Taking this book to Cape Cod in mid May to read about the below freezing temperatures on Mars’ surface while on a freezing cold beach was probably not the best idea. Weir’s descriptive writing really does transport you to Mars and it is not human hospitable up there. Mark Watney, one of the first six people to step onto Mars, becomes the first resident of the planet. Watney, injured and presumed dead, gets left behind on the red planet and has to MacGyver his way […]
One of those books you press on your friends
It seems like once a year I find a book that I can’t put down because I want to know how it ends, and the minute I finish, I try to find a friend who needs to immediately read this too. This is harder to do with people who read e-books, but you know what I mean. My 2015 edition of that book is Andy Weir’s The Martian. That this book is excellent will come as no surprise to virtually anyone, given it was published […]
A Book About a Jokey Robot
Well, I might as well get this over with. It’s intimidating panning a book everyone and their mother seems to love. Please don’t come at me with pitchforks. I will say this in The Martian’s defense, it has a stunning cover design and a really, really good premise. A clever botanist/engineer accidentally gets deserted on Mars and has to Macgyver his way to survival until someone can come back for him? Genius. If it sounds interesting to you at all, you should give it a […]
“It’s true, you know. In space, no one can hear you scream like a little girl.”
I’m amazed that this book has been out for so long and is still being discovered by so many enthusiastic readers. I’m sure that the upcoming — and pretty amazing looking — movie has something to do with it, but really, I think mostly its because this is just a damn good story. By now we all know the basics, so I’m going to keep this short. Mark Watney, astronaut on NASA’s latest mission to Mars, is injured in a wind storm and left for […]