This book is just nice reading in every regard. You'll learn something about space. You'll learn about NASA and interntional space agency relations. You'll learn about Chris Hadfield's life on earth and in space. It's a peculiar mix of his life story (or rather work story), and the more fundamental approaches that he learned on the way, and that allowed him to get where he got. There are lots of calls for humility, and preparedness, and perseverance, and empathy and helping others bear their loads. And at the same time, the book is completely light-hearted, and made me smile on a regular basis. It made my day better, and maybe it will help make me better, too.
This short story by Isaac Asimov, available online was heart-breaking and well-paced. I was kind of sick of reading of dystopic futures with evil, flawed humans and evil, flawed AI everywhere, and this story is a nice break from all that.
Carrie was a good book, and I think its biggest failing was that it felt like a great book that followed a blueprint to greatness. But you can't say that the blueprint doesn't work – because it does. Carrie is one of those horror books that make very clear that the supernatural is not the stuff horrors are made of. That's reserved for regular humans and their actions and decisions. Stephen King is really good at painting humans in their day-to-day lives, with both their kindness and their cruelty. His pacing is also awesome and reminded me a bit of a tuned-down Vonnegut.