The Martian by Andy Weir

     Look, I am not a science fiction fan in the least. And I read the description of the book wrong, which I am now glad I did. I was expecting a book about an astronaut left behind and him struggling with missing his wife. Okay, maybe I had too much wine deciding on a book that night. The last thing I wanted was a science fiction love story. Gag.  How wrong I was.

     Picture yourself in the not so distant future, on a Mars mission.  A horrible storm descends on your crew, you are blown away in a gust, your crew thinks you are dead.  NOT!  Meet Mark Watney, from Chicago. Not the star astronaut, or the second, or even the third. He's just a run of the mill botanist/engineer astronaut...with the most hysterical sense of humor. I have laughed more with this book than I have with any other book I've ever read. I've told countless folks about the book, telling them they NEED to read it. As a matter of fact, I told the receptionist at my daughter's orthodontist this morning.

     Mark Watney is just this badass hero. CNN has a dedicated Watney Watch program. You go through the first part of the book with Watney's point of view, then you get NASA's. Some of the lingo is completely over my head, but it's few & far between. The humor is throughout. I mean, really, when an astronaut sends an email about boobies....c'mon.

     I have thoroughly enjoyed this book and was pretty sad that it ended. I would recommend this book a million times over!! Thank you Andy Weir!



"I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review."