Earth is Room Enough by Isaac Asimov

First sentence:

"Arnold Potterley, Ph.D., was a Professor of Ancient History."

Description:

"Anything can happen and probably will right here on Earth. 

You don't have to rent a spaceship or sign up for a singles cruise to Saturn or spend your weekends star-hopping along the Milky Way because EARTH IS ROOM ENOUGH.

Earth is where the action is and each tomorrow unleashes new discoveries.

Here are brilliant, witty, frightening, and fascinating stories of the future by the greatest science fiction master of them all. Just hitch your mind to these weird and wonderful tales for a spin around the world of tomorrow that will take you right to the center of your wildest dreams." == from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this short story collection of the future. Favorite stories include "The Dead Past," "Gimmicks Three," and "Living Space."

Date read: 12/18/2024
Genre: SF
Rating: 3*/5 = good

Publisher: Fawcett Crest
Year: 1957
# of pages: 208
LibraryThing page

 

The Cartographers by Peng Shepherd

 First sentence:

"In the dim light of her desk's single bulb lamp, the map nearly glowed."

Description:

From the critically acclaimed author of The Book of M, a highly imaginative thriller about a young woman who discovers that a strange map in her deceased father's belongings holds an incredible, deadly secret--one that will lead her on an extraordinary adventure and to the truth about her family's dark history. 

What is the purpose of a map? 

Nell Young's whole life and greatest passion is cartography. Her father, Dr. Daniel Young, is a legend in the field and Nell's personal hero. But she hasn't seen or spoken to him ever since he cruelly fired her and destroyed her reputation after an argument over an old, cheap gas station highway map. But when Dr. Young is found dead in his office at the New York Public Library, with the very same seemingly worthless map hidden in his desk, Nell can't resist investigating. To her surprise, she soon discovers that the map is incredibly valuable and exceedingly rare. In fact, she may now have the only copy left in existence... because a mysterious collector has been hunting down and destroying every last one--along with anyone who gets in the way. 

But why? 

To answer that question, Nell embarks on a dangerous journey to reveal a dark family secret and discovers the true power that lies in maps... 

Perfect for fans of Joe Hill and V. E. Schwab, The Cartographers is an ode to art and science, history and magic--a spectacularly imaginative, modern story about an ancient craft and places still undiscovered.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book about maps and the ways they bring people together or separate them. I had heard about the phantom settlement Agloe before, but I didn't know the whole story. I was glad that Nell's father requested a Sanborn Map as I had not only heard about them but had used them to find an ancestor's childhood home!

Date read: 11/16/2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4*/5 = great

ISBN-10: 0062910698
ISBN-13: 9780062910691
Publisher: William Morrow
Year: 2022
# of pages: 391
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page

Run by Ann Patchett

 First sentence:

"Bernadette had been dead two weeks when her sisters showed up in Doyle's living room asking for the statue back."

Description:

Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children--all his children--safe.

Set over a period of twenty-four hours, Run takes us from the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard to a home for retired Catholic Priests in downtown Boston. It shows us how worlds of privilege and poverty can coexist only blocks apart from each other, and how family can include people you've never even met. As in in her bestselling novel, Bel Canto, Ann Patchett illustrates the humanity that connects disparate lives, weaving several stories into one surprising and endlessly moving narrative. Suspenseful and stunningly executed, Run is ultimately a novel about secrets, duty, responsibility, and the lengths we will go to protect our children.

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book about family -- the one you're born into and the one you create. Every character is true to themselves and while it can take awhile each can appreciate the other even if they can't always understand them. 

Date read: 9/15/2024
Rating: 3*/5 = good
Genre: Fiction

ISBN-10: 0061340642
ISBN-13: 9780061340645
Publisher: Harper
Year: 2007
# of pages: 295
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing Page

The World Played Chess by Robert Dugoni

First sentence:

"A purpose, I have learned, is rarely found, but revealed."

Description:

"In 1979, Vincent Bianco has just graduated high school. His only desire: collect a little beer money and enjoy his final summer before college. So he lands a job as a laborer on a construction crew. Working alongside two Vietnam vets, one suffering from PTSD, Vincent gets the education of a lifetime. Now forty years later, with his own son leaving for college, the lessons of that summer--Vincent's last taste of innocence and first taste of real life--dramatically unfold in a novel about breaking away, shaping a life, and seeking one's own destiny." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this book about growing up from teen to an adult. William, a young man, discovering the stark reality of war as a marine/photographer in Vietnam, and later as a wiser adult coming to grips with PTSD. Vincent, a newly graduated high school student, learning about life and war from Vietnam vet William. Then, as an adult, Vincent passing some of his wisdom to his son, Beau.

Date read: 8/1/2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 1542029376
ISBN-13: 9781542029377
Publisher: Lake Union
Year: 2021
# of pages: 369
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page

Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales by Stephen King

 First sentence:

"It's so dark that for awhile--just how long I don't know--I think I'm still unconscious."

Description:

"The first collection of stories Stephen King has published since Nightmares & Dreamscapes nine years ago, Everything's Eventual includes one O. Henry Prize winner, two other award winners, four stories published by The New Yorker, and "Riding the Bullet," King's original e-book, which attracted over half a million online readers and became the most famous short story of the decade. "Riding the Bullet," published here on paper for the first time, is the story of Alan Parker, who's hitchhiking to see his dying mother but takes the wrong ride, farther than he ever intended. In "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe," a sparring couple's contentious lunch turns very, very bloody when the maitre d' gets out of sorts. "1408," the audio story in print for the first time, is about a successful writer whose specialty is "Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Graveyards" or "Ten Nights in Ten Haunted Houses," and though Room 1408 at the Dolphin Hotel doesn't kill him, he won't be writing about ghosts anymore. And in "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is in French," terror is deja vu at 16,000 feet. Whether writing about encounters with the dead, the near dead, or about the mundane dreads of life, from quitting smoking to yard sales, Stephen King is at the top of his form in the fourteen dark tales assembled in Everything's Eventual. Intense, eerie, and instantly compelling, they announce the stunningly fertile imagination of perhaps the greatest storyteller of our time." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this collection of short stories. My favorites were "That Feeling," "The Road Virus Heads North," and "1408."

Date read: 4/20/2024
Genre: Fiction/Horror
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10 0743235150
ISBN-13: 9780743235150
Publisher: Scribner
Year: 2002
# of pages 459
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page:

Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem

 First sentence:

"Edge had the highway to himself"

Description:

Since the war came and the bombs fell, Hatfork, Wyoming, has been a broken-down, mutant-ridden town. Young Chaos lives in the projection booth of the abandoned multi-plex cinema, trying to blot out his present, but unable to remember his past. Then, over a can of dog food, the local tyrant Kellogg reveals to Chaos that those bombs never actually fell. The truth, in fact, is a little more complicated.

So Chaos gets behind the wheel of an automobile and, accompanied by a fur-covered mutant female, sets out onto the empty highway for a journey to the edge of his American nightmare, in search of a missing identity and a stolen love." -- from the back cover

My thoughts:

I enjoyed this very strange book. I especially liked the characters Chaos and Melinda and how they helped each other in their journey to find a better home.

Date read: 1/25/2024
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-10: 0571225306
ISBN-13: 9780571225309
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Year: 1995 (this edition: 2005)
# of pages: 247
Binding: Trade Paperback
LibraryThing page:

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

 First sentences:

"Hi! My name is Naok and I am a time being."

Description:

"On a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, a Hello Kitty lunchbox washes up on the beach. Tucked inside is a collection of various items: an antique wristwatch, a pack of undecipherable letters, and the diary of a sixteen-year-old Japanese girl named Nao Yasutani. Ruth, who finds the lunchbox suspects that it is debris from Japan's devastating 2011 tsunami. Once Ruth starts to read the diary she quickly finds herself drawn into the mystery of the young girl's fate.

In a manga care in Tokyo's Electric Town, Nao has decided there's only one escape from te loneliness and pain of her life, as she's uprooted from her U.S. ome, bullied at school, and watching her parents spiral deeper into disaster. But before she ends it all, she wants to accomplish one thing: to recount the story of her great-grandmother, a 104-year-old Buddhist nun, in the pages of her secret diary. The diary, Nao's only solace, is her cry for elp to a reader whom she can only imagine." -- from the inside flap

My thoughts:

I found this to be a mesmerizing book about time, connections, family and self awareness. I liked how the characters interacted and how they learn more about themselves through their interactions with others.

Date read: 1/20/2024
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3*/5 = good

ISBN-13: 978067026630
Publisher: Viking
Year: 2013
# of pages: 403
Binding: Hardcover
LibraryThing page