Book: Atomic Anna

 Book: Atomic Anna

Author: Rachel Barenbaum

Pages: 449

This is my 187th read for the year

This is the story of three women.  Anna - a brillian scientist in the early part of the century whose life changes on the day of the Chernobyl explosion.  Her daughter Molly and Molly's daughter, Raisa get intertwined with Anna's life when the explosion throws Anna ahead in time where she sees Molly shot and dying.  Anna goes about trying to figure out how to build the time machine so that she can save Molly and fullfill Molly's request of then saving Raisa.  Throughout the story we go back and forth in time over the course of all three women's lives to see what brought them to this moment and what it would take to change it.

I found this book for $2 at a used bookstore and thought it seemed interesting.  And it was.  I really enjoyed the story and the flow of the book.  I think it is well written with good character development.  I liked most the characters and there was just a hint of mystery as the story went along, but not so much to keep the reader unnecessarily in the dark.  I was surprised when I looked this book up on Amazon that it only had 200 reviews because I think it was great.  Time travel done right!

Stars: 4.5

Book: Daughter of Moloka'i

Book: Daughter of Moloka'i

Author: Alan Brennert

Pages: 336

This is my 186th read for the year

Here is what Amazon says:

This tells the story of Ruth, the daughter that Rachel Kalama, was forced to give up at birth.  This book folows young Ruth from her arrival at the Kapi'olani Home for Girls to her adoption by a Japanese couple who riase her on a strawberry and grape farm in California, her marriage and unjust internment at Manzanar Recloation Camp during WWII, and then  - after the war - to the life-altering day when she recevies a letter from a woman who says she is Ruth's birth mother.  It expands on the Ruth and Rachel relationship that was hinted at in book one.

This book was okay.  I loved the first book and was excited when I saw there was a second one written.  But this book was a lot of fluff and not a lot of substance.  It was more like the author was just trying to capitalize on the success of his first novel instead of really developing a good story.  Even at just a bit over 300 pages, it drags.  There is very little discourse (none really) among the characters which was just odd - especially since they were in a Japanese internment camp.  Everyone is wonderful, the children are sweet and endearing to the point of it just not being realistic.  Just too sappy.  Overall - just not high quality story telling or writing.

Stars: 3

 

Book: Remember

 Book: Remember

Author: Lisa Genova

Pages: 272

This is my 185th read for the year

Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist turned author, and she uses this non-fiction book to delve into how memories are made and how we retrieve them.  She describes the distrinction between dementia, alzheimers, and just a "lapse in memory".  She discusses how memory is affected by diet and exercise, sleep and age.  She then gives tips and tricks to help improve your memory and what really works and what is just a myth.

This was a fantastic book.  I like Genova's fictional books and this one was no different.  She is a Harvard trained neuroscientist and she uses clear and understandable language to talk through how memory works.  The conclusion for me is that most lapses in memory are completely normal and there are things you do without even realizing it that makes you feel like you have a bad memory.  Forgot where you parked your car?  You probably never took a second to calculate where the car was in the first time, so when you don't form a memory, of course you cannot remember it.  It was fascinating and enlightening, and I encourage you to read it.  Especially if you are in the second half of your life.

Stars: 5

Book: Poster Girl

 Book: Poster Girl

Author: Veronica Roth

Pages: 288

This is my 184th read for the year

This is the story of Sonya.  Her family was part of the elite members of a society until the Delegation collapsed.  Now she is a prisoner in the Aperture - a walled off city for the members of the Delegation who survived the uprising and were jailed.  The rest of her family is dead.  And she - the one time Poster face of the Delegation thinks this is where she will die.  However - she is given a chance for freedom and to rejoin society.  The brother of her dead fiance has given her a nearly impossible task to find a missing girl so that she can rejoin her family.  This task leads Sonya on a path through the Delegation's past that she did not know about.  And in the end she needs to decide for herself where her true loyalties lie.

I really liked this book.  I thought it was well written and the story flowed well.  I liked the characters, and there were a few surprises I didn't see coming.  It is a short book, but she was still able to build a sci-fi world that was satisfactory to the reader.  I knocked it a star because the ending was so unsatisfactory.  I was disappointed - I was left wanting more.  It kind of wraps up, but leaves you hanging and the epilogue is only 2 pages.  A bit frustrating.  But overall - glad I read this one.

Stars: 4

Book: Interesting Facts About Space

 Book: Interesting Facts About Space

Author: Emily Austin

Pages: 310

This is my 183rd read for the year

This is a story about Enid.  She is obsessed with space and has a phobia of bald men.  She loves listening to true crime podcasts, and she is trying to forge a relationship with her step sisters now that her dad is gone.  She becomes paranoid when she thinks someone is following her and breaking into her apartment.  

This book was terrible.  I almost didn't finish it, but I was reading it as part of a reading challenge and didn't want to start a new book.  It isn't funny.  It is boring and disjointed and chaotic.  I ddn't like Enid at all.  I felt like I was reading about a middle schooler instead of a grown woman.  Pass.

Stars: 1

Book: The Unclaimed

 Book: The Unclaimed

Author: Pamela Prickett

Pages: 336

This is my 182nd read for the year

Here is what Amazon says:

For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters' fields - a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid.  Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies.  Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year.  The author uncovers a hidden social world.  They follow four individuals in Los Angeles, tracing the twisting, poignant paths that put each at risk of going unclaimed, and introducting us to the scene investigators, notification officers, and crematorium workers who care for them when no one else will. 

This book was fine.  I found it a little dry, but I liked the subject.  I found it interesting to learn more about what happens with bodies who don't get claimed.  And I didn't realize that this was happening more and more.  I wonder if I would have read it instead of listened to it, it would have been a better read.  The narrator was fine, but just a little boring.

Stars: 3

Book: The Marriage Act

 Book: The Marriage Act

Author: John Marrs

Pages: 497

This is my 181st read for the year

What Amazon Has to Say:

Britain.  The near future.  A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society's ills - the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single.  But four couples are about th doscover just how impossible relationships can be wen the government is supervising every aspect of our personal lives, monitoring every word, every minor disagreement - and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honour, and obey.

This was a pretty good book.  I listened to it, and it passed the time.  I have read a lot of Marrs books, and I like his dystopian take.  There is a bit of reality mixed in with an alternate universe that doesn't seem all that unlikely.  I think there was overall good character development, and a few twists in the book that I didn't see coming which was nice.  It even wraps up nicely.  I THINK this might be a bit of a sequel to "The One" - which I have not read yet, but it is a netflix show I have watched.

Stars: 4