A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarer #2)

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers is the second book in err Wayfarers science fiction series. This is a great series - even if you do not think you like science fiction!

Pepper is called by her friend to come to the ship and try to save the AI. But by save, the crew means, bring back the developed personality called Lovely who has been with them for years. When she cannot she moves the AI to a body kit.

AI are not allowed to live as sapient beings. Being in possession of a body kit will both get the AI killed and the sapient arrested. However, Pepper has a soft spot for AIs.

Told in two times - Lovelace in a body she was not designed for, trying to pass as a human and Pepper growing up on a factory planet - this is a heartfelt tale of how sapients adapt to their settings.

Chambers writes characters that readers will fondly remember for a long, long time. Her books are so good - start reading her today!

Chambers, Becky. (2016). A Closed and Common Orbit. New York: Harper Voyager.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1)

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers is the first book in her Wayfarers science fiction series. This is a great book for someone who has not read scifi and would like to check out the genre.

Rosemary is hurtling through space in a one-person pod, heading toward the ship where she just accepted a job. The ship, the Wayfarer, is a tunneling ship. In a universe where FTL has been outlawed due to the danger, tunneling ships that create wormholes are very important. It is also a very dangerous job.

The ship (and series) is peopled with a variety of species of sapients from different worlds. Chambers has created a wonderful science fiction series that is well thought out and a joy to read. I will read everything she writes!

Chambers, Becky. (2014). The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. New York: Harper Voyager.

Ana of California

Ana of California by Andi Teran is the retelling of a classic story - an Anne of Green Gables or other story of an orphan who finds her place at last.

Ana Cortez is fifteen years old. She has been in the foster care system since she was six - when her grandmother died. She has been placed with good and bad foster parents and once in a group home.

She is not moving because she is a bad kid, but because the system is broken. She spoke up to help her foster siblings and was kicked out. Of course, that is not the story told to her case worker.

Now Ana has one more chance. She can choose between a group home (not a safe place in her experience) or a work study program. If she completes the work study, she will be old enough to emancipate at the end of it.

Abbie and Emmett Garber run a small family farm in Northern California on the coast. They took over the farm when their father died. Abbie had left for a while but came back to help Emmett. For a while she and Emmett and Emmett's wife (Abbie's best friend) all ran the farm together. Now that Abbie and Emmett are on their own, Abbie has signed them up to foster a teen to help on the farm.

With Ana having never been out of East Los Angeles and Abbie and Emmett picturing someone a little heartier looking than the petite Ana, they will have to learn to communicate to see if they can work and live together for the summer.

This is a great book - both for teens and adults. It would, if done well, be a great movie. Read it today.

Teran, Andi. (2015). Ana of California. New York: Penguin Books.