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.

MWF SEEKING BFF by RACHEL BERTSCHE

MWF Seeking BFF: My Yearlong Search for a New BFF is about Rachel's search for a new best friend. She had many friends when she lived in New York, friends she had known for years. But as many people do, she graduated from college and followed her heart to be with her future husband. Living in Chicago, she had many casual friends, but no one she knew as well as she should like. No friends who knew exactly what she was thinking, or who would drop everything for her. Rachel researched a lot about friendships and their importance in life. She throws in these tidbits as she describes how she came to decide that she would go on 52 'friend dates' in an effort to find a new best friend.

How does she find friends to 'date?' Many of them were acquaintances she had met around town, some were friends of friends, others were blind dates. It really is not as easy as it was back in our school years. Some dates went better than others. She judged potential friends based on their common interests and if the conversation ever turned to television and movies. Some dates were awkward as the conversations went no where, others went well, but the friend was just too busy to truly connect.

I found this to be an interesting read because I feel like I can relate to the author. I'm at the same age and although I did not move, most of my friends moved away. I wouldn't even know where to begin to try looking for a new BFF. I'm certainly not brave enough to try what she did, but I did learn ways to meet people that don't seem weird or creepy. Overall it was entertaining and I learned a lot about the importance of friendships and overall well-being.

Oval Office Oddities

Oval Office Oddities: An Irreverent Collection of Presidential Facts, Follies, and Foibles
by Bill Fawcett

For a light, fun, and educational read, check out Oval Office Oddities. It tells interesting and funny stories about our nation's Presidents. The chapters are divided by topic such as Presidential firsts, Presidential peculiarities, and Presidents as people. You'll find out what interesting hobbies Presidents had, as well as who was having extramarital affairs, and what kind of pets they had. (Calvin Coolidge had a pet raccoon named Rebecca) This book is a great conversation starter and good for history fans who don't have much time for a long historical narrative.

Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey: The River of Doubt

Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey: The River of Doubt by Candice Millard
I recently finished another great book about Theodore Roosevelt, which concentrates solely on the months he spent exploring the uncharted Rio Duvida which flows wildly through the rainforests of South America. The journey was a long and treacherous one, as described by Roosevelt-

"We have had a hard and somewhat dangerous but very successful trip. No less than six weeks were spent... forcing our way down through what seemed a literally endless succession of rapids and cataracts. For forty-eight days we saw no human being. In passing these rapids we lost five of the seven canoes... One of our best men lost his life in the rapids."

The story begins after Roosevelt's defeat as a Progressive Party candidate in 1912. To get away from it all, he plans another grand adventure in South America. Taking over a month to travel through the rainforest to the mouth of the Rio Duvida, Roosevelt and his son Kermit began to realize they were not prepared for the journey. Numerous members of the party were sent home and heavy supplies were abandoned before they even began their descent. No non-native had ever traversed the river, so Brazilian army commander Rondon lead the trip and vowed to survey and record every inch of the river.

The trip began slowly as Rondon stopped numerous times to measure the river's curves. As they began to run into dangerous rapids, the men had to dock their boats wade through the piranha infested waters and carve a path through the rainforest filled with natives so primitive, they had not yet even conceived of boats. The rapids almost took the life of Roosevelt's son Kermit, and soon after did take the life of one of the paid workers on the journey. Things got even worse as the natives attacked the party's dog and Roosevelt became deathly ill. At one point he begged the party to go on without him, but his son refused to let him die alone in the rainforest.

The author does a fantastic job describing the rainforest as it was in 1913-14, very primitive and untouched by humans. She also gives great background on each of the main players in the story- Rondon, Cherrie- a naturalist sent to collect bird specimens, and the two Roosevelts. This journey down the uncharted waters of the dangerous Rio Duvida (now the Rio Roosevelt) isn't known by many, but is a fantastic tale for fans history, social studies, and geography.

The Roosevelt River today

LOOK ME IN THE EYE: MY LIFE WITH ASPERGER'S

Look Me in the Eye: My Life with Asperger's is a memoir written by John Elder Robison, brother of Augusten Burroughs- the author of Running with Scissors.
Augusten encountered many fans who thanked him for mentioning Asperger's in Running with Scissors and also writing an essay on John in his book Magical Thinking. Instead of writing a whole book about his brother, he convinced John to write it himself. Though I enjoyed RWS, some of the crazier events disturbed me. Robison's memoir is much tamer, yet still entertaining and humorous.

The memoir is less about Asperger's and more about John's take on his crazy family. As a young boy, he feared his alcoholic father and became increasingly disconnected to his mentally ill mother. He dropped out of school and left home at 17. Because of his Asperger's he was good at working with machines and ended up as a guitar technician for the band KISS. However, being around people was not comfortable for him, so he left and continued to struggle to find a career that would suit him. Interspersed with his stories from these various positions are chapters that describe Asperger's and how it has affected his relationships and career choices. These chapters give great understanding to people unfamiliar with Asperger's and Autism.

Look Me in the Eye is a must read for all fans of Augusten Burroughs works. Fans of memoirs will enjoy his tales of growing up in a dysfunctional family and how that lead to him being on the road with KISS. Those looking for understanding of Asperger's will want to skim the book and read the asperger's-focused chapters.


For more on Asperger's-
The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome by Jessica Kingsley
Online Asperger Syndrome Information & Support

Why is My Mother Getting a Tattoo

Well I am back from vacation and was able to finish three books while I was gone.
The first is a collection of true stories by Jancee Dunn. Jancee has written two books, Don't You Forget About Me, a novel about a woman who moves back in with her parents during her divorce, and But Enough About Me, a memoir of her years working at Rolling Stone. This one, Why is My Mother Getting a Tattoo? and other questions I wish I never had to ask, is about her family.

Every family has their funny and quirky attributes, and her family is no different. This is a purely funny and happy book. No real sad sob stories because she admittedly had a very happy childhood. The stories are about the mundane silly things in her life, such as the weird articles her father sends her in the mail, arguments over what kind of pies to eat at Thanksgiving, and her husband's aversion to breakfast buffets and brands of jeans with long names.

This is a very quick read, 205 pages total, each story has less than 20 pages. They'll make you laugh and remind you of the funny things that occur within your family.

Born to Run

Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall

Someone else actually checked this book out for me, because they know I am a runner. I decided to give it a shot and I could not put the book down! It is a fascinating story about a tribe in Mexico called the Tarahumara. They run miles and miles for recreation and never seem to tire or get injured.

It all began when the author, Christopher McDougall, began searching for a solution for his foot injuries. His doctors always told him it was inevitable, he was too big to run, and running was too stressful on our joints. But then he learned about the Tarahumara and other "barefoot runners" and ultramarathoners who could run over a hundred miles at one time and not get hurt. He set out to discover their secrets.
In the book he talks to many doctors, scientists, and runners who discuss how shoes have basically ruined our natural stride and cause many of the foot and knee problems we have today. These problems never existed when everyone went barefoot.

The most fascinating part of the book is learning about the Tarahumara, how they live, work, and play, and what they eat. The author also participated in, and describes a 50 miles race through Tarahumara country, competing with the tribe and famous ultramarathoners from the U.S.

This is a must read for all runners !! I learned a lot about how I can improve my running and nutrition. Even those who don't run will be fascinated by the science and history of human physiology and the unique Tarahumara.