Two Books From Chicago

I had a decent five mile run this morning on the treadmill. I am trying to get back to the same speed I was doing these five miles runs in September. This morning I did it in 44:41 which is more than a minute slower than I was going, but fast than I have gone in a few months. I plan to do 7 miles tomorrow and 5 miles on Thursday. I noticed today that my gym is not open until 8 AM on Thursday, which means that I will have to run at lunch. I have not run well the last few times that I have run at lunch. However, I realize that I am behind on my marathon training and have little margin for unsuccessful runs.

Audacity of Hope

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Audacity_of_Hope

I enjoyed Barack Obama's first book, Dreams of My Father quite a bit when I read it about a year ago. He is a good writer and was interesting reading about him as a regular person struggling to find his identity. Obama wrote Dreams of My Father before his political career started so there is not the political calculation in what he writes as you would expect from a politician.

I read Audacity of Hope over the summer. The book is essentially a documentation of Obama's political believes in preparation for his campaign as President. I read this book because I am a fan of Obama and I enjoyed Dreams of My Father. In the past, I have read books about political campaigns because the strategy of campaigns interest me but I have never read a book for pleasure about a politician's beliefs.

When I read a book it usually falls into two categories. A book that really enjoy I look forward to reading and make time outside of my commute to read it. Other books become like school projects ,where I read for the sake of finishing the book rather than for the enjoyment. I found Audacity of Hope to be more finishing for the sake of finishing than for enjoyment. While I know the subject matter is important and I have my beliefs, I simply am not intellectual enough to find reading a book about politicial beliefs, changes or proposals to be enjoyable. I would have found the book more enjoyable if there were more antedates rather than facts. There were some stories but rather than going on and on about why public health care is necessary, I would rather hear stories about real life people who would benefit.

Without getting political, I will say that I don't understand people who say that Obama is more liberal that they were led to believe. I think his decisions in his first year of office were consistent with the political beliefs that he wrote about in Audacity of Hope.

Overall, this type of book is not a book I would normally read and after reading it, I do not foresee myself reading a political book like this for pleasure again. However, it does give a important incite into how the President thinks. I give Audacity of Hope a C.

The Time Traveler's Wife

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Traveler's_Wife

This is another book that I read that is more geared to females. It has been made into a movie, but I have not seen it. The story is kind of an adult fairy tale by Audrey Niffenberger. This is her first book. Henry time travels throughout his life. He cannot control when or where he time travels. Henry also time travels throughout the life of his wife, Claire, who does not time travel. Henry will suddenly find himself in a different time and location. He arrives without any clothes and has to scramble to stay out of trouble and not bring attention to himself.

Understanding the chronology of this book is like a puzzle. At the beginning of each chapter we are told the date and age of both Henry and Claire. I found myself referring back to this constantly. I considered listening to a recording of this book, but I am glad I did not because it would have been very hard to follow without the ability to go back and review the dates and age of Henry and Claire.

The time travel element is this story is similiar to the time travel in season five of Lost. What happens, happens and cannot be changed. For example, Henry repeatly goes back in time to when he was a kid and his mother dies in a car accident, but he is powerless to stop her. I first heard about The Time Travelers Wife when reading about Lost and that how time travel is explained in this book, helps to explain how time travel work on Lost as well. I am not a big science ficton person so I was glad that the book is more about the relationship between Claire and Henry then about the time travel.

The love story between Claire and Henry was interesting because in some aspects it was normal and in other ways it was unique. They really did not fall in love. An older Henry starting time traveling to Claire's house when we was a little girl. They have a place where he goes and she uses some of her father's clothes for Henry. The adult Henry's relationship with the young girl that he will eventually marry is creepy but the author does the best she can to make it above the board. As Claire gets older, she realizes that Henry is her future husband. The adult Henry does not visit Claire after she is 18 and the couple do not see each other until three year later when they have a chance meeting with the real time Henry. Claire then explains who she is is and that they will get married. Thus, they don't fall in love like regular as much as they are told that they will fall in love.

The book is a fantasy, but Niffenberger does a good job with the timetables and explanations. Obviously there is quite a bit of storytelling freedom for a book like this. For example, they tell certain people about Henry's time traveling but not Claire's family and Henry does not want to tell anyone about the future, but is willing to use his knoweldge to make bets when he know the outcome to make a comfortable amount of money, but not millions. However, the characters are likable and the story works.

I give The Time Travelers Wife a B.