Rama II - Arthur C Clark and Gentry Lee

Arthur C Clarke is a renowned sciences fiction writers and I absolutely loved reading the first book, Rendezvous with Rama which dives into the idea of First contact with the human race. This was the next logical choice for a good sequel and even though the reviews weren't great , I picked this one up for an entertaining read. One thing to note though, and the book kicks off with this, is that the Author decided to bring one a co-author of this book Gentry Lee which I'm sure seemed like a good idea at the time.


The story picks up about 70 years after the first Rama event and mankind has since developed some marginal new technologies and experience from the first event. The second sighting and excavation is what the this book dives into but fails miserably at exciting the reader about the physics and the science, like the first one. This book infact has completely decided to skip everything good about the last book and take all of it under assumption that the reader has read the previous book and should know all of it already. Install this book is completely focused on the human social element and drama.

This book decided to dive into each characters backgrounds and build up to a story that could be equated to a soap opera episode in space. I don't recommend this book to anyone and especially recommend it against any Arthur C Clarke fans.

Murder of Roger ackroyd -Agatha Christie

After several hundred recommendations from my wife, I found this book lying on my night stand and suddenly found myself in the mood of diving back into a good Poirot story. I went into it expecting exactly what I would from a good Agatha Christie story. Some murder, a shady cast of characters, a couple of interesting twists and of course the master of ceremonies himself, Hercule Poirot.


The story takes place in the later stage of Poirot's life when he finds himself retired in a small english town and he's a new comer to the neighborhood of lots of curious cats. There is most certainly a murder a fairly large cast of characters, an interesting twist in the murder and detailed backgrounds for each. Since his holmsian partner, Hastings, has long moved on the narration is carried on by a similar personality from the new town. The book is a quick read with a lot of expected interviews and personality conflicts but what blew me away was the ending. No matter how much i tried to analyze this one, I couldn't guess the end. Yes this is one of those stories that will make you want to go back and read it all over again for it to make sense.

I found this book to be a quick and easy read with a really satisfying ending and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys a good classic murder mystery, because Poirot does not disappoint. 

First man - James R Hansen

At the fifty year anniversary of the moon landing, this movie and book was part of a wave of pop culture that was collectively diving back in time to analyze the why, how and who of the US Apollo space program. I picked up this book to engage in that memorabilia, with no expectations or reviews.


The books reads like in chronological order, like any other biography with plenty of facts, article citations, quotes and interviews. The writing style is nothing out of the ordinary but what is extraordinary is the life of Neil Armstrong. We all know how it ends but somehow the book is still very engaging from the early stages of young adulthood until his death. Clearly the most engaging and descriptive parts of the book are centered on the moon landing, and it really makes you feel like you are there.

As far as biographies go, this is one of the most grounded ones, and is very engaging to anyone who enjoys the fanfare of the moon landing anyone who enjoys a good rags-to-glory story.