I started out this month in a reading slump. I’d been struggling through a literal brick of a sci-fi book that I’d been looking forward to for a few years and felt disappointed that I didn’t have the motivation to finish it that I thought I would have. Overall though I feel good about getting through three books this month!

Summary of this month

  • Total books: 3
  • Pages read: 858

Mickey7 (Mickey7, #1)

By Edward Ashton, 288p

Mickey7 first landed on my radar when its movie adaptation, Mickey17, hit theaters. I was pretty skeptical because the movie trailer looked a little cheesy and more on the silly side than I typically like. Boy I was wrong! I was in a reading slump and this book was available on Libby. I thought that plot idea was interesting enough to give it a try and I am so glad that I did. I absolutely devoured this book from start to finish in about 10 days. I liked that the book was on the shorter side and it was easy for me to really get into it. It was funny but with enough of a serious undertone that I could not wait to see how it ended. The story is petty straight forward. Humans have spread across the galaxy and set up colonies on distant planets. Turns out distant planets are dangerous so colonies need people they can afford to have die over and over again. That’s Mickey. But along the way there’s a deeper lore about humans and human nature that peeks through the simple and straightforward story. By the end of this book I couldn’t put it down and I was over the moon when I saw that it’s only the start of a series of Mickey7 books.

Antimatter Blues (Mickey7, #2)

by Edward Ashton, 282p

I immediately checked out Antimatter Blues after devouring Mickey7. This sequel picks up two years after the ending of the first book and is basically just as entertaining as the start of the series. Its tone is a little more serious but still manages to be funny at the right moments. I don’t want to spoil too much for anyone who plans to pick up this book but to sum it up Mickey is still kicking it but (surprise, surprise) living on beachhead colony isn’t easy. Everyone Mickey loves, along with everyone other human on this planet, is about to die unless he’s prepared to put his himself and his lift at risk. He is an expendable after all.

The Man of Many Fathers

by Roy Wood Jr., 288p

I enjoyed this book so much! I first heard of Roy Wood Jr. as a correspondent on The Daily Show. I loved the show while Trevor Noah was the host and I especially loved Wood’s segments. Since Noah left the show I haven’t kept up with it that closely and I didn’t even know that Wood had left the show or written a book until I heard him appear as a guest on Noah’s podcast. On my TBR immediately! I finally got around to reading it and gosh was it worth it! The subtitle of the book sums up precisely what this book is. “Life Lessons Disguised as a Memoir”. I expected going into reading this that it would be funny and entertaining. It was. But it also was an insightful commentary about the impact other people have on us, the value of relationships, and, importantly, how to be persistently confident in yourself.