The Martian by Andy Weir

This has to be the most entertaining read I have had in a long time.

As a kid I loved survival stories. I thought the idea of finding water and food out in the middle of nowhere an exciting challenge. But, that is nothing. What would one do if they were stranded on Mars? Food, water? There is no air even! That is the challenge that Mark Watney faces.

Now, let me just state for the record that if I were stranded on Mars, my log would not be perky. I would have an instant sense of humour failure of epic proportions. Fortunately Mark Watney is nothing like me. He is hilarious! I woke up half the house laughing at the things he said. (That is no exaggeration. My mom did get her revenge though, as she laughed her way through the book a day after I was done with it.)

Watney, besides his wonderful personality, is also quite brilliant. He makes MacGyver look like an underachiever (although they both have a lot of respect for duct tape), and makes Bear Grylls look like an amateur. Finding water on earth is easy, man. Try figuring that out on Mars!

I really enjoyed the science in his book. I loved Watney and his sense of humour. I enjoyed the plot, and the suspense made me chew all my nails away. If anything in that brief list sounds appealing to you, then give this book a go.

Just as an FYI,  I would read the book before watching the trailer for the movie because it shows pretty much everything except the last 30 pages or so. It's a big spoiler.

Talking about the movie, I wonder how they are going to capture Watney's humour. I am guessing the log approach won't work on the screen. Oh well, here is to me actually wanting to watch a movie based on a book. It does not happen often. (Last time was Harry Potter!)

I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads, although I should probably bump it up to a 5. I loved reading this too much for it to be a 4 star book (and it does take a lot to make me laugh out loud at anything).

This is the 39th book I have read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.

Bookcase progress

A couple of weeks ago I said that my mom and I are making a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookcase for my room. Wow, is it taking a long time! (Which is why I have only read 2.5 books this month so far!)

Here is a 'quick' progress report.

The Before shot: (We never usually remember to take these in our household!)

 I couldn't get the whole thing in the picture. Ever so inconveniently I have a wall behind me. (It would be great if there was no wall there and the room was bigger.)

There are a couple of things to notice: The dodgy bridge between the two 6 foot bookcases that is drooping a bit in the middle. Super safe, I tell ya! I am a firm believer in extreme reading. Then there is the bookcase behind my bed, which is completely inconvenient for finding books (especially since they are packed on double), but extremely convenient for the reading light. I will miss that reading light, although I already have a plan... Watch this space.


And then the 'trashing the room' process began. In the beginning it was fun! And then I realised just WHAT I had got myself into. And putting that bookcase on my toe wasn't the motivator I needed either.

(That bookcase held my classics, old English, poetry and uni textbooks for the subjects I liked and/or still need to refer to for teaching. The bridge began my fiction books in alphabetical order (of author - do I need to add that?). The right side 6' bookcase and the white one on the wall continued with that. The little one behind my bed either hosted books that I am not a huge fan of, or books that I loved but were bought second hand donkey's years ago and look rather dreadful.)

I could technically show you four photographs of my bookcases as they stand now. But, they all look like this. It makes finding the next book to read rather tricky although it is a great way to really load up bookshelves.

So that part of the process took two days. Yes. TWO DAYS! I thought it would take two hours! I guess I misjudged that a bit. Although, as my biannual serious book-dusting job (I do less vigorous dusting roughly every two weeks) takes almost a week I suppose the penny should have dropped at some point.

Since the destruction of my room, my mom has been a champion, sawing the shelves and and putting together the base unit. I didn't want my books to go right down to the floor as they get dusty really quickly down there, and I feel that they are more likely to get damaged by the animals. I sound like I am obsessed with dust. I am not. I am obsessed with books. I would also prefer to spend my spare time reading and not cleaning, so prevention being better than cure and all that stuff, right!

While Mom was doing that, I was up the ladder painting the wall the bookcase is going to go on. I chose a dark colour. It is a brownish-pink, and a lot darker than it looks in the picture below. I also did the side walls for about a metre in an off-white shade of the same colour. (The rest will be painted when I can move further than a metre into my room.) I wanted the wall behind the books to be darker as I figured that a darker paint would make any smudges etc. less noticeable. I don't want to have to try and paint it in a few years and try and not paint the shelving. (I will spend a fortune on masking tape alone when that time arrives.)


So this is the base unit, before we screwed it into the wall. (It is now firmly attached and the doors stay closed. Yay!) That was a mission to fit, because my mom made it perfectly square, but the people who built our house had obviously not heard of the word 'square'. The walls actually banana in a curve and they put more plaster on the bottoms of the walls so the walls look to angle a bit. (No, it isn't going to fall down. Promise. It isn't noticeable with the naked eye, but put a straight piece of wood against it, and suddenly there is a problem.) It took us four days of fiddling and faffing to get it to fit. By then, mom and I were feeling rather tired and a bit fed up. (You know how you feel when it seems nothing will go right?) I should also point out that, in that picture, the wall looks a dang side smaller than it is. That portion is almost 3 metres!


In the mean time, I have been doing the rest of the wood. (I wanted it all sanded and varnished before putting it up, as it will be easier in the long run and I won't get paint all over the freshly painted walls either.) So this is what I have been doing.

Side note: When people ask for preferred winter reads, let me point out now that this picture was taken last week, in the middle of winter, at about 4pm. I don't 'seasonalise' my reading. I don't really have seasons. Winter is perhaps 10 degrees cooler than summer.

Going back to the topic: I have been painting and painting and painting, with a magnificent vanish, Woodoc. It isn't like the cheap varnishes out there that actually make the wood go orange. This brings out the buttery tones of the pine and, up close, they look like tigers eye (the stone, not the animal). The solvents in the stuff though, I have had it up to here with the smell. (My hand is pointing up high, very high.) I made a pun. Did you see?

With luck, tomorrow will be the last day of painting and then there will be THE ASSEMBLY. I can't wait!

So, I am guessing that, if you have read up to here, you might have a few questions.

Why on earth are my mom and I doing this?
Well, you have to meet my mom. She could have been McGuyver's mother. She can do ANYTHING! She does wedding cakes of the highest quality (she actually was taught a bit by the guy who did them for the royal family), she can do body work on cars, she can build, she sews (all my clothes as a kid were homemade and better than anything you could buy), knits... There is nothing my mom cannot do. She loves doing this kind of thing.
Then there is also a bit of a feminist thing to this. This is just one case. We bumped into a friend of my dad's when we were buying more sandpaper and odds and ends. He is a retired carpenter. (Also did amazing work.) When he heard what we were doing, although I know his comment was not meant maliciously, it was patronising. "We must give him tips." Really, he did it for a living for decades. What he was really saying was that we couldn't do it. But this is not the first project that we have tackled, nor was that the most condescending comment we have received by far. We are constantly being treated like idiots at the hardware store. In fact, I can count two occasions when we weren't. Hell, we have even had to go and find salesmen when it comes to powertools, because they just ignore us. Why can't we do this because we are women? Seriously?! So, because we are women, we are going to do it, and we are going to do it well.

Your next question, whether you are asking it or not, I am going to answer too:

What is a 37-year-old doing living with their mother?
Well, my dad died 3 years and 8 days ago. I moved back to help my mom out, especially since my grandmother lives here too, and she is 93-years-old and comes from the clan McLeod. It has added some complications (like the fact that I have, or more correctly, had, furniture and a kitchen and ... you get the drift; and that I was quite happy with having a lot of space.) Mom and I merged our stuff, took the best out the duplicates and gave the rest away to Animal Welfare's secondhand shop. We get along like the Gilmore Girls though, so this arrangement actually works really well. It also beats coming home to an empty house.

Favourites for the First Half of 2015!

I have read some brilliant books this year so far. I thought I would be highly unoriginal and give a quick overview of the best (according to me).

 Winger is a good book for teen readers. I really enjoyed this, once I figured out how to ignore the main character's over-sexed imagination. Moriarty: the one book that completely and utterly had me stumped. It beat me. At least I am not in bad company on that one. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and the remained of the series) are gripping thrillers. The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency is a beautifully written series capturing the lives of some people in Botswana. Beautiful in its writing and wisdom, this is a good series for folks who would like to read a book(s) set somewhere besides the USA or UK.

 The Perks of Being a Wallflower is also a good read for teens. It would probably suit teens older than Winger's crowd. The themes are similar in some respects, but Perks covers a lot more. Good read, good book, good thoughts. Dark Places is another gripping read from Gillian Flynn. If you like thrilling stories, then this one is for you. Hell, the pages practically turn themselves! World War Z was amazing. It is not your average zombie apocalypse novel, but a political and social commentary on different countries all over the world. Enlightening and definitely food for thought. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of her Own Making is beautifully written. The plot keeps the pages turning, but there are some beautiful lines that I just got stuck on so that I could reread them.

 My two favourites for the year so far! Room was such a well planned book. The theme of this novel could have made this the darkest and freakiest and most unpleasant book to read, yet the narrator completely sold it with his innocence. I loved this one. 2am at The Cat's Pajamas was beautifully written. I loved the style of the story and I loved the story. I was still glowing the day after having read it!

Here is to hoping the 2nd half of 2015 is just as successful!

June 2015 Wrap Up

...coming to you traditionally late as I had to finish writing the reviews on the books I read in June.

June was quite the month! I got through 12 books! Woot! That makes it my most successful reading month this year, and that is something considering I was still working! It has also put me 6 books ahead of schedule! Can you sense the size of my smile? I bet you can.

The month started quietly with the memoir More Fool Me by Stephen Fry. Although I enjoy Fry's writing (to date), his persona on tv and his sense of humour, I found myself, for the first time, not enjoying something he had done. This memoir was disappointing. Even if I ignored the facts covered that were disappointing, the writing particularly towards the end, was a let down. I found it very repetitive, and I could not see the point in it being there at all. I did learn more about Hugh Laurie, though, and I enjoyed those bits.

Next up was Dune by Frank Herbert. I had had this book on my shelf for a long time and had been putting it off (for shallow reasons: butt-ugly cover and tiny print). It was time that I read it and so I did. I was quite impressed with this. I am not a huge reader of Sci-Fi so I really do not have much to compare Dune to. But as a whole, the story moved and kept my attention. I really appreciated the amount of detail Herbert went into in world building. There are some areas, thinking back on it, that did not feel completely right, but I cannot put my finger on it. Maybe it was that even though Paul was the protagonist and the mighty warrior/saviour of the people, he still seemed unknowable to me.

After Dune, I hit a play in a hunt for literature for a class at school. The Real Inspector Hound was a quick, hillarious read. I enjoyed how it satirised critics and how it mimicked a crime drama on stage. There were so many unexpected events that by the end, I gave up trying to predict and just enjoyed the outcome.

The Time-Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger was the next book I finished. I went into this expecting something impressive, but instead I found myself disappointed. I will be honest (again) and reiterate that I am not a romance reader. I feel that there is more to being successful than landing a partner for life. I could not justify Clare's attraction for Henry (besides the fact that he would come and visit her when she was a child and that she had grown up knowing that she would marry him). I didn't think he was a great catch. I also felt that Clare did not have a great role in the story. Henry would travel through time, and she would basically sit and wait for him to return. I know I am simplifying it, but surely she could have been more than 'the time traveller's wife' and been something on her own?

The start of the Rainbow Readathon marked the beginning of a great stretch of reading. It began with Mr Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan. I enjoyed reading this. I found the plot original and I enjoyed how Sloan merged the old and new 'technologies' in the making of this book. I liked the characters too. And of course, it was set in a bookshop. What is there not to like?

Next up was The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente, whose title could be a novel on its own. I absolutely loved this. Although it has the feel of a children's book, I really don't think a child would get out of it what an adult would. There were some really awesome lines in it, and some of the ideas were inspired too. I think many folks out there would enjoy it - if they are prepared to give it a chance.

Last year I read Legion in Legion and The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson, a bind-up of two novellas. This month I moved the book to my mental 'read' pile by completing the second story, The Emperor's Soul. Although I think I was more impressed with the first story, I really enjoyed this one too. I had never read a scenario like the one he created in this book before, and I found it gripping. I was constantly wondering what was going to happen next. I think this book makes a good introduction to readers who are tempted to read Sanderson, but who are nervous at the size of Mistborn or his other books.

Once again, I decided to read a book that I had been ignoring because it was ugly: The Accidental Apprentice by Vikas Swarup (I sound horribly shallow, but this cover really is ugly - especially if you happen to not like orange.). This was a fun revisit to India again for me. I enjoyed the female characters in this, and loved how they were strong, independent and wise. I would recommend this one to readers who would like to start reading diversely, and would like a simple introduction to India. This book was very accessible and the plot did keep things moving.

I then decided to hit my favourite series of the year, and read The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith. This is the 4th book in The Number 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series. This book was enjoyable again, but I am starting to find them a bit too similar to each other. I know, I know, that is what one would really want in a series. But the magic that I felt in the first two are no longer there. The book was still good, but it was not fantastic. I would still recommend this series to readers. I still plan on continuing them.

Next up: Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman. Some of the short stories in this collection were fantastic. It is no secret that I love Neil Gaiman's writing. Having a short story from him every night was my version of Christmas. There were some really awesome stories. With the risk of repeating myself again, I really loved The Man who Forgot Ray Bradbury, If you read no other short from this collection, make sure you read that one. Oh, and for fans of Doctor Who, there is a short story of the Doctor in there too. He captured the atmosphere of Doctor Who well.

The penultimate book for the month was Night Film by Marisha Pessl. While I rated this one fairly low (for me), I still enjoyed the reading experience. I can see why a lot of people would like it, especially with the webpages and files etc. in it. I should warn that the ending could be disappointing to some. I found it disappointing. But then there are others out there who liked it, so don't take my word on that one.

And finally! The best book of the month and possibly the year, 2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino. I absolutely loved everything about this. I loved the style in which it was written, I loved the characters (even the not-so-nice ones), and I enjoyed the 'plot' - although it isn't plot heavy like a crime novel would be.

Shew! This is a long post! If I ever get round to Booktubing, I will look forward to doing these on video and not fixing a gazillion typos in the attempt to not look illiterate (my keyboard is acting up, and being 1am isn't helping matters).

Books read: 12
Books cleared for TBR challenge: 11
Books bought: 18 *gulp* (I am blaming it on the fact that I am getting a new bookcase, so for the first time in a long time, I am not worrying about space. Plus, my bookshop got in a huge selection of books I really wanted at a third of the normal price. Man! I was not going to put it off!)

2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas by Marie-Helene Bertino

Please, sit back, relax and get comfortable while I wax on about how absolutely beautiful and brilliant and masterful and gorgeous and amazing this book was. You ready? Here it comes.

2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas has become one of my new ultimate favourites of all time. (Bet you didn't see that coming.) Bertino uses an almost poetic style in the telling of this tale, which spans 24 hours, beginning on Christmas Eve Eve. (It is not a Christmas story, so you don't have to worry about scheduling it in in six months.)

There is no protagonist in the book. It follows a selected group of people who sometimes are connected to each other, or not, throughout the day. (At this point, I feel obliged to recommend that you do not read the synopsis on Goodreads, as it is off-putting.) Some of these people are fairly nice. Some of them are fairly unpleasant. But that is life really, not so? What I found extraordinary was that she had me rooting for an unpleasant person, and hoping with everything I had while reading, that everything would turn out all right. That alone, I think, marks a great writer, because I could see the humanity behind this character, see beyond the faults, and forgive the character for them. Bertino made the character completely real to me.

The Cat's Pajamas is a jazz club. Perhaps that accounts for the style in which this was written. I have not read anything else by Bertino, (I hope to rectify that by getting my hands on a copy of her short story collection - the only other thing she has had published) so I cannot with all honesty say whether she writes like this all the time, or whether it was to capture the free-spirited flow of jazz. Either way, I will not be disappointed. I really found the way this was written soothing. It is an odd choice of words, but it is true. The words flowed and I absorbed them, and I was happy.

I think that, if you are the type of reader who is up for a more arty book (as opposed to the regular blah, blah narrative tale), who is open to a story that does not focus on one character but a handful, who would like to read something that feels different to other books, or who would like to see some effortless characterisation, then this could be the book for you. If that doesn't sound like you, then perhaps you should skip this one.

2 A.M. at The Cat's Pajamas is the 38th book I have read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.
I gave this, predictably, 5 stars on Goodreads. It was amazing! I read it in one night!

Night Film by Marisha Pessl

You know that feeling, when you pick up a book, and it looks great, and flipping through the pages, it seems even better, and people have said amazing things about it, and you are all ready to absolutely love it? And then you don't. That was my experience with this one.

I have mixed feelings on how to rate Night Film. I know that one of the reasons I was disappointed was because I thought I would love it more than I did. There were many elements of this book I enjoyed, but perhaps it was because it was novel and new to me, and not because it was ground breaking. I am talking about all the web pages and files etc. that Scott looked through. It made an interesting platform for giving information, which was definitely far more interesting than a narrative version.

The pacing in general was slow - not that that is a problem for me, but it did make me question if the pain in my wrists from holding this huge thing was completely necessary; or if perhaps a few things could have been trimmed. But having said that, all the detail did add to the suspense and the number of questions I was asking myself throughout the reading process. I really was engrossed in the plot.

As far as the characters went, they were all right, I suppose. There was nothing that particularly made them stand out for me. There were some things that I guessed, and there were other things that I suspected that didn't pan out - which was perhaps a well placed red herring.

I think the reason I am rating this only as three and not a four (ok, let's pretend it is a 3.5) stars on Goodreads, is because I found the ending unsatisfying. I understand why it was done, but I prefer a conclusive ending after plodding through 600 plus pages. I also felt that the chosen ending did not quite match the rest of the book as far as pacing and detail went. Some folks appeared to have loved the ending so don't take my word on this alone. Maybe I will enjoy it more one day when I get to rereading it. For now, I am just going to sulk as I feel like I am hanging in the air and the ground is still no where in sight.

This is the 37th book I've read for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge.

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

Neil Gaiman, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

There is no pretending otherwise. I am a fan of Neil Gaiman's. I love how he can take an old classic story, put a twist on it, and make it something completely surprising. I love his use of words. He doesn't swamp the page with highfalutin words. He keeps it neat and necessary. But, he has an awesome talent for just twisting things enough to get them to jump off the page in a new, catchy way.
Oh, how I love reading Neil Gaiman.

Which, of course, is why I picked up Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances. In case you have been stuck on Mars for the past 2 years and aren't aware, Trigger Warning is a collection of short stories. Every now and again, there is a poem tossed in too.

As with all short story collections, there are the favourites and the not-so-favourites. As a whole, though, I found most of these enjoyable. The cherry and cream puff on top was The Man who Forgot Ray Bradbury. Oh wow. Just wow. I absolutely adore this one. I actually dragged my book to school, sought out the only person I know in real life who would enjoy it and sat him down (by this time, I had already made my mom listen to it), and forced him to read it. Just so that I could share the love of a brilliantly constructed, chilling, masterful story. I adored it. If you would like to hear it, and don't have the book on hand, you can have the absolute pleasure of listening to Neil Gaiman read it here. (I could listen to him read the minutes of parliament, and be enraptured!)

There were some other notable mentions: The Doctor Who short, along with The Sleeper and the Spindle and The Black Dog. I enjoyed seeing Shadow again (from American Gods - a book I would perhaps only recommend to the die hard Gaiman fans, or at least advise that it not be the first Gaiman book to read.)

I gave this 4 stars on Goodreads.
This one does not qualify for the 2015 TBR Pile Reading challenge as it was published this year.