All Systems Red by Martha Wells

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

by Carol4 Comments
There were three reasons I picked up All Systems Red. #1 - It was sci-fi and I was participating in #SciFiJune when I read it. #2 - It's short and I'm behind on my Goodreads challenge by 4 books. #3 - It had good reviews. In the end, I was honestly surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It's a good story with a truly relatable main character. That relatable character calls itself Murderbot. It is a sentient security robot who has hacked its governor's module. It's essentially rogue, but still pretends to be the security robot it is expected to be. The scientists it's working for run into a dangerous situation and Murderbot does the best it can to protect them. They, in turn, begin to see Muderbot as more of a person and less of a robot. Murderbot though is extremely shy and introverted, interacting with humans in any meaningful way fills it with anxiety. It would much rather...
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The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

by Carol6 Comments
Apparently I had no idea what The Time Machine was about, aside from the obvious of course. The Time Traveler has invented a machine that can go into the past or travel into the future, but of course his friends, who he has dinner with weekly, don't believe him. However, the next week, he shows up late to his own dinner party looking ragged and disheveled and tells his friends an incredible story of traveling into the distant future. There he discovers two bizarre races—the ethereal Eloi and the subterranean Morlocks—who not only symbolize the duality of human nature, but offer a terrifying portrait of the men of tomorrow as well.  He also tells of going even farther and seeing the dying planet. On the one hand, it's an interesting exploration of class and societal evolution. It's the first story to popularize time travel and the image of the dying earth, not the one of the Eloi and Morlocks, but of the...
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Readers’ Workouts – 6/26

Readers’ Workouts – 6/26

by Carol8 Comments
As I mentioned the other day, I have been crazy busy lately, between graduation stuff, new job and now this week my husband's out of town. I did manage to hit my step goal this week, but that's about all I've been doing, aside from eating way too much pasta. All graduation parties around here are pasta heavy. Is it that way everywhere? Current Audiobook: (It is Readers Workouts after all) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie, read by Hugh Fraser Meal ideas for next week: Sloppy joes with zucchini apple hash Chicken parmesan soup Sweet and sour pork Chicken tacos 2018 Fitness Goals: Since I totally lost track for like a month, there's no way I'm going to hit these goals. - Lose weight. Goal - Lose 25 lbs. (I have made no progress on this. Any suggestions? I know eat better and exercise, but any ideas on how to actually accomplish that?) - Run 4 races of any length - Hit my weekly step goal (average 8,000 steps/day) for 36...
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Lock In by John Scalzi

Lock In by John Scalzi

by Carol2 Comments
Mystery and science fiction make a great pairing and Lock In by John Scalzi does it well. It's a police procedural set in a future where a portion of the population has been affected by Haden's syndrome, leaving some "locked in, " awake and aware, but unable to move or respond without computer/mechanical help. I find a read more sci-fi every year and really enjoy it. Lock In is light on the sci-fi side. It's near future and the tech is obviously more advance, allowing human brains to connect with "threeps" (named after C-3PO), the robots that allow locked Haden victims to move, talk, interact with the real world and with the Agora, a virtual world that allows Hadens to communicate with each other, to have their own "spaces" and communal areas. But it all feels distinctly possible and here. It's not space ships and AI robots. There are Hadens who never use a threep, who basically live and work in...
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by Carol6 Comments
So, I think I may be back from my unintended hiatus. There has a been a lot going on lately and I just haven't had much time for blogging. I got a new job in mid-May, which is going really well, but let's be honest, I used to blog while at my old job and haven't been able to do that during my training time. Amber graduated in the beginning of June and has been working on getting all the (on-line) paperwork done for Oberlin. I was out of town for work last week with spotty internet and Amber's graduation party is this Saturday at our house, so we've been spending LOTS of time getting ready for that. I have been getting a little reading done, though. For #SciFiJune, I finished Lock In by John Scalzi and read Unlocked, the short prequel. I also started Head On during the readathon and finished it the following weekend. My other readathon reads were...
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The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson

by Carol2 Comments
I probably shouldn't have read The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, since I can't actually say the title out loud, but I kept seeing it around and the audio was the prefect length for a couple of drives I made last weekend. I really liked the first part of the book. Basically, the media and internet and the world want us to care about everything, but that's not the way to a happy, fulfilling life. You need to choose what you care about, what values really matter to you. Manson shares thoughts that while not original are true, like pain and struggle are unavoidable; facing hard truths about ourselves helps us grow; and failure, as so long as we learn from it, can lead to success; that sometimes just doing something is better than waiting for inspiration. I got a little bored towards the end. A lot of the book is repetitious and his anecdotes can get a little annoying. Maybe...
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