The Martian by Andy Weir

 

Goodreads synopsis: 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 while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long 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 isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?

My rating: 5 stars.

Content warnings: R. Frequent cursing, and some sexual comments.

Thoughts: This was another reread, but I really do love this story. Watney's narrative voice is so strong and so hopeful that it's hard to come away from this story and not feel encouraged and excited to take on life's challenges and find the humor in everything. It's a strong story with a lovely message, and if foul language doesn't bother you, I'd highly recommend it.

Operation Grendel by Daniel Schwabauer

 

Goodreads synopsis: It’s the war story he’s dreamed of. But the battle may cost him his mind.

Military journalist Raymin Dahl thinks he’s finally getting the story of a lifetime. Secret peace talks on a remote tropical moon are about to surrender five colonized worlds—and six hundred million civilians—to a ruthless enemy.

But when his commanding officer, Captain Ansell Sterling, is fatally wounded before the negotiations can begin, Dahl can no longer just report on the mission. He’s ordered to complete it. With help from the AI embedded in Sterling’s comms bracelet, Dahl must impersonate his commander—a Marine Corps hero and psychological operations expert.

However, Sterling’s AI may be luring him to surrender more than he realizes. And the mission Corporal Dahl thinks he’s running isn't the only operation underway.

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG-13. Some sci-fi violence.

Thoughts: I think I read this book a little too fast and missed a couple things that would have made it easier to follow, but I did really enjoy it. Especially near the end, thematically I really appreciated something it was saying, and it's no surprise since I mostly agree with this author's perspective on things. The ending was mindblowing, and something I'm still churning over for myself, but it was worth reading and a lot of fun.

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Goodreads synopsis: Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does—or does not—say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl's struggle for justice.

My rating: 4 stars.

Content warnings: R. Excessive language, some violence and sexual content.

Thoughts: Well written, evocative, and definitely worth the read. 

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

 

Goodreads synopsis: Tally is about to turn sixteen, and she can't wait. In just a few weeks she'll have the operation that will turn her from a repellent ugly into a stunning pretty. And as a pretty, she'll be catapulted into a high-tech paradise where her only job is to have fun.

But Tally's new friend Shay isn't sure she wants to become a pretty. When Shay runs away, Tally learns about a whole new side of the pretty world—and it isn't very pretty. The authorities offer Tally a choice: find her friend and turn her in, or never turn pretty at all. Tally's choice will change her world forever....

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG. Some kissing and minor violence.

Thoughts: I think a friend summed this book up well when she described it as "middle grade, but YA." And that seems about right to me. The way it's written feels rather like a middle grade novel, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The story moves quickly, perhaps a bit too quickly for the high concept Westerfeld has, but quick enough to hold the reader's attention. It takes a while for the story to have actual stakes, but once it does I was surprised how heavy those stakes actually were. And the characters are pretty generic, but they fit their roles and have some interesting moments. All in all it's a fun read with an interesting (if rather juvenile) world, and a cliffhanger ending that makes the next book that much more intriguing. 

Into the Shadows by Troy Taylor

 

Goodreads synopsis: In this endlessly fascinating book Troy Taylor draws on his lifelong interest in stranger-than-fiction truth to explore history’s deepest conundrums. Ranging freely over American annals, he delves into mysterious occurrences, unexplained disappearances, unsolved crimes, buried treasures, and more.

Into the Shadows illuminates many of the history’s darkest corners; from the mysterious disappearance of the Anasazi to the identity of the continent’s pre-Columbian visitors. Taylor wades into hotly contested topics such as the location of the Lost Dutchman Mine, the strange fate of The Marie Celeste, and Harry Houdini’s life before—and after— his death. He asks provocative questions: Did Billy the Kid survive to a ripe old age? Was Jack the Ripper an American? Did Eliot Ness solve the homicide of the Black Dahlia? Was Edgar Allan Poe the culprit in the murder that made him famous?

Some of these cases seem to exist almost beyond the pale. Who but Troy Taylor could explain the Hornet Spook Light of Missouri or the eerie multiple sightings of West Virginia’s themselves? Dead men do tell tales, but it takes someone as skilled as this president of the American Ghost Society to coax out the story of Daniel Douglas Home, a Scotsman who could fly. Whether ferreting out the truth about multiple murders or the flying creature of the Devil’s Lake, Taylor remains open to all possibilities.

Like the very best books, Into the Shadows raises far more intriguing questions than it flatly answers. And like the very best books, it challenges each reader to decide for themselves……

My rating: 3 stars.

Content warnings: PG. Crimes are talked about, but never to great detail and never for very long.

Thoughts: While the book felt like a collection of short essays briefly talking about different subjects, they were all rather interesting, and many of them I hadn't even heard of before, so it's obvious the author put some work into it and wasn't just going for low hanging fruit. This book would be a good jumping off point for someone looking for new or interesting true crime cases they may never have heard of before, or as an introduction to the genre, and using the resources in the back of the book to begin to dig deeper into any given case. All in all it was pretty fun to read. 

The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

 

Goodreads synopsis: The Fellowship was scattered. Some were bracing hopelessly for war against the ancient evil of Sauron. Some were contending with the treachery of the wizard Saruman. Only Frodo and Sam were left to take the accursed Ring of Power to be destroyed in Mordor–the dark Kingdom where Sauron was supreme. Their guide was Gollum, deceitful and lust-filled, slave to the corruption of the Ring. Thus continues the magnificent, bestselling tale of adventure begun in The Fellowship of the Ring, which reaches its soul-stirring climax in The Return of the King.

My rating: 4 stars.

Content warnings: PG-13. Fantasy violence throughout.

Thoughts: I didn't notice in the first book, but I noticed here how terrible Tolkien is at dialogue tags. Every line it's "he said" "he said" "he said" and that gets old after a while. But it also got amusing and I started ignoring them entirely after a while. Which might have been a detriment, but I'm pretty sure I always knew who was talking. Other than that it's another fun fantasy story that picks up right where the first left off. It is kind of obvious that it was written as one book, because the beginning of this book and the end of it aren't really good story containers, but it makes sense knowing that's just how Tolkien wrote it, and it was the publisher who cut it up. And the description of Shelob makes me sad, but I much prefer depictions of spiders like Charlotte in my books. That's just personal though. I had a lot of fun reading this one, and I'm looking forward to the conclusion. 

Wickers Bog by Mike Duran

 

Goodreads synopsis: Every autumn, when the weather turned and the wind came off the marsh, the dark waters of Wickers Bog gave up its ghosts and reawakened the old yarns.

Julene Ella Haddan is about to be drawn into one of them.

It was a grey, joyless day, when young Julene heard the song of the siren and followed its melody into the enchanted swamp... a journey which led her into a tale of murder and deceit. It's only the fated who hear the siren. Yet Julene's fate now seems bound to the fabled Lady of Lisenby, the spectral gatekeeper of the Bog, queen of the haunted deep. However, is it justice the Lady seeks or is Julene the siren's next victim?

Myth and mystery collide in this tale of Southern Gothic horror.

My rating: 2 stars.

Content warnings: PG-13. Brief description of a decomposing body.

Thoughts: I do think the story had a solid idea behind it, and it held a very interesting plot and characters, and overall it could have been a very lovely, very fascinating story. The problem is, it was less than 60 pages long. I would have been very happy if this book was five times that long. At the length that it was, there was not enough time for any of the concepts within the book to develop, and in the end it felt like reading a long form outline of a story, rather than a story itself. I love the atmosphere, and the concepts, and the aesthetic of it all. But to actually have been gripping as a story, this book needed a lot more length and breadth to its scope, and much more development within the book as a whole in order to tell this tale slowly, as I think it deserved to be told.