Astronomy (Andrew Fraknoi et al.) – A bit too heavy at times, and way too much extra material that is exciting but definitely can’t be done in a single day or such. Got some really nice visuals and challenging quantitative problems, definitely would recommend as a free astronomy textbook available on the internet.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay – I took an extraordinarily long amount of time to finish reading this book, and it is definitely one of the longest books I’ve ever read. Sammy’s arc, which started when he realised his own nature and started accepting it albeit secretly to coming to odds with the fact that everyone knew about it and living with no secrets was totally brilliant. Both Sammy and Joe started out with clear hurdles and goals. Sammy with his gender and Joe with his family. While I did find the book to be quite stretched at times, the insane amount of characterisation and growth that went into everything was quite astounding. One thing that did stand out was how Rosa waited twelve+ years for Joe to come back, which ordinarily isn’t something someone would’ve done. I think the entire committee on the investigation of comic books was portrayed to be quite antagonistic, and it was, and to me, that stood as symbolic of how systems larger than any individual tend to ignore individual motivations and escape the truth when an alternate explanation is equally plausible