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Pick and Mix 2015
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-01-06 3:24 AM (#9182)
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Location: UK		Hi folks,here we go again for 2015,with the easiest challenge of them all just 12 books of any sort. But do share at least a brief comment or post your review here plus an occasional comment on other people;s reads.Happy reading
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-01-06 3:26 AM (#9183 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Finished Larry Niven's sequel to the famous The Mote in God's Eye, The Gripping Hand (aka The Moat Around Murchison's Eye).Published in 1993 , 19 years after the first book I cant say I really took to it. Lots of conniving Moties determined to escape from the single wormhole blockaded for 25 years by the humans' Empire to prevent them overunning the galaxy as they overbreed to an insane extent,repeatedly destroying their own culture as the struggle for resources leads to widespread destruction of their world.The humans however have discovered a biological way to end this crazed imperative to breed. But with so many factions among the very tricky and manipulative Moties,who can be trusted?

I found this book a bit flat and sometimes a bit confusing with all the different shifting alliances etc,and the characters were a bit thin too.But the sly,brilliant devious Moties were as interesting and original as ever.On its own a reasonable sort of read,but as a sequel to the first book, a bit of a letdown.I had hoped for more.
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spoltz
Posted 2015-01-08 3:34 PM (#9224 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi DD,

I decided to join this challenge so I would have a place for the books I read for my SF book club. Last year, I worked each one into a challenge, but I ended up constantly juggling my selections because the book club only chooses its books 2 months in advance. And I didn't want to sign up for too many challenges this year because I'm doing a Tolkien challenge, where I'll be reading the Silmarillion and the other posthumous works. I'm going to research a lot of resources to help me understand those more complex works, so I don't expect I'll be reading enough books this year to do as many challenges as I did last year just to find places for my book club books. (Wow! Two run-on sentences in a row)

The book for January is The Martian by Andy Weir. It started out a little slow with so much engineering detail, but it's gotten very exciting. I'm about 2/3rds through.

I'm glad you hosted this again this year! And don't forget to put the link to this forum in your challenge.
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pauljames
Posted 2015-01-10 7:59 AM (#9243 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: scotland		I have just joined this challenge and really like the feel of posting comments on what we have read. As a Christmas gift I was given a trilogy by an author I had not heard of before. This being Walking Chaos by Patrick Ness. It has won awards but again these are not awards I have heard of. To me this fits perfectly as a pick n mix books as I probably would not be reading it if I hadn't been gifted it.
My current read of Doctor Sleep is good I am now nearing the end with some 100 pages left.Lots of links to The Shining are slowly being told. All very exciting.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-01-11 4:15 PM (#9253 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Thanks for joining Steve and Paul.I hope to hear good things about our reads. The Martian by Andy Weir sounds excellent,I have heard good things about it. Maybe next year(cos this year is already jam-packed!) lol
Patrick Ness got rave reviews for the Walking Chaos series of which Knife is the first. He also got awards for A Monster Calls,but that sounds really too dark and downbeat for my tastes. Good to see Thomcat has renewed the YA Challenge for this year,but its getting a bit difficult to find 12 new to me authors. am doing a YA challenge on Shelfari,but it doesnt have to be completely new authors I find the YA books are usually good clean fun,and quick reads. But Ness is quite a complex author aimed at the older range of hs audence,so adults find him fascinating too
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-01-21 12:04 PM (#9343 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Ellen Kushner - Thomas the Rhymer. The ancient traditional ballad Thomas the Rhymer has long been a favourite poem of mine.Thomas is a reckless young minstrel who meets the Queen of Elfland and dares to kiss her. He is thereby under her power,and is taken off to Elfland for seven years,and is given the gift - or curse?- of speaking only the truth and foretelling the future as his reward for seven years of servitude.John Keats was influenced by this poem to write La Belle Dame Sans Merci,Walter Scott made a poem about it,Rudyard Kipling too.and Ellen Kushner made a fine novel from it, a worthy winner of the Mythopoeic Award and the World Fantasy Award.Totally faithful to the original rather sparse tale,she tells the story of Thomas as a rather reckless young minstrel with a roving eye,good looks and great pride in his singing and harping skills. Where the poem barely mentions his time in Elfland,Kushner elaborates it ,weaving enchanting tales of the wildness,beauty and peril of the fae world,and then fetches Thomas home to cope with the hardships of a tongue that can speak only the truth.This book is a beautiful,haunting,heartbreaking tale of Thomas's life and death,elegantly written,poignant and vivid.I cant say fairer than what Neil Gaiman said; ' An elegant and beautiful book that manages to create firmly real,breathing people and to evoke the magic of Faerie. Tender,wise,tough and imaginative - its a magical tour de force shot through with strange melodies. I loved it'' Me too Neil,me too.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-01-25 2:46 AM (#9356 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Martian Chronicles. This was a reread for a 1950s SF challenge,when we were asked would this book still be read in a hundred years. I definitely think it will be.There is a complexity of viewpoints and themes enough that the book will always strike a chord somewhere. Fear of a nuclear war destroying earth may be in abeyance at the moment,but that insistence in trampling over and simply destroying other cultures than its own is as rampant as eve sort of r,as is the destruction of the environment by crass commercialism and greed. The book is more a dream than an actual depiction of colonizing Mars,and its elegiac style,poetic rhythm and intense emotionalism making any outdated concepts seem unimportant. We dont stop to pick holes in dodgy science or even sneer at some sentimentality (would everyone go back home in the case of a nuclear war? sounds unlikely!) because we are moving on to the next little vignette which gives us a rush of nostalgia,awe at the martian landscape etc. The whole work is suffused with delicious irony from beginning to end,and this neutralises any sugariness enough. That irony will be what preserves this book for the future I believe. . A true classic
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-01-29 1:34 PM (#9390 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Frederik Pohl - Beyond the Blue Event Horizon. wasn't very keen on this book, partly because of the multiple points of view, not something I am a fan of at the best of time, and as I disliked most of the characters, and wished Rob Broadhead was as prominent this time as in Gateway. I was always waiting impatiently for his next appearance. The early part of the book, about the teenager Wan and the whole situation on the Heechee artifact was rather confusing, it took time to understand the situation. The hard science went completely over my head, I am no physicist, and I just had to go with the flow with all the difficult science. I wouldnt know a Mach Principle from a Mack truck. We did learn more about the Heechee and their aims and some idea of their location, but in such an oblique offhand way that it was a bit disappointing. Still, the book was a reasonable read and I was happy that Rob got rich again, but I am wary about what will happen next about his wife who disappeared into a black hole, as I dislike love triangles, and I like Essy his second wife lol. But I will certainly look out for the next adventure
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-02 1:23 PM (#9470 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Synopsis - Foxglove Summer is the fifth instalment in Ben Aaronovitchs Peter Grant series, about a junior London copper who finds himself apprentice to the only wizard still active on the force.
Peter is sent on a routine check on an old mage to make sure he has no involvement in the disappearance of two 11 year old girls in rural Herefordshire. The mage seems clear,so Peter offers to help the local police in the search for the missing girls . It soon is obviious that weird magical things are afoot and as usual Peter cant resist getting involved
Following Peter with his odd mix of traditional police procedure and his arcane magic is always fun.One minute Peter may be taking mundane witness statements,the next moment he is avoiding a vicious unicorn.or dating the goddess of a river.All engaging fun,and since he is a mixed race London lad,he is a bit of an oddity in the small oldfashioned town. Its always interesting seeing people's reactions to a minority policeman who is involved with magic!
The book is engaging enough,but we had been left at the end of the previous book with serious and shocking developments about a fellow trainee magic user who after appalling injuries seems to have deserted to the darkside. This riveting story arc is sidelined here,which is a severe disappointment. Hope we get back to London in the next book.Light fun,but lets get back to the darkside!
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pauljames
Posted 2015-02-14 9:49 AM (#9633 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: scotland		200 pages into The Knife of Never Letting Go very pacy story, not much depth to it so far. I am intrigued to see where it heads as another 2 books follow this. Very bad grammar which will annoy many readers.
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spectru
Posted 2015-02-24 6:33 PM (#9713 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		I just joined the Pick and Mix challenge. I got kind of confused and added the books I've written reviews for and then realized that we don't need to write reviews, but should discuss the books here. Is that right? Well, anyhow I'm hearing an audiobook version of Heinlein's Double Star. I expect to finish it tomorrow. I picked it because it is on the WWE list that I am closest to finishing.

I like Heinlein. I've read several of his books and a couple are favorites and I disliked none. Double Star is a little different. It's in a science fiction setting, with folks traveling to Mars and to the Moon, but it really isn't a science fiction book. It's more of a lighthearted intrigue. with a little reworking could have been set in a contemporary non-science fiction setting. I'm enjoying it.

Whenever an author writes things that happen in the future, he risks being dated because who can predict where technology goes? I found it amusing that Heinlein makes big use of Farley files, so named for a member of the Eisenhower administration from way back in the mid-twentieth century. Of course, that's when Double Star was written, and who can remember Farley?

Another thing I thought was a little corny but perhaps very futuristic in the mid 50s: A spaceman's toast: he lifts his glass and says "Hot jets."
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spectru
Posted 2015-02-24 7:09 PM (#9714 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		Okay; so now I removed all the books I had put in this challenge, had written reviews of, but hadn't mention here in the forum, and my only listed challenge book is the one I mentioned above. That's how it's supposed to work, right?
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-25 3:25 AM (#9716 - in reply to #9714)
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Location: UK		Hi Spectru,sorry that you have been confused! lol. I just wanted to make this challenge free and easy.,so no one would feel forced to make formal reviews to put on the WWEnd database,but would at least come here on our forum page and talk about what they were reading,even just a brief comment. But I wasnt banning reviews,look at my challenge details and you can see I have some reviews written. And I do try to make a post for my books read. I felt a bit sad though when no one else reciprocated! So thank you. I have been having computer difficulties lately and have been lax with my own posts,but I am hoping to get back on for. in March. Feel free to put back any books you like!
I was intending to ask if anyone wanted to increase the number of books required into that four level reading level format,but since the thread seemed deserted I havent yet done it. I was hoping for imput on how many books to put for each level.What I did last year was only add particular favourite reads since there were only spaces for 12 books,and I read 70! I would be glad to hear what levels we could have.
I feel that just ticking off a number of books read is a bit boring,thats why I hoped people would pop in here with a comment or two to make it more interesting.but as usual people are hiding in their caves! So thank you for peeping out.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-25 3:45 AM (#9717 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Double Star was a little bit of a disappointment for me. I enjoyed the amusing banter of the egocentric protagonist,but I had hoped to see more of the aliens. I wanted a closer look at their creche,but that was a very minor part of the story. Probably The Great Lorenzo is Heinlein's most developed character,we learn a lot more about him than of most RAH characters,thoug hperhaps not very accurate,he is a probably an unreliable narrator.
I am a bit of a sucker for that hoary old plot,the double who replaces someone else. A venerable plot device,popular from Shakespeare onwards. ,through Twain;s Prince and the Pauper,and Anthony Hope's Prisoner of Zenda,and a million others1. They are always fun.Wasnt so keen that he had to be in th political arena though. But all in all,an amusing,exciting and entertaining read.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-25 6:38 AM (#9718 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Sheesh! I am SSOOOO behind withadding my books and comments.So ,quick summary. I have read several YA books,with mixed results.
Veronica Roth - Divergent. it was a fairly entertaining read,more than I expected. No wonder teenage girls resonated with this highschool drama,teenage angst, etc transposed to a world where everyone has to choose at sixteen a ''Faction'' for life. ,since the author was barely out of highschool herself,around 21 when she was writing it. Also explains all the very dodgy premises of this very simplistic and improbable dystopic novel,which stretched suspension of disbelief to the limits. But it did have a very appealing heroine.a great role model for teens. The book was smoothly written and very fast pace and helped to gloss over the improbabillities. I wont be reading more though. Once the tight focus of the first book is dissipated in an on-the-run scenario I doubt I could stand all the gaping holes in the story.The end scenes reminded me of a Dr Who episode,everyone running down endless corridors having narrow escapes,and someone stays behind,sacrificing themselves for the sake of the rest But I do see why teens loved it so much.And I certainly liked the heroine a lot more than the famous Katniss!
Pittacus Lore - The Revenge of Seven. I have enjoyed the rest of the series but this one seemed to drag at times. Also the print is a bit annoying. There are several narrators,and for some reason the author insists on a different typeface for each. Some are dark and heavy,one of them is so small and light I can barely read it.,especially by artificial light. I never remember anyway which type is which,so I have to puzzle out from the first lines of each chapter who is talking! lol. It did pick up at the end,with a cliffhanger,but I think the author should finish the series soon. Not likely though. Apart from the main series - this was the 5th - there is a spinoff series,eleven and counting. Obviously a major cash cow for the author :0)
Also I have read several UF books,including Nalini Singh's latest in the Guild Hunter series,one of my fave series in that genre,and,read for my Women of Genre Fiction challenge I read
Karen Lord - The Best of All Possible Worlds. - Synopsis- This a stunning science fiction epic that is also a beautifully wrought, deeply moving love story. A proud and reserved alien society finds its homeland destroyed in an unprovoked act of aggression, and the survivors have no choice but to reach out to the indigenous humanoids of their adopted world, to whom they are distantly related. They wish to preserve their cherished way of life but come to discover that in order to preserve their culture, they may have to change it forever. Now a man and a woman from these two clashing societies must work together to save this vanishing raceand end up uncovering ancient mysteries with far-reaching ramifications. As their mission hangs in the balance, this unlikely teamone cool and cerebral, the other fiery and impulsivejust may find in each other their own destinies . . . and a force that transcends all. This fascinating and thoughtful science fiction novel breaks out of the typical conflict-centered narrative paradigm to examine adaptation, social change, and human relationships. Ive not read anything quite like it, which it makes that rare beast: a true original.Kate Elliot
Hmm,I feel perhaps the blurb is overstating it a bit,though it is a very enjoyable book,. Its a sort of road trip book,as a team of scientists map out some older communities of Sadiri heritage to see if a new society of Sadiri,which was left with a huge surplus of males,and will need to integrate locally ,combined with. a slow building romance between a dignified Sadiri elder and a volatie free spirited young local woman. It has been widely noticed that there are distinct echoes of Star Trek Vulcans here,a sort of rerun of Spock's parents romance,and it is delightful seeing the staid courtship,but sometimes getting the balance between science fiction and romance is a bit clumsy or uneven An engaging read though with fun glints of subtle humour and rapport between the two protagonists,and nicely written.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-25 6:44 AM (#9719 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		Robert Heinlein - Between Planets. - One of Heinlein's fun "juveniles". Don Harvey, warned by his parents on Mars to leave his schooling on Earth before there is war between Earth and its Martian and Venusian colonies, is asked to collect a package from a professor friend before leaving Earth, which leads to his arrest and the mysterious death of the professer. There is a seemingly valueless plastic ring which is returned to him by the ominous security officers, and he takes it off on his travels to Mars, via a space station and Venus. On the spaceflight he aids a stricken Venusian "dragon" and witnesses the destruction of the military space station by the rebels. Landing on Mars he is overtaken by the war, and is surprised that Earth is searching for him and his ring, which eventually proves to hold vital breakthrough technology about weapons and speeding up spaceflight.

Don sees a friend murdered by the Earth troops, and escapes from a prison camp, wading through vile stagnant swamps full of mud lice. He falls in with rebels and becomes a guerilla taking part in dangerous raids. Eventually he meets up with the brilliant Dragonagain. who turns out to be a brilliant scientistand passes on the ring, which gives the edge to the rebels. Oh, and there is a light little romance too, though the not very sharp Don barely recognises it!

I really enjoyed this book full of action and adventure, but with nuggets intriguing enough to keep the interest of adults. I was glad that it was written at a time when all the data we had on Venus was by telescope etc, no Hubbles or passing satellites, and authors could still have fun inventing strange environments and could still have venusian "dragons"!

This was, as is common with Heinlein juveniles, a coming of age story-, but with some more serious shadows. The ebullient practical but rather obtuse young man we meet at first comes through hard times, and that has impact on him, though Heinlein touches only lightly on it for his young readers eager for adventure. On Venus he sees a friend shot dead, and in a prison camp though he escapes when an outage makes the electric fence be useless he gets over in time but sees a fellow prisoner fried as the fence comes on again. When he meets up with rebels their leader is frank about their aims, to make the lives of the small earth force unbearable and expensive in terms of men and equipment. "We will sneak in at night and cut their throats, and sneak out again for breakfast" and we can assume when Don joins them he is involved with this, though its not very explicit - "He learned the ways of the guerilla - to infiltrate without sound, to strike silently and fade back into the dark.... those that learned survived, those that did not, died.... He acquired deep lines around his mouth. lines beyond his years, and a white puckered scar on his left forearm. "On a later occasion, when reunited with allies a man tries to bully him into giving up the ring, and suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere a knife is pressed against the man's stomach. At one point he thinks about his parents, but admits to himself that somehow he can not conjure up any emotiions. None of this sort of thing is standard in juvenile fiction, and as|I said, it makes for enjoyable reading for adults.
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spectru
Posted 2015-02-25 2:19 PM (#9724 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		Finished Double Star by Heinlein. I think the only reason this novel is science fiction is because it was written by Robert A Heinlein and that's what he wrote. It reminds me very much of the movie Dave, in which a small town small businessman, a dead ringer for the president, is drafted to stand in for the president who has had a stroke. Nevertheless, it won the '56 Hugo and is on half a dozen of our WWE SF lists.

Continuing my earlier topic above, another anachronism from the 1950's is the use of a slide rule. Who can imagine using a slide rule today, much less in our space faring future?

The audiobook version of the book is read by Tom Weiner. His voice characterization of the narrator, Lawrence Smith,aka Lorenzo Smythe, aka The Great Lorenzo, sounds much more prissy or foppish in the beginning of the book than at the end. And that seems to fit with Smythe's character, who starts out seeming vain and priggish. As the book progresses he seems to become more talented and competent.

I could hardly classify this as a Great Book, but it is a very enjoyable read.

Edited by spectru 2015-02-25 2:24 PM
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spoltz
Posted 2015-02-25 2:53 PM (#9726 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Okay, I'll come out of lurker mode :-) I really liked Double Star. I read it for my personal conquer the Hugo winners challenge. In my SF book club, one of the members pronounced, "If you can take away the science, and still have a novel, it's not science fiction". I really take issue with that because IMHO, you can take away the science from most SF and you end with a, albeit often sparce, novel of some sort. Notice I say most, not all. Even the hardest space operas can be sifted down to horse operas, and eventually to some literary theme. "The Martian", which I read for this challenge is exactly that. Sift it down enough and you have MacGuyver meets Robinson Crusoe. Okay, I'll get off my soap box now.

I started this challenge with "The Martians" which I loved. I thought jokingly that it wasn't science fiction, it was engineering fiction. Some people at my bookclub took issue with there being so little about his emotional state. And although I prefer deep characters and emotions, I didn't miss it at all. The action was great and it kept me on the edge of my seat.

Oh, and I'll reiterate from my first post, that I'm using this challenge for the selections from the bookclub I belong to, since last year, I was constantly reorganizing my challenges to fit the selections. We only choose the books 2 to 3 months in advance.

For February, I read "A Night in the Lonesome October" by Zelazny. It's part Cthulu mythos with a bunch of literary and real and generic historical figures thrown in. The book is told in diary style by Jack the Ripper's dog. The dog, and all the animals in the story, are familiars to the people, helping them prepare for some cataclysmic event that's not really revealed until nearly the very end. The book has a huge cult following and some people read it annually in October. I didn't find it as fun as it sounds. I wasn't really engaged until the last few chapters. I thought it was a little too meandering for the first two thirds or so. But I'll probably read it again in October, and give it a second chance.

As soon as I finish "Return of the King" for my Tolkien challenge, I'll be reading "The Last Policeman" by Ben H Winters for P&M.
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spoltz
Posted 2015-02-25 2:55 PM (#9727 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		I forgot to mention, our bookclub picked "I Am The Messanger" by Markus Zusak for April. It's not in our database, but it was described as Urban Fantasy. Can anyone confirm that? I'm wondering about getting it put into WWE's database but haven't found anything online substantiating it as part of our genre. Also, I just found it in the Internet Speculative Fiction Database...

Edited by spoltz 2015-02-25 3:07 PM
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spectru
Posted 2015-02-25 4:31 PM (#9729 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		I Am the Messenger is excellent, by the author of The Book Thief. If you've read The Book thief, you haven't gotten an inkling of I Am the Messenger. I wouldn't classify it as urban fantasy, though I'm not really sure what urban fantasy is. My wife reads what she says are urban fantasies. I think they often include romantic vampires. I Am the Messenger isn't like that. I hadn't thought of it as a fantasy, but i guess it might step outside the hard limits of reality. It does has a clever little twist at the end that I found delightful.

Edited by spectru 2015-02-25 4:35 PM
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-27 12:55 PM (#9735 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: UK		OK we are two months into our challenge,and I would like to thank the eleven of you who are participating.We have already read a respectable 26 books,and thought not a criterion,no less than 20 reviews.! We have serious WWEnders in this group. Feel free to post your reviews here on the thread for the enjoyment of others,same with any comments etc. I am delighted looking at the books we have read to see such an eclectic selection!
I am posting this now as a multi-reading level challenge. Just as well as Weesam,for instance,has already finished 7 books.Keep up the good work everyone.Dont forget to adjust your reading level
And thanks for all the people who kindly check out our posts. Anyone,not just people doing the challenge,can feel free to post or comment at any time. Happy reading,folks

Edited by dustydigger 2015-02-27 1:04 PM
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spectru
Posted 2015-02-27 4:40 PM (#9736 - in reply to #9182)
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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		Has anyone read Harlan Ellison's Again Dangerous Visions?

I got it because it included The Word for World is Forest. Ursula K Le Guin. What a great novella. It must have been the inspiration of the movie Avatar.

But I've become a little disenchanted with Again Dangerous Visions. I read Dangerous Visions years ago and reread it recently. Now I'm struggling through it's sequel. It's quite voluminous, and I think it's dulled my appetite for short stories. Ellison gives a sometimes long winded and sometimes (dare I say it?) self-aggrandizing or name-dropping introduction to each story. I used to be a fan of Ellison, years and years ago, but now I find myself skimming over these introductions to get to the next story. And having grown weary of the stories, some of which haven't proven to be as good as I had hoped, I'm reading a story or two between novels, which means it will take me months to finish this tome.
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daxxh
Posted 2015-02-27 7:45 PM (#9739 - in reply to #9736)
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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I read Again Dangerous Visions back in the 70s. I remember liking most of the stories and skipping a lot of the intros. (impatient teenager who didn't care to read anyones opinions) I bought Dangerous Visions after I read it because I liked it. I think these story collections were considered "new and groundbreaking" at the time. Perhaps some haven't aged well. I wonder if I'd like them now as much as I did back then.
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dustydigger
Posted 2015-02-28 1:48 AM (#9743 - in reply to #9739)
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Location: UK		Dear old Harlan,still an 'enfant terrible'' in his eighties!. I never found a copy of Again Dangerous Visions,but remember Dangerous Visions blowing my mind when I read it back in the 60s. It was something so different from the SF my staid library had in stock,mostly old anthologies from the 50s. I suppose the fact that sex was so prominent captured my teenage attention. That was so rare in SF back then.That aspect probably now makes it all a bit old hat. ,but you have to say Harlan's anthologies were very influential in bringing the New Wave to wider attention..
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spectru
Posted 2015-03-05 8:20 PM (#9829 - in reply to #9182)
Subject: Re: Pick and Mix 2015		Quote Reply



Veteran

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Location: Fort Myers, Florida USA		I just started Flowers for Algernon. I read it years ago, after seeing the movie with Cliff Robertson. I've always thought of it as a favorite book, but I don't remember it well, just the gist. I had forgotten that it is first person, narrated by Charlie himself, in Progris Riports.
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