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The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal | Book Review #booktubeSFF

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(Tor Books - July 3, 2018)
Winner of the Hugo for Best Novel, Nebula for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel
A meteor decimates the U.S. government and paves the way for a climate cataclysm that will eventually render the earth inhospitable to humanity. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated timeline in the earth's efforts to colonize space, as well as an unprecedented opportunity for a much larger share of humanity to take part.

One of these new entrants in the space race is Elma York, whose experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition's attempts to put man on the moon. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn't take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can't go into space, too-aside from some pesky barriers like thousands of years of history and a host of expectations about the proper place of the fairer sex. And yet, Elma's drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions may not stand a chance.

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The Calculating Stars - Mary Robinette Kowal

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(Tor Books - July 3, 2018) Winner of the Hugo for Best Novel, Nebula for Best Novel, Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel A meteor decimates the U.S. government and paves the way for a climate cataclysm that will eventually render the earth inhospitable to humanity.

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Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

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In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs-a real-life Tony Stark-and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new "makers."

Elon Musk spotlights the technology and vision of Elon Musk, the renowned entrepreneur and innovator behind SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity, who sold one of his Internet companies, PayPal, for $1.5 billion. Ashlee Vance captures the full spectacle and arc of the genius's life and work, from his tumultuous upbringing in South Africa and flight to the United States to his dramatic technical innovations and entrepreneurial pursuits.

Vance uses Musk's story to explore one of the pressing questions of our age: can the nation of inventors and creators who led the modern world for a century still compete in an age of fierce global competition? He argues that Musk-one of the most unusual and striking figures in American business history-is a contemporary, visionary amalgam of legendary inventors and industrialists including Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs. More than any other entrepreneur today, Musk has dedicated his energies and his own vast fortune to inventing a future that is as rich and far-reaching as the visionaries of the golden age of science-fiction fantasy.

Thorough and insightful, Elon Musk brings to life a technology industry that is rapidly and dramatically changing by examining the life of one of its most powerful and influential titans.

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In the spirit of Steve Jobs and Moneyball, Elon Musk is both an illuminating and authorized look at the extraordinary life of one of Silicon Valley's most exciting, unpredictable, and ambitious entrepreneurs-a real-life Tony Stark-and a fascinating exploration of the renewal of American invention and its new "makers."

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Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and more than a million copies sold.

The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist.

What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us? There's no better guide through these mind-expanding questions than acclaimed astrophysicist and best-selling author Neil deGrasse Tyson.

But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.

While you wait for your morning coffee to brew, for the bus, the train, or a plane to arrive, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry will reveal just what you need to be fluent and ready for the next cosmic headlines: from the Big Bang to black holes, from quarks to quantum mechanics, and from the search for planets to the search for life in the universe.

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Over a year on the New York Times bestseller list and more than a million copies sold. The essential universe, from our most celebrated and beloved astrophysicist. What is the nature of space and time? How do we fit within the universe? How does the universe fit within us?

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3 Mind-blowing Space Facts

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NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: When we think of places you might find life we typically think of the Goldilocks Zone around the star where water would be liquid in its natural state. And if you get a little too close to the star, heat would evaporate the water and you don't have it anymore. It's gone. Too far away it would freeze and neither of those states of H2O are useful to life as we know it. We need liquid water. So you can establish this Green Zone, this habitable zone, this Goldilocks Zone, where if you find a planet orbiting there hey, good chance it could have liquid water. Let's look there first for life as we know it.

Now it turns out that this source of heat, of course is traceable to the sun and if you go farther out everything water should be frozen, all other things being equal. But Europa, a moon of Jupiter sitting well outside of the Goldilocks Zone is kept warm not from energy sources traceable to the Sun, but from what we call the tidal forces of Jupiter itself. So, Jupiter and surrounding moons are actually pumping energy into Europa. And how does it do that? As Europa orbits Jupiter its shape changes. It's not fundamentally different from tides rising and falling on Earth. The shape of the water system of the Earth is responding to tidal forces of the moon. And when you do that to a solid object, the solid object is stressing. And because of this, a consequence of this is that you are pumping energy into the object. It is no different from when you say to anyone who's familiar with racquet sports, indoor racquet sports. It could be racquetball or squash. You say let's arm up the ball before we start playing.

You want to hit it around a few times. You are literally warming up the ball. It's not just simply let's get loose. You are literally warming up the ball. How? You are distorting it every time you smack it and then the resilience of the ball pops it back into shape and every time you do that, every smack, you're pumping energy into the ball. It's not fundamentally different from what's going on in orbit around Jupiter. So, you have this frozen world, Europa, completely frozen on its surface but you look at the surface and there are cracks in the ice. There are ridges in the ice where there's a crack and it shifted and then refroze. So this ridge has a discontinuity in the crack and it continues in another place. So what this tells you is that Europe cannot be completely frozen because if it were nothing would be moving. You look at the surface of Europa, the frozen surface, there are like ice chunks that are shifted and refrozen and shifted again. It looks just like if you fly over the Arctic Ocean.

Fly over the Arctic Ocean in the winter these are ice sheets that are breaking and refreezing all the time. It's the same signature as that. So all of us are convinced that beneath this icy surface is an ocean of liquid water. And there's no reason to think it wouldn't have been liquid for billions of years. On Earth where we find liquid water we find life. So what this means not only do we have a source of heat outside of the Goldilocks Zone, we have conditions under which life could be thriving. And knowing that this is possible has completely broadened the net that we are casting in search for life in the universe. No longer is it the limit, let's find a 72 degree tidal pond and see life forming there. No, life is pretty hardy. And by the way Europa is not the only one of these moons in the outer solar system that's kept warm by these sort of tidal stress forces. There are other moons that feel the same influx of energy. So, for example, Io, that's the innermost moon of Jupiter. That suffers from this phenomenon even more. And that moon is so hot there are volcanoes erupting from within. It is rendered molten, whatever solid parts of that moon there are. And so, in fact, the most volcanically active place in the solar system is Io, one of the moons of Jupiter. And we don't know how to sustain life under temperatures that hot so, but it's a reminder that if you're looking for sources of energy we no longer need to be anchored to a host star in our search for life in the universe.

2. Dark Matter. Dark matter = Dark gravity?

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: The question isn't about whether dark matter exists or not. What's going on is when we measure gravity in the universe the collective gravity of the stars, the planets, the moons, the gas clouds, the black holes, the whole galaxies. When we do this 85 percent has no known origin. So it's not a matter of whether dark matter exists or not. It's a measurement, period. Now, dark matter is not even what we should be calling it because that implies that it's matter. It implies we know something about it that we actually don't. So a more precise labeling for it would be dark gravity. Now, if I called it dark gravity are you going to say does dark gravity really exist? I'd say yeah because 85 percent of the gravity has no known origin. There it is. Let's figure out what's causing it. The fact that the word matter got into that word is forcing people to say I have another idea. I bet it's not matter. It could be something else. We're overreacting to a label that overstates our actual insights or knowledge into what it is we're describing. Then I just joke we should just call it Fred. Fred or Wilma, something where there is no reference to what we think it is because, in fact, we have no idea.

So here's how you actually measure the stuff. In a galaxy which is the smallest aggregation of matter where dark matter manifests, so you look how fast it's rotating and we know from laws of gravity first laid down by Johannes Kepler and then enhanced and given further detail and deeper understanding by Isaac Newton. You write down these equations and say oh, look how fast it's rotating. You invoke that rotation rate in the equation and out the other side says how much gravity. How much mass should be there attracting you. And the more mass that's there the faster we expect you to be orbiting. That kind of makes sense. So when you do this calculation on a galactic scale we get vastly more mass attracting you than we actually can detect. I'm adding up stars, gas clouds, moons, planets, black holes. Add it all up. It's a fraction of what we know is attracting you in this orbit. And we cannot detect the rest. And so we hand it this title dark matter.

Understandably I suppose but it implies that we know that it's matter, but we don't. We know we can't detect it in any known way and we know it has gravity. So it really should be called dark gravity. I think the over/under on what dark matter might be today I think we're all kind of leaning towards a family of particles, subatomic particles that have hardly any ability to interact with the particles we have come to know and love, "ordinary matter." And that would make it matter. Dark matter as we've all been describing it. And it's not a weird thing that you could have a particle that doesn't interact with our particles. Within our own family of particles there are examples where the interaction is very weak or nonexistent. You might have heard of neutrinos. This is a ghost-like particle that permeates the universe and hardly interacts with familiar matter at all.

Yet it is part of our family of particles that we know exist and that we can detect and interact with. So if we can have an illusive particle that's part of our own familiar family of particles it's not much of a stretch to think of a whole other category of particles where none of them give a rat's ass about the rest of us and they just pass right through us as though we're not even there. Now here's what's interesting about dark matter. We know it doesn't interact with us except gravitationally. By the way what do I mean by interact? Does it bind and make atoms and molecules and solid objects? No, it does not interact with us in any important known way. But it also doesn't interact with itself. That's what's interesting. So, if it interacted with itself you can imagine finding dark matter planets, dark matter galaxies because to interact with yourself is what allows you to accumulate and have a concentration of matter in one place versus another.

These are the atomic bonds and the molecular bonds that create solid objects and if particles do not interact with one another they just pass through, you just have this zone of mass not really doing anything interesting. So, dark matter not only doesn't interact with us, it doesn't interact with itself. And that's why when we find dark matter across the universe it's very diffusely spread out. It's like over here. It's not in this one spot and look at this concentration. No, that's not how that works.

3. Football physics. Earth's rotation can make or break the season.

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON: Just as a quick example, I was channel surfing, came across a football game that had just ended in a tie. They went into overtime. I had 15 minutes to kill before my movie came on. I said I'll sit there and watch this overtime period. And I'm watching it and there's the requisite exchange of possession before you go into sudden death overtime. So, they get it to within 50 yards of the goalpost and so they decide to kick a field goal for the win. And so I'm watching this and it's exciting, right. So then the ball gets hiked, they kick, the ball tumbles and it heads toward the left upright, careens off the left post and in for the win. And I said wait a minute. Oh, we have a round ball and a cylindrical thing so fractions of an inch matter which way this will bounce off of a post.

So I said let me check this out. So I check the orientation of the stadium, the latitude of the city and I did a calculation and then I tweeted and I said, "The winning field goal by the Cincinnati Bengals in overtime was likely enabled by a third of an inch drift to the right, enabled by Earth's rotation." And people say oh, my god. Blow my mind. And the local news got it and everybody got it. Of course you want to know that the rotation of the Earth helped that field goal kick. Because a kick going due north or due south will be deflected to the right in the northern hemisphere. And that's exactly what happened to that kick. And I use that as an excuse to send out a second tweet saying, "By the way, we call this the Coriolis force and that's what creates the circulation of all storms. Hurricanes, tornadoes." What do they call them in the Pacific? Cyclones.

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3 mind-blowing space facts with Neil deGrasse Tyson

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Astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson joins us to talk about one of our favorite subjects: space. More specifically he talks alien life outside the Goldilocks Zone, dark matter, and how the rotation of the Earth may have been the deciding factor in a football game.

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Biography.com

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South African entrepreneur Elon Musk is known for founding Tesla Motors and SpaceX, which launched a landmark commercial spacecraft in 2012.

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Dry by Jarrod Shusterman and Neal Shusterman

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Dry by Jarrod Shusterman and Neal Shusterman

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"The authors do not hold back." -Booklist (starred review)
"The palpable desperation that pervades the plot...feels true, giving it a chilling air of inevitability." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The Shustermans challenge readers." -School Library Journal (starred review)
"No one does doom like Neal Shusterman." -Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
When the California drought escalates to catastrophic proportions, one teen is forced to make life and death decisions for her family in this harrowing story of survival from New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman.
The drought-or the Tap-Out, as everyone calls it-has been going on for a while now. Everyone's lives have become an endless list of don'ts: don't water the lawn, don't fill up your pool, don't take long showers.

Until the taps run dry.

Suddenly, Alyssa's quiet suburban street spirals into a warzone of desperation; neighbors and families turned against each other on the hunt for water. And when her parents don't return and her life-and the life of her brother-is threatened, Alyssa has to make impossible choices if she's going to survive.

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"The authors do not hold back." -Booklist (starred review) "The palpable desperation that pervades the plot...feels true, giving it a chilling air of inevitability." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "The Shustermans challenge readers." -School Library Journal (starred review) "No one does doom like Neal Shusterman."

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Top 5 Reasons to read Dry

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Book review and synopsis for Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, A sci-fi thriller about scientific research, evolution, interstellar exploration and a lone astronaut on a mission to save the world.

Synopsis

In Project Hail Mary, Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship with no memory, where he soon learns that he is the sole survivor on a desperate mission to save the earth.

With only the two dead bodies of his crewmates as company and his memories slowly retuning, he must piece together what has happened and complete his interstellar mission to save humanity.
(The Detailed Plot Summary is also available, below)

Detailed Plot Summary
Chapter-by-Chapter Summary
See the Chapter-by-Chapter Summary of Project Hail Mary
Quick Plot Summary

The one-paragraph version: Ryland Grace is the sole survivor of a suicide mission to stop an alien organism that feeds on stars ("Astrophage"), which is causing the apocalypic scenario of the sun dimming. His mission is to find out how to stop the Astrophage and send the data back via unmanned probes. He comes across an alien ("Rocky") from a planet ("Erid") that is faced with same problem with their star. The two learn communicate. Together, they find a solution, and Rocky has extra fuel so Ryland can go home. (As Ryland's memories return, he learns that he was sent here involuntarily and given a serum to wipe his memory.) But on the way home, they both run into trouble. Ryland sends Earth what it needs to stop the Astrophages, and he also decides to gives up his chance to go home in order to save Rocky and his alien species.

The book opens with Ryland Grace waking up next to two dead bodies. He doesn't know where he is or why he's there. As Ryland investigates his surroundings and his memories slowly return, Ryland realizes he's in a spaceship named Hail Mary with his dead crewmates, sent to investigate something called the Petrova problem.

Scientist Irina Petrova had first observed an astronomical anomaly that later turned out to be a single-celled extraterrestrial life form. These dots appear to feed on the Sun, and their trail forms an arc between the Sun and Venus (which scientists refer to as a "Petrova Line"). This has potentially apocalyptic implications since it means the Sun is effectively dying. It's predicted that it will lead to a 10-15% decrease in the Sun's output. Hail Mary's mission is to figure out how to stop this.

Ryland eventually recalls his research into these particles (" Astrophages"). Ryland is a junior high science teacher who formerly worked in speculative extraterrestrial biology. Due to his prior academic research, he is brought on to the research team, run by Dr. Eva Stratt, who is given nearly unlimited authority worldwide.

It is discovered that Astrophage can store enormous amounts of energy as mass. They can then expel that energy as light, the force of which they use as momentum to move around. They get their energy from stars such as the Sun. Then, because they need carbon, they go searching for carbon dioxide (which Venus is largely comprised of), where they breed and then return to the Sun with their offspring. The data suggests that Astrophage have infected many stars and will affect any star within an 8 light-year radius.

In present day, Ryland finds that his spaceship is headed for Tau Ceti, a star located in a cluster of other Astrophage-infected stars, but unlike the others, it has not dimmed. Presumably, he there to find out why Tau Ceti has resisted infection. There, Ryland comes across an alien spaceship. The alien astronaut (" Rocky") is from a planet (" Erid") that is dealing with the same problem regarding their star, 40 Eridani. He is investigating Tau Ceti for the same reason.

Eridians "see" using passive sonar instead of light, and their language consists of chords. Their atmosphere is also very hot and filled with ammonia, which is lethal in high amounts to humans.

Meanwhile, as Ryland's memories slowly return, he recalls how Astrophage proved to be a great fuel source because of its energy storage potential. However, given the extensive distance of the trip, there isn't time to breed enough Astrophage for fuel for a trip back so it's a suicide mission.

Stratt decides it's necessary to put the crew in extended medical comas for the four-year journey (to prevent depression or them killing each other) given that they will be confined in a small space, though only certain people have the resistances to survive the medical comas. (It's also still risky, which is why the other two crew members do not survive.) Still, Stratt manages to put together a primary and backup crew with the appropriate gene markers.

In present day, Ryland and Rocky learn each other's languages, and they agree to team up to figure out how to stop the Astrophage. Rocky is very talented at constructing and fixing things, which he does using an extremely strong material called xenonite. He also has the extra Astrophage fuel to allow Ryland to possibly return home. Meanwhile, Ryland teaches Rocky about things like radiation and time dilation, which the Eridians had not discovered yet.

They identify that Tau Ceti does have Astrophage and a Petrova Line that leads to a nearby planet, which they name Adrian. They get a sample of Astrophage from Adrian, and it indicates that the Astrophage has a predator which is why its population is being kept under control (and why Tau Ceti is not dimming). However, in order to sample it, they have to engage in a risky maneuver with the ship, the ends with Ryland and Rocky severely injured.

As Ryland's memories continue to resurface, he recalls how nine days before the launch, both the primary and backup scientist on the crew died in an explosion from some testing gone wrong. Instead, Ryland was asked to step in, since there wasn't time to train anyone else. Ryland had refused, but Stratt insisted. She sedates for the launch and administers a serum to induce temporary amnesia so he wouldn't remember that he was forced involuntarily to participate.

In present day, Ryland and Rocky isolate the predator ("Taumoeba"), but discover that nitrogen can kill it which means it can't survive on Venus and Threeword (the planets where Astrophages are breeding near the Sun and 40 Eridani, respectively).

Instead, they have to breed a strain of enhanced Taumoeba that is resistant to nitrogen. In the process, some Taumoeba get loose and rapidly consume Hail Mary's Astrophage fuel, but they manage to contain the situation and swap the fuel. Once the nitrogen-resistant Taumoeba is ready, Ryland and Rocky bid each other farewell as they go home to save their respective species.

However, on the way back, Ryland discovers that the enhanced Taumoeba has also acquired the trait of being able to hide in the xenonite material that their tanks were built with. While Ryland simply swaps out the tanks, Rocky's entire ship is built with xenonite. Ryland sends his unmanned probes off to Earth with the Taumoeba necessary to stop the Astrophages, and then he turns back to save Rocky (and the rest of the Eridian species) even though it means he won't be able to go home.

Years later, Ryland is living on Erid in a bubble since otherwise he would die. Rocky reports that their scientists have discovered that Earth's Sun is now at full luminance, indicating that Earth was saved in time and that it's habitable. Ryland cries in happiness. As the book ends, he contemplates whether to attempt a trip home, which would be a long and lonely journey.
For more detail, see the full Chapter-by-Chapter Summary.

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Book Review
By on May 2nd, 2021 (Last Updated Jun 9th, 2021)

Project Hail Mary is the newest novel from Andy Weir, soon released in a few days on Star Wars Day (May 4). Sci-fi fans should feel free to get excited now. I was so thrilled to get an early copy of it and absolutely tore through this story about scientific research, evolution and interstellar exploration.

I loved, loved the movie The Martian and have been wanting to read something of Weir's for a while now. However, I ended up skipping Weir's follow-up novel, Artemis, since it had mixed reviews and the plot seemed kind of wonky to me, with stuff like space heists and gangsters and whatnot.

In Project Hail Mary, Weir gets his footing back on more comfortable territory: a dude in space doing science-y stuff.

Project Hail Mary involves quite a bit of scientific experimentation since the narrative involves a backstory about an astronomical anomaly. Weir does a fantastic job of explaining this all in a way that includes a full explanation of the science behind it while still making it very accessible and narratively interesting. This book is so impressive in that respect.

Chances are, if you read this book, you're going to learn quite a few fun science facts! Here's a good litmus test for whether or not you are a good reader for this book: If you read that sentence and thought, oh cool, science facts! You are a good reader for this book, and I bet you'll love it. If you read the first sentence in this paragraph and thought, ugh, bleh, science. You are a bad reader for this book, and you will probably DNF it.

I don't want to spoil any of the plot, but Project Hail Mary involves more speculative aspects of the story than The Martian did, so it involves similar territory but then extends outwards from there. There's some portions of the book deals in evolution and the ways that species evolve. These were some of my favorite parts of the book, and I thought the coverage of it was compelling and astute.

It's a very ambitious book in terms of what it's trying to cover, and the science and technology aspect of it are so carefully and deliberately thought out. Weir's use of actual science as a foundation for his science fiction is a particular strength of his, and it's an understatement to say that it's on full display in Project Hail Mary.

In terms of some general descriptors of the writing, the book progresses forward at a moderately rapid clip. The writing is what you'd expect from someone who's more of a science guy than a writer in a literary sense, but it's serviceable. It helps a lot that the narration and dialogue is often genuinely funny, which helps to smooth out most of the edges.

There's one point towards the end where I thought the plot went a little off the rails. I think Weir is better with science-survivalist stuff than with plot points that involve human nature and whatnot. But I think it's a small enough part of the book that it won't ruin anyone's enjoyment of the book if they feel similarly as I do. (See the Spoiler-ish Thoughts section below for more.)

Women in STEM

There's (very) brief mention of the lack of women in STEM and the need to allow less qualified women in their selection criteria. ("Stratt stayed firm and insisted on only the best candidates, but some concessions had to be made. 'Women,' I said.") Then, Weir has a character say that the way to change things is to "encourage your female students to get into STEM".

Hm. Okay. Let's be clear, that's not enough. Yes, people should encourage women and girls to get into STEM. But saying that's the reason there aren't more women in STEM is inaccurate.

Ultimately, having more women in STEM requires addressing the structural issues that keep women out, such as not having proper mentors and not having work or school environments that are free from sexism and harassment, etc.

Having creepy men who want you to flirt with them (or more) is not the same thing as mentorship. If there's someone who is in a position of authority over a woman and "mentoring" them but also hoping they will maybe flirt and sleep with him, then that person is a predator and not a mentor. Beyond that, other women feeling that they can't be involved in projects and the like if they're not willing to flirt and whatnot is another type of harassment.

And the assumption that women in STEM are unqualified to be there is one of the many reasons why other women are reluctant to enter or stay in STEM fields. And the fact that if you are interested in STEM you have to randomly come across stuff like this is another reason why women exit STEM.

To be fair, this is just a mention made in passing, a few sentences out of the entire book, and I moved passed it. Still, I am disappointed by this nonetheless. I don't understand why Weir felt the need to include a sexist character without having another character provide a counterargument.

As such, my general stance on stuff like this is to use it as a teaching opportunity on my blog (right here!), so thanks for reading!

Read it or Skip it?

This is a solid, sometimes quite funny and very meticulously thought-out book. In essence, it's a great read ... if you enjoy hard science.

You don't really need to understand any of the science in advance, Weir does an honestly impressive job at explaining things in relatively accessible terms. However, you need to at least be someone who would enjoy the prospect of learning some science stuff.

The thing about women in STEM did irritate me, but let's face it if you are a woman interested in science or technology, you deal with stuff like this all the time. It's a part of the reason why women do not feel welcome in STEM. That said, it's also a very, very minor part of the book.

So, I will set that aside and say that overall, I thought Project Hail Mary was pretty great. If you like science at all, read it! You will love it, trust me. If not, I'm sure it'll become a super flashy movie at some point, so you can watch it then. Yay, space!

Is this something you're planning on reading? Feel free to share your thought below! See Project Hail Mary on Amazon.

Spoiler-ish Thoughts
Spoilers Ahead, Beware! You've Been Warned
So first things first, did anyone else think the Table of Contents was a total spoiler? I saw the chapter heading when I started reading and wasn't sure what it meant. But as soon as we meet Rocky in the book, I knew that Ryland ends up on a different planet by the end.

Secondly, I thought the part where it turns out that Eva drugged Ryland and forced him on this trip didn't make a ton of sense. Eva's someone who likes to use "off the shelf" products because she don't want to rely on untested, uncertain things. It's one thing for her to force someone to work for her on the ground where she can keep an eye on them, it's a whole other thing to force this person on a suicide mission into space.

Eva's also convinced that the crew being confined to a small space for four years will cause severe depression enough to ruin the mission; she's concerned enough that she devises a whole extended coma plan.

... But then, she decides to sends a amnesiac, drugged using something with unpredictable results, who will either be in a state of having forgotten half of what he knows or being angry, unwilling, bitter and possibly ruining the morale of the other crew when he does remember?

And then she says some stuff about him always having been the tertiary science person, which is why she kept him around? Huh? If she wanted a tertiary crew, she would've just...trained a tertiary crew. She has all the resources in the word and her backup plan is an angry, unwilling amnesiac? If she's known all along he was a backup plan, she would've just told him. That way, she could've found out his thoughts about it at the onset. What's the benefit of not telling him?

It seems like a weird plot twist to me. I guess it makes the point that Ryland very much does not want to die (which is important since otherwise his choice at the end becomes a very simple one), but it seems like there were better ways to do this. I just think that the science in this book is so thoroughly reasoned out that this part being so ... not like that ... sticks out.

Discussion Questions

1. Was Project Hail Mary what you expected going into it? What surprised you about it?

2. What did you think about the character of Ryland Grace? Were you rooting for him? What did you like or dislike about him?

3. What did you think about the science behind Project Hail Mary? Were you able to understand it, and did you enjoy reading about it? How do you think it contributed to your enjoyment of the story?

4. What did you think about the process of planning the Hail Mary mission? Did you think

5. What did you think about the character of Eva? Did you find her sympathetic as a character? What did you like or dislike about her?

6. At one point, Eva calls Ryland a coward. Do you think her assessment of him was accurate or fair?

7. What did you think about Ryland's determination to get home? Do you think it was cowardly? Selfish? Understandable?

8. What did you think about the different social customs of the Eridians? Did these make sense to you?

9. If you had to choose someone to be stuck in space with, would you choose Ryland or Rocky?

10. What did you think of Weir's descriptions of the Eridians? Did these seem convincing to you as a species that could possibly be real?

11. Weir goes into detail regarding the comparisons between Eridians and humans. They are located close to each other, at least relative to the vastness of space, and their planets are similar but with some distinct differences. What do you think of Weir's reasoning of why the Eridians and humans are similar or different and the ways that they've evolved (Rocky and Ryland are similar intellectually, but Rocky's bodily composition is very different, etc.)?

12. Do you think Ryland ever makes it to Earth?

13. Were you left with any other unanswered questions after reading Project Hail Mary? If so, what?

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Summary and Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - The Bibliofile

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Project Hail Mary is the newest novel from Andy Weir, soon released in a few days on Star Wars Day (May 4). Sci-fi fans should feel free to get excited now. I was so thrilled to get an early copy of it and absolutely tore through this story about scientific research, evolution and interstellar exploration.

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Andy Weir - Video Interview about Project Hail Mary

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Andy Weir - Video Interview about Project Hail Mary

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Inside the Book: Andy Weir (PROJECT HAIL MARY)

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No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

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No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg

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The #1 New York Times bestseller by Time's 2019 Person of the Year

The groundbreaking speeches of Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist who has become the voice of a generation, including her historic address to the United Nations

In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day in order to protest the climate crisis. Her actions sparked a global movement, inspiring millions of students to go on strike for our planet, forcing governments to listen, and earning her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

No One Is Too Small to Make A Difference brings you Greta in her own words, for the first time. Collecting her speeches that have made history across the globe, from the United Nations to Capitol Hill and mass street protests, her book is a rallying cry for why we must all wake up and fight to protect the living planet, no matter how powerless we feel. Our future depends upon it.

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No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference

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The #1 New York Times bestseller by Time's 2019 Person of the YearThe groundbreaking speeches of Greta Thunberg, the young climate activist who has become the voice of a generation, including her historic address to the United Nations In August 2018 a fifteen-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, decided not to go to school one day in order to protest the climate crisis.

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Greta Thunberg - 2019 Time Person of the Year

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Greta Thunberg - 2019 Time Person of the Year

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Greta Thunberg Is TIME's 2019 Person of the Year

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The climate activist has succeeded in turning vague anxieties about the planet into a worldwide movement calling for global change

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The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras by Brantley Hargrove

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The Man Who Caught the Storm: The Life of Legendary Tornado Chaser Tim Samaras by Brantley Hargrove

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The saga of the greatest tornado chaser who ever lived: a tale of obsession and daring and an extraordinary account of humanity's high-stakes race to understand nature's fiercest phenomenon from Brantley Hargrove, "one of today's great science writers" (The Washington Post).
At the turn of the twenty-first century, the tornado was one of the last true mysteries of the modern world. It was a monster that ravaged the American heartland a thousand times each year, yet science's every effort to divine its inner workings had ended in failure. Researchers all but gave up, until the arrival of an outsider.

In a field of PhDs, Tim Samaras didn't attend a day of college in his life. He chased storms with brilliant tools of his own invention and pushed closer to the tornado than anyone else ever dared. When he achieved what meteorologists had deemed impossible, it was as if he had snatched the fire of the gods. Yet even as he transformed the field, Samaras kept on pushing. As his ambitions grew, so did the risks. And when he finally met his match-in a faceoff against the largest tornado ever recorded-it upended everything he thought he knew.

Brantley Hargrove delivers a "cinematically thrilling and scientifically wonky" ( Outside) tale, chronicling the life of Tim Samaras in all its triumph and tragedy. Hargrove takes readers inside the thrill of the chase, the captivating science of tornadoes, and the remarkable character of a man who walked the line between life and death in pursuit of knowledge. The Man Who Caught the Storm is an "adrenaline rush of a tornado chase...Readers from all across the spectrum will enjoy this" ( Library Journal, starred review) unforgettable exploration of obsession and the extremes of the natural world.

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The saga of the greatest tornado chaser who ever lived: a tale of obsession and daring and an extraordinary account of humanity's high-stakes race to understand nature's fiercest phenomenon from Brantley Hargrove, "one of today's great science writers" (The Washington Post).At the turn of the twenty-first century, the tornado was one of the last true mysteries of the modern world.

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The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

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The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

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MATTEO ALACRáN WAS NOT BORN; HE WAS HARVESTED.

His DNA came from El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium -- a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish. Then he was placed in the womb of a cow, where he continued the miraculous journey from embryo to fetus to baby. He is a boy now, but most consider him a monster -- except for El Patrón. El Patrón loves Matt as he loves himself, because Matt is himself.

As Matt struggles to understand his existence, he is threatened by a sinister cast of characters, including El Patrón's power-hungry family, and he is surrounded by a dangerous army of bodyguards. Escape is the only chance Matt has to survive. But escape from the Alacrán Estate is no guarantee of freedom, because Matt is marked by his difference in ways he doesn't even suspect.

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MATTEO ALACRáN WAS NOT BORN; HE WAS HARVESTED. His DNA came from El Patrón, lord of a country called Opium -- a strip of poppy fields lying between the United States and what was once called Mexico. Matt's first cell split and divided inside a petri dish.

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"In the not-so-distant future, workers are forced to tend heroin poppy fields. Cloned humans are raised for their organs to prolong the lives of the rich and powerful. The House of the Scorpion
Cover illustration: Russell Gordon
Atheneum Books, 2002; audio: Recorded Books

Between the U.S.A. and Aztlán (once called Mexico) lies a strip of land, known as Opium, the name of its chief product. It is ruled by a 146-year-old drug lord known as El Patrón. His fields are tilled by illegal immigrants, called "eejits," who have computer chips implanted in their brains so that they can be kept in slavery. Matt, a boy who is confined in a cottage on El Patrón estate, manages to break out, only to find himself treated like an animal. Eventually he learns why. The tattoo on his foot, "Property of Alacrán Estates," means that he is a clone of El Patrón --and that he is being raised to provide spare body parts for his original. With the aid of Tam Lin, his bodyguard, Matt escapes from Opium but that is not the end of his troubles. He is imprisoned in a brutal labor camp for orphaned boys in Aztlán and leads a rebellion to rescue not only himself, but the other "Lost Boys."

View answers to questions I am often asked about this book, a guide for reading and an excerpt.

AWARDS
National Book Award, 2002, Newbery Honor, 2003, Michael L. Printz Award Honor Book, 2003, Buxtehuder Bulle, 2003 (Germany), ALA Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, IRA Young Adults' Choices,Sequoyah Young Adult Award, Volunteer State Award, 2006, Arizona Young Readers Teen Award, 2005, South Carolina Junior Readers Award, 2005-2006, Rhode Island Teen Book Award nominee, 2004, Young Hoosier Book Award, 2006, Nevada Young Readers' Award, 2005, Senior Young Readers' Choice Award, Pacific Northwest Library Association, 2005, Bay Area Book Reviewers' Association Award for Children's Literature -- Ayesha Court,
In her new National Book Award-winning The House of the Scorpion, Nancy Farmer sets her dystopian vision on a strip of land called Opium, between Mexico and the USA. Controlled by an iron-fisted drug lord, Opium may be a fictitious location, but it feels disturbingly real.
Farmer's latest young-adult novel unflinchingly tackles the war on drugs and mistreatment of migrant labors. Like her previous books, the Newbery Honor-winning A Girl Named Disaster , about a Shona tribal girl escaping an arranged marriage, and The Ear, the Eye and the Arm , about Zimbabwe in 2194, Scorpion should spark discussion. This is mind-expanding fiction for older teens that also works for adults - think Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, Orwell's 1984 or Nevil Shute's On the Beach.
Opium is all that young Matt Alacran knows. Raised in a house amid the poppy fields, he doesn't realize he's a clone until he breaks out of isolation to play with neighboring children. After an injury reveals a telltale tattoo on his heel, the Alacran and allied Mendoza families abuse and ignore him.
Unlike some science fiction, Scorpion relies on realistic, sympathetic characters dealing with a different reality, rather than high-tech droid wars or rampaging aliens. Young Matt, in search of a father figure, remains in deep denial that he will eventually be killed for his organs. He learns piano and math, soaks up survival skills from the gruff but caring Tam Lin and tries to win a young woman's heart. All the while, he's trying to make everyone see him as more than a clone.
Scorpion is a cautionary tale that seeps into your mind and settles there. When reading about Colombia ceding huge swaths of land to the narco-backed rebels, Opium will reappear in your mind's eye. When an Italian doctor vows to clone humans, Matt's fears will resurface. Scorpion serves as a reminder of a disturbing future." *"Farmer's novel may be futuristic, but it hits close to home, raising questions of what it means to be human, what is the value of life, and what are the responsibilities of a society. Readers will be hooked from the first page."-- Publishers' Weekly, starred review

*"...Farmer has a talent for creating exciting tales in beautifully realized, unusual worlds. With undertones of vampires, Frankenstein, dragons' hoards, and killing fields, Matt's story turns out to be an inspiring tale of friendship, survival, hope, and transcendence. A must-read for SF fans."-- Kirkus Reviews , pointer review *"[A] remarkable coming of age story...."-- Booklist , starred review.

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"In the not-so-distant future, workers are forced to tend heroin poppy fields. Cloned humans are raised for their organs to prolong the lives of the rich and powerful. The House of the Scorpion Cover illustration: Russell Gordon Atheneum Books, 2002; audio: Recorded Books Between the U.S.A.

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Google Book Preview/Review

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Basketball has always been an escape for Finley. He lives in broken-down Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish mob, drugs, violence, and racially charged rivalries. At home, his dad works nights, and Finley is left to take care of his disabled grandfather alone. He's always dreamed of getting out someday, but until he can, putting on that number 21 jersey makes everything seem okay.

Russ has just moved to the neighborhood, and the life of this teen basketball phenom has been turned upside down by tragedy. Cut off from everyone he knows, he won't pick up a basketball, but answers only to the name Boy21--taken from his former jersey number.

As their final year of high school brings these two boys together, a unique friendship may turn out to be the answer they both need.

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You can lose yourself in repetition--quiet your thoughts; I learned the value of this at a very young age. Basketball has always been an escape for Finley. He lives in broken-down Bellmont, a town ruled by the Irish mob, drugs, violence, and racially charged rivalries.

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Boy21 by Matthew Quick

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As their final year of high school brings these two boys together, "Boy21″ may turn out to be the answer they both need. Matthew Quick, the acclaimed author of Sorta Like a Rock Star, brings readers a moving novel about hope, recovery, and redemption.

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Ashfall by Mike Mullin

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Turtles All the Way Down by John Green

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Google Books - Preview/Review

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THE INSTANT #1 BESTSELLER!
FEATURED ON 60 MINUTES and FRESH AIR

"So surprising and moving and true that I became completely unstrung." - Named a best book of the year by: The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living, Publishers Weekly, BookPage,A.V. Club, Bustle, BuzzFeed, Vulture, and many more!
JOHN GREEN, the acclaimed author of Looking for Alaska and The Fault in Our Stars, returns with a story of shattering, unflinching clarity in this brilliant novel of love, resilience, and the power of lifelong friendship.

Aza Holmes never intended to pursuethe disappearance of fugitive billionaire Russell Pickett, but there's a hundred-thousand-dollar reward at stake and her Best and Most Fearless Friend, Daisy, is eager to investigate. So together, they navigate the short distance and broad divides that separate them from Pickett's son Davis.

Aza is trying. She is trying to be a good daughter, a good friend, a good student, and maybe even a good detective, while also living within the ever-tightening spiral of her own thoughts.

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THE INSTANT #1 BESTSELLER!FEATURED ON 60 MINUTES and FRESH AIR"So surprising and moving and true that I became completely unstrung." - The New York TimesNamed a best book of the year by: The New York Times, NPR, TIME, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, Southern Living, Publishers Weekly, BookPage, A.V.

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2021 Summer Reading - 9th Grade North Branford High School

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2021 Summer Reading - 9th Grade North Branford High School

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9th Grade - Focus on Science

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2022-2023 Grade 9 Summer Reading - Science Department