Do You Wanna Go Back in Time?

If you’ve seen Mr. Cohen in his red puffy vest today, you know what’s special about today. If you haven’t seen him, and you’ve had no contact with social media…today is the day Marty McFly went “back to the future.”

So, in honor of Marty and Doc, and Jaws 19 I thought I’d pull a little literary tie travel for today’s book.

I just finally got around to reading Around the World in 80 Days this summer, when I needed a book over 100 years old for my Summer Reading Bingo (and it was a free audio download from Sync). This is the ultimate bar bet story. While out one night with some acquaintances, Mr. Phileas Fogg declares that given the state of travel, one could circumnavigate the globe in a mere 80 days. Now, Mr. Fogg is rather set in his ways and his trip does not take actually visiting places into account. He’s going to go from trail to steamer, to train, without bothering to see the sights. The men wager twenty thousand pounds (remember, this was written in 1873, so that’s a lot of money). Mr. Fogg sets off that night, confident in his calculations.

The trip starts out just fine, but it wouldn’t be a book that’s lasted 142 years if Mr. Fogg didn’t encounter some difficulties: bad weather, a woman in distress, cultural misunderstandings, and a cop who is convinced Fogg fled London after robbing a bank.

And believe it or not, there is an element of time travel in the story…but if you want to know what that is, you’ll have to read it for yourself. I have a copy in the library. Or, if you like to read electronically, you can download a copy from Project Gutenberg.

New Book Wednesday – Classic Edition

So today’s book is really a classic book, written in 1979, but it’s new to our library.

Kindred by Octavia E. Butler is a fantastic story. Dana is a Black woman moving into a new home with her husband Kevin, a white man. Suddenly, she is transported from 1976 Los Angeles to 1815 Maryland, where she saves a young boy named Rufus from drowning and then returns to her own time. What passes as a few minutes for Dana is just a few seconds for Kevin. A short time later, she finds herself at Rufus’s side again. This time she stays longer and is gone longer. Again and again, she finds herself pulled to Rufus whenever he is in trouble. Each time her stay is longer and more dangerous. She needs to figure out what her connection is to this boy and how prevent him from pulling her back again.

There’s a little Slaughterhouse Five vibe here in that it reminded me of Billy Pilgrim’s issue of coming “unstuck in time.”

This book had been on my “to read” list for a long, long time. I finally got around to reading it just last year and I loved it. Mrs. Selinsky has said that Butler is one of her favorite science fiction writers. I’ll definitely be looking for more books by her.