Welcome to Litsy!

Back to work, but not my regular work. I‘m subbing today. Didn‘t sleep last night so this should be interesting.
#backtowork

Thanks to @Chelsea.Poole for this excellent #AuldLangSpyne recommendation: a brief but deep book about six astro/cosmonauts from various countries circling the globe together in 24 hours. It‘s a wonderful exploration of bridging cultural differences, with awareness of how connected we are on this tiny planet. Harvey poetically explores big issues and personal pain, in the life of one astronaut and an incident on Earth that none were connected to.

I probably should have given up on this, but it‘s so short so I just kept speeding up the narration 🤷‍♀️ I think I just have to leave the Booker winners alone, they never seem to resonate with me, no matter how I try. In this one, yay space- but it‘s completely observational and then reflective and has zero plot which I just can‘t do without it seems. But it did win the Booker and many readers do like this, so don‘t just take it from me!

Maybe we‘re the new dinosaurs and need to watch out, but then maybe against all the odds we‘ll migrate to Mars, we will start a colony of gentle preservers, people who want to keep the red planet red. We‘ll devise a Planetary flag, because that‘s something we lacked on Earth, and we wonder if that‘s why it all fell apart. And we‘ll look back at the faint dot of blue that is our old Earth and will say, “Do you remember?” “Have you heard the tales?”

Don't squander a life so miraculously given, since I, your mother, could just as easily have been with my mother that day at the market if any number of things had been different, one of the youngest victims of the atomic bomb and you would never have been born.
But here we are, and here are these men on the moon, so you are on the winning side, and perhaps can live a life that honours that? And Chie had said silently to her mother, yes, I see.

Poignant & ephemeral, a galactic meditation on our fragile & interdependent existence. This meticulously researched story gives a glimpse of human perspective from a space station parked on the outskirts of planet earth. It makes us wonder & marvel at the preciousness of time we have here & to synonymously long for a collective march toward valuing & defending her intricate veil of resources.

Maybe one day a robot could do your job…But what would it be to cast out into space creation that had no eyes to see it, and no hearts to feel or exult in it? For years an astronaut trains and prunes and caves and submarines and simulators every flaw or weakness located, tested, and winnowed away until what‘s left is a near-perfect unflappable triangulation of brain, limbs, and senses. For some it comes hard, for others more easily.

A beautifully written small book about one day in one flight in space and the six astronauts who inhabit this space ship. In 24 hours, there will be 16 sunrises, 16 sunsets, a typhoon, a death. We read about their dreams, their lives on earth, their thoughts at seeing all the beauty of life from outer space. A very special book.

I had been looking forward to this one, but it fell flat. Some of the writing was beautiful, but also felt similar to the "Cosmos" miniseries and not terribly original. I think I could have really liked it, if it had been twice as long so I had time to get to know the characters. I don't mind if a novel is light on plot, but I didn't feel like this had enough depth to go without a plot.

This held no interest for me. The idea of being trapped in a spaceship with no gravity and mushy food is my worst nightmare & not something I want to read about. Then to be told the earth looks beautiful from space is stating the obvious & becomes repetitive. I bailed at p9 but tried a later page to give it another chance: Anton remembering a dream. Too slow for me & the characters are only loosely connected (by their job) so there was no tension.

#weekendreads

Finishing up Boots on the Ground, which is very good , and starting Orbital for book club.

Rotating about the earth in their spacecraft they are so together, and so alone, that even their thoughts, their internal mythologies, at times convene.
#FirstlineFridays
@ShyBookOwl

😬Forgot to include this book for the month of February 2025 Book #9

What can I say about this book? For me was more like a reflection of these characters about themselves and life during their travel. A philosophical thinking, but didn‘t feel it like a novel with a plot. But judges have more literary experience than me. 😄 3.5⭐️ I liked it but didn‘t love it. Maybe a re-read? 🤷🏽‍♀️

The best way to spend election day!
Fingers crossed 🤞

This is not your typical science fiction novel. I've seen it described as a "love letter to Earth," and I'd say that's very apt. I kept wondering when the story was going to "start" at first until I realized...this is the story. It's a rumination on Earth and space and humanity from the viewport of a space station. It's slow and maybe sometimes lingers too long on which exact locations the orbit is viewing from space, but lovely overall.

I‘m solidly in the “loved it” camp here. I know some found it boring and to be fair, I may have ventured in that direction if it had been longer. I read it over a month ago, but keep thinking about it - which makes me love it more!
#booker

I'm dying over the idea of "national toliets" ?

I've got another travel day so hoping to make some good progress on some of these books #WeekendReads

I might be biased, but I read this the week I visited NASA with students. Whereas most of the ISS books I‘ve read focused on the science and engineering, this told the emotional and mental side of orbiting the earth- seeing it from afar- the beauty, your family continuing, its fragility, your “home”, while doing a job only a few can understand. The writing is exquisite- I simply loved it.

@TheSpineView Thank you for the tag! I have had my ☕️ coffee! Relaxing day ahead after some silly shopping! Maybe a walk in the sunshine and then I hope to knit all while listening to the tagged book. @AllDebooks

3-28 Mar 25
2024 Booker Prize. The narrative follows 24 hours in the life of a group of Astro/cosmonauts in the international space station as they orbit 16 times around Earth. What this narrative allows Harvey to do, however, is give the reader a different perspective on our planet - the lack of borders, the beauty, the inevitability (and our hopelessness) of natural disasters. I do wish I read it quicker - really a book to read in one sitting.

Planet Earth is blue and there‘s nothing I can do. Beautiful book describing 16 orbits of the Earth from the perspective of the International Space Station. Being in the peace and tranquility of floating in space means that you see an awful lot of things you can do nothing about.

A smaller version , so smaller print and very compact. I had to read carefully.Well researched. About a group of astronauts on a space station. A timely read as the 2 American astronauts arrived back recently. Insightful. What is the purpose of going around and around the earth in orbit. What‘s the future of humanity. Is it in the hands of billionaires?

I haven't seen people talking about this new book prize, Climate Fiction Prize. This is the first year, and the shortlist was announced today
https://climatefictionprize.co.uk/2025-prize/shortlist/

Really enjoyed it.

I have never read a Booker winner that I didn‘t love. I wasn‘t sure about this one. Normally poetic is a bit too smarmy for me. But it‘s absolutely beautiful. Seeing Earth and humanity without any boarders. A tiny glimpse at what it can be and how lucky we are to be here, at this point, in this time, living our tiny lives.

I loved listening to Orbital! What an amazing tribute to earth and humankind. Mona is finished and ready to be hung up

Orbital by Samantha Harvey follows six astronauts inside the space station as they go around the Earth in the span of 24 hours. This book doesn‘t really have a plot, nor action, just life. And love, so much love for our planet, and for people. It felt like I was reading poetry and my heart felt a little bit more at peace after.

Every audio book I‘ve started this year I have bailed on for a variety of reasons. Some haven‘t been great, all have been clawed back by the library but it‘s mainly been more anxiety driven. I want quiet in my brain when I walk, clean, cook. Today I thought I‘d try again since my hold for Orbital is almost over. I‘ve tackled the mountain of ironing and now I‘m tackling Mona

Lovely short novel that covers one day (16 orbits) of a 6 person International Space Station crew. As much a meditation as a novel, this beautiful book captures the pain and joy and awe of being human. Not big on plot, though!

Reading on the station about out of this world travel.

Bit of a contrast.

Complicated story for having no full out plot, a bit disjointed. I enjoyed the outlook on what it takes to look outside the satellite. Though the six cosmonauts are forgettable. The plot itself was split, so I don‘t know where that was going. There were many good quotes and mentions of looking down on the earth from above, though, that saved the story to me.

He dreamed - of all things, of all damned American things - of the infamous image taken by Michael Collins during the first successful moon mission, back in 1969: the photograph of the lunar module leaving the moon's surface, and of the earth beyond.

No Russian mind should be steeped in these thoughts.

Read for our faculty book club - fun when the astrophysicist joins in!

If you're looking for a strong plot, this is not the book for you. My brain decided it was a prose poem, a meditation on humanity, interconnectedness, and the truths space can reveal.

“It's barely any difference at all, and the profoundest difference in the world.“

It made me think, choice and chance. A choice, ever so insignificant, can change the whole course of a life. The same with a chance, being at a certain time in a certain place by chance can change everything. The outcome might be of little difference, but choice and chance differ greatly from each other.

A light pick for this #tob25 entry and Booker prize winner. The writing is gorgeous but I have incredibly limited patience for meditative, not-quite novels right now. I probably would have liked it more if I‘d read it at a mentally quieter point in my life.

#TulinCat is again a wonderful book prop! I‘m pretty sure he ate a hair tie earlier so I‘m really on edge about it, please wish us luck. Kittens, ugh.

Page 39 / printed copy
“You have your life and it can't be moved.“

Page 38 / printed copy

If I imagine being high up and seeing our earth as a marble, would my views on life change?
We're mere specs of dust in the grand scheme of things, our life is a blink of an eye. The universe is vast and we have explored only a fraction of it. But exactly that, this rarity and fragility, it makes our lives seem so peculiar and special.
If you could see the earth from afar, what do you think you would feel or reflect on?

Samantha Harvey's “Orbital“ was a book that instantly caught my eye in one of Berlin's small bookstores. It's a book on the thinner side, but sometimes the most profound ideas come in compact packages. The premise sounds promising. I'll report back once I've finished!

Given the mixed reviews here, I liked this better than I expected to. I think Harvey used the premise of the astronauts on their mission to capture well feelings of powerlessness and insignificance in the face of enormous forces, and feelings at times of the pointlessness of it all. And yet, we continue to believe in the purpose of our lives in spite of it all - it‘s what makes us human. Not the kind of book I look for on the #TOB shortlist tho.

While I absolutely adored the writing style, there's something not quite dreamy about the way this story was told that didn't fully gel for me. At 207 pages, it's a short novel that tried to say too many things and at the same time, was content to meander in doing so. A novella about fifty pages shorter would be a meditation on the perspectives of astronauts, their links and separation from humanity, 1/?

I would never have read this , only for a friend praising it highly. I listened on audible and I found it a beautiful far away poignant meditation on life on earth. It sent my mind in all directions. There are certain parts that will stay with me. I don‘t know how I would have felt if I had read it, but I listened to it on my walks, and also one evening with a glass of wine. Very special book.

Not sure what was missing but I found the pacing to be very slow, adding on to the feeling of introspection and meditation that I wasn't expecting every chapter, every page but there it was time and time again, slow and methodical but it's beautifully written nonetheless just not for me.

@Lauredhel #pantone2025 #popsugarreadingchallenge #25in2025

The most awe inspiring prose.