'Packing For Mars' by Mary Roach

Packing For Mars, Mary Roach (3)

‘Packing for Mars’ is Ms. Roach’s most recent non-fiction book, which mixes humor and science.  Her earlier books include ‘Stiff’ (dying and cadavers), ‘Bonk’ (sex), and ‘Spook’ (the afterlife) all covering the subjects from a science perspective with a light-hearted voice.  This book looks back on the preparations and issues concerning putting people in space while looking forward towards the new challenges of preparing to put humans on Mars.  Her first lines prepare you for the issues she will cover: ‘To the rocket scientist, you are a problem. You are the most irritating piece of machinery he or she will ever have to deal with.  You and your fluctuating metabolism, your puny memory, your frame that comes in a million different configurations.’  Most of the book is peppered with interesting and funny tidbits about NASA and the various space programs (i.e. Gemini, Apollo).  Several chapters should not be read while eating (Chapter 6: Throwing Up and Down, The Astronaut’s Secret Misery and Chapter 14: Separation Anxiety, The Continuing Saga of Zero-Gravity Elimination to name two).  While quite gross, they did have some laugh out loud moments.  I did think that she dwelt on the smelly and unseemly a bit too much and I lost track of the goal (getting ready for Mars) part way through.  She did wrap it up nicely at the end with an argument for a Mars space program, that all us science-bent people would like!

'SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper' by Howard E. Wasdin & Stephen Templin

SEAL Team Six: Memoirs of an Elite Navy SEAL Sniper, Howard E. Wasdin and Stephen Templin (3)

This book had the random and fortunate timing of being published in May 2011, almost coincident with the capture and killing of Osama Bin Laden by a present day SEAL Team Six.  While many are familiar with the SEAL groups (US Navy’s elite SEa, Air and Land commandos), until last May, many were not aware of the further demarcation of the SEAL Team Six. Similar to the Army Ranger’s Delta Force, SEAL Team Six is the elite of the elite.  Top SEAL’s are encouraged to undergo further training and become part of this group.  Howard Wasdin became an elite Navy SEAL sniper and joined SEAL Team Six.  In this book he recounts several of his major engagements, including the Battle of Mogadishu, with extreme tactical detail.  While I found much of the book to be interesting, I had some issues with the writing style.  He describes so many parts of each assignment before and during the action that I wasn’t clear on what level of importance each piece of information had on the overall picture.  As a sniper, he was trained to observe, but I don’t think this lends itself to an easily readable prose.  It felt like staccato bursts of streams of consciousness.  I did get a good idea of the strength, discipline and teamwork that the SEALs attain and how hard they work to achieve it. 

Book club books - Rob Lowe Memoir and 'Wuthering Heights'

Secrets I Only Tell My Friends, Rob Lowe (3)

Our book club was unanimous in our view that this book was an enjoyable, fast-paced read.  We held back a little on the rating as it read like a People magazine: enjoyable but not exactly to be classified as literature.  Mr. Lowe has a remarkably upbeat voice as he discusses his professional career and describes his frankly shocking number of encounters with famous people.  Part of the fun of the book is re-living the 80’s from his perspective of an innocent young actor becoming an icon of our young adulthood.  It is also enjoyable to see him tackle his demons and work his way into a reinvigorated career and very happy (and appreciated) family life.  The title is interesting as he is telling secrets concerning many iconic actors, but he definitely does not ‘open the kimono’ fully.  His writing style is somewhat detached and disassociated.  You get the impression that you are reading about events, but have been held at arms length from his emotions.  That is certainly his prerogative, and somewhat his point as he says he fights the urge to always be ‘the actor’.

Wuthering Heights, Emily Bronte (4)

Of the sisters Bronte, the majority of us prefer Charlotte’s ‘Jane Eyre’ with Jane, an original strong woman character. While an exquisitely written classic, ‘Wuthering Heights’ has the slight problem of lacking any likable characters!  The main character, Heathcliff, is extremely unpleasant, spending the majority of his life making innocent people miserable.  It’s a testament to Emily’s writing that we can see into and beyond the characters and can appreciate the book without liking them.  It’s quite shocking to think of a young woman of her background in the mid 1800’s creating these real, yet disturbing characters.  I read this book in my teens and thought, as an adult, I would appreciate the love story of Heathcliff and Catherine more.  This was the case.  As a teen, I could not understand how Catherine could choose money and position over her love and best friend (ah, the innocence of youth!).  While I still dislike the choice, I do understand the factors of society and history that would simply make the choice of Heathcliff impossible.  This, of course, drives his anger and frustration of not being the ‘heir’, and makes his actions more understandable if no less abhorrent.  You do see some of Emily’s femininity and youth coming through at the end with a slightly happy and succinct ending than you would expect. Overall, ‘Wuthering Heights’ is an excellent, though dark, classic similar to those by Thomas Hardy.

'The Last of the Mohicans' by James Fenimore Cooper

The Last of The Mohicans, James Fenimore Cooper (3)

I chose World Literature over American Lit in high school and I continue to add the missed classics of American writers to my reading list.  As far as ‘The Last of the Mohicans’ is concerned, I had seen the movie (with a ripped and dashing Daniel Day Lewis) and was expecting a romantic story.   I found the hardest thing about reviewing this book was being distracted by the multitude of differences between the book and movie.  Much of the book is filled with Mr. Cooper’s respect for the Indian cultures embedded in the history of the times. There is very little romance and certainly not between Hawkeye (aka Natty Bumpo, the Scout, or Daniel Day Lewis’s character) and anyone.  In fact, it is an ensemble cast with some emergence of main characters in both Hawkeye and Uncas, the younger of the two Mohicans.  For those unfamiliar, the book is about a group of characters meeting during the French-Indian War. They consist of a British head officer, his daughters, the young American officer escorting them, and the two last Mohicans with their companion, Hawkeye.  The story is filled with their adventures as the daughters try to reach their father while Indian enemies thwart their plans.  As most American literature of the time (early 1800’s), the description and language can be dry and tough to read.  I did enjoy the dramatic scenes and the thoughtful Indian characters, but overall I must say I missed the romance.  In the end, the good dramatic scenes did not make up for the larger amount of dry description and inactivity. I’m not sure why the movie changed virtually all the relationships from the book (even main characters survive and/or die differently than in the book), though sadly, it’s likely due to the desire to have Hawkeye be the dashing figure as opposed to Uncas, the charismatic young Mohican of the book.

'The Lost Gate' by Orson Scott Card

The Lost Gate, Orson Scott Card (3)

This was a quick, relatively light read for OSC.  It’s also much more aligned with the Fantasy genre than his ‘Ender’s Game’ series.  The story follows a boy who lives with the Mages, or magic people, among us.  It was very reminiscent of Harry Potter in theory:  magic among regular humans, boy is considered talent-less but has surprising powers.  The Mages harken back to the gods of Olympus with skills such as forging, farming, horticulture, etc. They have been cut off from their brethren in another planet/place.  It didn’t surprise me that OSC first devised this plot when he was very young.  Part of it has this less mature writing style (ala ‘Treason’). That being said, he is a good storyteller and this story flows well with a compelling plot that pulls you along to find out what happens to the boy (for some reason, I cannot remember his name!). He finishes this chapter, but obviously intends this to be the first adventure in a series.