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I find mixing Catholicism and Sci-Fi a quirky but heady mix. Mary Doria Russell's The Sparrow is another, where Jesuits pilot an interplanetary mission.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

The Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. I read the trilogy but my sister did the audiobook and enjoyed it.

The Sparrow is an excellent but distributing book.

Fiction or non-fiction?

Fiction: Neal Stephenson, especially Anathem. Most things by Frank Herbert. Wool. The Sparrow by Maria Doria-Russell.

Non-fiction: hmmm. Maybe Influence by Cialdini?

The Sparrow - Mary Doria Russell. Hands down one of the best sci-fi books I've ever read.

Oh, and anything by Neil Stephenson (except Zodiac).

How about The Sparrow from Mary Doria Russell. An amazingly deep and personal tale about humanity's first encounter with alien life. Sci-fi in the way that "Never Let Me Go" is sci-fi - the backdrop to a literary exploration of what it is to be human.

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. Deals with big themes in an accessible science fiction world.

Well that is fascinating. I am reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.

Part of the plot is that a radio astronomer at Arecibo discovers intermittent Alien radio signals originating from the Alpha Centari System. The protagonists can't figure out why the Alpha Centari's are transmitting such strong radio signals and why they are intermittent. It turns out that their planet doesn't have an ionosphere to reflect broadcast radio waves, so the inhabitants instead bounce radio off the moon to broadcast it back to the surface.

Arecibo only picked up the radio signals when they bounced off the moon at the right angle.

The origin of radio telescopes in the 60s must be the kernel for that bit of plot.

I've read The Sparrow countless times, I really love it.

As for the sequel, no, it's not as good. Obviously that was to be expected. If you loved The Sparrow, you might still want to read on about Emilio (and one of the others...), but it'll be kind of rough and poignant. I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it, but I'm happy to have read it, and I've been thinking about reading it again (only read it once so far, a few years ago).

Favorite books of the year: (I'm primarily a sci fi and short story novel reader)

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream by Harlan Ellison
Stories of Your Life by Ted Chiang
Like Brothers by Mark and Jay Duplass
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr
Endymion by Dan Simmons
Hyperion by Dan Simmons

A few classics that I'd never read before. Really great year of books for me.

Everything from Asimov.

The Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson.

The Culture books from Iain Banks.

The Rama series from Clarke although it got tiresome after a while.

The Sparrow and Children of God from Mary Doria Russell.

Contact by Sagan which by the way is one of the very few sci-fi books that were successfully depicted in movies.

Brave new world from Huxley. Old one but still highly relevant.

The first ones from Gibson.

The Enter series by Orson Scott Card.

Bradbury's Farhenheit 451. This one is a classic.

Revelation Space from Alaistair Reynolds who writes the most hardcore sci-fi I've ever come across.

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" by Walter Miller, Jr.

I would be completely contented with a three- or six-part series, but I could also see it being turned (well) into a longer thing by interpolating.

Similarly, but probably more accessible, "The Sparrow" by Mary Doria Russell (and it's sequel "Children of God"). It would definitely do better as a long series.

My opinion is to read 3 body problem first and complete the trilogy. I like Hyperion and read all the series but found each subsequent book less satisfying than the last (kind of like reading the sequels to Ender's Game). On the other hand, the series by Cixin gets even better after the first.

Have you read The Sparrow or any of Ted Chiang's short stories?

Those interested in language in sci-fi could do worse than to read The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell), about a Jesuit exploration mission to a foreign world discovered after a song signal captured by SETI efforts. The protagonist is a Jesuit linguist, and the story features a first encounter that I found quite moving.

I've gone from reading 10 books a year to reading 25+ books a year over the last few years. Mostly I've cut down on my screen time. I am on a computer all day for work but once I go home I try to spend as little time as possible on a computer.

What do I do now? Come home, do yoga for 15-30 minutes, make tea, meditate for 10 minutes, read for 15 - 50 minutes. Then I'll allow myself to do other things that may occupy my time.

I'll admit that as a single man without kids I have a lot more freedom over my schedule but this is very similar to my morning routine. At the minimum I've got 30 minutes of reading and 20 minutes of meditation in my day every day. This has done wonders for my ADD brain.

The other big thing is focuses on books I know I'll enjoy. For me that means Sci-Fi fiction novels and Magical Realism books. Also if I find myself not wanting to pick up the book then I'll move on from it.

Right now I'm reading alternating Murakami book, Vonnegut books, and books from The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell) series. Are they all at the level or War and Peace? No. But I enjoy them and that's what maters.

P.S. I've got a kindle paperwhite which is IMO the best e reading device I've ever used. It sits in my draw while paper stack up around my house and near my bedside. It just doesnt feel the same. It's great for when I'm going to be traveling and need a few novels but dont have the space in my travel bag.

Without giving away any of the plot, the thing I liked about The Sparrow was the huge factor of the unknown. The entire story had this feeling that you just didn't know where it was going -- a sense of uneasiness.

I don't see how you could do that the same way again, at least not in the same universe.

But I've got it on my kindle anyway. Sometimes first books are so good you have to read the second one just to see where the author wants to take the story.

This subject keeps coming up so much I made a site just to keep track of books hn'ers recommend to each other: http://hn-books.com

I think out of all the books I read, the stoicism book made the biggest impact on me -- http://www.hn-books.com/Books/A-Guide-to-the-Good-Life-The-A... . It really came out of left field and provided immediately useful advice on how to conduct myself both as a founder and as a hacker. But "The Sparrow" was the best sci-fi I have read in years, so I can't exclude that. Terrifically good book. http://www.hn-books.com/Books/The-Sparrow.htm