The Martian, by Andy Weir

• Title:  The Martian
• Author:  Andy Weir
• Borrowed from DC Public (e-Book)
• Started: 3/19/2014
• Finished:  3/23/2014

 
I loved this book.  Getting that out of the way first so there is no confusion on where I stand.  This book was wonderful.  It doesn't sound like it would be (from the review that first turned me onto this book in the WSJ, Feb 2014, "there's a lot of fascinating arithmetic [in the book]"), math?  I have to do math while I read the book?
 
But no math is required, our hero does the math for us, and makes us (me, anyway) feel that I could have figured some of these problems out on my own as well (I couldn't).   As to our hero -- somehow you keep forgetting he's the best of the best to have been selected for such a mission in the first place, because he is so grounded, self-effacing, funny.
 
But really, how could anyone fail to love a book about surviving being stranged on Mars that includes the following line as an FU to NASA when they tell him to watch his language over email as it is all being disclosed to the public:
 
"Look a pair of boobs! (. Y .)"