Go As a River

Read, Shelley. Go As a River. New York: Spiegel & Grau 2023. Print.

First Sentences:

He wasn't much to look at. Not at first, anyway.


Description:

It's an intriguing title to Shelley Read's debut novel: Go As a River. In this compelling story of a young woman's life in the tiny town of Iola, Colorado in the late 1940's and beyond, this phrase pops up to describe a way to survive and continue living:

I had tried...to go as a river, but it had taken me a long while to understand what that meant. Flowing forward against obstacle was not my whole story. For, like the river, I had also gathered along the way all the tiny pieces connecting me to everything else, and doing this had delivered me here, with two fists of forest soil in my palms and a heart still learning to be unafraid of itself.

Victoria Nash, a seventeen-year-old girl, lives with her father, uncle, and younger brother on their generational peach ranch, serving the men in her family and helping with the crops after the deaths of her mother, aunt, and older brother in a auto accident five years earlier. She has no dreams of another life or the world outside her home and nearby woods until a young stranger drifts through town...and she is smitten.

God will bring two strangers together on the corner of North Laura and Main and lead them toward love. God won't make it easy. 

The consequences of her love for this outsider drive the remainder of the story as she leaves her home and family to be with this young man. But soon the reality of life in that era intrudes on the couple's world and both young people and their lives are forever changed.

 

That's all I will reveal of the compelling plot. But please know this is a very special tale of choices, survival, love, and family as seen through the narrator's (Victoria's) eyes and senses. She is passionate about her family and the natural world that surrounds her, and works to nurture and preserve both by whatever means available to her strength and determination. Her voice is true and strong, whether describing her surroundings or contemplating her doubts and obstacles she faces in her present and future life.

The old house smelled like only old houses do, like stories, like decades of buttery skillet breakfasts and black coffee and dripping faucets, like family and life and aging wood.

This is completely Victoria's story, although other major characters are depicted with skill and honesty by author Read. It is a dreamy book in some ways, but always under laid with the reality of the challenging world surrounding this young girl and her later adult years.

I was completely caught up in Victoria and her world, her intense will to survive as well as her heartfelt doubts about whichever road she decides to take. read's prose is simple and clear as the orchard and woods Victoria inhabits, exactly setting the tone on both innocence and gritty determination.

He would teach me how true a life emptied of all but its essentials could feel and that, when you got down to it, not much mattered outside the determination to go on living. 

Happy reading. 

 

Fred

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Doig, Ivan. The Whistling Season.   

A young, mysterious woman takes on work as housekeeper to a man and his sons on a small Montana farm. Along with her brother, she ingratiates herself into the family and community with long-reaching affects. Narrated by one of the young sons, it is a highly descriptive, delightful story of the people and events in a rural town. Absolutely one of the best books I have ever read. Highest recommendation.  (previously reviewed here)

 

We Die Alone

 Howarth, David. We Die Alone. Guilford, CT: Lyons Press 1955. Print.

First Sentences:

Even at the end of March, on the Arctic coast of northern Norway, there is no sign of spring. 

 

By then, the polar winter night is over....There is nothing green at all: no flowers or grass, and no buds on the stunted trees.


Description:

As we drift into the fall months of cooler temperatures, of warmer jackets, and maybe a few snowflakes, it's a bit shocking to read a true story revolving around really, and I mean REALLY COLD weather. David Howarth's We Die Alone: A WW II Epic of Escape and Endurance

is exacly such a gripping, historical adventure set in the frigid temperatures of northern Norway. But be warned. When you read this book, it's best to have on warm clothes and a hot drink nearby, preferably sitting in front of a roaring fire with a cozy blanket wrapped around you.

During World War II in 1943, twelve Norwegian resistance fighters embarked on a mission of sabatoge in the northernmost part of Norway, an isolated outpost controlled by the Nazis and vital to their control of sea routes. The saboteurs' goal was to blow up key Nazi munitions depots and organize Norwegian resistance in that area. 

Unfortunately, the men were betrayed and eleven of the Norwegians were killed upon reaching their target.

But one man escaped, Jan Baalsrud, by running across frozen fields that night partially barefoot (he'd lost a shoe when jumping from their boat into the sub-freezing water). On top of that, he was hobbled by a bleeding foot where one of his toes had been shot off. 

To avoid capture, he had to swim (again in the sub-freezing water) from their target on an island to the mainland of Norway, then set out on foot (deep snow, no shoe, bleeding toe, remember?) for dry clothing, shelter, food, and help to reach safety in a bordering neutral country. 

And so begins his journey of months filled with isolated countryside, high mountains, deep snow, German patrols, an avalanche, and, of course, the unrelenting, freezing temperatures.

In the valley bottom were frozen lakes where the going was hard and smooth; but between them the snow lay very deep, and it covered a mass of boulders, and there he could not tell as he took each step whether his foot would fall upon rock or ice, or a snow crust which would support him, or whether it would plunge down hip deep into the crevices below.

For the escaping Baalsrudven, finding any form of help was difficult and dangerous for all involved. Anyone he contacted could be a Nazi supporter or at least an informer. The few local Norwegians in the area had to protect their families and lives, since assisting a Nazi fugitive was punishable by death to the entire family, slaughter of all livestock, and destruction of the farmland. 

 

Yet many gladly helped him. Word had slowly spread through the desolate countryside that one man had escaped the Nazi sabeteur killings. Through this grapevine, Baalsrud became a secret hero to the quiet Norwegian farmers, a symbol of their national pride, strength, and resistance to the occupying Nazis. And so they helped in small, but vitally important ways, especially when several times Baalsrud was on the verge of death.

As one Norwegian farmer reflected:

At last it was something which he and only he could possibly do. If he could never do anything else to help in the war, he would have this to look back on now; and he meant to look back on it with satisfaction, and not with shame. He thanked God for sending him this chance to prove his courage....[He told Baalsrud] "If I live, you will live, and if they kill you I will have died to protect you."

Challenge after challenge presented itself to Baalsrud. Wearing only grimy rags of frozen clothes, starving, and suffereing from painful injuries and frostbite, Baalsrud continually astonishes us readers with his perserverence. Example after example of his courage, will, and seemingly endless supply of optimism drives this adventure tale forward, forcing readers to bundle up and continue following Baalsrud to his ultimate journey's end. Absolutely highly recommended.

[P.S. There is also a film called, The Twelfth Man (available on DVD and Amazon Prime) that is a breathtaking representative of the book, especially in portraying myriad of challenges and undying perserverence of Baalsrud ... and the unbearable, unrelenting cold.]

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Rawicz, Slavomir. The Long Walk: The True Story of a Trek to Freedom.   

Incredible true story detailing the author's 1941 capture, prison life and eventual escape from a Soviet labor camp in Siberia. His route took him through China, Tibet, the Gobi Desert, and India, all while experiencing desperate cold, hunger, thirst, and fear of recapture. 

Project Hail Mary

Weir, Andy. Project Hail Mary. New York: Ballantine 2021. Print

First Sentences:

"What's twp plus two?

Something about the question irritates me. I'm tired. I drift back to sleep.

A few minutes pass, then I hear it again.

"What's two plus two?

The soft, feminine voice lacks emotion and the pronunciation is identical to the previous time she said it. It's a computer. A computer is hassling me. I'm even more irritated now.

Description:

When I heard last year that Andy Weir, author of The Martian, had finished another science fiction novel (emphasis on the "science"), I marked my calendar for its publication date. Haven't ever done that before. So when Project Hail Mary finally came out, I was already on my library's "reserve" list and one of the first readers of that book in our area.

What a writer Andy Weir is: imaginative, scietific, ingenious, snarky, and best of all, a page-turning story-teller. And Project Hail Mary is a lulu of a tale.

Ryland Grace wakes to find himself in a strangely sterile room, unable to move his limbs, listening to a computer voice. Where is he? Gradually, his memory and body begin to return and he realizes he is the sole survivor on a space ship heading to a distant star. And not to just any star, but one that holds a secret that might mean the survival of a doomed Earth.

Alternating chapters between Grace's backstory and his current deep space mission, Weir unravels the current situation. An unknown microbe is slowly sapping the energy from the Sun, and at such an alarming rate that within a few decades the heat and light the Earth require will be extinguished. Astronomers have also discovered other stars in the galaxy which are experiencing similar energy loss -- all but one, that is, and this is the star Ryland Grace is heading toward.

But as these pieces slowly unfold in his memory and he arrives at this unique destination, he notices something strange. There's another space ship in the same area. Friend or foe? Similar purpose or unknown intentions? Grace knows he will have to meet this other ship and crew, and then deal with ensuing consequences. 

He also realizes his mission is designed to be only one-way. He is to find out why this star is not losing its energy, send his conclusions back to Earth via robot pods, and then live out his days in space since there was no room on his ship to carry food for the 18-year return trip.

Each chapter leaves Grace in a new quandry, facing a dificult decision, wondering what decisions to make, and how to deal with an alien. All these challenges are cleverly presented via Grace's stream of consciousness and self-discussions as he works through each obstacle with scientific reasoning, logic, and common sense.

It is an incredibly readable book, chock full of reasonable-sounding science that make data and complex operations understandable to laymen like me. It's truly a gripping story that will keep you guessing as to how Grace can possible find success with yet another challenge. Right up to the last pages, it is impossible to predict what he will face next.

That's all you get. If you want more, you'll just have to sit down for a few days and immerse yourself in this future environment where one man tries to save the world. Sounds like a hackneyed topic, but in the hands of author Weir, the story is anything but formulalistic. Read it. Read it. Read it. I give Project Hail Mary my highest recommendation.  

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Weir, Andy. The Martian.   

Accidentally left alone on Mars by his fellow astronaut team, Mark Watney must learn how to make his presence known to them and Earth so a rescue mission might be created... and he has to figure out how to survive for the months before any hope of another ship could come for him.  (previously reviewed here)

Stephenson, Neil. Seveneves.   

"The Moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason." Has there ever been a better first sentence? The people of the world realize the end of life on Earth will be caused by fallout of pieces from moon in less than two years. Therefore, they must work together to mount a rocket with representatives from Earth to preserve the species for eons until the planet becomes inhabitable again. Incredible, scientific yet readable, and thoroughly engrossing. My highest recommendation.  (previously reviewed here)

 

Why We Swim

Tsui, Bonnie. Why We Swim. Chapel Hill, NJ: Algonquin. 2020. Print

First Sentences:

One night over dinner, my husband tells me a story he heard about a boat in the North Atlantic and a man who should have drowned.


Description:

I've been doing a lot of swimming lately, up to a mile each day in a lake or pool. So of course I was drawn to Bonnie Tsui's Why We Swim, an engaging history of people, events, emotions, and challenges of swimming. 

Water has played a significant part in human history, the element we originated in before becoming land creatures. Today, we are not natural born swimmers, but we are inexorably drawn to water.

And Tsui presents a lot of fascinating people to showcase our historic attraction to swimming and personal relationship with the water. Tsui skillfully weaves these accounts into a gentle, almost rhythmic narrative writing style that is a pleasure to read...almost like floating down a river. 

She begins with the true Icelandic story of a 22-year-old fisherman who survived the sinking of his boat by swimming over 3.5 miles to safety ... in 41-degree water on a 29-degree night. How did he survive six hours in the freezing water when the other crew members quickly drowned or died within minutes from hypothermia? The survivor has become an international hero for helping scientists understand the effects and prevention of hypothermia. There is even an annual swimming event in Iceland, the Guolaugssund ("Guolaugur's Swim"). Of course, Tsui participates in this event and relates her experiences.

Do you remember Dara Torres, the 41-year-old Olympic medalist who in her fifth Olympics (a record for appearances) in Beijing in 2008, only to miss a gold medal by 1/100 of a second? Tsui interviews Torres to understand what drove her to come out of three retirements to keep swimming competitively at such a high level at her relatively advanced age.

And then there's "Coach Jay" Taylor, a cultural attache for the US Foreign Service, who taught soldiers in Baghdad to swim in Saddam Hussein's enormous palace pool. From Navy SEALS to Iranian women who had never been able to purchase a swim suit, much less enter the water, Coach Jay taught hundreds to strip down to swimsuit and goggles, making all, regardless of rank or sex, equal.

Don't forget Kim Chambers, who despite a leg-crushing accident, still swims daily in the sub-60-degree Pacific Ocean of San Francisco, sometimes going all the way to Alcatraz or the nearby shark-infested waters Farallon Islands.

I loved the stories about the Bajau in Malaysia who free-dive two hundred feet. And the Moken in Thailand who gather clams and sea cucumbers from the bottom of the ocean, helped by their ability to focus their eyes underwater (a skill Tsui shows us how we can learn!). Also, there are people today who practice the art of Nihon eiho, the Japanese military art of swimming (usually in full, 45-pound armor), that involves skills such as treading water without hands so they can shoot bows and arrows, silent swimming, and leaping straight up out of the water onto boats.

She interviews the anthropologists who study the 10,000-year-old paintings of swimmers found in a cave in the Egyptian desert. Shallow lakes once dotted this currently barren desert, and now there is newly discovered evidence of humans who lived and swam near these waters for thousands of years. 

Who else does Tsui mention? Try Benjamin Franklin, Lynne Cox (distance, cold-water swimmer), Gertrude Ederle (holder of dozens of swimming world records and the first woman to swim the English Channel, breaking the men's record by two hours). There's Dr. Oliver Sacks, E.A. Poe, Thoreau, Byron, D.H. Lawrence, Melville, Jack London, Franklin Roosevelt, and even Nietzsche, all of whom used water and swimming in their lives and writings.

We are all drawn to water, whether to live near it, contemplate it, or swim in it. Tsui does a wonderful job of bringing so many elements together is a compelling narrative. An eye-opening book for anyone connected to water (i.e., all of us!)

When we peer into a lake, river, or ocean, we find that water encourages a particular kind of reverie. Perhaps its depths can enhance our consciousness even more if, instead of just looking, we get in and swim.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Laughlin, Terry. Total Immersion: The Revolutionary Way to Swim Better, Faster, and Easier  

Laughlin walks non-swimmers to triathletes through learning the modern way to swim now used by most champion swimmers. Easy glides, fewer strokes, and efficient body position are the keys which can make anyone enjoy swimming at a higher level no matter what your skill or goals.

Running the Amazon

Kane, Joe. Running the Amazon. New York: Knopf. 1989. Print.

First Sentences:

Southern Peru, late August 1985.

Beneath a rust-colored winter sky an old GMC flatbed bounced slowly through the high Andean badlands known as The Puna. It is a lunar landscape, flat, treeless, ringed with bald dun hills and sharp gray peaks, bone-dry nine months of the year, beaten by frigid, dust-coated winds. 

Description:

I'm a sucker for any adventure book with humans pitted against nature, whether by their own choice or by accident, Exploring and surviving the arctic, space, jungles, mountains, wild rivers, and deserts all provide fascinating adventures and force me to wonder "Would I have survived this experience?" Probably not, but that only increases the admiration I have for these brave people and compels me to read more and more about such death-defying adventures.

In Running the Amazon, author Joe Kane recounts the only expedition to travel the entire length of the Amazon River, all 4,200 miles of it, from its source in the Andes mountains to mouth in the Atlantic Ocean. Kane was one of four members of this 1984 expedition to complete the entire length of the Amazon over the six-month trip by kayak, raft, and foot.. 

The Amazon Source to Sea Expedition consisted of nine men and women from Poland, Britain, Costa Rica, and South Africa. Members joined the expedion out of a sense of adventure, for the sake of science, and simply to be part of accomplishing a unique goal. One man was an experienced kayaker, one a doctor, one a photographer, and one a national park director from Costa Rica. Kane was along to document the journey for future articles and a book.

From the beginning, it proved to be a difficult endeavor. Simply finding the source of the Amazon at the 15,000 foot level of the Andes in Peru was the first challenge. From those freezing slopes to kayaking down to the humid jungles of the Amazon valleys, Kane documents their times of starvation, freezing, exhaustion, internal dissent, and small triumphs. He also includes fascinating local history of the region, the Incan dynasty, the Spanish invasion, and the indigenous people the expedition met along the river. 

Here's just one of Kane's many tidbits. While traveling down the wild, mysterious Apurimac river ("parts of it remain among the least-known areas on the South American continent"), Kane describes the hammered grass bridges of that region. They were once "two hundred feet long [with grass cables] as thick as a man's body...capable of supporting entire armies of animals and men." Imagine. Huge bridge cables made only of grass strong enough to support travel over vast chasms! The Incans eventually burned almost all of these bridges to slow the pursuit of Spanish conquistadors. Kane provides a photo of the last remaining Incan grass bridge, with expedition members crossing it with their kayaks floating in the river far below.

The group had to deal with local politics and cocaine traffickers, as well as the more severe problems of shelter, food, wild animals, biting insects, and drowning in the rapids they faced daily. You can probably imagine the other dangers presented on every page of this heart-stopping story.

I was completely transported into the rain forests along with these incredibly brave and stubborn explorers. Their dedication and perseverance inspired and drove them onward, overcoming every obstacle the environment could throw at them. A strong, inspiring book.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Goddard, John. Kayaks Down the Nile

Author Goddard used to come to my high school in California twice a year to give student assemblies recounting his adventures. I remember one of his best was his trip to be the first to explore the Nile River from origin to mouth. Hippos, rapids, and every other obstacle was met and overcome with a casual grace so evident in his talks and this book. Hard to find, but a must read for those with an explorer's soul. 

My Abandonment

Rock, Peter. My Abandonment. New York: John Murray 2018. Print

First Sentences:

Sometimes you're walking through the woods when a stick leaps into the air and strikes you across the back and shoulders several times, then flies away lost in the underbrush.  

There's nothing to do but keep walking, you have to be ready for everything and I am as I follow behind Father down out of the trees, around a puddle, to the fence of the salvage yard. It's night.

Description:

Based on a true life situation, Peter Rock's My Abandonment retraces the lives of man and his thirteen-year-old daughter who live off the grid, hidden in a vast nature park outside the city of Portland, Oregon. Narrated clearly by the young girl, Caroline, we get a peak at their day to day existence over the past four years after the death of her mother. She and her father live in a self-made shelter, tend a small garden, even read from their small library of sorts as they live off the lands.

Until they are discovered by a passing jogger ...

Then everything changes. Of course, they are taken from the park, separated, questioned with suspicion, and finally relocated with another family that offers work and shelter. Although living in the confines of society is tremendously difficult for the father, Caroline tries to become part of her new life. Escape for both of them is planned, but that is just the beginning of their adventure.

This is a wonderful book, full of passion, strength, inventiveness, and adaptation. All characters are believable as are their intentions to do good in the world for themselves and those around them. It just is a bad fit for this father interacting with the outside world and people.

I really enjoyed it as you can tell and highly recommend it to anyone looking for unique characters who test themselves against challenging everyday situations. If nothing else, you can watch the excellent movie based on this true story, Leave No Trace, with Ben Foster and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie ably playing the father and daughter. Both film and book are well worth your time and attention.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Mejia, Mindy. Leave No Trace.   

[This is a book, not the film based on My Abandonment. Confusing, I know.] 

When Lucas, a teenage boy who has been missing for ten years, emerges from the Boundary Waters forest in Minnesota, he is violent and uncommunicative. Involuntarily committed to a psychiatric facility, he comes under the observation of Maya, a lowly language therapist who somehow is able to win Lucas' trust, and slowly his story slowly unfolds.  (previously reviewed here)

I Am Still Alive

Marshall, Kate Alice. I Am Still Alive. New York: Viking 2018. Print

First Sentences:

I am alone.

I don't have much food. The temperature is dropping. No one is coming for me....So if you're reading this I'm probably dead.

Description:

Not many first sentences grab you as immediately as does the start of Kate Alice Marshall's I Am Still Alive. The opening paragraphs show Jess, a teenage girl, staring at the burning ruins of a cabin and the body of her dead father. She is surrounded by hundreds of miles of unbroken forest. No provisions, no extra clothing, no shelter, severly hobbled by an injury, and plenty of hints of eminent danger from outside forces challenge her to survive even the first day alone.

My body's a bit broken, but it doesn't mean I'm a broken person.

But survive she does. She had only been living with her estranged father for a few weeks following a car crash that killed her mother and left Jess homeless and with lingering injuries. With no where else to go, she is shipped to her father who has been living off-the-grid for a decade, not exactly her first choice of companions or living conditions.

Now, using her father's words ("Not strong. Smart") and woodland training learned over the last few weeks, Jess tries to eke out an existence. Getting out of the area seems out of the question, but can she wait until the supply plane that dropped her off is scheduled to return months from now?

In addition, she knows the people responsible for the death of her father and the destruction of their cabin are also coming back....and probably much sooner than the supply plane. So she wants to be ready. But to do what is the question?

It is a survival story, of course, but added to that common plot is the intriguing mystery of Jess' father and his reasons for living in such an isolated location. Also, who are the men who flew in and killed him? And why? All are questions that Jess must figure out to understand her situation and future, should she survive long enough.

To survive you need to learn to hold contradictory things in your head at the same time. I am going to die; I am going to live. There is nothing to fear; be wary of everything. ...The indifference of the wild is terrifying.

Really a compelling read, full of surprises, scenarios, and tension. I loved not knowing what would happen page to page, right up to the very end. I was hooked and cannot wait until author Marshall writes a second novel.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Paulsen, Gary. Hatchet.   

Brian, while flying in a small plane to visit his father deep in the remote wilds of Canadian forests, survives his plane crash where the pilot is killed. He is left alone with no provisions, food, clothes, etc. except his hatchet, to survive until the unlikely occurrence that someone finds him. Terrifically exciting story. And even better, when you are done with Hatchet, there are several other novels about Brian's life in wilderness settings, each one excellent.

Leave No Trace

Mejia, Mindy. Leave No Trace. New York: Holt 2018. Print

First Sentences:

By the time the boy in ward four attacked me, I'd already nicknamed him The Lost One in my head.

He'd been admitted a week ago, transferred from police to orderlies while dozens of reporters swarmed the entrance, overwhelming security in their struggle to get a clear shot of our newest, involuntary patient...The boy who came back from the dead.

Description:

Mindy Mejia's Leave No Trace begins with the startling reappearance of a teenage boy who had been missing for ten years along with his father during a camping trip in the forests of  Minnesota. Due to to the boy's violent behavior and refusal to talk, Lucas is involuntarily placed in a psychiatric facility where he is completely unmanageable. He eventually falls under the observation of the novel's narrator, Maya Stark, a lowly assistant language therapist. 

And now, after two weeks of silent violence and disregard for every human around him, he'd decided to talk. To me.

Slowly, the story of "The Lost One" unfolds. And what Lucas reveals to Maya is the story of parents, dreams, and lives gone askew. Maya, too, has suffered her own familial hardships that include the unexpected disappearance of her own mother. Maya identifies with the pain Lucas feels locked up in the psychiatric facility away from his woods. To get him released or to help him escape seem remote, yet tempting goals.

So who is this boy? Why did he go missing? Where has he (and possibly his father) been for ten years and what were their plans? Questions abound on every page as Maya grows more and more involved in Lucas' case. She researches other historical instances where people voluntarily to disappear and go missing, looking for similarities in their motivations that might be similar to Lucas and his situation, along with any answers to help him find peace.

That's you get from me to avoid spoiling the rest of the totally engrossing story. Lucas and Maya are incredibly well-drawn human characters struggling with their inner thoughts and drives. Their stories are fascinating as are their hopes for the future, whatever that might be. It's a spell-binding tale well-written and executed by author Mejia. 

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Rock, Peter. My Abandonment.   

A teenage girl and her father suffering from PTSD live off the grid in an urban forest until discovered and forced to rejoin the world. Breath-taking writing, characters, and plot. Confusingly, in 2018 this novel was made into a movie called Leave No Trace, and although both the book and movie with the same name focus on people living off the grid, the plots are very different.

Severence

Ma, Ling. Severence New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 2018. Print.

First Sentences:

After the End came the Beginning.

And in the Beginning, there were eight of us, then nine -- that was me -- a number that would only decrease.

Description:

Here's an interesting premise. In Ling Ma's novel Severence , a worldwide flu known as Shen Fever has spread internationally with its fascinating symptoms. Those who are "fevered" become forever stuck performing an endless loop of an ordinary behavior. One family continually sets plates and silverware out on their dining room table, sits down, and eats as if there is food on the plates, then puts all utensils and plates back into the cupboards and drawers, only to immediately take them out and repeat the process over and over and over. A woman is seen endlessly taking keys out of her purse, unlocking a door, opening it, closing it, replacing her keys, and repeating.  

But there are also a very few unfevered people. One roving band of eight discovers the novel's narrator, Candace Chen, in a New York City taxi far outside the city limits. Candace was a former Bible designer for a major publisher, working diligently in the office building until all her suppliers, customers, staff and bosses became fevered and stopped coming in or responding to messages. So she jumps into an endlessly circling cab, pushes the staring driver out, and motors far away from New York until she runs out of gas.

She joins this tiny group of what appears to be the only unfevered people in the world. The small group "stalks" houses and stores, taking for themselves canned food, generators, toys ... anything they might need in this new world. They are led by Bob who is taking them to the "Facility," a mysterious building where they will settle somewhere outside of Chicago. But with no GPS or maps, dodging abandoned cars along every road, the trip is slow. And along the way, personalities, goals, and frustrations begin to emerge, not all of them pretty to see.

But author Ling Ma brings us much more than merely a post-apocalyptic journey. She weaves in alternate chapters detailing Candace's former life in New York, her ambitions, and her lucrative contract with the publishing company that kept her in the City long after the flu hit. The decisions Candace faces her pre-flu life, as well as when the flu rises up ("The End"), and then during her post-flu life ("The Beginning"), are fascinating accounts of conflicting interactions with family, lovers, strangers, and environmental challenges thrust upon her.

And boy, can Ling Ma paint mysterious, compelling pictures with her writing style:

When she peeks into the bedroom, [her father] is in his usual stance: his back to the door, kneeling in front of the nightstand, clutching the beige phone receiver in one hand as he speaks to someone he declines, has declined over and over again, to identify, this person for whom his voice unfurls slow, drowsy murmurings, like a comb through wet hair.

I was riveted throughout this book, unable to anticipate what would happen from one page to the next. A very clever, challenging, plot full of unpredictable characters and situations. Highly recommended.

The End begins before you are ever aware of it.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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Stephenson, Neal. Seveneves  

When the Moon explodes, it is quickly calculated by scientists how many months Earth (and humans) have before debris destroys everything. Plans are made for a survivalist space ship and representatives from the human race along with supplies necessary to preserve the culture. This brilliant sci-fi story of these people and the future of Earth is grippingly told is a very believable, unexpected manner. (previously reviewed here)

Apollo 8

Kluger, Jeffrey. Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. New York: Holt 2017. Print

First Sentences:

August 1968 

The last thing Frank Borman needed was a phone call when he was trying to fly his spacecraft. 

No astronaut ever wanted to hear a ringing phone when he was in the middle of a flight, but when the spacecraft was an Apollo, any interruption was pretty much unforgivable. 

Description:

I admit it. I love books about space, NASA programs, and memoirs from astronauts. Here's a great book to add to any fellow space-lover's reading list: Jeffrey Kluger's Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. This well-researched book is chock full of inside stories, data, interviews, and photos about the first manned space flight to the moon. Apollo 8 details every thrill, problem, and personality to allow readers to experience every aspect of this history-making flight.

In 1968, the United State was experiencing difficult times. Assassinations, Vietnam, civil rights protests, and the Cold War filled the newspapers. Even NASA was on shaky ground after the fiery deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on the Apollo 1 launchpad. Therefore, NASA scrapped the next two Apollo missions to revamp all safety procedures, and used unmanned spacecraft for the Apollo 4-6 flights. Apollo 7, the first three-man Earth orbital mission, had problems with both the spacecraft and the crew who complained constantly during their flight about the craft and conditions. (NASA made sure none of these men was allowed to fly into space again.)

NASA needed some good publicity to increase interest from the citizens and government. They therefore decided to upgrade the mission of Apollo 8 from a simple Earth orbit into one that would head to the Moon. It would be humankind's first flight outside our own orbit. NASA even decided to add orbits of the Moon to take photos of potential landing sites and, for the first time ever, bring back scenes from the dark side of the moon. These ambitious goals would certainly catch the interest of the world!

Frank Broman, Jim Lovell, Bill Anders were the crew. NASA hoped these men would rise to the challenge of the more complex flight plan and the revamped training necessary to succeed in the daring mission. And NASA wanted these astronauts and flight to succeed with such perfection that Americans would recover from the Apollo 1 deaths and Apollo 7 sloppiness to again feel proud of the US space program. As a bonus, such an ambitious flight would make the Russians realize how far the US was pulling ahead in the space race.

There were 5.6 million separate parts in the command and service module...which meant that even if everything functioned 99.9 percent perfectly, 5,600 parts might go bad. 

The mission required Apollo use the giant, untested Saturn V rocket to break Earth's orbit. Designer Wernher von Braun assured NASA that the rocket would be ready for the 16-week launch date. Now all that was needed was for :

1. The Earth to be at the precise spot in its rotation for launch, orbit, moon shot to achieve the proper angles;
2. The Atlantic or Pacific Ocean to be in position under the returning spacecraft 6 days later for splashdown;
3. The Moon to be in proper phase for illumination of possible landing site photos

Astronauts and Mission Control staff practiced simulations of every procedure and problems thrown in. Trainers would disable three of the Saturn engines just after launch, kill communications systems, have individual systems break down and give the men three minutes to solve the problems.

In-flight problems still arose. For example, Commander Bormann was nauseated throughout the flight. Stored bags of urine leaked. Temperatures inside sun-facing spacecraft stayed at a steady 80 degrees. Along with the reality of three men living for six days in a small space, these factors combined to produce a definite ripeness to the air in the spacecraft. 

Many more fascinating details emerge from Apollo 8, including the history of the formation of the moon. Author Kluger describes how 4.5 billion years ago a passing body collided with Earth to knock it off its axis to create our seasons and send a ring of dust around our planet that after a billion years condensed into the Moon.

The highlight of the mission was the Christmas TV broadcast from Moon orbit where each man gave his personal impressions of Moon to the vast audience on Earth. Each recited portions of the Genesis biblical verses ("In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth..."), and the listeners were awestruck.

There is so much more, but I will prevent myself from revealing additional wonderful details to those who want to read and savor this historic account for themselves, and to stop myself from boring any who are not space enthusiasts. Apollo 8 is an important piece of the space program puzzle that eventually put humans on the Moon. I found Apollo 8 to be a fascinating documentation of this flight. It was riveting for an armchair astronaut like me to be part of each step for this particular mission.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Burrows, William E. This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age  

The most complete history of the space program, from initial experiments with rockets to landing on the moon and beyond. Loads of conversations, memos, speeches, flights, triumphs and failures, and the people behind all of these. Interesting because it draws on documents from the Soviet Union to follow the birth and development of their space program as well. 

Cernan, Eugene and Don Davis. The Last Man on the Moon  

Biography of Gene Cernan and his adventures in NASA from Gemini to Apollo to setting the final footprints on the moon. Wonderfully narrated by Cernan as he recalls the training, excitement, frustrations, and eventual rewards for his first space walk and eventual moon walk. (previously reviewed here)