Project Hail Mary | Book Club

I'm in a Sci-Fi Book Club. The club consists of an older guy, an older guy than that, another guy even older than that, and me. For reference I'm 44. We've been meeting up at various bars for about a year and a half. It is a joy even when we don't spend the whole time discussing the books. Not all the books we read are good. Most are not tbh. Only maybe one or two have been great. Some get-together's last less than 2 hours but it is a wonderful distraction to hang out intergenerationally. LOL 

I won't wax poetic about future (and maybe past) entries of sci-fi book club but since this is the first time mentioning it I figured I'd give some background. I do intend to denote when a book is part of book club (or a movie is part of movie club). 

This go-round we read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (soon to be a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling!). I like the "Gos" fine (Drive for sure) but IDk if Hollywood will screw the movie version of this up or what. Probably they will. I did enjoy the book though. It hit me at a particularly tough time with reading-for-pleasure. I had/have started 4 or 5 books recently and not been able to finish due to boredom or chaos in the world or both or being a dad of a 4.5 year old... or a whole slew of other not-super-interesting or totally-standard person/human reasons. In any event... it got me out of my funk, so there is that. And that is a lot.

I do not love The Martian. Admittedly I have not read the book but the movie is meh. Matt Damon is definitely whatever. I normally love Jessica Chastain and she is under utilized (though that is probably story reasons and not director reasons). Fuck, looking it up again now, the whole rest of the cast are folks I also love... Jeff Daniels, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Michael Peña (HOMETOWN!).... 

Anyhow, Project Hail Mary. I got annoyed with plenty but it was a quick and engaging read and ultimately about friendship in the midst of hardship (the MOST hardship possible probably).... a few times I thought it could go a few different ways and ultimately it went the way I wanted which is somewhat lovely. I'm a big fan of melodrama from the 50s and early 60s and this had a lot of that but it also had a more optimistic ending than Written on the Wind, Leave her to Heaven... if they took place in space. 

Overall I'm glad this book is a thing. 

People should read more. Read anything ffs.

Good Stuff

• Rocky
• The somewhat "Hard Sci-Fi" math etc etc (but not TOO hard)
• Friendship

Bad Stuff

• Whatever... you go write a book