Mary Robinette Kowal

Hugo-award winning author, Mary Robinette Kowal is a novelist and professional puppeteer.

Her new novel is Ghost Talkers.

Recently I asked Kowal about what she was reading. Her reply:

I'm currently reading Carrying the Fire, which is the autobiography of Michael Collins. He flew the command module for the first lunar landing. I picked it up as research for my next novel (yes, it'll still be alternate history, just SF this time) and it is seriously compelling reading.

Collins is funny and at the same time can get across the terror and majesty of spaceflight. Even though I obviously know that they survive the moon landing, he still manages to have me on the edge of my seat. Plus, he has a beautiful grasp of language, so the entire book is effortless reading. Even when he gets deep into the technical stuff, he manages to make it comprehensible or pokes fun at how ridiculous the jargon is. It's the sort of book that makes you want to meet the author. I'm eating it the way I eat novels.

If you have any interest in spaceflight, or heck, just in how people react to extraordinary circumstances, pick it up.

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My Book, The Movie: Glamour in Glass.

--Marshal Zeringue