Chapter 34 - It's About Time

I am fascinated with time travel. I think it would be so cool to be able to go back in time and observe or interact with people in different times. Sometimes I think I would go back to the 1600's while the more rational part of me would hang out in either La Belle Epoque in Paris (late 1800's) or in 1920's Paris with all the wonderful writers and artists of that period. While I am aware of the diseases, wars, and social problems of those times (and I figure that my current immunities would help a lot), I also know how the story ended and, presumably I could get out of Dodge before any major difficulty occurred.

See, that would be the best part of time travel - you know what is going to happen. I'd like to think I wouldn't use my knowledge for personal gain (like buy Apple stock when it first was listed on the stock exchange) but rather just to reassure myself that everything would be okay eventually. I think every generation thinks the one before it had it better and/or easier. I also think that is because we know how it ended whereas right now, all bets are off.

Here are some of my favorite time travel books.

11/22/63 by Stephen King - There are only a few Stephen King books which I love because I really am not into his horror genre and this is one of them. Jake Epping has the opportunity to go back in time and prevent John F. Kennedy's murder. Can it be done? What would be the result? This is definitely a thriller to read if you too like the concept of time travel.

Timeline by Michael Crichton - Before his death, Crichton was the king of science fiction with books like The Andromeda Strain and Jurassic Park but this is definitely one of my favorites. A group of graduate archeology students travel through a time machine to rescue their professor in fourteenth-century France. The story goes back and forth between current time and the past and does a great job of showing the connection between the two. With themes of friendship and greed as well as mystery, it would be a good book club book.

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in 1910, she is born and dies before she can take her first breath. On that same night she is born to another family and starts on her unusual life. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in many ways, while history marches on. Can Ursula's infinite number of lives help her to save the world from catastrophe and, if so, will she?

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor - This series combines time travel, mystery, and humor in the over 14 books in the series. This is the first of the series and tells the story of Dr. Madeleine Maxwell who is recruited by the St Mary's Institute of Historical Research to travel back in time to observe, not change, history and to determine if the history books got it right. But of course, something always goes wrong especially with a renegade scientist loose in the past. This series may become an addiction!

And for the younger crowd -

Tom's Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce - This was a favorite book when I was a child and it was my first foray into the world of time travel. When Tom's brother gets sick he is shipped off to his aunt and uncle who live in the country. When Tom hears the grandfather clock in the hall strike thirteen, he slips out of bed and into the backyard where he encounters a beautiful garden and a lonely, young girl named Hattie. This book is a Carnegie prize winner, considered a classic of children's literature, and still in publication today.

Speaking of travel, time or otherwise, I am taking the next couple of weeks off to check off items on my life list. I will see you in October!

Do you like the concept of time travel? If so, what time period would you like to visit? Let me know!