reviews

A sci-fi techno thriller adventure - in space!   Author: Andy Weir Left for dead, stranded on a barren, inhospitable planet in the middle of a sandstorm, Mark Watney is convinced he will become the first person to die on Mars. When the storm ends and he is not dead, Watney employs his full sardonic stubbornness and cynical sense of dry humor to defy the odds, one day at a time. What will kill him first? The Hab and various life support systems all of which are ageing and were possibly damaged in the killing storm? Or will it be hunger [...]

Why The Odyssey is the Best Action/Adventure Story of All Time  Author: Homer It’s that time again – my reading the classics kick (aka reading all of the books I should have read in school, yet somehow missed). This time when I rolled the dice to pick a random classic from my list, I was both delighted and terrified. The Odyssey is the second oldest book in the Western Canon (the oldest is the Iliad), supposedly written sometime at the end of the 8th century BC. Everyone knows the details of Homer, blind poet, creator of The Iliad and it’s somewhat sequel The Odyssey and how both works [...]

In Which Tina Fey Amuses While Avoiding Creating an Actual Memoir Author: Tina Fey Getting ready for the nine hour plus drive to spend Christmas celebration part I with the boyfriend’s family, the boyfriend and I bundled into the car with an array of emergency audiobooks, including Tina Fey’s memoir, Bossypants. Read by Fey herself and lauded as a sometimes motivational, sometimes satirical, and an always hilarious memoir, the peppy, down-to-earth passionate voice of Fey made the road trip easier and frequently had us snorting with laughter. Yet, after finishing the last disc of the memoir, Fey’s expressive voice dissolving into [...]