Random Romance Read: Vote for Love, by Barbara Cartland

Okay, confession time.  We get LOTS of really old books as donations at the library, particularly paperbacks.  And (being totally serious here) it's really quite sad.  Because once a paperback gets to a certain age, those cheap pulpy mass-produced pages are brown and fragile and brittle - we can't use them in the library, even if we wanted to.  Libraries try to be sensitive, and we do what we can based on our local rules and regulations; pass them on to charities, sell them off, or at worst, send them off to be recycled.  Once upon a time, a box of particularly ancient paperbacks had a Barbara Cartland romance in it with a VERY disturbing name, and I was totally hooked.  I'm not going to admit which one, but it was enlightening (and yes, disturbing), to say the least.  So when a recent batch of donations had another ancient, brittle, foxed paperback with Cartland's name on it and another disturbing title, I just had to read it.

Vote for Love
Barbara Cartland
1977 (bantam paperbacks)
ISBN: 0553103415 (?)
Read May 26, 2016

Oh man.  Ok.  We're solidly in King Edward's reign, while his lovely deaf wife Alexandra nods and smiles at people and he hooks up with Alice Keppel every chance he gets.  So solid Victorian mores here: cheat all you want, but don't dare cause a scandal.  Also, in the lead up to war, the suffragettes are getting nasty; planting bombs and causing disturbances and refusing to be bailed out of jail and going on hunger strikes and getting force-fed, all of which is causing untold scandal to their well-bred and better-behaved family members.  Raybourn is our man here, and he's a solicitor.  He's single, and been hooking up with various married women for a while now, but his last fling is a stormy, emotional, jealous type.  Our girl is Viola, and she's being terrorized by her evil stepmother (I wish I were kidding) after her father's death to participate in the suffragette movement because her name will cause people to think that her departed father had sympathies for the movement (he did not).

I will pause here and say that the ENTIRE novel treats the suffragettes as either frigid man-hating battle-axes or silly socialites who are throwing silly tantrums on a lark because they're bored with tea-parties and want people to notice them.  

Poor Viola gets thrown into Raybourn's arms (quite literally) when her stepmother has her plant a bomb in his apartment, and he comes in while she's hoping to become a suicide bomber.  (Reading this now with ISIS and the heated political situation here and the shootings and bomb threats at Planned Parenthood was uncomfortable, to say the least.) Raybourn begins his successful campaign of rescuing this delicate flower (yes, I get that her name is Viola, that it sounds like Violet, that violets are shy and delicate and retiring and need protection oh my god seriously give it up.) from various social inequities and unpleasantness. They get engaged as a sham to keep each other safe; her from a lecherous old Earl, and him from the jealous mistress (her husband died, and now she's on the prowl), but there are a few more rough waves to crest before making it to smooth sailing as husband and wife.

Highlights:
Viola speaks... in... ellipses... when she's... around Raybourn... because she's usually.... so.... so frightened... and overwhelmed.  HELP ME.
(This one is a serious one) Raybourn spends an awful lot of time ruminating on the inequities of Society; that men should be allowed mistresses pretty much whenever, but women had to wait until after they were comfortably wed and bred (heir and a spare first) before they could acceptably engage in assignations.  That sort of observation, while trenchant, doesn't really mesh well with whatever else we see of his personality.  (Granted we only get 150 pages of story, so we're dealing with limited characterization anyway.)
Best Line Ever: At the end of the book, Raybourn finally reassures timid little Viola that his love is true, and he reassures her of his continued protection: "and when we are wed, I won't allow you to vote for anything but love."

 

 

Juv Fantasy: Magic at Wychwood, Sally Watson, illustrated by Frank Bozzo

Magic at Wychwood
Sally Watson, illustrated by Frank Bozzo
ISBN: 0394914686 (library binding)
Read May 27, 2016
Juv Classic Fantasy.  Very similar in feel and spunk to the more recent Tuesdays at the Castle.


This was a cute little short read, again found while helping a patron find an old childhood read.  This one is about a royal family, in particular the youngest daughter: spunky, redheaded, un-ladylike Princess Elaine, and their various adventures concerning magical happenings in and around the castle.  Extremely laid back, no real peril (people do get changed into animals and inanimate things, but everything always comes right in the end).  Elaine is a delightful hero, and her big brother Arthur takes the stage a few times also, and he is determinedly chivalrous and delightful in his adherence to the Code, especially when everyone else in the family is being much more sensible.

Very cute, and a great choice for bedtime serial readings - each "chapter" is a self-contained story that only slightly builds on the ones before it, up til the very end when everything gets tied off delightfully.

New Arrival: Juv Nonfiction: Nettie and Nellie Crook: Orphan Train Sisters, by E. F. Abbot & Clint Hansen

Nettie and Nellie Crook, Orphan Train Sisters
E. F. Abbot (pseudonym for Susan Hill), illustrated by Clint Hansen
ISBN: 9781250068354
A "based on a true story" junior novelization of the experiences of a set of twins on the orphan trains.

This was a very sad and sobering story, and even more so when I read the coda at the end and realized how very true to actual events the narrative was.  Even more sobering is that this is a relatively happy story: the girls were allowed to stay together, and they were eventually matched up into a happy family in town, as opposed to being used as slave labor out in the wilds, or used for prostitution, or simply abused by their "adoptive" families.  I feel for the kids involved, but also for the charities involved - trying to figure out a better option than orphanages and workhouses (which were even more horrible) or them dying on the streets or getting picked up by organized crime and abused or prostituted in the cities.  Their solution was novel, and I'm sure for at least some of the kids and western families, worked out beautifully.  Unfortunately, for many others, it was simply a move to a very different kind of horrible life.

Sad read, but an important chapter in American history.

New Arrival: Nonfiction Picture Book: The Secret Subway, Shana Corey & Red Nose Studio

The Secret Subway
Shana Corey, illustrations and figurines and concepts by Red Nose Studio
ISBN: 9780375870712
Stop-motion puppets and silhouettes and still-life scenes make this look like a movie storybook.

Alfred Ely Beach invented the first subway in New York, but unfortunately he ran afoul of the mafia (Boss Tweed himself) and of the government (didn't grease enough palms, most likely) and his project was literally buried.  If you love weird history and underdogs, and don't mind a fairly sad ending, check this out for the beautiful puppets/sculptures and the intricate backgrounds with a faint steampunk vibe and plenty of character.  If they're angling to make a movie, they've got a fan here already - I think it would be beautiful, but Corey's words do a fine job of carrying the story while the illustrations spark the imagination.

Tuesday Storytime: Ducks!

I went with a nice simple theme and picture today since we had a daycare attending.  My normal group of about 20-odd warm bodies ballooned up to over seventy people today - I needed all the easy I could get!

Little Quack

Lauren Thompson, illustrated by Derek Anderson

ISBN: 0689847238

Math-concept book focuses on the first time ducklings leave their nest to go swimming.

Fuzzy bright simplistic paintings use the spreads to great advantage as the looming mother duck convinces her timid ducklings to leave the nest and join her in the water.  The math is relegated to the bottom of the panels, and could easily be left out - all I did was ask the kids each time how many of the ducklings were in the water.

Have You Seen My Duckling

Nancy Tafuri

ISBN: 0688027989

Caldecott Honor book.  Vivid naturalistic colored-pencil drawings have the missing duckling hidden.

An old classic.  Hard to do in storytime usually because there's not anything to DO really - just turn the pages and ask on occasion: "have you seen my duckling?" but with a group this large, there's going to be a few kids who can be counted on to answer questions and anticipate events, so I can ask: "what sort of animal is mama duck talking to?" and "do you see the missing duckling?" (and of course point it out each time so that everyone can share the joke.  I don't do a lot of wordless or near wordless books, so it's nice to be able to use this one at last.

Five Little Ducks

Ivan Bates

ISBN: 0439746930

Bates' illustrations are always sweet and just this side of precious, paired perfectly with the nursery rhyme.

Ivan Bates is a gifted illustrator, and his beautiful pictures always warm my heart.  Something about how he lays down colors and the slightly scribbly edges on his shapes and the almost-minimalistic backgrounds just resonate really strongly with me, and I simply adore looking at them.  Calming and fun at the same time.  Matching that feeling up with an old nursery rhyme is a perfect choice, and makes for an instant classic.  The only downside is that I never heard this particular one as a song, only as a chant, so I don't actually know how to sing it!  I have to settle for halfway between reading and chanting, and my natural cadence is not quite up to the task.  Oh well.  Small price to pay for such a sweet and beautiful book.

New Arrival: Picture Book Biography: Miss Mary Reporting, by Sue Macy & C. F. Payne

Miss Mary Reporting: The True Story of Sportswriter Mary Garber
Sue Macy, illustrated by C. F. Payne
ISBN: 9781481401203
Slightly caricatured figures in muted "historical" tones match the lively but respectful tone of the story.

I don't have much to do with sports; my family isn't involved or interested in them, we don't have a "team" in any sport, let alone the great American requirements like football or baseball.  I am generally aware that there are major sports rivalries, but the only one I know of for sure is the one in my own state, for football.  I'm sure that my general ignorance is amazing to some people, but usually it doesn't impact my life.  I go through my days in a blissfully unaware non-sporting haze.

This book was a rare hiccup in that bliss. I have a thing for picture book nonfiction.  I think that it's a beautiful and underappreciated way to introduce young kids to history in a non-boring, non-pedantic, non-TEXTBOOK delivery.  And this sort of history is EXACTLY what I would have loved to learn about; a scrappy little girl who wasn't interested in "girly" things, and enjoyed doing what her daddy did (in my case it was cars, in hers; sports) and shoved her way into and up to the top of a profession and an environment that was not only unwelcoming, but actively discouraging.  The pictures always emphasize her height - well, the lack of height - but the funny thing is that despite being so petite, she's always the central focus of the composition, and one gets the impression that once she started rolling, she really was the central focus of wherever she went.  Highlights for me were that she gave attention and press time to the segregated games for the Black community, that she continued in her career until she was EIGHTY-freaking-SIX years old, and that she regularly credited her sister Neely for being the "mother" figure who stayed at home and kept the household running so that she could do the job in a man's world that she wanted to do.

An excellent book about an excellent lady who I had never heard about, and now I'm very glad that I have made her acquaintance, and I think the writer/illustrator duo here has done a bang-up job bringing her passion and perseverance to life.

Tuesday Storytime: Book Safety

Saving the ducks for next week when we have a daycare group descending upon us.

How to Read a Story
Kate Messner, illustrated by Mark Siegel
ISBN: 9781452112336
A boy and his blue dog journey through the process of storytelling/group reading.

This one came in new recently, and I set it aside because I knew it would work beautifully for a storytime with these other two that I've used several times before.  We have "Steps" (One through Ten, obviously) starting with "Step 1: Find a Story.  A good one.  It can have princesses and castles, if you like that sort of thing, or witches and trolls. (As long as they're not too scary.)" and ending with "Step 10: When the book is over, say, "The End."" Cute and a very simple guide to the process of reading, and how to make it entertaining to the audience.

Read It, Don't Eat It!
Ian Schoenherr
ISBN: 9780061724558
Various anthropomorphized animals illustrate what NOT to do to books.

Previously reviewed here.  Some of the advice goes over toddler heads, but the parents understand, and at this age, the parents are the ones who are really the target audience for this particular lecture anyway.

Book! Book! Book!
Deborah Bruss, Tiphanie Beeke
ISBN: 0439135257
The barnyard animals are bored and lonely when the kids go off to school, and head to the library for something to do.

Also previously reviewed here.  I like the slow build-up to the punchline with the various animal sounds, and that the librarian is a woman of color, and that there is a "stinger" at the end that always gets the adults to laugh.

Nonfiction: Grit, by Angela Duckworth

Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth
ISBN: 9781501111105
Half cheerleading coach and half business mentor; Duckworth explains what "grit" really is.

Interesting, but a little depressing.  "Gritty" people are those who thrive on challenge, who have found what they love doing and found ways to continue to excel at doing it. Grit is also based on both heritage and nurture: you've got to teach kids to be gritty - to teach them that they're succeeding because they're TRYING, not because they're smart/natural/gifted/genius.  Unfortunately, that means that those of us who were taught other things (or even worse, taught by tragedy that nothing we do matters in the face of an uncaring universe) are pretty much SoL - unless you can find a way to persuade your insurance company to cover cognitive-behavior therapy techniques to teach you to change your ingrained thought patterns.

The book is supposed to be encouraging and positive and inspirational, with lots of places to take little checklists and to compare yourself with gritty individuals and their accomplishments - but for someone who DOES suffer from depression and anxiety, her only advice is therapy (which she does kindly admit is profoundly disappointing and not particularly helpful, so at least she realizes it.)  I enjoyed reading it anyway, and perhaps someday when this country (or our health system) prioritizes mental health, those of us who faced setbacks on our childhood road to grit can forge a way to become stronger and more happy too.

Tuesday Storytime: Banjo Granny special program (on Monday)

We're closed today, so our "Storytime" was on Monday instead, with a special local guest banjo player.  The program was sponsored by a grant from the county, gotten by a local music-appreciation and education society.  They selected the main book, and I chose the others to fit the theme, and we had a nice musical interlude in our regular storytime program.

Here Comes Grandma!
Janet Lord, illustrated by Julie Paschkis
ISBN: 0805076662
Vibrant exaggerated environments and an old-fashioned paisley folk-tale grandmother.

I purposefully picked VERY short stories to go along with our feature book this week, because the program involved stopping for a song several times through the book, and that makes it right on the cusp of too long for my tiny kids.  This story shares the same plotline and vibrant feeling, but is very short, very snappy, and gets the idea of the storytime across quickly while the late-comers are still filing in.


Banjo Granny
Sara Martin Busse & Jacqueline Briggs Martin, illustrated by Barry Root
ISBN: 9780618336036
Sweet homespun watercolors contrast Granny's epic trek with Owen's idyllic life at home.

Banjo Granny has heard she has a new bluegrass loving banjo desiring grandson, and she packs up her trusty banjo and heads over to see him, across a river, over a mountain, and through a desert.  The story begins with "Owen's Song" which we actually sang and learned the end as a group, and then Granny uses the song to soothe the rough turbulent river, to settle the high steep mountain, and tame the wild hot desert - so we sang the song three more times for each of those scenarios - and each time we flip back to little Owen who is impatiently waiting on Granny to arrive.  Once she does, we got one more repeat of the song, and then the story concludes pretty quickly after that.  I did a coloring sheet with a picture of a banjo and some basic history and construction/playing information, and we called it a success!

Our last story was again a quick one, just to get the kids back into the usual routine after the oddness of having a musical book (and such a very long one) in the middle of the program.

Nana in the City
Lauren Castillo
ISBN: 9780544104433
Blocky wood-print-ish looking scenes full of color and weight show a city in two different lights.

Our narrator is visiting the "busy and loud and scary" city where his Nana lives, and he is not pleased. Nanas should not be in scary places like that.  But Nana assures him that the city is extraordinary instead of scary, and he dons a cape (knitted by Nana overnight) and ventures out for her to show him the lovely city she knows.  A really good story, and an excellent difference to most which show grandparents in suburbs or country settings, or have all of the characters as city natives.  A good simple reminder that visits go both ways, and that people live happily in all sorts of places.  Also, very very short, and very clear and easy to read.

Juvenile Fantasy Mystery (classic?): The Diamond in the Window, Jane Langton

The Diamond in the Window
Jane Langton, illustrated by Erik Blegvad
ISBN: none
Pubdata: Harper and Row, NY, 1962
Read May 4, 2016

This is the starting point of a series of 8 children's novels written between 1962 and 2008 that focus on the Hall family children, starting in this book with Eleanor and Edward. They live with their Aunt Lily and Uncle Fred (Fred and Lily are brother and sister, not married). Their parents are dead (of course) and one day while exploring the old rickety mansion, they discover a hidden attic room and a mysterious sad case involving even more of Lily and Fred's siblings.  It seems that long ago, when Lily was a young woman, her youngest two siblings (a boy and girl named Edward and Eleanor: crucially and luckily nicknamed Ned and Nora) and her beau, a maharaja from India (yes really) all simply up and vanished one night, and no one could ever find them. Now the house is on the hook for back taxes, and the current set of siblings are off and running to solve the mystery and save the house.

It's cute, but it's dated, and the endless references to Lousia (Alcott) and Henry (Thoreau) and Walt (Whitman) are meant to be enriching, but end up as somewhat tiresome: although a few of the dream sequences involving the Alcott sisters as children, and showing Walden in his cabin are sweet and deftly done.  I can see how the book sticks in the mind (I discovered it when a patron was searching for it, half-remembered from their own childhood) because the dreams are creepy and unsettling and visually evocative, and the scenario is just wild enough to not quite be preposterous.  The ending is quick and utterly mundane, and everyone is happily settled down in the best possible fashion.  I'm glad I read it and made ms Langton's accquaintance, but I don't think I'll continue with the series - it's not quite my style, even though sections were very enjoyable.

New Arrival: Cookbook: Country Cooking from a Redneck Kitchen

Country Cooking from a Redneck Kitchen

Francine Bryson with Ann Volkwein

ISBN: 9780553448450

Read May 3, 2016

Local author and TV personality shows off great recipes in this sequel cookbook.

I don't normally review cookbooks, but I couldn't resist mentioning this one. Francine is down-to-earth and funny, and honest about redneck or southern dining habits without getting either defensive or haughty about them, which is a hard road to walk these days.

I wanted especially to give a shout-out to recipes that really make this book stand out:

Fried Chicken 

Lemon-Herb Chicken 

Bourbon and Coke Wings

(oven-roasted) BBQ Pork Butt

Beef Crunch Bake (also known as Taco Bake when there's taco seasoning in it) 

Squirrel Pot Pie (the award given for the first cookbook to have an actual squirrel recipe)

Tuna Casserole (yes lord)

Daddy's Chicken and Rice (although we called it Chicken Bog)

Pumpkin Curry Soup (the first of these I don't remember from childhood, but OH MY GOD - so good)

Fried Green Tomatoes (in case you're a heathen and don't know how to fry tomatoes proper)

And now for the crowning achievements:

Upside-Down Apple Bacon Pie

and
Lemonade Rolls (they're just like cinnamon rolls, but LEMON!  Heaven.  I actually died.)

Great cookbook, great narrative voice, and great food.   

New Arrival: Picture Book: Dylan the Villain, K.G. Campbell

Dylan the Villain
K. G. Campbell
ISBN: 9780451476425
Read May 5, 2016
Watercolor and colored pencils are charming and disarming in this villain vs villain tale.

So cute. The Snivels were minding their own business when they suddenly had a super-villain baby. Whoops? Dylan's family had a history of minor villainy, but Dylan was the apex. His parents (sweet and chubby and mundane) told him over and over that he was the very best villain ever. Which he believed until he got to villain school and met Addison van Malice.  She has blue hair, an eyepatch (!), and her villain laugh is positively chilling. Dylan's confidence is shaken, but he rises to the challenge with the upcoming evil robot competition. With a trophy at stake, Dylan proves that he IS the most villainous - except for a little vengeance that keeps Addison in the running, even though she's been launched into orbit.

Adorable and perfectly balanced between evil and sweetness. I want to match it up with Moustache Baby and School for Bandits (both reviewed here.)

New Arrival: Nonfiction Picture Book: Elizabeth Started All The Trouble, Doreen Rappaport & Matt Faulkner

Elizabeth Started All the Trouble
Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Matt Faulkner
ISBN: 9780786851423
Read May 2, 2016
Caricature-like faces and postures enliven a cumulative history of the women's rights movement up to the ammendment in 1920.

Faulkner has done a delightful job of illustrating this lively history of women's rights, but the real tribute needs to go to Rappaport for clarifying and streamlining the history of the movement.  We start with Abigail Adams being mocked by her husband for wanting women to share the vote, and move through the depressing intervening years to Elizabeth Cady Stanton's Declaration of Sentiments, Sojourner Truth's pointed commentary about the intersection of women's rights and the African American experience, Susan B. Anthony's takeover and the early victories in founding women's colleges and seminaries, and granting women the right to own property and keep money.  The war showcases more women who refused to be passive and ladylike, and then came Emancipation, victories in western states, and the start of the protest movement in earnest, with the mass jailings, beatings, and force-feedings that entailed (present, but glossed over gently and quickly in this particular edition).

Powerful and clear.  An excellent history overview of a topic that is especially important now.

Book Club, Graphic Novel Collection: Marvel Civil War, Mark Millar & Steve McNiven

Marvel Civil War Event (collecting Marvel Civil War, issues #1-7)
writer, Mark Millar
pencils, Steve McNiven
colors, Morry Hollowell
letters, VC's Chris Eliopoulos
ISBN: 9780785121794
Read May 1, 2016

Graphic Novel Book Club read for May.

I really hope that I like the movie more than I like the comic event.  This collection of seven issues has the core of the Civil War storyline, but as much of the character development and specific moments were parceled out into the individual characters' comic runs, the characters here are flat and dispirited and prone to making decisions that appear to be out of thin air, or changing their minds for what seems to be no reason.  The artwork has lovely framing and is well-laid-out, but the combo of McNiven and Hollowell makes for characters who look like they are plastic dolls or an early cheap attempt at computer-generated artwork.  Not my favorite look.

If you've been under a rock for a while, Marvel decided they needed a giant universe-roiling "event" and wouldn't it be cool if two of the major players in the universe were on opposite sides and got to fight each other!  Yeah!  Or something.  So in the story world, some punk kid supers did something stupid, and then Tony Stark and Steve Rogers both reacted stupidly, and a whole bunch of forced decisions and rampant stupidity later, there was a big smackdown superhero fight  (and some smaller ones) until things were sufficiently shaken up to make the Marvel head honchos happy.

Punisher gets some good moments (I especially liked Spiderman's poignant suggestion that Rogers and Castle are essentially the same soldier, but from very different wars and very different social responses).  Spiderman gets shafted (when is that ever a surprise) and Doctor Strange gets the boot.  Unsurprisingly, he, along with all the mutants, and Wakanda (at least at first), basically says "not my circus" when asked to choose sides.  Steve doesn't really have a character, Tony's a giant bag of snarky comments and bad decisions, and SHIELD and the general public exist as a metaphoric stick to justify and consolidate shaky plotting.

Not the best, but if the cinematic universe continues as well as it's begun, I don't begrudge the source material.

 

Tuesday Storytime: Rain and Mud

Fun set of books today again!

Waiting Out the Storm
Joann Early Macken, illustrated by Susan Gaber
ISBN: 9780763633783
Sleepy pastel landscapes make for a reassuring and refreshing background for a sweet sentimental storm story.

Mother and daughter are out working in the yard when they are interrupted by an approaching storm, and the book text is the dialogue between the two as the child is anxious or curious about the storm, and mother responds reassuringly and mostly factually.  I appreciate that this book has the duo retreating inside to wait out the storm, as most rain books focus on children headed outside to play in the rain, and not all children (or parents) are comfortable with that scenario - it's very nice to have the other impulse (to nest up and wait out the storm in comfort) recognized and celebrated.

Mud
Mary Lyn Ray, illustrated by Lauren Stringer
ISBN: 19780152024611
Faux-naive blocky dark muddy artwork make the short narrative more stark and powerful.

This one isn't a perfect fit for a rainy-day narrative, because here we have the mud as a direct reaction to the spring thaw (which we really don't even get in South Carolina anyway) but it was so perfect and dirty and muddy and playful that I couldn't resist.  A bit too much time is spent leading up to the mud (in my opinion) but once it shows up, it's a perfect medium for playful but powerful wordplay and dark evocative artwork that draws out the amazing browns and reds and greys in the dirt and mud.  It ends on a sweet note, calling for the spring and the green to arrive.

Raindrop, Plop!
Wendy Cheyette Lewison, illustrated by Pam Paparone
ISBN: 0670059501
Super-cute drawings are bright and lively and colorful, with a cheerful count-up-and-down rhyme.

This was a surprise favorite book out of this set - I expected I would like Waiting Out the Storm more, but the relentless cheerfulness and sprightly rhyme (and the length - perfect for middle or end) makes me really happy to have discovered this one.  This is my first time reading it for storytime, but it feels familiar and comfortable to read and to progress through.  That's a real bonus for anyone reading aloud, and I was delighted at how comfortable and smooth the read was.  Our story is simple; along with a count-up from one to ten, we follow a young girl playing outside in a sprinkle of approaching rain, then with "too many raindrops..." we head back inside the house to count back down through a bath and snack, before heading back outside into the newly revealed sunshine.  Super cute, super easy to read, and super simple.  Absolutely a great storytime read.

Science Fiction / Space Opera: Aurora, Kim Stanley Robinson

Aurora
Kim Stanley Robinson
ISBN: 9780316098106
Read April 29, 2016

Ugh.  So many mixed feelings.

This one's going to be bullet points, because I'm not coherent enough to offer a spoiler-free review.

• The title and blurbs are all misleading; this tale is actually a (long-winded and pompous) polemic against space travel. The author has an axe to grind, and grind it he does, with tortured metaphors and similes (literally) and scenarios designed to belabor the point. The misdirection and the subsequent lecture vexes. Enormously.
• Despite that, I did enjoy the story (and the three, maybe five if we're being generous, whole characters we get to follow around), but it was not original at all. Chapters and sections and concepts and musings were all lifted wholesale from everywhere: Asimov, Heinlein, Pern, his own old Mars stuff, David Brin's stuff, up to modern movies: I caught bits of 2001, and of Moon, and whole scads of The Martian and whiffs of Interstellar and I'm sure there are more I missed - both books and movies. Anyone even slightly invested in the genre should catch them - they aren't subtle. I got the feeling at those times that he was the authorial equivalent of the student who isn't technically plagiarizing, because he's writing his own content. But he read the wiki article and skimmed the original studies and he isn't actually contributing anything more than a slightly self-important regurgitation of the previously-skimmed material. That also vexes.
• I'm as much on for hard science as anyone, and the sections in The Martian (book and film) where he sciences the shit out of things are enormously satisfying. Likewise I like a good Asimovian philosophical/sociological muse every now and again. The sections here would have been also, if they had not been quiiiiite so long, nor quite so tortured in the specific interests of point-belaboring.  
• World-building. We are roughly 800 years into the future, have permanent settlements of multi-billionaires on Saturn's moons that can fund an interstellar ark for shits and giggles, sea-levels have risen 30some feet, there are the beach-building equivalent of "rewilders" out there as a niche lifestyle (all of which I have serious questions about the implications thereof), but we're still using spray cans of aerosol sunscreen that only last one hour. Seriously? Vexation.
• Dropped plot-points and Checkov's guns lying about like crazy. What do ancient historical genocidal feuding, ship explosions, "secret" passageways through maintenance systems, civil unrest, purposefully-flawed printing instructions, and imperiled colonies all have in common?  Who knows!  Me neither, even after finishing the freaking book!  VEXED.