read: Stories of Your Life and Others (4 stars)

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A consistently excellent and enjoyable collection of short stories. All of them are fascinating investigations into mythologies and world views. Several follow completely unscientific beliefs to somewhat inevitable conclusions: actually building a tower to the vault of heaven, a clay-punk Victorian England with actual golems and a terrible idea involving preformation theories and a soul searching examination of God, angels, heaven and hell. Several stories play with language and ideas and time and memory in twisty ways that challenge the reader as much as the characters in the stories. I was especially moved by "Story of Your Life", which made so much more sense than the film inspired by it, "Arrival". Recommended.

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read: Target 100: The World's Simplest Weight-Loss Program in 6 Easy Steps (4 stars)

Target 100: The World's Simplest Weight-Loss Program in 6 Easy Steps by Liz Josefsberg
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I heard Katie Couric recommend this book on her podcast and checked it out. It's pretty legit. Nothing too Earth-shattering here. But it does present many well-known principals in a way that's easy to read and digest and implement. The author has long experience in this field, distilling and refining this approach over many years.

The trick is that there are only 6 things to keep track of and they all use 100. And they are all just targets. No beating yourself up if you don't hit them all the time. But they are all supposed to work together to set you up for success in losing weight and being a happier, healthier person. And you're not supposed to jump into all of them all at once. You ease into them over a period of several weeks, tackling one (or even just part of one) at a time.

I like how another reviewer called this an 'anti-fad' diet. I'd also add that it's really an anti-diet. Only some of what is discussed is food. This is all about making lifestyle adjustments (less scary than changes) that should bring success. It's worth checking out and probably worth a try.

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read: The Last Agent (5 stars)

The Last Agent by Robert Dugoni
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a direct sequel to Dugoni's excellent first spy novel, The Eighth Sister and somehow it's even better. The stakes are higher. The suspense is heavier. The twists are twistier. It's Mission: Impossible with a team of one.

Ex-CIA agent Charles Jenkins is home from his previous, disastrous trip to Russia, recovering physically and emotionally from the ordeal, enjoying life with his loving wife and two children. Why would he even consider taking on another assignment from the agency that abandoned him and put him on trial for espionage? Why would he ultimately insist on taking the assignment? Such are the questions of loyalty and honor that drive him to discover the truth about the woman who helped him escape Russia the first time. At least this time, he's going into the situation with eyes wide open and an apparently trustworthy ally. But all the odds are stacked against him, too.

How is a known spy, who is physically unable to disappear into the dominantly white population of Russia, supposed to infiltrate the country, get information about a prized prisoner at their most secure military and political prison that the CIA can't even obtain, possibly help that prisoner to escape an inescapable facility, and get out of the country alive? Why he turns to his previous adversary in Russian intelligence, ex-spy Viktor Federov. Along the way in and out, Charles also relies on old and new allies and friends and his top-notch spy craft. This is a non-stop thrill ride. Hold on.

Disclosure:Thank you to Netgalley and Thomas & Mercer for providing a free copy of this book in return for my honest review.

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read: The Relentless Moon (4 stars)

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I have to admit right up front that Mary Robinette Kowal is one author whose books I will buy practically sight-unseen. This goes double for books in this series, which are already tickling my desires for hard science fiction, retro settings, alternate history and realistic space flight action. This book did not disappoint.

But it did surprise. Since I obtained the book without learning too much about it, I didn't realize that the first-person narrative had shifted to a different astronaut in the IAC, International Aerospace Coalition. The scene switches from Elma York, The Lady Astronaut, currently on her way to Mars, to Nicole Wargin, who is not only a veteran astronaut, but the wife of the governor of Kansas, who may also be considering a run for President. Nicole is just as capable as Elma, but she comes with a different set of strengths and weaknesses that the author uses to great affect throughout the story.

One of this books unique charms is that it becomes essentially a locked-room mystery. After plenty of politicking and setup on Earth and an almost routine flight to the Moon, the action is firmly set at Artemis Base, a growing and thriving outpost of mankind. The first step of our escape from a soon to be uninhabitable Earth. Soon, what seem to be a set of unrelated accidents start developing into a pattern of sabotage and attempted murder that is probably the work of an outlaw group known as Earth First. But who among the highly trained astronauts and specially picked colonists is or are the saboteurs? The clues come slowly, but compellingly. This is a great story with almost everyone acting rationally.

Recommended for fans of early space flight, NASA and good writing.

Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Books for providing a free copy of this book in return for my honest review.

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read: Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre (4 stars)

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Based on the description (Bigfoot!) and how much I liked Brooks' World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War (another epistolary horror novel), I expected to like this one more than I did. However, the first half of the book didn't do much to meet my expectations and I came close to setting it down. It was slow and much too focused on a cast of characters that I found hard to like (I already hate hipsters in the woods), rather than much action and plot. But the author kept dropping just enough tension into the story to keep me motivated and I stuck with it.
The second half of the book (mostly) made up for the slog. There was action. There was tension. There were predators acting like predators and humans acting like humans (good and bad). The ending is satisfying in its own way (a little like Jurassic Park), without being too pat.
I almost knocked another star off of my 4-star review because of a nit I have with the writing style. The impression is supposed to be that the book is essentially the journal of the protagonist, the only survivor of an apparent massacre. But each journal entry is much too long and the style quickly slips into standard first-person narrative, knocking me out of the epistolary mood. The additional interviews and excerpts from experts and witnesses hearkened back to WWZ and restored a star for style. This could make for some great Summertime reading if you're in the mood for it.
Disclosure: Thank you to Netgalley and Del Rey Books for providing a free copy of this book in return for my honest review.

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read: Great Stories Don't Write Themselves (4 stars)

Great Stories Don't Write Themselves by Larry Brooks
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An effective (for me) tutorial on some aspects of story that had been eluding me. Most of the focus is on understanding the criteria involved in the macro aspects of story: premise and concept, along with the related concepts of character, setting and plot.
Then he uses those criteria to present and break down story structure in way shows why even an organic writer eventually succumbs to structure in order to succeed (as a opposed to a outliner who struggles with the structure up front).
It's all nicely down-to-Earth and friendly and something that can be referred to again and again. There are no real surprises here. It's all been said before. But the author presents it in a way where several light bulbs finally illuminated for me.

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read: Memories Before and After the Sound of Music (4 stars)

Memories Before and After the Sound of Music by Agathe von Trapp
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Charming, first-person account of the von Trapp family story by the eldest daughter of Captain Georg von Trapp.

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