Violeta was lives through extraordinary events, from World Wars, family tragedy, loves, lost, political turmoil, as well as women’s rights.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is the first autobiography I read which I would consider to be literature, written with wit and wisdom to boot.

Dr. Ryland Grace woke up on a space-ship with no idea why he’s there. His crew-mates are dead and the spaceship is millions of miles from home.

What impressed me the most about The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams is the excellent and loving research that has gone into the writing of this novel.  

Chasing the Moon: People Politics and the Promise That Launched the Space Age – looking at the thinkers dreamers and futurists that envision the space program

The Last Leonardo: The Secret Lives of the World’s Most Expensive Painting – a non-fiction book about da Vinci’s painting: Salvator Mundi, sold for $450 million

The novel takes full advantage of geek culture, and infantile jokes but the science in this book is fascinating ranging from overall theories to nuts and bolts

Most of all The Martian celebrates human inventiveness to survive. An adventure book celebrating intelligence, done with intellect, wit and full of suspense.

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan is a fictionalized account of the relationship of famed author Robert Louis Stevenson and  his wife Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne . This is Ms. Horan’s second novel, her first, Loving Frank, was a bestseller and well received.

I enjoyed this book very much, short but tells a great alternative history of what happened to Eva Braun. It could easily be a book just about that subject