mvanhoeck's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, I did not expect to love this so much. Nuanced and compelling characters. Funny, sad, smart.
merose's review against another edition
5.0
I think this was a 4.5 star book for me, rounded up. I love a quiet, introspective book and this really delivered.
This is the story of astronauts training for a mission to Mars, but it’s not really a space story. It’s about what it takes to be an astronaut, the spouse of an astronaut, or the child of an astronaut. It’s about what it would be like to live in close quarters with only two other humans - work colleagues, not family - for months or years at a time.
If you’re looking for something heavy on plot, this may not be the book for you. But if you love reading because sometimes a skilled author can convey observations about humanity that help you to understand something that’s slipped your grasp or make you feel seen because you thought your internal monologue was uniquely awkward until you saw it captured on a page by someone who’s never met you, I’d recommend checking this out. It’s thought-provoking, subtly humorous, and beautifully written.
This is the story of astronauts training for a mission to Mars, but it’s not really a space story. It’s about what it takes to be an astronaut, the spouse of an astronaut, or the child of an astronaut. It’s about what it would be like to live in close quarters with only two other humans - work colleagues, not family - for months or years at a time.
If you’re looking for something heavy on plot, this may not be the book for you. But if you love reading because sometimes a skilled author can convey observations about humanity that help you to understand something that’s slipped your grasp or make you feel seen because you thought your internal monologue was uniquely awkward until you saw it captured on a page by someone who’s never met you, I’d recommend checking this out. It’s thought-provoking, subtly humorous, and beautifully written.
kimmeyer's review against another edition
4.0
I bet Meg Howrey admires Tom Robbins. There's a similar sort of clever here. I liked this one, but I definitely recommend the audiobook because I suspect I would have appreciated it less without the narrator's skill with dialect and subtle emotional tone.
mcaley's review against another edition
Incredibly boring. Writing style is strange and dialogue is unrealistic, at best, and bizarre at worst.
cdbaker's review against another edition
3.0
I am not quite sure what I thought of this book. It was definitely interesting and I enjoyed lots of it, but I also found it to be fairly strange in a lot of ways. Probably should be closer to 3.5 stars than just 3. It's definitely worth reading, but wasn't quite what I was looking for.
robynryle's review against another edition
5.0
Moving exploration of the universe to explore that is our fellow human beings. Big, unanswered question, but I can live with it. I guess.
apostatepostbox's review against another edition
2.0
I don't think I'm this book's target audience.
Stars are for the writing alone, which is very well done, and the style is great - I loved the author's prose.
But too many characters, too little meat. It was a ton of slice-of-life but nothing really came of the long glimpses into people's psyche. I felt like the story didn't really move, and the characters didn't really change. It was a snapshot of a spot in characters living their lives and...I got bored.
Like I said, probably not for me.
Stars are for the writing alone, which is very well done, and the style is great - I loved the author's prose.
But too many characters, too little meat. It was a ton of slice-of-life but nothing really came of the long glimpses into people's psyche. I felt like the story didn't really move, and the characters didn't really change. It was a snapshot of a spot in characters living their lives and...I got bored.
Like I said, probably not for me.
mariahhanley's review against another edition
3.0
I would consider this to be aggressively mediocre. I wouldn’t recommend it. But I didn’t hate it.