still from the couch

Artemis by Andy Weir.  I finished this over a week ago, so I've had plenty of time to reflect.  I was concerned that my initial impressions were too colored by my expectations but upon reflection, 1) my opinions are valid, and 2) it is reasonable to compare an author's work to previous work by the same author.

This is not as good as The Martian, but it is still a good book.  The main thing I didn't super love was the main character's voice.  The attitude and snarkiness are too similar to Watney's.  My guess is that this character was made female to try to add differences between the two characters, but that didn't change the character in any meaningful way.  A more unique character would have made a better read.

Although samey, the character did come off as mostly authentic, except in one part: what some kind beta reader should have told Weir is that women don't call each other "bitch."  It's too fraught with mansplaining and sexism.  I checked in with a coworker, and neither of us knows of any other women who throw this around in conversation.  It made her less realistic.  But maybe we're a weird subset of professional women.

Still a fun and exciting read; looking forward to more from this author.  4 stars.

Royal pains, seasons 1-8, with Mark Feuerstein, among others.  I've had this on my Netflix list for a long time and ended up binge-watching the whole run while my foot was propped up.  (Stupid metatarsal.)  Eight years is a long run for anything and I was worried about the later seasons.  As anticipated, season five pretty well jumped the shark and most of the interpersonal stories in the following seasons were pretty strained.  Fortunately, it sounds like the run is over.

The two brothers were well-cast.  The story lines are pretty good, although the writing is a bit canned.  I truly loved how the characters interacted with and supported the socially-atypical character... until season [7 or 8] when someone tried to give a name to his "condition."  Not everyone needs a diagnosis.  And why do so many TV shows do a musical episode?  Do other people actually like them?  It's horrifying.

Most appropriate for viewers not captured by anything else and looking to kill time.

The Paris spy by Susan Elia MacNeal.  I feel like each of these books has a different feel.  The tone and style seems to bounce around.  I never know what to expect.  That seems like a pretty big failing in the writing.  Pick a style and own it.

This one was pretty good, but any spy that makes the kind of errors these various characters make probably won't last long.  I'd really like to stop reading this series, but this entry did end on a pretty big cliff-hanger.
 
Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies by Jared Diamond.  Ugh, I've been trying to read this since April.  The content is really interesting but the writing is so... bleh.  Not really dry, not overly academic, just... plain boring.  This book made such an impact on nonfiction readership that I thought the failing must be mine, but another coworker admitted she's picked up and put it back down a few times. 

Bitch planet, book two, by Kelly Sue Deconnick and Valentine de Landro.  It would probably be best to wait until all the volumes are out, then read them back to back, or at least within a shorter, finite period.  There are a lot of world details and characters the reader should be pretty fresh on before jumping in here.