Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye

Format: Audiobook

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Source: Own (Audible)

Genres: Nonfiction

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Publication date: November 14th, 2014

Read on: June 17th to 26th.
 

Thoughts: Since I didn’t grew up in the US, my first knowledge of Bill Nye and his show Bill Nye the Science Guy came after I was at least in my early 20s. Hence I did not get to experience his effect on science appreciation as a kid but that is not to say I didn’t get excited about science as I was listening to his book. The fact that the book is read by Nye himself was the cherry on top of the sundae; he can transmit all of this energy and love for science a way that made me feel like a child again, learning about what makes science great.

Did I learn about evolution with this book? A little. A lot of the facts that are presented in the book are facts that, working in science, I’ve been exposed to before, albeit in a more academic background. At the same time, since I do not work on evolution myself, there were a couple of items that I wasn’t aware off or that needed refreshing in my head.

However, what I take out of this book is how good a person can be making a subject accessible without dumbing the subject down. All the information and data Nye uses are accurate and well researched, but at the same time, the tone and terminology used makes it easy to understand, especially if this is the first time you are approaching evolution.

 

 

The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Format: Audio

Length: 20hrs 49 min

Narrator: Stephen Hoye

Source: Own (Audible)

Genres: NonFiction, Cancer, Science

Publisher: Tantor Audio

Publication date: November 10th, 2010

Thoughts: Both A and I have been wanting to read this one for quite a while, and so we decided to make it our road trip listen. As you probably know just by looking at his bio, Siddhartha Mukherjee is a cancer physician and researcher, and so he introduces us to the world of cancer, with 2 parallel story lines: one of his patients battling cancer and one of cancer research itself.

In the past years, I've read more about cancer in nonfiction that I have done in academic papers, which is normal, considering that my own research is not connected to cancer. But books such as Pandora's DNA where focused on the own personal experience with cancer and with one cancer in particular: breast cancer.

Mukherjee's book deals with all types of cancers, while spending more time with those that we have more information about, such as breast cancer and leukemia. Nevertheless, his narrative on how different discoveries were made both by struck of luck and by perseverance, was captivating. Discoveries both in treatment and prognosis and how the medical and scientific communities dealt with both. To hear that when the Pap test was proposed for the first time and how it was dismissed as useless is both baffling and interesting, especially when compared to nowadays standards.

A fair amount of information in the book wasn't new to me, considering that I had to learn at least the basis of it during my undergrad and graduate studies. However, there was a lot more that I didn't know and was always interesting. I feel that the author did a great job both researching the subject and vulgarizing it, a thing that is not always easy to do, coming from a research background.

Stephen Hoye did a great job as a narrator, I have to say, it didn't feel like a long read (or listen) at all.

Yes, Please by Amy Poehler

Format: Audiobook

Pages: NA

Series: NA

Source: Own (Audible)

Genres: Non fiction, Memoir

Publisher: Harper Audio

Publication date: October 28, 2014

First impression

I've like Amy Poehler for a while now; I first saw her on SNL and enjoyed most of her characters, but mostly her and Tina Fey on Weekend Update. I read Bossypants and enjoyed it, so when I first heard about Poehler getting her own book out I knew I was going to read it. That said, I am very happy I went for the audio, since it is read, not only by her, but she has several guest narrators, that made the experience even more delightful. The book is funny without being solely that, it has very honest moments and a lot of heartfelt messages, about her career but also her personal life.

If you are lucky, there is a moment in your life when you have some say as to what your currency is going to be.

Final thoughts

I liked this book better than Bossypants , and I truly believe is because it didn't go just to be funny. Bossypants has parts that are thoughtful, but always with the hint of funny with it. And this is a good thing, but when you get a bit of both spectrums, funny and serious, I feel like it's more of a complete package and hence you receive more from the book.

I've noticed a lot of other reviewers in GR that were surprised with the fact that the book touched them so personally. I had the same feeling. I was a couple of minutes in the book and I knew I was in for an emotional ride, almost like what I felt with Tiny Beautiful Things, except less tears on the horizon.

With guests like Patrick Stewart (reading an amazing haiku), Kathleen Turner and Amy's parents; the book takes extra tones that make it even more fun to listen to. She talks about her childhood, about her career path, from humble beginnings to where she is now. She talks about regrets, and admitting to errors (the whole situation about her Hurricane Mary sketch in SNL showed me a whole different side of her) and trying to repair them.

If you are looking for juicy bits of gossip...this is not the book for you. I loved how she mentions and talks about Will Arnett; and the fact that, very matter-of-fact she establishes that she will not be discussing her divorce except from the fact that they are being there for their kids. Her kids! The way she talks about them is very sweet and endearing, and listening about their traditions is absolutely endearing. I think most of the people that disliked the book were either hoping for more funny stuff or more of the nitty-gritty of her personal stuff. But for me, it was a good balance of entertaining stories and personal thoughts (don't want to call it necessarily wisdom) about going through life and taking what it gives you. I've already recommended it for people who enjoyed Bossypants or to people who I feel would appreciate the bits of insight she offers.

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed

First impression

I decided to read this book by Shannon's recommendation. I have only one complaint, and that is that no one warned me that I shouldn't attempt to listen to it at work...10 or 15 minutes in I was already fighting the tears. The whole book is full of emotional and very touching subjects that will move you deep inside. If I could recommend this book in one line it would be: It is painful to read, but oh so beautiful!

Final thoughts

I never read Dear Sugar before and now I feel like I missed something truly wonderful. People would write to Sugar with questions that might be pretty straight forward at times and super obscure. She would answer them either way with the best advice she could think off. Sometimes, this advice came with personal anecdotes and when it did...that's when the waterworks came for me. Because you can feel how honest and brutally direct she was being about herself and about the issues on topic.

The fact that this particular version of the book was read by the author probable made it even more wonderful, because there was true emotion on each letter, on each answer. And listening to it goes deep in your heart and beautiful feelings, albeit sometimes sad ones too, nestled in there and after weeks of finishing the book I still choke up remembering certain passages.

I know this is a short review, particularly for a book that I loved, but I cannot put into words how this book makes me feel. It made me laugh, cry, laugh while crying, miss my family like crazy, made me tell people I love them and even took away weight from my shoulders. I would recommend this book to everybody, but get some tissues first. Now go and read it.

Ancillary Sword (Imperial Radch #2) by Ann Leckie

First impression

After really loving the first book on the Imperial Radch series, Ancillary Justice, and seeing that I was not the only one (is there any price Leckie didn’t win?) it was a no brainer to continue with the series. It was hard to though, because as it turns out, the changed the narrator (First book was read by Celeste Ciulla and this one is Adjoa Andoh) and so several of the pronunciations, names, etc changed and for the first quarter of the book it was hard to fully engage. Once I was past this, the story was great. Leckie has a gift in building and sharing this new different cultural groups and the Radch universe can be very dark and very colorful at the same time.

Final thoughts

While the first book was intended to be obviously the introduction to the world and developed the revenge sentiment in Breq, this book went deeper into her as character, and that was great. I really appreciated the character growth and development not only for Breq, but for Seivarden and all the rest of the team in Mercy of Kalr.

Breq is still the main voice in the story, but as she herself points out, she is missing her extra ancillaries, and while she still has the connection to Ship, there is a void on how she can “see” or perceive multiple events, compared to what she was in her past with Lieutenant Awn. Her getting accustomed to her new “unique” self was a very different part of the story, but one I really did enjoy, actually feeling her confusion and somewhat sadness to “just be one”.

At first I disliked Lieutenant Tisarwat but by the end of it I was quite fond of her and I am hoping to see her again in Ancillary Mercy. While in this book the focus is settled in character development I feel there is still room for surprise from all the main characters.

The book is set in Athoek Station, far away from the lord of the Radch, but certainly not far from political intrigue. In case you haven’t noticed, the Radch are very keen to maintaining or improving their social status and what is “proper” might change according to what is convenient. Not for Breq; in my own opinion she sticks to the parameters of being a Radchaai even better than any other character even if she despises a big deal of this façade based behaviour.

As much as I liked the book and even if I wasn’t expecting the final twist (no spoilers, don’t worry) there was something missing and I can’t help but to think that this feeling comes from the struggle to engage with the story at the beginning, due to the change of narrator. While both narrators did a terrific job, I am used to a certain continuity of voices by now when I am listening to a series.

This does not dissuade me from waiting anxiously for the next book. I still loved the whole world that Leckie has constructed for us, and contrary to some reviews I saw, I didn’t feel like the political critique was heavy or obscured the rest of the story; on the contrary I think that it is one of the sides I enjoy the most of the series. Let’s hope the trilogy closes with all the spirit and strength present in AJ.

Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang

This was the September pick for the Sword and Laser book club

First impression

I have to admit that I was reluctant at first to give this book a try. First because I haven't read a lot of short stories so I wasn't sure this collection would grab me. Second, I went with the Audio version because my library didn't have it and I decided just to go with my Audible credit. The only other collection of short stories I've read recently was METAtropolis (also in audio) and while I enjoyed it, it didn't amaze me. Let me tell you, Stories of Your Life and Others might be the book that convinced me to try short stories more often.

Final thoughts

The collection is fantastic, I wasn't even finished and I kept telling people they had to give it a try. While very different, the short stories flow nicely. The fact that this time there were all written by the same person is really evident, even though the voice on each story changes quite a bit changing point of views and even presenting one as a documentary.

Goodreads describes the collection as multiple stories where the characters encounter sudden change. However, more than just sudden change, I believe that the common thread that this collection has is preconceptions and destroying or debunking them. From the concept of beauty to mathematics and even procreation, Chiang gives a new light to all of these subjects with touches of science fiction and even a bit of fantasy.

All the worlds presented are beautifully constructed; at no point did I get the feeling that what was being presented made no sense in the respective universe, and this is extremely important to me. This is not to say that the elements that made these stories feel outside of our world weren't there. They are obviously there without making it feel overdone and so my mind entered each story smoothly.

As might be expected, I liked some of the stories better than other, my favorites being Story of your Life and Others, which deals with the concept of language and physics, and Liking what you See, which deals with the concept and perception of beauty. Extra points for Understand not using the "we only use 10% of our brains" trope and actually going with something different.

Both narrators did a terrific job. Only at Liking What you See do we get to hear them at almost the same time, but I think they were perfect choices all the way through.

Dawn (Xenogenesis #1) by Octavia E. Buttler

Intelligence does aloud you to ignore the fact you dislike

First impression

When this was selected for the Sword and Laser I learned that my library only had the second book in the series. The premise seemed so unique and I really wanted to read a book by Octavia E. Buttler so I decided to get myself a copy through Audible. Now I am very happy I did since I want to be able to give it to people to listen too; I will be getting the rest of the trilogy too.

Final thoughts

The book works with the premise that human race has been almost annihilated from Earth, due to war. A few survivors have been "rescued" by an extraterrestrial species, called Oankali, who are described as being covered by tiny tentacles (I imagined their skin like an inside out version of the small intestine, but that's just me) with slight human appearance when approaching Lilith, the main character, at first. Lilith is a black woman who has been awaken several times before (she ignores how many) and she has been selected as the person who will train a new group of humans to be taken back to Earth.

This book was absolutely amazing. I was afraid I was going to have a problem with the voice given to the Oankali since a lot of people were wondering about this on the Internet, but Aldrich Barrett made a great job, at least for me. Independent of the format that you are reading this book will touch a very big question: What exactly makes us human? Is it our bodies? Is it our culture? Can one be separated of the other?

Such a unique book. It has a great main character, that not only questions her own humanity but puts into discussion how human relationships are built and their outcomes. The way she is treated by this alien race and then the way the other humans treated her for me was a questioning of the society we've grown accustomed to. It was interesting to see secondary characters that represented greed or fear to an extreme point and how this type of behaviours affected the construction of a whole new dynamic between individuals.

I liked that, for a sci-fi, it wasn't "plagued" with terminology. Sure, we have the names of the different Oankali, but doors aren't call intramural passages for example, or worst, made up words without context. All is being explained to Lilith and through her to ours and yet it all feels so alien.

Someone said that for him this book was racist and homophobic, which I feel obliged to counter here. Yes there are comments against Lilith being the leader, as she is a woman, but this comment came from another human and from my point of view, this was pout there precisely to point out how society still reacts like that with a woman on a position of power. The fact that the book has a sexist or an homophobic character, does not make the book sexist nor homophobic. The book deals with several "hard" subjects, such as race, sexism, rape just to name a few. But I think the author's intention was to start a discussion about them, show how this can appear and the consequences. I believe this book pushes a lot of buttons, but in a very good way. I have already recommended the book all over the place and can't wait to continue with the story, learn more about the Oankali and Lilith's outcome.

Brilliance by Marcus Sakey

First impressions

I remember hearing about this book through BookRiot, thinking, well it sounds like a fun concept. It remind me a bit of X-men sure, but I was still willing to give it a try. I was not disappointed.

Final thoughts

The premise of the book is that ever since the 80’s there has been more and more kids born called brilliants since they show particular heightened skills, in mathematics, pattern recognition and others. They are at first considered gifted, but as so happens often when something threatens a status quo, soon society starts fearing them and when a bloody attack by one of the brilliants activist, the fears seems to be well founded. Academies meant to educate brilliant kids only pop up all over and intend to form this kids to be “well behaved citizens” that will use their “gift” for their government…but they will be taken away from their families in the process, lose their original identities and learn to distrust other brilliants…all to protect our society as it is. The main character, Nick Cooper is a gifted agent, working for the government, trying to stop the bad guys. Until a particularly aggressive attack makes him go undercover to try to catch the most dangerous man alive.

This was a very good thriller. Yes it took me almost a month to listen to it, but mostly because other books came up that I had to finish first (don’t they always?). Anyway, first of all, kudos to Luke Daniels, I believe he has an amazing voice for this type of books. Great voicing of very different characters.

Now, the book itself was very entertaining. At first I was afraid that is was going to be a bit too much like X-Men and I think it is inevitable to have the stories compared if you are familiar with one another. However, Brilliance’s characters are mostly people who are good at reading a certain set of patterns that is already there. The way it was described made me think of people with Asperger Syndrome minus the social interaction difficulties (this mostly present with non-brilliants and due to rejection) or the nonverbal communication.

The book touches, unsurprisingly, political behaviours towards minorities as well as taking some big twists to show that no one is who you might be led to believe they are. My favorite character was Shannon, she was such a bad-ass, sassy, sarcastic…a very memorable and enjoyable character.

The pacing was fantastic, again, don’t be fooled by the fact that it took me so long to finish it; I don’t normally listen to audiobooks once I am at home with Alex, but the truth is that I just couldn’t not finish the book once it got to the last third, and so I spend hours on our bed, not talking to anyone, looking at the ceiling saying: oh wow, did not see that coming, ouch,…anyway. You get my point. I can’t wait to read the sequel. 

Emerald Green (Precious Stone Trilogy #3) by Kerstin Gier

First impressions

I started reading this series mostly because Audible was having a sale on first of a series books. The premise of time travelling seemed appealing and so I went for it. The first installment, Ruby Red, was good enough, I liked the fact that Gwendolyn wasn't just a boy driven character, even though it was obvious that they were going to get together and hence I went for the second one.

The second one, Sapphire Blue, was ok, but I think I fell more for Xemerus than the other characters. I did want to know what the whole mystery was, but the love part felt a bit forced, sadly enough.

So here we are, at the end of the series, and I am giving it a round and final 4, even though I was a bit disappointed at certain points.

Final thoughts

Let us start with the things I liked, both in general and in the series.

As I mentioned the premise of time travelling was appealing to me. The whole building of it around a secret society as well as the workings of the chronograph was nice additions, and I would've liked a bit more of background there. We didn't have it, the whole references to the "gene" and the need of blood for the chronograph to work are not explained, but maybe this is a better option than bad science.

The descriptions of the dresses, and hence Madame Rossini, were delightful. If you follow my blog or my reviews, you probably know that I am a sucker for period dressing. If you didn't know that...well now you do.

There were a couple of twists at the end of the series, a couple as in two major ones, at least from my point of view. I will not extend on this point since I do not want to give spoilers, but one of them was pretty obvious, and the other not so much, so I will give it a "meh" on plot twisting. Some people have complained about the ending, and it does feel like suddenly this was more than a trilogy, but then again it could just be that Gier likes her cliff-hangers, no?

Now, the things I didn't like. It is a bit sad when you like the secondary characters more than you do the primary ones, or at least it seems like a lot of energy is invested in characters you never got to care for, and this was the case for me. Give me more Leslie! More Xemerus...Gwendolyn and Gideon felt flat a lot of times and I felt like the story could've been carried almost without them.

As I mentioned their relationship suddenly happened and while this is a bit typical (not that is a good thing) when portraying teen love situations, it makes it even more "blah" since it has been overdone. But it gets point for not pushing on a love triangle.

So I gave it a 4, mostly because as predictable as it was at times, it was enjoyable, it gave me exactly what I was expecting from it, no more and just a little bit less. I would recommend to someone looking for light series with fun secondary characters.

Good job by Marisa Calin!