Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters by James Mahaffey. It's a pretty chilling account of nuclear mishaps starting with early experiments, quack nuclear medicine, and ending with Fukushima. It's a long read with a lot of scientific jargon, but it's fascinating.
The one I read was the Andy Weir novel (which isn't free). I think several people in this thread have read and enjoyed this book. I have started listening to The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I am still reading Virus by Graham Watkins. I am enjoying it but it is a hardback book that is a little too heavy for me to hold easily due to arthritis.
I actually qute enjoyed it, and am looking forward to the follow up, but I agree that it took some getting into, and it does bounce all over the place (not helped by just how BIG the Long Earth is.) I have a sneaking feeling the second one is going to be more interesting. Finished Wool and have a spoiler free (pretty much) review on my blog. Bascially I liked it, but the biggest selling point is the central mystery of what's going on. Characterwise it's not great. Now racing through Mockingjay!
Midway through McNally's Bluff; which will complete my run through that series. Mildly amusing, and kinda fun . . . Next up I think it'll be Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan continnuum. Since he's gonenow I can read clear through - knowing this is it. Kicking off with Without Remorse, my favorite guilty pleasure. ME
I got some new books for my kindle...the first one was free...Season of the Harvest, by Michael Hicks, it's a trilogy, so I had to get the other 2. They are, Bitter Harvest for 2.99, and Reaping the Harvest, for 3.99. So far, the first book is great! It's scifi.
Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. the Dune stuff by these two guys has been very hit or miss with me. so far this book has been decent.
I finished In the Presence of Mine Enemies last night. While it was well-written, and an interesting take on a possible alternate history, I found the plot utterly predictable. I enjoyed it, but I don't know that I'll reread it any time in the next ten years (whereas I think I've reread every other Turtledove novel that I own, that I've already read, at least once or twice). I moved on to The Apocalypse Codex, by Charlie Stross - it's part of a series called The Laundry Files. I think I would describe it as James Bond meets H.P. Lovecraft - the main character is a government agent whose job is to stop supernatural disasters from occurring, all the while knowing that at some point in the future, the walls of reality will come down and unmentionable monsters will walk the Earth (referred to within his agency as Case NIGHTMARE GREEN).
I'm still working on The Martian - 64% complete right now. It's slow going because baby is taking up most of my time now, and when I finally get a quiet moment I tend to just pass out. But, a couple pages a day anyway. It has a balance of terror and humor that really appeals to me. The Laundry Files seems familiar. If it's a Tor series, I probably read a short story from it when it was the freebie of the week. As I recall, it was somewhat scary with a dash of weird sexual stuff. And unicorns.
WOW! The Harvest trilogy, by Michael Hicks, is the best trilogy I have read in a very long time! It is cover to cover action and thrills...and science fiction, too. It's about a world food shotage; I won't say any more, but GET these books! I got them for my kindle because the first one was free...I'm so glad I did.
That's the "Nazi Germany won, and then collapsed like Soviet Russia" novel, right? Turtledove does love his historic parallels. I've just started The White War, on the Italo-Austrian front of World War I. It's part of my year-long reading quest to understand parts of the war I've long ignored (which is everything beyond the western trenches, airplanes, and submarines).