When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut (like pretty much every other kid out there). To hear that Scott Kelly volunteered to spend a year in space to advance science and to further the mission to Mars completely thrilled the kid still in me. This book of his experiences during that year spent in the International Space Station, along with his journey to get there, is absolutely fascinating and inspirational.

Kelly writes with the clear-eyed and straightforward voice of a scientist. Yet his story is never boring; in fact, it's quite the opposite. No matter what he's talking about, he makes it interesting, such as the superstitious steps taken before launch, what it's like to capture the SpaceX Dragon with a robotic arm, how it feels when multiple rockets holding much needed supplies burned or never made it to ISS, the logistics of everyday life in zero gravity, what it's like to do spacewalks, and so much more.

It's not often a book comes along that captures my imagination and makes me want to reach for the stars. I'm so glad Kelly wrote this book of his extraordinary experiences. It's an absolute joy to read and will go down as one of my all-time favorites!

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

In Lie to Me, Ethan wakes up one day to a note from his wife saying she has run away and not to look for her. Then he proceeds to think and act like a guilty crazed person, so that the police are forced to consider him as their prime suspect. Through flashbacks, we learn more about the couple, such as they are both incredibly unlikable people who treated each other horribly.

Part of the problem with this book is that it over promises and under delivers. A lot of the "lies" advertised by the title are really just things the couple didn't tell each other, which surely would have come to light in a real relationship. Character development also comes across as lacking realism, with people just changing all of a sudden instead of slowly becoming a better person. And in the end, the motivations and what really happened are pretty far-fetched.

I did find the book to be a page-turner, designed to misdirect you until the big reveal. Though it lacks realism, it's a fun read none-the-less, so it's worth checking out if you're looking for a domestic mystery/thriller.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Lucy and Owen, who have been married for a long time, decide to try an open marriage for six months and see what happens. The book starts out sort of silly and frivolous, with a seemingly unconnected cast of not particularly likable characters. But then as the story went on, I found myself starting to cheer on Lucy and her relationship on the side. Her husband Owen pretty much leaves her with the lion's share of running the household, doing the chores, and raising their special needs child, all the while ignoring her as a person. Sorry to say this, but good for her for finding someone to pay attention to her and make her feel good! She deserves it, ha! I probably got the wrong message out of this story, but it was a fun and easy read about an unconventional arrangement in a relationship.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

This book starts out so strong. The first third of it had me completely hooked, turning the pages as I fast as I could, trying to figure out what's going on. The main character Melanie is a compelling protagonist, and we get dragged along with her as she tries to piece together what makes her so different from other people and why the adults treat her and the other children the way they do.

Then we hit the middle third of the book, and it becomes a complete snooze-fest. The story slows and the action crawls along. What made the book so interesting in the beginning is mostly gone, and it's replaced by what I think of as the classic zombie genre of people running and hiding from "brains... brains...". I found myself often flipping ahead a few chapters just to see something going on, then catching myself and coming back to read what I had skimmed through.

Another thing I didn't like is that the main scientist trying to find a cure for this infection is extremely unlikable. And through her narrative, the author spends a good amount of time trying to convince the reader on how this infection came to be with lots of scientific jargon. I just don't find that I need to be so thoroughly convinced with such boring lectures. Part of reading this genre is being able to suspend my beliefs.

Thankfully, the last third of this book picks up the pace a bit, and it ends on an interesting note. While reading through the majority of this tale, I found myself thinking how I didn't see where it was headed. And it really is that way until pretty much the last page of the book. I enjoyed the ending and thought it was an unexpected and clever way to wrap up the story.

Throughout the story, I found its the treatment of Melanie and the question of ethics to be thoughtful and multifaceted. What does it mean to be human and sentient? At what point do we consider a creature to have rights? The book shows us many different answers to these question through the various characters' perspectives. To me, this is the core takeaway from the book, and it's handled with nuance and intelligence.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

Being human means yearning for more than subsistence. As much as food or shelter, we require hope.

For many years now, a growing population of Americans have been forced to live in mobile homes and vehicles due to their inability to make mortgages or rent. These Americans, made up mostly of the elderly, have limited choices when it comes to jobs, but cannot afford to retire. So they drive across the country looking for seasonal work to make ends meet and to supplement their meager social security incomes. Nomadland is their story.

In order to do research for this book, Jessica Bruder spent three years on the road and for a time lived out of a van that she purchased. Her detailed research really shines a light on this often-overlooked segment of the population. Her writing style is approachable, and I was swept up in the narrative of these people who aren't able to make ends meet in the traditional sense, but have carved out a nomadic lifestyle for themselves on the fringes of American society.

The seasonal work they find generally pays poorly and has terrible working conditions. It was honestly shocking to read about their experiences with some of the biggest employers of temp workers, including Amazon. They would have 10 to 12 hour shifts in sweltering temperatures, lifting, scanning, and loading packages, and squatting and running on concrete through Amazon's vast warehouses, the size equivalent of 19 football fields. They often have to take pain medication before and after their shifts just to get through it. And they come away with repetitive stress injuries that last much longer than their seasonal employment, all the while being paid at or near minimum wage.

The book also discusses the difficulty and logistics of parking a mobile home or vehicle. Most camping grounds have a time limit of two weeks. After that, you must leave and find a new place to camp that is at least 25 miles away. Police and neighborhoods also don't look kindly upon people sleeping in their cars. As a result, there is fear among these folks of being caught or harassed, and of not being accepted by their family and friends.

Yet, there is a hopefulness that permeates these people. They remain optimistic against all odds, trying to view their nomadic lifestyle as a late-life chance at adventure and freedom. They subscribe to the notion that you don't need material goods in order to live a full and happy life. They form online communities and often meet regularly in person around the country to share their knowledge of this lifestyle and to bolster each other up, often forming lasting friendships.

What an eye-opening read this turned out to be. It was heartbreaking to learn how the social safety net completely failed for this vulnerable group of Americans. And it makes me thankful for all that I have, in particular a home where I am safe and secure.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

This is a decent crime procedural overall. The story immediately starts off with the crime, which turns out to be darker and more gruesome than I expected. Then the main character Lieutenant Dallas spends the rest of the story making slow and steady progress towards solving the crime and capturing the killer with her team. Once I had gone about half-way into the book, I started to see where it's going. I figured out by then who was the most likely suspect, though it was still interesting to read to the end and see the crime wrapped up.

While I've previously read Nora Roberts novels, this is my first time reading the author under her pseudonym J. D. Robb. I was curious to see how Roberts would write under her suspense/crime pen name, and the story definitely retains some of that Nora Roberts feel. If you've read any of the author's romance novels published under her real name, you know that her characters can be a bit hokey, so it's no surprise that this carries over to her suspense pen name. Lieutenant Dallas is portrayed as a broken woman who has suffered tremendously in her life, but she's lucky to have married a billionaire who adores her and buys her whatever she wants, though she protests of course. Some of the dialog in there is correspondingly hokey too, though it doesn't take away from the fun, fast read that this is.

One thing that distracted from the book is that it sometimes reads like it hasn't been properly edited yet. Some sentences are awkward and hard to understand. And sometimes when a bunch of characters are introduced at once, they just refer to them by name in the future without subtly reminding the readers again who they are. This means the reader has to go back and re-read parts just to understand everything. They're minor things that a good editor should have caught and corrected, but for some reason they made it into the finished version.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

This story starts out strong. A baby is kidnapped while the parents are next door at a party. Who could have taken her? Everyone involved has secrets, so many secrets. A competent detective is assigned to the case, and he immediately starts to suspect the parents.

Then as secrets are revealed, twists and turns appear, more and more of them, until they are so convoluted and twisting onto themselves that all sense of realism and believability is lost. Towards the end, it's hard to relate to any of the characters anymore or understand anyone's motivations or actions.

I did enjoy the author's writing style. It's sparse and action-driven, so it feels like the suspense level is high throughout, at least stylistically if not content-wise. And it contributes to a speedy pace.

And then we come to the gobsmacked ending. See, the story had already finished and everything was wrapped up. And then for some inexplicable reason, the author decided to keep going for an additional chapter, just to throw something shocking in at the end, except that it makes no sense and is completely ridiculous! Yikes... the author should have stopped while she was ahead.

Readaroo Rating: 2 stars

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns is an East Asian retelling of the story of the Evil Queen from Snow White. Xifeng is a beautiful 18-year-old who, through the urging of her abusive aunt, schemes her way onto the Imperial Court. Her aunt has always told her that greatness is in her destiny and if she grasps it, she will become Empress of Feng Lu. But greatness comes at a steep price, which Xifeng learns as she gets closer to her destiny.

It was a little hard for me to settle on the rating for this book. It starts out really slowly, with Xifeng obsessing over her own beauty and being jealous of other women's looks. She also seems confused about what she wants from Wei, the boy who has loved her since they were kids. She's constantly pushing him away while being hurt if he doesn't pay attention to her. That was pretty much the first 100 pages, and I almost gave up on the book at that point.

But then the story started moving along, and before I knew it, I was immersed in the tale. It's great fun to cheer for the evil heroine, wondering what wicked thing she will do next. And she does so much wickedness, all the while justifying it to herself. The world in the book is beautifully portrayed with lush vibrant colors and landscapes, reminding me of a Zhang Yimou movie. It's not a deep book at all, but it's enjoyable and a bit shocking, and before I knew it, I had finished the book!

After the initial slow start, I thoroughly enjoyed the rest of the book, so I'm giving it 4 stars. This is the first in a series, and I can't wait for more. I hope Dao doesn't take too long to write the next one!

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

In Just Mercy, author Stevenson details his founding and subsequent work with the Equal Justice Initiate, which helps defend the poor and the wrongly convicted from death row and life sentences. The book alternates between the lengthy work Stevenson does to get an innocent man, Walter McMillian, off of death row, and shorter stories on dozens of other people he helps.

The book makes a compelling case that our justice system is not justice for all. In many cases, the poor, minorities, and the disabled get an unfair shot because they do not have the money to hire a real lawyer or don't know what to do to get the legal help they deserve or are racially profiled to be a hardened criminal without justification. This means they often end up in jail for life or on death row when they should have been cleared or gotten reduced sentences for non-violent or non-homicide crimes.

In Walter's case, prosecutors and sheriffs conspired to keep evidence that would have exonerated him from his lawyers and then during the appeals process, maliciously refused to listen to reason and facts. The craziest evidence that the State refused to consider is that Walter was at a party at the time of the crime and had dozens of eye witnesses to his innocence.

Stevenson also touches upon work he has done to try to get women off of death row for being found guilty of murder after giving birth to stillborn babies. Or in one woman's case, of being on death row for the death of her baby when she hadn't even been pregnant. Stevenson also helped juveniles and mentally disabled people, among many others. It's hard to read all this and not despair for these people.

While the book talks about ending capital punishment for all and ending life sentences for juveniles, the author mainly uses examples where people are innocent or grossly over-sentenced to make his point. He doesn't address the case of repeated murders or other repeated heinous violent offenses. In those cases, do the perpetrators deserve leniency and mercy? If so, why? This is the one shortcoming of the book, and it would have been interesting to see more discussion on that.

Overall, this is a powerful, insightful, and emotionally-fraught book, one I would recommend to anyone wanting to learn more about our criminal justice system.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars