• THE MARTIAN
• by Andy Weir
• [rated by PBS readers as #61]
• 387 pages

50 PAGES IN.

I due need to confess that I have seen this book on screen and really enjoyed the film. So I do walk in knowing what happens. Or do I?

Two things strike me right off while starting into this book. The first is the high concept. High concept is a phrase used in Hollywood to describe a plot that you can tell in one sentence. You may not think that’s a great thing and you may be right. But it is revered beyond anything in LA. And this is the strongest high concept I’ve ever seen.

Describe it? An astronaut is left behind for dead on Mars. And he isn’t dead.

That’s it! That’s all you need! And it starts on PAGE ONE! I mean, c’mon. What more can you ask for? I’m in awe of the strength of the premise and the speed with which it starts up.

The other thing that is knocking me out is that this guy is writing in scientific terms about what he is doing to stay alive and I don’t understand any of it – but I’m fascinated. For a woman of a certain age with no patience, this fills me with amazement. Don’t know what he is doing, but I’m ready to hear more!

ABOUT HALFWAY – IN LESS THAN A WEEK!!

Can you begin to feel my giddyness at the chance to read something with this kind of speed under it? I am just plain old grateful to be carried like this!

Especially after months of reading Game of Thrones! As I mentioned in that review, I fully realize that to so many fans of his, Games was the alternate Universe in a book that they had been waiting for all their lives and I take nothing away from that. Nothing in that Universe is a thrill to me, which isn’t Martin’s fault.

And yet? The Martian pops up to be read and nothing in that world is in my fantasies or even interests! I am partially self-defined – at least on my radio show, where I have a husband and wife that are both scientists – by my utter lack of knowledge or curiosity about science.

But that doesn’t matter a wit because while I am reading this, I am at NASA and on Mars and I’m utterly swept up in it. Weir writes this thing like a roller coaster ride! So what am I saying there? Hm.

It is science come to life. I think every kid who is even remotely interested in science should read this. If I’m breathlessly interested, they are going to be breathlessly fascinated! And the ideas! Weir is pretty

endlessly gifted in writing this life.

Incidentally, it is very seldom that I would see a movie and then read the book. A friend asked me if I’m thinking about Matt Damon when I’m reading it.

I told her that I really like Matt Damon and he did a good job and was a logical and good pick for the role. But the interesting thing about how clearly Weir has written his main character is that he is different than Matt Damon. I love that, that his character is so strong that even after having seen a visual depiction of him, I am getting a different guy.

There are so many things to admire here.

LESS THAN A WEEK LATER – DONE!!

The Martian kicks some major ass!

You know, when you think about the title of this whole thing – the greatest reads – you conjure up the feelings of being involved in a whole secret advantage that is only a book away, that makes your heart beat a little happier and gives you those delicious feelings of – how fast can I get back there to read it some more?

When I have that, it feels old. Like the same feeling you had reading as a kid. It feels old and special. I had it while reading Ready Player One. And I had it reading The Martian. And now I’m hooked and I want it again!

This was superior story telling. I had seen the movie and besides, it’s a terrible story if he doesn’t survive so you know he will. But that actually didn’t matter. Weir, the author, had you so engrossed in the details that I almost had to stand up reading the last pages. I was that in suspense and that excited!

This is a great read and a masterful one. I repeat what I said from the beginning. The fact that I can’t possibly understand one scientific thing he’s doing but I’m completely engrossed and involved – is a hat trick that I couldn’t see him doing but he did it, over and over, and with the same velocity from the first page to the last! It never let down.

Readable, engrossing, a wild ride and a pleasure. Bravo!

It was, in fact, the sheer writing velocity of The Martian that inspired me to next try one of the three titles that scares me the most!

• GAME OF THRONES

• by George R. R. Martin
• [rated by PBS readers as #48]
• 704 pages

I have formulated a list within a list of the PBS reads for this. If you knew me, that list within a list thing wouldn’t surprise you a bit.

Anyway, it is a list of the real “bears” I have coming up on the remaining list – long slogs, hopefully fun but who the hell knows, if boring as all hell what will I do, etc. I will not list those now, because I’m hoping to mention them in hindsight after reading them, thrilled to have been proven wrong.

So I’m rambling. The upshot is that I need to read one of those long-winded bears every three books. I have no idea why I’m so sure of this but I know in my soul that if I’m left in the end with only bears, this project won’t happen. Well, it’ll happen, it’s happening as we speak, but it won’t finish. Is what it won’t do.

Fresh from two little teeny books, it was time for a bear. I picked four titles and Game of Thrones was the bear. I dove in.

The first thing I realized is that when you are over 50 years old, you lose your ability to remember a novel with 50 characters introduced in the first 50 pages. GONE!

Plus, these characters had names I couldn’t pronounce, which pretty much seals the deal for vaporizing characters in the mind of yours truly.

But the other post 50 thing you realize is that you just go on autopilot and say, I’ll ramble along and if the writing is good, they will become clearer to me.

There isn’t a doubt in the world that the writing is good. Martin has created an entire, cogent Universe, a place where geeks can mentally slide into and geek out beyond their wildest dreams.

Problem being that, while equal to any geek in weirdness, Thrones isn’t my particular geek fantasy direction, so the going got a bit hard. I eventually knew who was who but I kept forgetting who were in the same family. I mean, shit. I even forgot stuff like that when I was a therapist and I was paid to remember it!

But here, it isn’t just family members. It was who was married to who until he got killed by who and now owes his life or allegiance to who. Geez!

One irony here is that I had never been drawn to the TV show, but now I sort of am! The reason is that I am not entirely visual and so I’m imagining a small portion of this and it would be fun to see visually where it was taken.

And maybe if I watched it, I would finally know how to pronounce some of these names, for pity sakes!

I am about two thirds through it. For my blog book, I’ve been stuck on it for quite a long time.

But I realized the other day that there is a simple reason – simple but hard to overcome. It just isn’t a place that I long to return to. It is an amazing place, but it isn’t my thing.

But hey. 200 and some pages left. I’ll get there!

DONE! DAT DA DA DA DA DA DAT!!!

Being the Sherlocks that you are, I know you figured out that I’m done with it.

I have never, throughout a third of the project so far,  felt the sense of relief that I did finishing this one off.

That IS a little puzzling, now that I’m done, of course. I didn’t hate anything about it. To be brutally honest, I didn’t care anything about it either. The characters and their Universe are spectacularly captured in this tome.

As I believe I wrote earlier, this is the first and only thing I have read in this blog, or beyond that, that I want to see the TV equivalent for. The primary reason for this is to see how a crack design team takes my limited visual imagination and fills it all the way out.

Since I have no allegiance to anyone in this story (well, I did like one guy whose head is now on a spear on top of some bad guy’s castle somewhere), I couldn’t possibly experience some primal quibble over the casting.

But I must also add that one season will probably be enough. I’m basing that on all the open storylines after this first book and how I am not really anxious to know what happens to any of them.

One last time, I must say this. I COMPLETELY GET how this book went into millions of people’s hearts and lives.

It was what they were looking for and the author gave them a story and more than that. He gave them a whole world. Bless him for doing that. Truly.

We live in a world with people desperate for comradeship. Thank God whenever it presents itself.

The fact that I am not so into prehistoric battles and people wearing chains that don’t bathe very often doesn’t change the appeal. Because the appeal for this little reader wasn’t there. But I read it, and I’m proud of myself.

My hat is off to Martin, a writer of extraordinary creativity.

For my next book, I’ve labeled the really long books, approximately a quarter of the books I’ve got left. And though I didn’t want to go directly to one of those, I also didn’t want anything too easy.

So I picked something I’d already seen at the movies, but hadn’t read. I hope it will be surprising but, given my track record in this blog, how could it not?

THE ALCHEMIST

• by Paulo Coelho
• [rated by PBS readers as #70]
• 208 pages

I’m torn writing this right after putting the book down. But then again, I also fear that in a very short time, it will evaporate and swirl away, like all the sand contained in its pages.

I feel some twinges of guilt, as I packed two small fables for this trip to Maine that I’m on – Little Prince & Alchemist. There are at least 16 books coming up on the blog that come in around 1000 pages! What am I doing

reading two small sweet ones back to back?

But you know? I was searching for transcendence. And I got it!

While the Alchemist is all about pursuing your dreams, I was aware throughout the read that this was the first time I had lived with that theme that it didn’t bug me.

As the boy hero heads to the Pyramids to find his treasure, I headed to LA to find mine. I didn’t get it and got scarred up a whole lot. I don’t feel the satisfaction described here for having done it.

The boy meets a Muslim man who doesn’t travel to Mecca in his life because then he can always dream of its splendor and never be disappointed. This is treated as sad. But oddly enough, from my vantage point, it feels like a valid way to go!

Yet, The Alchemist is a lovely fable. It feels like an at least once in a lifetime read for every living soul. It is written with a beautiful multifaceted entrance point that would include any one and every one.

I do believe and depend on many things stated in here. I gain huge amounts in my life by basing things on signs, often spoken by a casual passer by. In many ways, my book series, Ruby, is based on signs.

The hero must be a young boy because of his openness and innocence. I believe that you lose the chance for any moment of greatness if you lose your openness and innocence. May we never lose that.

And if we do, a quick reread of The Alchemist will cure it!

• THE LITTLE PRINCE
• by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
• [rated by PBS readers as #36]
• 96 pages

Here’s a little funny great weird story for you guys. And I’m not even talking about the book!

When PBS announced the 100 greatest reads, in no particular order, the public was encouraged to vote for our favorites, over a matter of months. Our votes would then determine the final order of the 100.

I had about 10 of the titles that I routinely voted for. Among those ten, I routinely voted for The Little Prince.

It wasn’t until tonight, when I finished reading it, that I realize. I have never read it before.

Now, especially if you know me personally and care about me, you might become agitated at the thought of where my brain has gotten to. I assure you, there have been many a moment where I share that agitation. Man, have I ever shared it!

Or you could believe, as I do, that The Little Prince, like life, is a state of mind. And his royal highness is indeed a state of mind and a force of nature all rolled up in one!

You know, for all of its multitude of fans, accolades from critics, 8 gablillion translations, more books sold than McDonald’s filet of fish, His Tiny Majesty is really quite a quirky little fucker. Quirky and charming.

As for any little tale that reminds you of Prince, this one came before any of them. Tiny Highness was a fable of transcendence before that was even a thing. A genre…

To me, the core of what makes this wonderful and unbelievably lasting is what the author doesn’t say. It feels like he saw down the road and knew what he had to do.

Keep it light. So many themes go through this little tale – all touched upon with feather softness, giving them each to you to think over and then flying away, to not belabor

the point.

I feel like I know what this book is about and I have no idea what this book is about – at the same time. And I love that! I have a feeling the book loves that too. I’d love to discuss this with some friends and I almost never feel that way.

Not bad for a children’s book. Wait a minute, is it a children’s book?

It’s anything you want it to be. It transcends. It is a state of mind.

THE JOY LUCK CLUB

• by Amy Tan

• [rated by PBS readers as #42]

• 352 pages

What a nice, interesting read. Of course, I’m imagining that I have run out of descriptive terms about writing about 20 summaries ago! And if that is true, then please accept my apologies.

Dauntless, my run on sentences will continue to run on!

The first sensation I had starting this was how wonderful it was to have an interesting read again! But no, that’s not quite right. Before the interesting read, there was a preface by Amy Tan, tucked into this edition that celebrates the novel’s 30^th anniversary.

Amy’s note is delightful and newsy about parallels with her own mother and her surprise that this has resonated on this deep a level with the public. The intro is written well, her being a good writer and all, and really primes you for the book.

Then the book begins with the almost insanely inviting premise of four Chinese women who have played mah jong together for decades. There is a chart in the front to follow, with the four mothers and their four daughters.

Tan says in the beginning that many of the tales contained within are based on reality, but that doesn’t diminish her amazing storytelling. Both true and false stories can be interesting or boring. I’m sure we have all heard both kinds of them.

She then backs up from the initial real time story and moves to telling each woman’s story, separately. It feels as if she had pulled each one away from the game and put on the tape recorder.

About a third of the way in, it is these stories and the way she tells them that really have my admiration. Each woman’s story is immediately to the point and with the greatest bang for your buck, dealt out of the uniqueness of their experience, compared with white America of the time.

The telling of the stories is just magnificent! She constructs wonderful tales. Simple, elegant, unique.

Always feeling the need to represent for my demographic of “mature women who can’t remember shit,” I will point out that, though each character’s story is separate and wonderful, when it’s over, it’s over and the book moves on, leaving me to pretty much forget one story and one woman from the next. Then she goes into each daughter and the mother of that daughter figures in, obviously, but not with any throwback to the mother’s story! So I feel a little bit like I should be making a flow chart with each story on it. But I’m a third in and who knows how this whole thing could come together?

DONE.

Wow. What an amazing storyteller Amy Tan is. Every detail and image is hand picked to further her story in the richest, most dramatic way possible.

Last night, I was looking at a bunch of titles on Audible and came across Water For Elephants. And the message came through. The reason that book works so well is because it grabs you and puts you in a thorough, bright and unique life – the circus. You can forget everything about that book, but you’ll never forget that life.

Joy Luck Club is the same. There is a richness that will remain in every reader’s head long after putting the book away.

My prevailing thought in reading it was that I should never again complain that my mother didn’t understand me. It is scary the openly hostile way that these mothers are attempting to make sure their daughters get the trappings that they had wanted, often up to the expense of their souls.

The generational love is always present but with so much bleak history it is difficult to have or to hold. And that is what Tan wants – to understand the adversarial, passive / aggressive way that concern is shown and administered.

And yet, this is, in the end, not just a Chinese story.

When my parents divorced as I was growing up, I remember thinking that I was part of a new wave of kids who were the first to see that the pictures of success that our parents had thought were the things worth fighting for and getting, were no solution to their pain and estrangement at all.

And the younger generation of women here were just like me. The house, the family, the car, the picket fence – these things didn’t give our parents what they promised. So we were forced to live, looking for other things. This story highlights that divide and how it played onto the Chinese / American landscape.

I was still a bit confused by the jumps between families but I could tell that she was too good a writer to not end in a large, healing, Universal way. And she did, with a trip to China that healed.

A lovely book with amazing, gigantic yet tiny stories throughout. I’m so glad to have read it.

And I still want to learn how to play mah jong!