BOOK SPOTLIGHT: AURORA

Aurora
by Kim Stanley Robinson 

 A major new novel from one of science fiction's masters the multiple award winner (Mars trilogy and 2312) Kim Stanley Robinson.


AURORA tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. A multigenerational starship left Earth generations ago. Now as it begins to decelerate toward its destination an engineer begins to suspect potentially disastrous changes to the ship and its population.

Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers. This story features science and technology along with big ideas and a sophisticated society. We call the genre Hard SF, not because its hard to read but, because it uses science and technology in realistic ways to move the plot.

Will the ship make it to their new home? Will the people on the starship bare any resemblance to the earthlings who launched the ship?

Tyson

BOOK SPOTLIGHT: Time Salvager

Time Salvager
by Wesley Chu

Time Salvager is a fast paced time travel adventure from Wesley Chu, the award-winning author of
The Lives of Tao. 

In a future when Earth is a toxic, abandoned world and humanity has spread into the outer solar system to survive, the tightly controlled use of time travel holds the key maintaining a fragile existence among the other planets and their moons.

 James Griffin-Mars is a chronman, a convicted criminal recruited for his unique psychological makeup to undertake the most dangerous job there is: missions into Earth's past to recover resources and treasure without altering the timeline. 

Most chronmennever reach old age, and James is reaching his breaking point. On a final mission that is to secure his retirement, James meets an intriguing woman from a previous century, scientist Elise Kim, who is fated to die during the destruction of an oceanic rig. Against his training and his common sense, James brings her back to the future with him, saving her life, but turning them both into fugitives. Remaining free means losing themselves in the wild and poisonous wastes of Earth, and discovering what hope may yet remain for humanity's home world.

Lots of action, the book focus is more on the manhunt thriller than time travel, a good beach read.

Tyson

 

 

 

Wellesley Friday Morning Book/Movie Group

Friday, July 17th

Arnold Room (second floor)

10 AM to 11 AM

All are welcome to come and join in the discussion!   In July, we will discuss Jeanette Walls' The Glass Castle, a memoir which won numerous awards and remained on the NY Times bestseller list for more than six years. At times astonishing and sad, Walls' story is one of resilience and triumph over impossible odds.

Jeanette Walls graduated form Barnard College and was a journalist in New York. She is the author of The Silver Star and Half Broke Horses, named one of the ten best books of 2009 by the editors of The New York Times Book Review. Walls lives in rural Virginia with her husband, the writer, John Taylor. 

If Kennedy Lived...Book Discussion July 23

On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy campaigning in Dallas, was shot by an assassin while riding in his presidential motorcade. His car—a Lincoln Continental—was equipped with a plexiglass bubble top in case of rain. But what had started off as a rainy day, had cleared up by the time the motorcade was ready to go. Lee Harvey Oswald had an unobstructed view of the president as he peered through the scope of his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle. But what if the rain hadn’t stopped…?

What if Pres. Kennedy survived the assassination attempt and went on to win a second term as president? What would have US involvement in Vietnam have looked like? How would the Civil Rights Movement have fared? Would the Cold War have progressed any differently? Would the sixties have been the sixties?

In Jeff If Kennedy Lived, Jeff Greenfield imagines this alternate scenario. His decades as journalist and political analyst gives him an insider’s view of Washington politics—the inspired programs and the seedy deal-making. He makes much use of imagined (but plausible) dialog mixed with actual quotations (many times repositioned in time) to write a very readable “history” of JFK’s second term.

If you stay alert, you’ll be rewarded with some fun cameo appearances bearing historical twists and wits. An easy one to spot is the young Hillary Clinton, at a Goldwater rally, marveling at the candidate’s speech and wondering if she will ever get the chance to give a speech. Maybe a little harder is Yippies co-founder Jerry Rubin ruminating about the “under-30s.” 

On July 23^rd  at 10am, the Non-Fiction Book Discussion Group will talk about If Kennedy Lived. Come and share your thoughts about Greenfield’s take on Kennedy’s potential. (And, as you read the book, make note of the author’s historical in-jokes and we’ll share them at the discussion.)

If Kennedy Lived is available at the Reference Desk.