Memorial Day Weekend

I’m sorry for missing two weeks of my weekly update. I was caught up playing tour guide and host over Memorial Day Weekend. The good news is that I’ve also read a bunch over the last few weeks and have a lot of good links to share in upcoming updates.

What I’ve Read:

On the Soul-Sustaining Necessity of Resisting Self-Comparison and Fighting Cynicism: A Commencement Address | Brain Pickings

In this post, Maria Popova shares the commencement speech given by her at her alma mater, UPenn’s Annenberg School of Communication. She starts with a simple vignette about bike riding and expands the story into a thought provoking meditation on life. I enjoyed how she was able to weave the metaphor of biking throughout the story and make it appear seamless. The essay is well worth the read and the message is amazing.

The Martian | Andy Weir

This book about an astronaut left behind on Mars has been adapted into a Hollywood blockbuster starring Matt Damon. I watched the movie first before reading the book, so the plot was already spoiled for me. However, I still enjoyed reading the book because it took a deeper dive into the numerous problems faced by the stranded Mark Watney. It was interesting to switch between the first person journal entries of Mark Watney to the third person narrative used for Mission Control and aboard the Hermes spaceship. It’s a fairly quick read and I recommend it to anyone into space travel, science, or problem solving.

Tags: #books