Book Thoughts | The Martian

The Martian by Andy Weir
Genre: Scifi
Release Date: February 11, 2014 (self publish 2011)
Rating:
Summary: Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first men to walk on the surface of Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first man to die there.
It started with the dust storm that holed his suit and nearly killed him, and that forced his crew to leave him behind, sure he was already dead. Now he's stranded millions of miles from the nearest human being, with no way to even signal Earth that he's alive--and even if he could get word out, his food would be gone years before a rescue mission could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment, or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to get him first.
But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills--and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit--he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. But will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him? (goodreads)

Amazon | BookDepository

This is just such a unique story line. Different than what I am use to reading. The story is a survivor story. What one must do to survive in a whole different environment and use their knowledge to do so. Being smart is not so bad when you are trap by yourself in a planet years away from Earth.

Immediately I was drawn into the story line. I loved how it just jump into the story. Not making the reader wait to know a detail account of how it all went wrong.

I really liked how the novel description explained the procedures in a simplest way. Usually when a book over describe it's surroundings it ruins the book for me and I end up loosing interest. However, this did the complete opposite. As a reader I was invested in every single step Mark Watney our main charachter took. It feels like I was watching the little engine that could and was cheering him on in the side line. 

Every page I was routing for Watney survivable and hoping all went well. When something went wrong I was on the edge of my seat reading what he will come up with to solve the problem. 

I really love Watney character  a  lot. His sense of humor in his situation was amazing. It lightens the mood of the book forgetting the horrible situation he was in. It was also amazing how we read so many people working together to get him back home. I recommend this book to everyone. I am happy that I picked it up.

Favorite quote: 
"That makes me a pirate, a space pirate." 
~ Mark Watney

This line made me laugh so much. Any time I think of space ships and space I think about Firefly.

TV Show | The Flash 1x13

Tittle: The Nuclear Man
Director: Glen Winter
Writer: Andrew Kreisberg & Katherine Walczak
Aired: February 10, 2015
Summary: The team attempts to track Ronnie's whereabouts after he injures a scientist. Knowing that Dr. Martin Stein is in control of Ronnie's body, they use his wife to talk Stein/Ronnie into coming back to the lab for testing. Meanwhile, Joe enlists Cisco's help to identify who murdered Barry's mother. Cisco discovers an old mirror left in the former Allen home that captured images from the night of the murder, and Joe finds blood from two people behind some new wallpaper, one of whom was likely the killer. Joe asks Cisco to compare the blood to Dr. Wells', but Cisco refuses to believe Dr. Wells is involved. Dr. Wells discovers that Ronnie and Dr. Stein's atoms are in conflict, and if it continues they will become nuclear. Dr. Wells determines that the tachyon device recharging his speed could be converted to a quantum splicer to stabilize Ronnie's body and separate the two personalities. Dr. Snow uses the device; Ronnie's body still goes nuclear, but safely away from the city. The explosion alerts General Eiling, who orders a team to recover F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. Cisco runs the blood samples and informs Joe that while neither is from Dr. Wells, one is from an adult Barry.

I loved how this episode started. It's quirky and fun. It does have it's serious moment but overall it has everything. The relationship between Joe and Barry is amazingly shown in every episode.Their bond grows and grows in every episode.

In this episode we are shown more into the origin of F.I.R.E.S.T.O.R.M. which was interesting to see. Although I did enjoy the episode it did have some issues with some part of the episode.

One major issue I had with this episode was Iris. I don't know what the writers are trying to do with her character but they are making me like her less and less in each episode. I feel that they are taking the same rode with Iris that they took in Arrow with Laurel. I like the characters in the beginning but then they just throw the character into a weird journey that I just wish they wrote them differently.

Don't get me wrong. They do write some great female characters (Felicity Smoak and Sara Lance in Arrow, Caitlin Snow in The Flash). I just feel that they need to get pass the love interest struggle journey. They need a different angle with that.

Apart from that rant I really liked the episode. We got more info on Ronnie and Dr. Martin Stein.   Also, can we talk about the two reverse Flash out there right now, someone other than Dr. Wells. That is just insane. The episode as a whole was really enjoyable. I really enjoyed that they keep adding easter eggs during the whole episode for fans of the comic books.

Read-a-thon #1 | #ProjectTBR

The first read-a-thon that I will be joining this year will be #ProjectTBR hosted by Benjaminoftomes starting on February 16th - 22th.

These are some of the books I am aiming to read that I already had in my tbr this month. Let's see how many of these I could read this week.

Challenge:

Book under 250 pages - Fairest by Marissa Meyer (222 pgs.)
Book with green in the cover - Apocalypse Z: The Beginning by Manel Loureiro
Book over 500 pages - Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb (435 pgs. - going to read comic books to add up to those pages missing)
Book an underrated novel - Overwatch by Marc Guggernhei
Book sequel - World After by Susan Ee

Shoutouts | Booktube #1

There are amazing booktubers out there that need more love. That is one thing that is awesome about the booktube community. Immediately when we find a new booktuber we want to share them with everybody else. Here are 4 booktubers this week that I hope you guys will check out.


Amanda Egle -
AMANDA videos are awesome. I love the comics and books she reads. She just started posting her individual videos in her channel about comic/graphic novels during the holidays. But now she has started to post her wrap-up and tbr. I can't wait to see what else she post. She is also part of The Marvelous Reading Room which is also an amazing channel where they post amazing reviews, discussions, and book pitches. Go check out the channels!

AbookandCake -
Annie videos are gorgeous with amazing editing and funny skits. Every time I see one of her videos it make me laugh. She really has a unique eye to her videos making them her own. I really enjoyed that she reads a variety of books and I always look forward to seeing what she make next.


Magereads -
I stumble to Mage channel while looking up at everyone's end of the year wrap ups. Really love how nice she and how she draws you automatically into her videos. I like the variety of books she reads. She doesn't only read one genre which I love.


The Nerd Stop -
Shawn channel doesn't only show book related content but also comic books and cosplay amongst other things. It's very awesome to see booktubers share their love on everything they enjoy in their channel. Which I love to see also. We all have other passions also. I really enjoy watching his thoughts on books and other things he loves.

You guys have any recommendations on any booktubers?

Readalong | #YearofCosmere

An amazing group of booktubers are hosting the Year of Cosmere. What does that mean? If you love Brandon Sanderson or would like to read Sanderson this is the perfect opportunity to start or re-read his books. It's a year long readalong for his books in the Cosmere universe. Here is InkBonesBook (Sanaa) one of the host videos explaining this amazing readalong. Come and join. They are starting this month with The Final Empire, the first book in the Mistborn series. I will hopefully be updating each month with my thoughts on each book.

#YearofCosmere
Twitter
Hashtag / #YearofCosmere
Goodreads Group

The Books and Hosts schedule:

February / The Final Empire - Lindsey Rey
March / The Well of Ascension - Connor O'Brien
April / The Hero of Ages - Sam from Novels and Nonsense
May / Elantris and the Emperor's Soul - Kitty G
June / The Rithmatist and Steelheart - Sara from Books&Junk
July / The Way of Kings - PT Hylton
August / Warbreaker - Max from WellDoneBooks
September / Words of Radiance - Scott from scottreads
October / The Alloy of Law - Michael from Bitten by a radioactive book
November / Shadows of Self  - Chris from TheReading Rhodes
December / Novellas, Short Fiction, and Overall Catch Up Month - Sanaa

January 2016 / Liveshow Discussion of the Cosmere!

Book Thoughts | Golden Son by Pierce Brown

Golden Son (Red Rising #2) by Pierce Brown
Genre: Dystopian/Fantasy/Sci-fi
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Rating:
Summary: With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation. Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within. A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.
Bloodydamn this book was brilliant. If you have yet to read the first book of this series Red Rising I highly recommend that you do so. (Goodreads)
 
The first book takes place in a futuristic dystopian future where we have come to live in different planets in our solar system. We follow the journey of Darrow our lead character taking part of rebellion to over power the corrupted society.

I received this book by participating in a goodreads giveaway. Which I was grateful and happy to receive since it was one of my most anticipated books of 2015. Let me just start by saying it didn't disappoint at all. The world that Pierce Brown has brilliantly crafted pulls you even more into the second book. Answering questions left unanswered by the previous book. As a reader you are given even more twist and turns that you would have expected to see.

I think it was a smart decision to start the book where he did, allowing the characters grow from were we last saw them and not dragging story into the same routine some series have a problem with. I think that is a unique way to continue the story and is something I have not seen before in my reading experience.

This was my first book of the new year making it a great start.

February 2015 | TBR

I would like to try something new this month. I am hoping to make a list of books I would like to tackle during the month of February. After the month is over I am curious to see how many books from my list I actually read and what changes and additional books I read.

February TBR: 

Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson

The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (15 book of 2015 challenge)

Red Dragon by Thomas Harris (15 book of 2015 challenge)

The Martian by Andy Weir

Fairest by Marissa Meyer

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

World After by Susan Ee

Apocalypse Z: The Beginning by Manel Loureiro

Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb

Overwatch by Marc Guggernheim

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

What books are you guys planning on reading this month?

strike = already read

January 2015 | Wrap up

Nine days late. Here is my January 2015 - Wrap up. January was a pretty good month. I read a lot of great books.

Novels:

Golden Son by Pierce Brown – 5/5 (Book 2 of Red Rising Series)

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey – 1.5/5 (not continuing the series)

Slaughter-House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut – 4/5 (15 books of 2015 Challenge)

The Nerdist Way: How to Reach the Next Level by Chris Hardwick – 4/5

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr – 5/5 (15 books of 2015 Challenge)

 Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi – 5/5

The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson – 5/5 (Book 3 of the First Mistborn Trilogy)

While It Last by Abbi Glines – 3/5

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – 3/5

Comics:

Aliens: Fire and Stone #1 by Chris Roberson – 3/5

Hawkeye, Vol.3 by Matt Fraction – 5/5

Ant-Man #1 by Nick Spencer – 4/5

Thor #4 by Jason Aaron – 5/5

What books did you guys read in the month of January?