For a long time science-fiction, especially hard sci-fi was my favorite book genre. I am a nerd at heart and I love when authors get nerdy. Though recently I have become interested in more historical literature and have become infatuated with the elegant prose of authors like Mary Shelley. Andy Weir's style and the narration of his character Mark Watney are a far cry from my new obsession but are still very skillfully and entertainingly done. The thrilling story had me gripped for hours on end I and I completed the novel in just over two sittings. It took me a while to warm up to the main character's humorous narration but once I did there were many times where I was laughing aloud to the book. I borrowed this book from my brother as well as Weir's other novel, Project Hail Mary, which I am excited to read. I originally heard of The Martian when the movie came out to much popularity. I don't watch movies very often, and as such I have not seen it yet, but now that I have so thoroughly enjoyed the book I plan on watching it at some point.
The Martians (2025) The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America
by David Baron
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The Martians was a wonderfully written and well researched book about a spectacular story of pseudo-scientific speculation. The main character - or rather, historical figure - of the book, Percival Lowell, is an archetype all too familiar to us in the modern world: a rich man, with an obstinately held pseudo-scientific belief who uses his fortunes to pursue, and to persuade the public of. I saw this book sitting on the "new non-fiction" table at the library, and as a bit of a nerd it caught my attention. I was immediately interested in the information of the historical astronomy, as I find it immensely intriguing, but what ended up interesting me the most during my reading was the all too apparent similarities to modern-day pseudo-science. It turns out that rich men with far too much influence have been negatively affecting public perception of science for centuries. I earnestly enjoyed this book and I hope to read some more of David Baron's other books in the future.
Rising Strong (2015) The Reckoning. The Rumble. The Revolution.
by Brené Brown
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Book clubs! I love book clubs! My local library has a book club I've started attending called "Amazing Minds" where we read and discuss self-help and similar sorts of books. February's book was Rising Strong by Brené Brown. This book was great. My initial impression was that the methods she describes are very similar to how I work through things in therapy. You see, the premise of the book is to give a formula for how to recover from failure, difficulties, fights, and such. The fact that I've used similar methods to recover from rather severe problems through therapy gave, in my mind, much credence to her methods. I have already started implementing some of her methods in order to deal with things in my life and I find them to be very valuable. Two particular ones that I have been using and finding success with are the use of the phrase "I'm making up the story" and the use of the "shitty first draft" when making sense of a difficult situation and the emotions and stories that come along with it. When I journal or talk to my partner about my feelings, and what I'm thinking about something that is particularly difficult, I use some sort of variation of the phrase "I'm making up the story that [blah blah blah...]." I find it to be a very helpful reminder that what I'm feeling and telling myself is not necessarily, and is likely not, the truth. It keeps my negative thoughts, anxiety spirals, and bad decisions in check. I have already been utilizing the "shitty first draft" technique for many years in the form of journaling but I have found that giving it this name has added even more effectiveness to it. I'm able to visualize the stories that I'm telling myself as if they are the first draft of a project, such as a poem or a 3d model. I can visualize myself striking out words and lines and writing new, better, more true ones, or I can visualize myself refining, reshaping, and making a more detailed 3d model. I find this visualization to be a very powerful tool to compare the process of dealing with emotions and difficulties to. There are certainly many more similarly helpful processes in the book, but I will leave those to Brené Brown to describe to you when you read the book for yourself. If you're at all interested in this book, absolutely give it a read. I'm certainly planning on reading more of her work in the future.