A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor

 by Hank Green

449 pgs  (The Carls series #2)

Hank Green's A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor picks up about six months after An Absolutely Remarkable Thing left off. April May, the young woman who skyrocketed to unprecedented fame overnight with her documentation of the first of the Carls (10-foot tall alien samurai robots that suddenly appeared scattered all over the world) died at the end of the latter, but her body was never discovered. At the time of her death, all the Carls disappeared as quickly and inexplicably as they had appeared, taking with them the common dreams they had implanted on people all over the world. Six months later, April's friends, along with most everyone else, are still grieving over the loss of both April and the Carls.

Peter Petrawicki, who was indirectly responsible for April's death, has built an offshore research company that uses technology tied to the Carls, and is now worth billions. But with his company's success come changes that threaten to forever change the world, and not for the better. His company, an amalgamation of Facebook, Second Life, and a Bitcoin-type data-mining company, has the potential to destroy the economies of the world and usher in a form of dystopia never contemplated before.

This book took me longer to get into than its predecessor, and for the first half of it I wasn't sure whether it would end up representing a sophomore slump for Hang Green. Thankfully, by the end, I remain a big fan of Green and his storytelling.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆

The Body: A Guide for Occupants

 by Bill Bryson

450 pgs

Bill Bryson cut his literary teeth by writing entertaining, and oftentimes, hilarious travel memoirs through The United States, Great Britain, and Australia. More recently, his books have dealt with history and science. With The Body - A Guide for Occupants, Bryson takes us on an interesting and entertaining journey throughout the human body.

He covers every aspect of the body, from the cellular level, on up to the tissues, organs, and systems it's comprised of. He provides anecdotal and fascinating explanations of how doctors and scientists' understanding of how the body works has grown over time, and how they often gained their knowledge accidentally, or through the pain and suffering of patients and experimental subjects.

He covers what it takes to keep the body functioning at its best, as well as why it eventually wears out, succumbs to diseases, attacks itself through cancers, or simply quits.

I found the book both fascinating and enjoyable. I'm a big fan of Bryson's books, and would most likely read anything he ever decides to write, regardless of subject matter or critical reviews. The book didn't make me laugh as frequently as many of his others have, but that was okay with me. I still felt like I was being entertained while being educated.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆