I really needed a win after starting (and giving up on) 3 separate books so when I picked up My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George I felt pretty confident considering it was a Newberry Honor winner. The introduction made me laugh because it was all about the author's experience running away from home and coming back very shortly afterward. (I was gone such a short amount of time when I was a kid that my mom didn't even know that I'd left.) This book gave me strong Hatchet vibes from the outset. Our main character, Sam Gribley, doesn't so much as run away as inform his family that he is going to leave and live off the ancestral family land in the Catskills. Like most parents, they think he's bluffing and that he'll be back shortly...but he doesn't come back. He actually makes it to the Catskills and proceeds to become self-sufficient. He learns how to strike flint for fire, smoke out a tree to make a warm home, train a falcon to hunt wild game, sew a deerskin outfit, and develop varied (and tasty) recipes. This is a story of survival, independence, and the beauty of nature. It turned out to be exactly what I needed to get past the duds I'd recently picked. If you (or a reader in your life) enjoy fast paced adventure stories that are heavily descriptive (with intermittent pencil illustrations) My Side of the Mountain is for you. 8/10

What I'm Currently Reading: The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (reread) and The Library Book by Susan Orlean

The book in today's post was generously sent to me by Pegasus Books. There are some publishers that totally get the kind of books that I like and Pegasus is right at the top of the list. They sent me a copy of A Novel of the Lost Colony, Left in the Wind: The Roanoke Journal of Emme Merrimoth by Ed Gray which comes out on May 2nd of this year. It's a historical fiction book about the English that attempted to colonize Roanoke at the end of the 16th century...and were never heard from again. Gray took that concept and ran with it in a completely unique way. As the title suggests, it's the fictionalized journal of Emme who we know was one of the colonists who traveled to Roanoke. The preface explains that the governor who traveled over with the more than 100 individuals (including women and children) returned back to England for supplies, went back to Roanoke, and discovered that the colony was empty. There was no investigation. Gray created an entire backstory for 1. Why the governor really went back to England and 2. What actually happened to the colonists. I have to confess that this area of history is one which I am abysmally ignorant. However, the best works of historical fiction make the reader want to do their own research and if it's a really excellent book it will make you want to go out into the field to see it with your own eyes. I will warn that this book went in directions that I hadn't expected (there are scenes of a sexual nature is what I'm getting at here) but it fits with the characterization of Emme who is very sexually liberated for her time. It was fast paced, engaging, and had me wanting to know just what exactly happened to those people...maybe Gray had it spot on...guess we'll never know. If you're a history buff and/or you like an engrossing read (who doesn't?) then I highly recommend you go out and pick up Left in the Wind which comes out on May 2, 2016.

There's something to be said about a character's likability especially if the book's primary focus is "Is this guy gonna survive?!" If the reader doesn't like the guy then why continue reading?  From the very start, it is easy to sympathize with Mark and to identify with him.  His sense of humor is particularly enjoyable. A large chunk of the story is told through Mark's logs from Mars with intermittent jumps to NASA and his crew aboard their ship headed back to earth. There's a believability in all of the characters; even those only mentioned fleetingly. Despite being Andy Weir's first novel, his confidence in the logistics of space travel and attention to detail make this a very compelling read (science and math nerds will love it). Space travel has and will probably always hold a fascination for many readers of which I am undoubtedly one. I can't wait to see what Weir will come out with next! This is science fiction at its very best, ya'll.