Tag: Book

The Martian Contingency by Mary Robinette Kowal (2025)

The Martian Contingency cover artI have one friend in particular who tells me about good SF, and I am always laughably behind in picking up new authors to read.  The original short story “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” was published in 2012 and the three prior books in the series were published in 2018 and 2020.  I read them all in 2024 and this fourth book I read within a month of its release! (I also have read a standalone book not in this series by the author.)

This series takes place as an alternate history where women were not originally disqualified as astronauts.  The alternate timeline extends as the story does, with this book taking place in 1970.  I really liked this latest entry and devoured the book in less than two days.  I highly recommend it. If you haven’t read the series yet go back and start with the original short story, which you can find free at what is now reactormag.com.

Backstage at the Strips by Mort Walker, 1975

Cover imageWhen I was a kid and trying to feed my insatiable appetite for comics and information about the comics, I used to haunt the ‘741’ section of the local library. In the Dewey Decimal System, that is where the art books, including whatever was stocked for comics, would be found.

I probably read this book first in 1979 or so.  After rereading it as an adult, I can guarantee I didn’t understand many of Walker’s anecdotes dealing with drinking and sex/sexual tension!  The book reads as a loving roast of Walker’s contemporaries and mentors, but Walker also serves himself up as a target of stories. Someone reading this book for the first time might not even get a fair amount of the references, but as a capsule of what the newspaper strip business was like it’s a great resource.

I have a softcover edition in excellent shape that I picked up on vacation for original cover price. A great deal!  You get to see the origins of Beetle Bailey and Hi & Lois and the back twenty percent of the book is strip reprints.  My only complaint is that some of the graphics don’t reproduce well and are hard to read.

I have a small library about newspaper strips and it was a wonderful surprise to be able to add this childhood read to my permanent library.

The JFK Conspiracy by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch (2025)

The JFK ConspiracyBrad Meltzer is a very successful fiction author and also had a TV show about Lost History some years ago. Out of the show he created this series of books that all have “Conspiracy” in the title.  I bought the first one, but I wasn’t that impressed with the overall read.  To me it’s history-lite and I’m OK getting this series out of the library. The formula is established at this point–start with the “Conspiracy”, go back to establish a short biography of the famous person, draw it out with succinct, easy-to-read prose, and have a wrap-up.

In this case, the interesting parts of the book are detailing the relationship of Secret Service agent Clint Hill and Mrs. Kennedy.  If you like the kind of programming on the History Channel that gives you a little insight into a topic, but draws the stuff out with lots of previews and recaps before and after the commercial breaks–this is a good style of book for you.