Andy Weir, The Martian

This was a fun read. Mark Watney is an astronaut who gets left behind on Mars, presumed dead. But he winds up surviving (not much of a spoiler there) because he's very smart and very resourceful. He describes what he's up to in audio logs, which is what we're reading. These alternate later on with third-person narratives of what's going on back on Earth. The story is filled with a lot of scientific explanations that I, at least, didn't always follow, or if I followed it I forgot the details. But that doesn't matter. They're there mostly to provide verisimilitude, and it works. But Watney isn't just a techno-babbling scientist with serious MacGyver skills, he's also likable and funny. We definitely root for him. A feel-good book, then, that's been made into what I assume is a feel-good movie: I've yet to see it, but it's on my list.