Review: Seveneves

Pin It Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

A friend told me that this is the best book he read last year and I can see that that sentiment is echoed by many other people (myself excluded). I have very little history with Neal Stephenson other than Snowcrash, which is one of the best sci-fi books I've read. I had heard that he tends to put a lot of research into creating his stories and that he is very thorough with details. I'll be honest that that alone should have warned me since I'm not big on minutia and much prefer character-driven books. I like my emotions to be tested and I enjoy loving some characters and hating others.

Seveneves is a massive book and equally grand in its scale. The time period it covers is possibly the largest of any book I've read and I found this idea to be quite exciting initially, expecting the get a glimpse of a fantastic world drastically different from the one left behind. Unfortunately, the parts I longed for were largely absent.

This is a book that I really wish would have been written by another author. I loved the basic idea and overall story but it was all of the filler that put me in a coma. The endless physics and description of parts of a space ship overtook the people who were there among them. I never really cared about any of the characters because it felt like everyone was devoid of feeling. I mean, how can you spend 500 pages describing the end of the world and not have your reader feel even a tiny bit of sadness, loss or heartbreak? I wanted this book to make me cry and then blow me away with a grand new world filled with wonder. It didn't do that and it's a bloody shame.

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Review: Yes Please

Pin It Yes Please by Amy Poehler
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It may be impossible to read Yes Please without attempting to compare it to Bossypants by Tina Fey (which I didn't love and gave up on only a short time in), however, these books are so unrelated in style and purpose that an attempt would be foolish on my part. Let's just put it this way: I liked Yes Please but I didn't like Bossypants.

Now, with that out of the way, this was not even close to being a perfect book. It is essentially a series of very loosely related autobiographical essays with a mix of humor, advice, and general observation of what Poehler experienced on her way to the top of show business. Some of those essays are much better than others and some just plain old felt self-indulgent (which I suppose is allowed when you are writing a memoir of sorts). I actually listened to it in audiobook format which I think in this case was a good choice. It is narrated well and feels very natural. I'm fairly certain that it might be hard to catch some of the humor without hearing her say it in her voice.

The parts I liked, I liked a lot. Some of her discussions on parenting were hilarious and quite inspirational at times. On the other hand, other parts of her book felt a bit judgey... which is a bit ironic considering she points out several times how we need to stop judging each other.

All in all, this was a great book in the humor/memoir category. It actually made me laugh out loud a few times which is a rarity for me.

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Review: Pompeii

Pin It Pompeii by Robert Harris
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I want to say that I originally saw this book on some must-read list a while back which is what inspired me to add it to my shelf. Maybe not. The story of Pompeii is one that, while interesting, has been beaten to death in popular media over the years. I was skeptical that the story could be spun in a way that would make it feel fresh and new so I didn't exactly go into this with extremely high expectations.

Refreshingly, Robert Harris managed to overcome my doubts with a story that really had more to do with plumbing that with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius. This was a smart move, although unlike me, some readers may find it disappointing that the story didn't completely focus on the tragedy of Pompeii. As one other reviewer brilliantly pointed out, this is the story of a "latter-day Super Mario." It focuses on the challenges of Marcus Attilius Primus who is a local water engineer as he struggles with the politics of finding out what has stopped the flow of water.

This is an extremely well-written book and if you are looking for great historical fiction, this is certainly a solid choice. There were times when I lost interest a bit, simply because the action can be slow at times but overall it was a great take on the history of Pompeii without repeating the story that we've all heard in our history classes.

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