this book felt like the kind of pain that manifests in your body as a small little jolt you can't place, the kind that bothers you a few times a day and slightly annoys you. until it develops into this massive neverending streams of pain you feel everywhere in your body, the kind that you can't even move without hurting. then it becomes this dull ache you learn to live with, some days are okay, some bad, some worse. nevertheless, the pain is there and it's a part of you now. so it goes without saying that this book was something that i absolutely loved.

kinda wanted fr*nk to suffer more but idk. because tell me why is the man the only person who's future is foreseeably happy? /s. all this aside, really loved seeing the growth in the characters (zoe's was one of my favorites) and while i did feel like it was a bit rushed because literally one moment they were all so fucked and the next they were all healthily processing their emotions, i think that was on purpose because we were introduced to them as what may have been the worst versions of themselves.

Content Warnings

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

first sci-fi read and i did not expect to absolutely devour this in a day!!! andy weir you clever cheeky man!!!

honestly such a fun and exciting read. stakes were so high that i could not put it down and was actually actively looking forward to how grace would solve the problems.

one problem i had (and this is more of a me thing) is that i felt like i was spacing out for a majority of the science talk in the book. while i do have some background on most of the topics discussed here, i just could not quickly wrap my head around some mechanisms. maybe it's because i actively wanted to understand and piece it all out, rather than just believe everything.

with that, a huge amount of suspension of disbelief is needed here. a lot of the struggles were solved only because grace was smart enough or

rocky was just an absolute engineering goat or stratt found some mad scientist who just so happened to have the answers they needed

. while it's not far fetched, it really just needs a lot of faith and believing.

i initially had hoped there was no alien life here because it removed a portion of believability the story had but gosh did i just start falling in love with rocky's chemistry with grace. how could a metal five-legged spider be so likeable??

i haven't read the martian and only watched the movie but it seemed like grace was like watney but a high school teacher. while this didn't completely bother me, i figured one might get sick of it in the long run, especially after reading the martian. i guess it could also a testament to weir's character-writing skills. but it's not really that big of a problem. the story was very much reliant on the science-y stuff rather than grace so i'll let it pass.

overall, a great read and so so fun!! can't wait for other books!

All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks

Go to review page

4.25

i found that a good chunk of the stuff mentioned here was obvious? perhaps for its time, these concepts were revolutionary but it seemed like most of the ideas were things you may have not explicitly articulated yourself but have definitely experienced and realized.

reading what she thought of monica lewinsky was definitely.. something! just really shocking and kind of uncharacteristic for a feminist to say, in my opinion.

the divine and angels talk was too much, and i say this as a faithful catholic. i just could not get into it and i felt quite lost reading about it.

still a good read and would recommend! still offers up good points on how we view and approach love in all aspects of our life.

The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced