Aging Exuberantly was much more inspiring.
   
   
3. Netgalley. I stuck to my plan to limit myself to preview 5 or fewer titles on Netgalley this year and focus on backlist books and authors I don't usually read. But I was happy to post early reviews for 4 (5 if you count The Women, which I finished last December). The most notable:
1. The Women by Hannah Kristin ★★★★★ - Did I want to relive the years of Viet Nam War? No. But the author paints a vivid portrait of a combat nurse experiencing the horrors of jungle combat and an unwelcome homecoming.
2. A Cold, Cold World by Elena Taylor ★★★★★ - A classic locked-room mystery set in a small snowbound mountain town.
3. The Martian Contingency by Mary-Robinette Kowal - ★★★★ - Twenty-or-so years after a meteor hit Earth and forced mankind to reach for the stars, the first colony, sorry, habitat on Mars is trying to settle in for the long term and discovering how difficult it is to leave the worst parts of humanity behind. Fourth book in Kowal's Lady Astronaut retro space-program series.
   
   
4. Some other treats this year:
1. James by Percival Everett ★★★★★ - An amazing book that was an easy read with difficult content, worthy of your time and the attention and awards it's been receiving. I also read Everett's dramady Erasure ★★★★ and enjoyed it.
2. Matterhorn by Christopher Reich ★★★★★ - A ripping spy story. 
3. Starter Villain by John Scalzi ★★★★★ - A preposterous scifi romp about super villains. 
4. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie ★★★★ - A classic whodunnit. Charming beyond its outdated, clunky language. 
5. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John ★★★★ - Trippy novel unloosed in time. 
6. The Expanse (series) by James S. A. Corey - I read the last three books of the series this year. It's obvious why they were excluded from the television series: a severe time jump and huge set pieces with the main characters scattered around the galaxy. Still some very good reading.

You can read more about these and other books I read in 2024 elsewhere in Perpetual Reboot. My Goodreads.com 2024 wrap-up is at https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/2024/3195690 or https://www.goodreads.com/readingchallenges/gr/annual/2024. 

I'm going to keep the same goal in 2024: 48 books. Lowering the bar would serve no purpose. I have no hope of actually reducing my TBR pile, since I keep adding titles. But I do hope to balance things out by (re-)visiting some classics, mixing in some current titles, including authors I don't usually read and pushing hard to read some challenging non-fiction. Maybe I'll even write a blog post with a more detailed plan. Don't hold your breath!

Keep reading! And share a book with a friend.

read: James by Percival Everett ★★★★★

James by Percival Everett
My rating: ★★★★★

This book retells the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Huck's slave friend Jim. It's an easy read with difficult content, worthy of your time and the attention and awards it's been receiving. It's been quite a while since I read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Now I have to go read it again with Percival Everett's James parked inside my head. I didn't know quite what to expect from this book. But it probably wasn't what it delivered.
It's fast-paced, but unhurried. The author doesn't waste time with extraneous descriptions and narrative. The unimportant stuff is omitted. Words are invested in action, dialog and introspection, instead. Even here, the reader is spared from unnecessary repetition, rehash and brooding. This doesn't mean the narrative is spare. It's just full of the important stuff about relationships and what happens next.
Surprises abound. That's why I need to revisit Mark Twain's original story. I need to see how the puzzle pieces introduced in James and his view of the world fit into the larger picture that includes the pieces from Huckleberry Finn.

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read: Karla's Choice: A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway ★★★★

Karla's Choice: A John le Carré Novel by Nick Harkaway
My rating: ★★★★

This has the familiar look of a cold-war Smiley story by le Carre, yet it feels a bit off, like an overly complicated intelligence operation. You can't quite tell where the frayed edges are. But you know they're there. Smiley is perhaps a bit too involved. Maybe the viewpoints shift around a bit too much with too much analysis. Perhaps the innocent bystander is a bit too willing and adept and lucky. In spite of that, it's a worthy and thoroughly engrossing addition to the Smiley oeuvre.

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read: Cinderwich by Cherie Priest ★★★★

Cinderwich by Cherie Priest
My rating: ★★★★

A moody, creepy, Southern gothic road-trip mystery story. At less than 200 pages, it's right-sized reading for an autumn evening to get into the Halloween spirit.

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read: Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Robert Dugoni ★★★★

Beyond Reasonable Doubt by Robert Dugoni
My rating: ★★★★

Keera Duggan deserves a break after the tough case she just cracked and won (read 'Her Deadly Game'). But her staycation will have to wait because she's called back into the office to hear about a new situation involving long-time clients and family friends and their daughter, Jenna, Keera's childhood nemesis. There's been a murder, the second one involving Jenna's tech company, and what little circumstantial evidence there is points to Jenna as the murder, again. Can Keera cut through Jenna's crap and get to the truth? Is she actually guilty this time? Was she last time? If not, can they uncover the real killer? Or will Keera have to rely on reasonable doubt, again, to keep Jenna out of prison?

When it comes to courtrooms and legal drama, Dugoni knows his stuff. I didn't feel as much tension in this story as I do in most of his other books. But events and discoveries and interpersonal issues keep things moving along to a satisfying conclusion. I look forward to Keera's next case.

Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for allowing me to preview this book.

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