How to Stay Married: The Most Insane Love Story Ever Told by Harrison Scott Key is a truly crazy story. Reading about Harrison's struggle with his wife's infidelity made me squirm. It sounded like a nightmare. He credits his ability to love his wife through everything to his faith in God, the support of good friends, his church, and an understanding of his wife's past hurts. Harris doesn't gloss over how painful her betrayal was or how angry he felt. Key lays bare the hurt. He avoids trashing his wife and her lover. He demonstrates the need to own his part of the breakdown and to ask and to extend forgiveness. It is miraculous to me that their marriage survived. As a bonus, he's quite funny.
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I heard about Going Zero by Anthony McCarten, and it intrigued me. It is a technical science fiction thriller relating to how individual privacy is endangered. Ten contestants are challenged to "go zero"--not be found--for thirty days by an agency that has full use of everything electronic. I've watched NCIS, where the first step in an investigation is to look into the victim's emails, messages, phone records, bank transactions, and closed-circuit television. This book moves beyond police access and into national access in the name of preventing mass shootings and terrorist attacks. How far can we go, and how far should we go to keep people safe? I asked a security-minded friend about some of the incredible claims of the book, like can your television be used as a listening device when you think it's off? Answer: maybe. https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-stop-smart-tvs-from-snooping-on-you I choose to have an Alexa device and Siri, understanding that they are always listening, but not always responding. After reading Going Zero, I'm slightly creeped out about what those who gather data on me know. Do they know Ed Sheeran's song "Thinking Out Loud Makes" me cry? That too much dairy makes me gassy? Do they know I fought with my husband because he solved all the crossword clues before me? Oh, please, no. That's not even the worst of it.
This book has a technicality that is similar to The Martian by Andy Weir, a book I greatly enjoyed. I found the science in Going Zero accessible and exciting, if somewhat fantastical and scary. It generated good discussion as it became the book I talked to everyone in my orbit about. You're welcome!
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Reece's Book Club choice. It had an interesting premise and an engaging protagonist. Cassandra, a neuroatypical woman, gains the ability to time travel. Can she use it to engineer herself a happier, less lonely life? Cassie is losing her job, her living situation, and her boyfriend. A tragedy in her past haunts her. It took too long to get to the good part of the book. There is a thread of Greek mythology that hadme guessing if Cassandra was a modern day prophet. The set-up could have been more succinct and the action streamlined. It felt like the book couldn't decide what it wanted to be: romance, redemption, an exploration of being neuroatypical? In the end, I'm glad I finished it, but the book felt uneven, like a cake baked in a wonky oven; some parts were overdone, others underdone, with occasional spots of just right.
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