THE BIG BURN

Well I just got back from vacation and read a few interesting books on the way.

The first book I finished was The Big Burn by Timothy Egan. It is essentially two stories interwoven, the friendship between Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot which lead to the creation of the Forest Service, and the nation's largest wildfire in the summer of 1910. He describes the politics and passion behind the nation's conservation movement and ascribes much credit to the huge wildfire for fanning the flame, so to speak. Much of the book recounted the terrible days and nights the rangers and firefighters spent trying to put out the flames. Many died and many more were severely injured by the flames, smoke, and falling trees.  Another great read about a little known event that had a big impact. 

Breathers

Breathers: a zombie's lament by SG Browne is a bit of a horror story, but mostly a romantic comedy. It's about Andy, a middle aged zombie who reanimated after a grisly car accident. His wife died and his daughter was sent to live with her aunt. He wandered back home and now lives in his parent's wine cellar.
Being a zombie is a bit shameful for all involved. Andy can't speak because of his accident so he limps around town with a wipeboard over his neck. More often than not, he comes home covered in food and garbage people have thrown at him.
His parents are ashamed of him and hide him away when friends come to visit. Andy really only leaves the house to go to his support group meetings where you meet an interesting cast of characters, some who meet their untimely demise when breathers (aka living people) beat them and pull off their limbs. Rita, a suicide victim with stitches over her neck and wrists, soon becomes Andy's love interest though he struggles with his feelings because he still misses his wife.
Ultimately, this a funny and touching story about what it's like to be an outsider.
Check out "Andy's blog" here.

The Accidental Time Machine

The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman

Matt Fuller is your average guy, a bit on the lazy side, stuck in a dead end job as a lab assistant at MIT. He is building a calibrator when it suddenly disappears and then reappears a second later. He experiments with the machine and realizes that he has built a time machine. This particular time machine only goes forward in time and the interval it travels into the future increases by 12 each time.

If Matt is touching the time machine, he also travels with it. With nothing going in his life, he decides to travel. The first few times, he only travels a little bit, but he keeps ending up situations where his only escape is to jump forward again. Haldeman offers a unique perspective on the world in each of the futures presented. When he meets and falls for a young woman, he must decide what is best for the two of them and what kind of future world he wants to live in.

This book is a fun and fast sci fi read. It will appeal to sci fi fans as well as your average fiction reader. Nothing is too far "out there" or fantastical for the average readers' taste.