Several things which we've enjoyed recently
This is a YA book which I picked up for myself and then convinced Amelia to read. She thought it was depressing but couldn't put it down. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Many of us prepare for localized emergencies - we live in an earthquake zone and have been making building emergency preparedness stashes in several areas of our property. Our preparations however are predicated on the emergency being limited to our area. This book considers the implications of a global catastrophe. It's in the format of a 16 yo girl's journal. Well paced and exciting. Warning - may cause strong desire to stock up on food, fuel and medicine.
This is a dramatic re-enactment of Einstein and puts his idea in context of the other scientists who came before and during his lifetime. Each of the elements of the e=mc2 equation is considered separately, with a depiction of the scientists who were 'responsible' for developing that portion of our understanding of the world. History, drama and science, all wrapped up.
We listened to the audiobook last summer. Lots of adventure in this story about a boy who is left in the wilderness to keep his family's land claim in colonial US. It's a grand tale of self sufficiency, coming of age, and the tense relations but also some deep friendships between the native and white inhabitants. Hugo was enthralled.
The movie version of The Sign of the Beaver, in some places it was released as Keeping the Promise. Sensitively done, with a lot of the scarier elements of the original story omitted, it has a good mix of adventure and suspense. Hugo liked this a lot though he said he thought they made a mistake in focusing so much on what Matt's family was doing. He feels the story should have stayed with Matt and the tension in the book was derived from the fact that nobody knew whether the family would come or not. By showing the viewer the family, a lot of that suspense is gone. Worth watching. The DVD includes a brief history lesson.
Yup, the writing was on the wall.
And in my TBR pile:
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