Welcome to Litsy!

This past week I finished 3 books that I started in September: the tagged one which is YA but I enjoyed it a lot and 2 Agatha Christie story collections. The under dog and other stories was an audiobook read by David Suchet and Hugh Fraser (the actors playing Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings in the TV series) and was an absolute delight. All picks.

“Dad claims that library science is the foundation of all sciences just as math is the key — and we will survive or founder, depending on how well the librarians do their jobs. Librarians didn't look glamorous to me but maybe Dad had hit on a not very obvious truth.“

Checked the full- cast audio book out from the library. Really good so far! Cute story!

This 1959 Hugo nominee starts off seriously fun and gradually becomes a touch tedious as Kip bounces from one tight spot to the next. Still, the good bits are VERY good and I enjoyed the characters an awful lot. I‘d recommend it to anyone interested in classic SF, with the caveat that you might like it more as an historical artifact than anything else. It also provides an interesting peek at early YA.

I took a pretty nice #audiowalk just now. It‘s been in the 20-25 range today, which makes everything feel autumnal; something I balk at when it‘s actually autumn, since that means frickin winter‘s coming, but can tolerate in the middle of summer as long as the temperature climbs back into the 30s right away, like it‘s supposed to do tomorrow.

My neighbour gave me a huge bag of chard! I turned most of it into chips and invented a pasta dish with the rest. (Sausage with chili, chard, and chevre.) It was pretty good, but it needs some tweaking and I dunno if I‘d rush to make it again. #audiocooking

I hit 14:35 (and rested my eyes) on a nice, long #audiowalk. I listened to a bit more of PLANET OF THE DAMNED to start, but switched to a story from the June issue of CLARKESWORLD after I decided it was so bland I‘d better bail. Then I gave Harry Harrison another chance with DEATHWORLD, found that one bland too, and switched to HAVE SPACESUIT, WILL TRAVEL. I‘m now 25% in and having a lot of fun with it. Hurray! #24In48

I started out as a fresh kid and potential juvenile delinquent, and look at me now! #vintageSF

This was meh. I enjoyed the beginning, the space suit, a bit of humor, the Mother Thing, and PeeWee. But overall the plot consisted of clichés (kid is abducted by aliens in a flying saucer. Aliens want to invade Earth to eat the people. Later on kid saves the world.), random travels, and one very long math calculation. This constituted the height of sci-fi in 1958, but today you can skip this for something better. ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

This book was noted in a podcast interview by Andy Weir as one that was important to him in his youth. How similar it is to The Martian in its scientific jargon and first person narrative! I have a lot more Heinleins to read and look forward to more imagination and believable sci-fi. Great choices for middle school and up, without being not that long.

Okay, librarians, let's do this.

My husband read this book to both our kids when they were little. They have all talked about it and mentioned it so many times that I felt like I needed to read it. I am not a science fiction fan so I get bogged down in the technical stuff but I have to say the story is compelling, the characters are likable and memorable and the plot keeps you moving along. Great book to motivate kids to love science and learn about space.

For being written in 2958, Heinlein does not disappoint. A fun romp through the universe, with good science and humor in this excellent sci-fi classic.