2014 FLORIDA BOOK AWARDS WINNERS

February 6, 2015

2014 FLORIDA BOOK AWARDS WINNERS ANNOUNCED

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. With its ninth annual competition now complete, the Florida Book Awards has announced winners for books published in 2014 in the nine categories of competition.

Coordinated by the Florida State University Libraries, the Florida Book Awards is the nation’s most comprehensive state book awards program. It was established in 2006 to celebrate the best Florida literature. Authors must be full-time Florida residents, except in the nonfiction and visual arts categories, where the subject matter must focus on Florida.

The more than 200 submissions for the 2014 awards were read by juries of three members, each nominated from across the state by co-sponsoring organizations. Jurors are authorized to select up to three medalists (including one gold winner, one silver runner-up and one bronze medalist) in each of the nine categories; jurors are also authorized to make no selections in a given year.

A new award has been introduced this year, the “Gwen P. Reichert Gold Medal for Children’s Literature”, which provides a cash prize for the Gold Winner of the Florida Book Awards in the Children’s Literature category. This award is in memory of Gwen P. Reichert and serves as a lasting tribute to honor her accomplishments as a rare book collector, nurturer of authors and their audience, and her commitment to children’s education. Gwen worked as a school principal and was an enthusiastic children’s book collector. She became friends and pen pals with celebrated children’s book authors including Tasha Tudor and Maurice Sendak. Gwen also founded and served as president of the Randolph Caldecott Society in St. Augustine, Florida.

Florida Book Awards 2014 Winners by Category

Children’s Literature

Gold Medal and Gwen P. Reichert Gold Medal for Children’s Literature: Cleopatra in Space (Scholastic) by Mike Maihack

Silver Medal: Hello, I’m Johnny Cash (Candlewick Press) by G. Neri, illustrated by A.G. Ford

Bronze Medal: Just A Drop of Water (Sky Pony Press) by Kerry O’Malley Cerra

Florida Non-Fiction

Gold Medal: La Florida: Five Hundred Years of Hispanic Presence (University Press of  Florida) edited by Viviana Díaz Balsera and Rachel A. May

Silver Medal: The Peace of Blue: Water Journeys (University Press of Florida) by Bill Belleville

Bronze Medal: Mr. Flagler’s St. Augustine by (University Press of Florida) Thomas Graham

General Fiction

Gold Medal: The Invention of Wings (Viking Penguin Group) by Sue Monk Kidd

Silver Medal: The Heaven of Animals (Simon & Schuster) by David James Poissant

Bronze Medal: The Sheltering (University of South Carolina Press) by Mark Powell

General Nonfiction

Gold Medal: Merlin Stone Remembered (Llewellyn Worldwide) by David B. Axelrod, Lenny Schneir, and Carol Thomas

Silver Medal: Einstein Relatively Simple: Our Universe Revealed in Everyday Language (World Scientific Publishing Company) by Ira Mark Egdall

Bronze Medal: Southside Buddhist Essays (University of Tampa Press) by Ira Sukrungruang

Poetry

Gold Medal: SLANT SIX (Copper Canyon Press) by Erin Belieu

Silver Medal: On the Street of Divine Love (University of Pittsburgh Press) by Barbara Hamby

Bronze Medal: The Small Blades Hurt (Measure Press) by Erica Dawson

Popular Fiction

Gold Medal: Haunted (G. P. Putnam’s Sons) by Randy Wayne White

Silver Medal: Assassin’s Game (Forge Books) by Ward Larsen

Bronze Medal: The Design is Murder (Carina Press) by Jean Harrington

Spanish Language

Gold Medal: El Arma Secreta (Editora Nacional de la República Dominicana) by José M. Fernández Pequeño

Visual Arts

Gold Medal: Africa in Florida: Five Hundred Years of African Presence in the Sunshine State (University Press of Florida) edited by Amanda B. Carlson and Robin Poynor

Silver Medal: Everglades: America’s Wetland (University Press of Florida) by Mac Stone

Bronze Medal: Surfing Florida: A Photographic History (University Press of Florida) by Paul Aho

Young Adult Literature

Gold Medal: Kiss of Broken Glass (HarperTeen) by Madeleine Kuderick

Silver Medal: Knockout Games (Carolrhoda Lab/Lerner Publishing Group) by G. Neri

Bronze Medal: More Than Good Enough (Flux) by Crissa-Jean Chappell

All award recipients will be honored at the Abitz Family Dinner, the annual Florida Book Awards banquet, on April 9th at Mission San Luis in Tallahassee. The nine gold medalists will be recognized March 11th at the Florida Heritage Awards Ceremony sponsored by the Florida Department of State’s Division of Cultural Affairs. Winners will also be hosted by First Lady Ann Scott at a luncheon at the mansion and invited to participate on a Florida Book Awards panel at the inaugural Word of the South literary and music festival in Tallahassee in April.

Co-sponsors of the competition include humanities organizations from across the state such as the Florida Center for the Book; the State Library and Archives of Florida; the Florida Historical Society; the Florida Humanities Council; the Florida Literary Arts Coalition; the Florida Library Association; the Florida Association for Media in Education; the Center for Literature and Theatre @ Miami Dade College; the Florida Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America; Friends of FSU Libraries; the Florida Writers Association; the Florida Literacy Coalition; and “Just Read, Florida!”

Learn more about the Florida Book Awards at floridabookawards.lib.fsu.edu.

Winners by Location (Florida only)

David B. Axelrod – DAYTONA

Viviana Díaz Balsera – MIAMI

Bill Belleville – SANFORD

Erin Belieu – TALLAHASSEE

Kerry O’Malley Cerra – CORAL SPRINGS

Crissa-Jean Chappell – MIAMI

Erica Dawson – TAMPA

Ira Mark Egdall – HOLLYWOOD

Thomas Graham – ST. AUGUSTINE

Barbara Hamby – TALLAHASSEE

Jean Harrington – NAPLES

Sue Monk Kidd – MARCO ISLAND

Madeleine Kuderick – PALM HARBOR

Ward Larsen – SARASOTA

Mike Maihack – LUTZ

G. Neri – TAMPA

José M. Fernández Pequeño – MIAMI

David James Poissant – OVIEDO

Mark Powell – DELAND

Lenny Schneir – DAYTONA

Ira Sukrungruang – BRANDON

Randy Wayne White – SANIBEL

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

DESPERATE GAMES by Pierre Boulle

February 5, 2015
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Pierre Boulle, noted author of books like The Bridge on the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes, passed away in 1994. Among his other works is a dystopian science fiction novel of a world controlled by pure scientists translated and recently reissued.Dys

Boulle postulates scientists from all over the world getting together and deciding that all the problems that exist on earth are due to leaders who do not understand what they are doing, that they are men and women with no grounding in science and lack the perspective of what people really need. The physical scientists propose that they take over all governments on earth and have the current leaders step down and just enjoy life without the stress of governing.

Said and done, the scientists quickly choose a president by a method of formal testing, along with advisers and other officers. All governments are disbanded and countries are consolidated into a world wide organization. The scientists begin working on eradicating the pressures of disease, strife and conflict quickly allowing all mankind to work less and have more.

The required workday is cut to about 2 hours with plenty of time for recreation and rest. The new leaders, the physical scientists, believe that they have achieved the optimum conditions for all the planet’s inhabitants and everyone is happy with the new status quo.

In a short time it is noted that the rate of suicides has gone up and it is quickly determined that these are due to the lack of challenges for the people. The scientists decide that they will provide games to entertain similar to those held in the ancient world, namely fights to the death between trained individuals. This works for a short time until the rate of suicides again climbs.

The answer, of course, is to increase the participation and number of fatalities in the games. Continuing on to staging great battles based on real incidents fought throughout history, namely massive assaults such as the D-Day invasion of Normandy and the world war I battle of the Marne.

While the tone of the book is tongue in cheek and has some similarities to Animal Farm, it can also be taken as a serious condemnation of allowing any group to achieve absolute power without normal checks and balances. It was true while Boulle was alive, and just as true today where philosophies of one group are forced on others causing strife and war. If the book had received more publicity at the time Boulle wrote it it has the potential to be part of works like 1984 and Animal Farm and taken it’s place as a classic example of power run amok.

2/15 Paul Lane

DESPERATE GAMES by Pierre Boulle. Hesperus Press (January 1, 2015). ISBN: 978-1843915355. 208p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

A DOG GONE MURDER by Elaine Viets

February 4, 2015
DOG GONE MURDER

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Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper (Book 10)

Josie has come a long way in this series, from struggling single mom renting her mother’s downstairs apartment to happily married to veterinarian Ted, living in their own home, a mid-century modern cottage. But she’s still mystery shopping, which I always find fascinating, maybe because I’ve been on the other side of the counter. When I worked for Borders Books & Music we were mystery shopped on a monthly basis, and people lost their jobs over those reports – or were rewarded!

Josie’s weaselly boss asks her to check out three local doggie day care centers that are seeking accreditation. This behind the scenes look at these establishments will hopefully give dog owners the gumption to look around themselves before dropping off their pets.

But it wouldn’t be a mystery without a murder, and sure enough Josie finds the popular Uncle Bob’s Doggy Day Camp local television spokesperson/celebrity, Uncle Bob himself, dying in his office. Is it natural causes brought on by a high meat diet or did someone poison Uncle Bob? There are lots of suspects, all his employees have issues with the man and he and his wife are separated.

Josie continues her mystery shopping assignment but when her mom’s new renter and possible love interest is arrested for the murder, Josie has to help out and find the real killer.

I love this series and this latest mystery is a good one –  I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting. Viets creates believable characters, both good and bad, and I find myself thinking about them long after I turn the last page. Another winner from one of my favorite authors.

2/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

A DOG GONE MURDER by Elaine Viets. Signet (November 4, 2014). ISBN 978-0451465986. 304p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

Win THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah

February 3, 2015

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I loved this book so much that I want one lucky reader to get a free copy! Read on for my review and how you can enter to win.

This was quite a departure for Hannah, who typically writes really good stories about contemporary women’s lives. This time she starts out that way, but quickly goes back in time to 1939 France as the war is getting underway.

Sisters Isabelle and Viann have lost their mother, and their father, damaged from World War I, can’t deal with his loss and his daughters so he sends them away. Isabelle is rebellious and gets kicked out of one boarding school after another, until she’s sent to live with her older sister Viann and her husband. Things don’t work out there and the sisters part ways. But when Viann’s husband goes off to war, eighteen year old Isabelle is sent back to stay with her sister again.

Isabelle wants to be involved in the war effort, but not in a typical-of-the-time way of rolling bandages. When she meets Gäetan, a partisan rebel, she falls in love and wants to go off with him to fight, but he sneaks away, leaving her angry, frustrated and heartbroken. As the Nazis move in to France, the country is divided in two, the Nazi occupied territory, and the Free Zone under Vichy government. The sisters’ small town is taken over by Nazis, and one is billeted in their home.

Isabelle joins the Resistance movement at great personal risk. Her exploits become legendary as eventually she leads downed British and American airmen out of France, walking them across the mountains into Spain and freedom. She becomes known as the Nightingale.

Meanwhile, back at home, Viann’s best friend Rachel is Jewish, and we all know what happens there. She begs Viann to take her baby boy, and as dangerous as it is, Viann acquiesces. Then another Jewish friend is being taken away, and leaves her son as well. Viann knows she can’t keep another Jewish child, so she approaches the Mother Superior at the local convent orphanage, and they take the child. They decide there will be more Jewish children to be saved, and eventually Viann saves several more.

The story moves occasionally back to contemporary times, when one of the sisters is being moved to a nursing home by her son, a doctor, who knows nothing of his mother and her sister’s past – and, in a brilliant stroke on Hannah’s part, we don’t know which sister she is.

This was a completely mesmerizing story, a female side of the war that isn’t often explored. I was totally immersed in their world, and often brought to tears. It is a difficult subject, and the brutality and violence is not whitewashed at all, but is necessary to the story. I have read a lot of Holocaust fiction and this was one of the more interesting, unusual and compelling books on the subject. This strong, well written feminist historical fiction is simply not to be missed. It is sure to make my favorite list for 2015.

To win your own copy, please send an email to contest@gmail.com with “WIN NIGHTINGALE” as the subject.

You must include your snail mail address in your email.

All entries must be received by February 20, 2015. One (1) name will be drawn from all qualified entries and notified via email. This contest is open to all adults over 18 years of age in the United States only. Your book will be sent by the publisher, St. Martins Press.

One entry per email address. Subscribers to the monthly newsletter earn an extra entry into every contest. Follow this blog to earn another entry into every contest. Winners may win only one time per year (365 days) for contests with prizes of more than one book. Your email address will not be shared or sold to anyone.

1/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

THE NIGHTINGALE by Kristin Hannah. St. Martin’s Press (February 3, 2015). ISBN 978-0312577223. 448p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

SYNDROME E by Franck Thilliez

February 2, 2015

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While keeping watch over her sick daughter, Lieutenant Lucie Hennebelle receives a quite shocking call: her ex has been struck suddenly and inexplicably blind. And while it was somewhat coincidental that Lucie’s was the number he dialed, she is both willing and able to help.

Ludovic Sénéchal was the first to arrive at the estate sale. This meant he had first pick of ad’s promised 800+ historic film reels. His most exciting purchase, though, is a reel found hidden away on a top shelf. The unlabeled movie is the first thing Ludovic loads onto his projector as soon as he gets home. And it’s the last thing he sees.

Miles away, five horribly disfigured bodies have been discovered at a work site in northern France and Chief Inspector Franck Sharko has been assigned to lend his profiling expertise. While at first the two incidents are seemingly unrelated, an anonymous call indicates otherwise, leaving Hennebelle and Sharko forced to pool resources in order to unravel a bizarre and twisted crime.

Syndrome E is fantastic. The plot is perfectly executed – with just the right amount of tension and twists – and the characters are wonderfully realized. Both Hennebelle and Sharko have great stories, though Sharko and all of his idiosyncrasies make him my own favorite of the two. They’re perfect for driving a series, which is fortunate considering they’ll both return this month in Syndrome E’s follow up, Bred to Kill.

2/15 Becky LeJeune

SYNDROME E by Franck Thilliez. Penguin Books; Reprint edition (April 29, 2014). ISBN: 978-0147509710. 384p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

Win the February ’15 bookshelf of signed thrillers!

February 1, 2015

CONTEST 0215

February is for lovers…of books, at least here! I updated the Win Books page with some wonderful books. This month there are NY Times bestsellers, the latest in some of my favorite series, and a terrific sophomore effort.

First up is Crash & Burn by the #1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner, a stand-alone thriller with a cameo by her fan-favorite character, Boston Detective D.D. Warren. Lisa Unger is at the top of her game with her extraordinary new thriller, Crazy Love You, that will keep you guessing until the last page.

Lisa von Biela gives us a BigPharma medical thriller entitled Blockbuster. The “queen of romantic suspense,” Karen Rose, offers up her latest, Closer Than You Think and Kat Martin is back with Against the Sky, the latest entry in The Brodies of Alaska series.

I was delighted to catch up with one of my favorite characters, ex-cop turned inner city school teacher Raymond Donne, in Dead Red by Tim O’Mara, that is filled with the kinds of unexpected twists that make for the best crime fiction.  Merry Jones brings us the latest in her Harper Jennings series, In the Woods.

Little Black Lies by Sandra Block is about madness and memory – and the dangerous, little lies we tell ourselves just to survive. From the acclaimed author of the “ripping good” (The New York Times) debut novel Three Graves Full comes a new thriller, Monday’s Lie, about a woman who digs into her unconventional past to confirm what she suspects: her husband isn’t what she thought he was.

Finally, John Wells has only Twelve Days to stop the United States from being tricked into invading Iran in the new cutting-edge novel of modern suspense from the #1 New York Times–bestselling author Alex Berenson,

You can win autographed copies of all these books! If you are new to the site, each month I run a contest in conjunction with the International Thriller Writers organization. We put together a list of books including bestsellers and debut authors, so you can win some of your favorites and find some new favorites.

What makes this contest really special is that all of the books (except eBooks) are signed by the author!

Don’t forget, if you subscribe to the newsletter or follow this blog, you get an extra entry into every contest you enter. Check out the Win Books  page for more information on all these books and how you to enter this month’s contest.

Thanks for reading, and good luck!

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

LEAN IN by Sheryl Sandberg

January 31, 2015

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Women, Work, and the Will to Lead

I don’t read a lot of business type books, but I received an invitation from Random House to host what they were called “an authorless event” around this book, and I took them up on their invitation. They sent me flyers about Lean In, bookmarks and a DVD with a few brief messages from the author, including one geared towards book discussion groups. They also sent me book discussion guides.

After reading the book – which I ripped through in one Sunday afternoon – I could see why there has been so much hype around this book. The title alone, “lean in,” has become part of the vernacular. The book is part memoir, part career advice, and eminently personal. It reads as if Sheryl were there in the room, just having this conversation with you, the reader. She talks about some of the difficulties she’s overcome, and ones she still faces. She talks about her personal life, the “myth of having it all” in which working women seamlessly juggle a career (not just a job), a family, keeping a home, and do it all without any help. She calls BS on that, in her own way, and talks about guilt, the importance of choosing the right partner, and even suggests way to get your partner to do their fair share.

Sheryl’s dream is that half of all executive positions in America will be held by women, and half of the people doing the majority of the parenting will be men. She dreams big, and so far it’s worked for her. She is the first to point out that she is very lucky to be able to afford hired help, and to have such a supportive husband, but even with all her blessings, she still carries guilt around.

She talks about the importance of raising our children to respect leadership and talks about how little girls who show leadership are called “bossy” and little boys who do likewise are encouraged. She talks about why women should “sit at the table” and not fade into the background, why girls should raise their hands and speak up, even when being admonished for doing so, while it is acceptable for boys to do the same thing.  She has facts and figures to show that women are hired or promoted based on their accomplishments, while men are judged on their potential.

One of the more interesting statistics was about how people feel about feminism:

Currently, only 24 percent of women in the U.S. say that they consider themselves feminists. Yet when offered a more specific definition of feminism — “A feminist is someone who believes in social, political, and economic equality of the sexes”– the percentage of women who agree rises to 65 percent.

Frankly, I was surprised that number wasn’t even higher.

This is a well researched book with footnotes that are clearly laid out in more than 30 pages of notes in back, and there is a detailed index as well. Since I mostly read fiction, I forgot how wonderful it is to have an index when you are looking for a quote like the one above. The icing on the cake is that Sandberg founded a women’s empowerment nonprofit, LeanIn.Org.

In my day job, I’m a librarian for the Palm Beach County Library System and I’m the programming librarian at my branch. That means I’m responsible for creating a community oriented variety of programs that will hopefully inspire, educate and entertain, and on a really good day, maybe stimulate some discussion that lasts long after the program ends. I decided to build a program around this book, and my recent Business Women’s Networking and Book Discussion did just that.

I was fortunate to have access to a couple of really good resources, Susan Berger, our Business Librarian, and Sharon Geltner, the Small Business Development Center Certified Business Analyst at Palm Beach State College. Both women have done programs at my library, so I invited them to each speak briefly about the free resources available to businesses in Palm Beach County.

Then it was my turn to facilitate a book discussion of the Sheryl Sandberg book, and it was enlightening and better yet, started the seed of something bigger – a Lean In Circle. This is an inspirational and important book, and I urge anyone who works to read it – both men and women. There is a new edition called Lean In for Graduates, which expands on this book with additional chapters “offering advice on finding and getting the most out of a first job; résumé writing; best interviewing practices; negotiating your salary; listening to your inner voice; owning who you are; and leaning in for millennial men.”

1/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg. Knopf; 1 edition (March 11, 2013). ISBN 978-0385349949. 200p.

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BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman

January 30, 2015

Four years ago something devastating began infecting people around the world. The outbreak was so baffling and odd that at first no one was quite aware of what was happening. People turned on one another – reports of violence in remote areas expanded and spread until those left began barricading themselves indoors. It was a viral madness, the cause of which seemed to be as simple as seeing something so horrible that it drove the viewer insane.

Malorie has lasted this long by living in perpetual blindness. It’s an awful and horrifying existence, one that her two children have only ever known. But Malorie knows they can’t continue like this and decides it’s time to try and move on. To do so means exposing them all to whatever caused this plague of insanity and hoping they can get to their final destination without laying eyes on it.

Josh Malerman’s debut is crazy fabulous. From page one I knew it was going to be unique but quite soon after that I realized it was going to be amazing.

Malorie’s world is cut off. She lived with her sister when the outbreak started, discovering that she was pregnant just as things got really bad. And then she was alone. But she was able to find others. She was able to find a safe haven. And they learned more about what was going on around them. All of this is revealed to the reader as the story progresses. Malerman begins the book with Malorie facing her coming journey with the kids, unfolding the past and present portions of the story through alternating chapters.

As the book progresses, we learn just how strong Malorie is and just how determined she’s had to be to get by this long. It’s a tense and terrifying tale. In fact, Bird Box is one of the outright creepiest horror reads I think I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading.

01/15 Becky LeJeune

Read on for the BookBitch review:

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Malorie is a young mother of two children known simply as Boy and Girl, and she is a survivor living in a post-apocalyptic world, raising her children to use all their senses, especially their listening skills, as sight is not an option here.

In this world, the survivors struggle to stay alive by living indoors with all the windows boarded up; the sight of whatever is outside is causing people to become violent murderers, as well as suicidal, in the most horrific ways possible.

The book moves back and forth over a four year period when all the insanity began, exploring the personalities of the people that came together and survived, and how they managed to live after all ways of communication effectively withered and died with most of the population. It ends with Malorie rowing her children down a river while blindfolded in hopes of taking them to safety.

The characters are interesting, the story moves along very rapidly as the suspense builds, but unfortunately, the ending is a disappointment; the reason for all the bloodshed is never explored or explained. Recommended for readers who enjoy horror and post-apocalyptic fiction.

Copyright ©2014 Booklist, a division of the American Library Association.

5/14 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

BIRD BOX by Josh Malerman. Ecco (May 13, 2014). ISBN 978-0062259653. 272p.

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VERONICA MARS: THE THOUSAND DOLLAR TAN LINE by Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham

January 29, 2015

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It’s Spring Break and Neptune is the place to be. But when a partying coed goes missing, travel plans to the beachside city start to go south… and north. In fact, the Chamber of Commerce is worried that the missing girl and the town’s inept sheriff’s lack of action could be pretty detrimental to the season’s tourist dollars. Out of desperation they turn to Mars Investigations for help.

Business has been slow since Veronica chucked her plans to return to New York City and the chamber’s case is a welcome one. Keith is still recuperating and under orders to take it easy so no matter how much he’d prefer his daughter return to the big city and her potentially big career as a lawyer, even he can’t muster up too much of a fuss in her handling this one. And it’s not like either Mars is going to miss out on a chance to show up Sheriff Lamb.

The Thousand Dollar Tan Line is a solid new installment in the seemingly ever-growing (YAY.) Veronica Mars franchise. The plot is definitely worthy of Mars and sure to please Marshmallows, but newbies will probably want to start with the show before diving into the novels. For one thing, there are the characters’ established histories and the town of Neptune itself to consider. For another, Thousand Dollar Tan Line continues plot lines started in both the series and the movie.

1/15 Becky LeJeune

VERONICA MARS: THE THOUSAND DOLLAR TAN LINE by Rob Thomas and Jennifer Graham. Vintage (March 25, 2014). ISBN: 978-0804170703. 336p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir

January 28, 2015

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The Ares 3 surface mission to mars was supposed to last thirty-one days. While there, a team of six scientists would live on and study the Red Planet, the third of a projected five missions to Mars. Just six days in, however, Ares 3 is forced to abandon their assignment when an unexpectedly strong storm hits their landing site.

One of them doesn’t make it.

Mark Watney’s crewmates saw him impaled by an errant antenna. They thought he was dead in an instant. They were wrong. Through a freak and fortunate series of coincidences and pure science, Watney lived. But his injury is just the beginning. Now, with very limited resources and no way to contact Ares 3 or NASA, Watney must figure out a way to survive long enough to be rescued.

The Martian is the perfect science fiction read for a mass audience. It’s wholly approachable and highly entertaining. Watney is charming and clever; watching him theorize ways to survive and attempt to put those theories into action is just part of the fun with this book. The other part is believing that it could happen. Weir takes definite care in explaining the science of The Martian in a way that even the most non-science minded reader can swallow. And he does so while keeping the pace of the book constantly moving.

Originally self-published, Weir caught the attention of Crown with his debut, earning him not only a publishing deal, but a movie deal to boot. The Martian is currently under production and set to hit theaters this year with Matt Damon starring in the lead.

1/15 Becky LeJeune

THE MARTIAN by Andy Weir. Broadway Books; Reprint edition (October 28, 2014). ISBN: 978-0553418026. 387p.

2 Comments | Book Reviews, Fiction, Sci-Fi/Fantasy | Permalink
Posted by Stacy Alesi

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