Review of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five was a recommended read when I began researching time travel stories earlier this year. It’s an odd combo which mixes sombre WW2 historical fiction—centred on the horrific British (and American) bombings of Dresden in 1945—and fantasy, involving flying saucers and aliens. Weird, hey?  There isn't a time machine in sight, though lots of flashbacks and flash-forwards. I think Vonnegut nailed the perfect name for an alien race. The Tralfamadorians have a comedic ring, but represent a real concept in cosmology. I think Einstein came up with the Block Universe (also known as Eternalism), in which, the cosmos is simply a movie reel, playing a scripted past, present, and future.…

Continue ReadingReview of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

Review of The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow

I wanted to park space this month, but stay with the 1950s Red Scare theme from Liberty One, to talk about one of my favourite historical fiction titles.  The Book of Daniel put Doctorow on my three-strong list of recommended fiction authors. By that, I mean an author who’s consistently good across at least two titles (Billy Bathgate excepted). That seems like a very low bar, but, with limited time, I guess I’m just picky. This is all very subjective and I don’t read all genres, but if you like modern historical fiction - which happens to be…

Continue ReadingReview of The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow

Review of The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel (NY Times Best Selling Author)

A few of you asked me to share my research for Liberty One and late last year I recommended Rocket Men (review link below if you missed it). Today I want to share a book with a different perspective. What did the American astronaut wives experience when the nation first went to space in the 1950s and 60s? I drew from The Astronaut Wives Club to understand and create Jim and JoAnn’s life in Liberty One. In 2015 the book became a TV series which is still available on Amazon Prime. The book begins with the Mercury seven announcement in 1959…

Continue ReadingReview of The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel (NY Times Best Selling Author)

Review of Rocket Men by Robert Kurson (NY Times Best-seller)

While we await Liberty One, I thought I'd stick to the space theme for this month's review. Rocket Men is a non-fiction account of Apollo 8, NASA’s first manned mission to leave Earth and head for the Moon in 1968. The astronauts didn’t land of course - that happened on Apollo 11 the following year, but the significance of this mission is that the crew were the first humans to leave planet Earth for another world. They took monumental risks to get all those great earthrise shots we love. This book is great on so many fronts. It begins with the Cold War, so you get…

Continue ReadingReview of Rocket Men by Robert Kurson (NY Times Best-seller)