Ground Control to Major Mom

The Martian by Andy Weir
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an amazing read! Not since The Da Vinci Code has a book commanded my attention as much as The Martian! It’s a very simple exposition, with minimal backstory. You are rooting for the Mark Watney in the here and now, the crew of Hermes in the here and now, and NASA ground support in Houston and JPL…in the here and now. It’s very easy to keep track of characters, and you aren’t racking your brain trying to remember who had which history with whom.

I had a couple moments where I wondered, “Things are going too well, what kind of novel is this if there is no conflict whatsoever?” Frankly, the conflicts are on the minimal side…just enough to annoy the situation, but the characters remain hopeful throughout; they are written with such relatable emotion that you will empathize with Mark and Venkat as they encounter one challenge after another.

The last journal entries are the most exciting of all, so if you’re thinking “This is too good to be true” most of the way through the book, just wait till the end.

As a scientist, I must commend Andy Weir’s research regarding orbital mechanics, Mars weather, and NASA operations.

My family and I are looking forward to the movie!

View all my reviews

Yes, I’m pretty far behind. I think…before the DIY Kitchen Transformation posts…I left off in the middle of our trip to Utah back in March? Yikes, I’m terrible!

Well, for now, let me leave you these photos of the boys on the first day of school. Jacob is getting increasingly annoyed with my photographing him on the first day of school, to which I had to respond, “Get over it, you’re getting photographed.” More »

In front of the Paramount Theater in downtown Denver. We don’t go to concerts often, but when we can take our kids, all the better!

Last August “Weird” Al Yankovic came in concert in Denver. We got tickets for the whole family! This tour was announced in 2014 not long after Weird Al’s Mandatory Fun album was released, and our boys absolutely loved the songs and music videos. More »

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Judy Blume digs deeps into her past, citing the horrible 1950s aviation tragedies that struck Elizabeth, NJ, one after another. Blume takes us into the hearts and minds of several residents of Elizabeth, including children who were impacted by seeing the crashes and wreckage, as well as stories of several victims themselves.

If you are familiar with her other adult novels, such as Summer Sisters and Smart Women, you will find the style familiar. As always, her ability to capture the thoughts and emotions of pre-teen and teen girls is second-to-none.

The reason I didn’t give this book five stars is that there were simply too many characters to keep track of. Like Smart Women, each chapter changes the point of view of the characters, but there were nearly 20 characters to track (some of whom perished in the aircraft crashes during the story) and I was constantly flipping back and forth to remind myself who was who, and who was related to whom?

I don’t know what I was thinking by reading the last third of this book on a flight between Denver and Baltimore, but that’s exactly what I did. Despite the numerous characters to track, the story will grip you and you won’t want to put the book down.

View all my reviews