The Time Machine and Other Stories

I got this book due to the author. It is written by H.G. Wells, of War of the Worlds fame. The format was not what I had expected. It has a good sized story - The Time Machine. Then there are a lot of other short stories. I will only comment on The Time Machine.

There is some professor like dude. He invents a time machine. He returns to the present in bad shape. After he gets ahold of himself, he tells his story. He traveled far into the future. Initially he met these aimless little creatures. They slept at night and feared the dark. His time machine gets stolen.

He saves one of these little creates from drowning. She then follows him around. At night, the professor discovers that some monkey like beings come out from the depths underground. He figures these are the beings of industry. As the aimless creatures do not seem to do any work.

The professor goes down into a shaft. The monkey creatures attack him. They are susceptible to light. And he has some matches. He is able to climb back up to the surface. At night, they pursue him out into a forest. He eventually is able to survive a battle with them. He cracks open some statues and finds where the monkeys hide his time machine.

People in the present are not sure whether to believe him or not.

House of the Red Fish

Tomi live in Hawaii during the WW2 bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan. He lives with his dad, mom, little sister, and grandfather. Once America becomes suspicious of any Japanese, things go bad in Tomi's world. His father is shot and failed. His father's work partner is killed. His grandfather is jailed. They lose their house.

To make due, Tomi's mom works for a wealthy man, cleaning the house. Tomi, his mom, and little sister live in a guest house on his mom's employer's property. Tomi and all other Japanese is chased by a young vigilante group. Tomi's dad's fishing boat is sunk based on suspicious of it being used to assist the enemy.

Tomi has a white friend Billy. Their family is not prejudice against Japanese. Together they make plans and enlist help to lift his dad's sunken boat. Tomi's grandfather has a stroke, and is let out of jail under care of Billy's mom, who happens to be a nurse who works at the hospital.

Tomi's dad gets a girlfriend who does tattoos for $15 each. Tomi plans to use air in tire tubes to float the boat up from the water. He also dives down with friends to pull heavy pieces off the boat. Eventually he gets the grand idea to use two huge pontoons to help lift the boat.

The son of Tomi's mom's employer is part of the vigilante group. He continues to come after Tomi. He steals Tomi's prized family sword, which Tomi had hidden. When this evil son brings some thugs to stop the boat operation, they encounter people they know on Tomi's team. Eventually Tomi calls out the bully, and beats him on a 1-vs-1 fight. The thugs back down.

Some MPs come. Tomi provides a cover story that his dad's boat sunk. And he is trying to raise it back up. Another aside is that they find the key to the truck of Tomi's dad's partner who was killed. They sell the truck for cash and give the money to his widow.

Jacob Have I Loved

Sara Louise, nicknamed Wheezie, lives on an island with her mom, dad, grandma, and twin sister. Her dad is a fisherman of sorts. He works a lot, going out to get crabs and other seafood. Louise would like to accompany him. But they don't let females on the island do that type of work. Instead, she uses a small boat with her friend Call. They also go out searching for seafood to sell. She gives all her proceeds to her parents.

Louise's sister Caroline is the golden child. She is pretty and sings very well. Initially Louise and Call try to investigate whether a captain who recently returned to the island is a spy. They befriend the man. Caroline also joins them when they visit the captain. The captain somehow cajoles Louise and Call to help repair his house. Louise tries to return a stray cat to Miss Trudy, who she finds unresponsive. Trudy is sent to the mainland for medical help. The captain, Louise, and Call then try to clean up Trudy's house.

Call is a loner. He is also fat. As we are in a war, he heads off and becomes a man at war. Meanwhile, Trudy and the captain marry. However Trudy is sick and dies. She leaves a considerable amount of wealth to the captain. The captain then uses his money to fund Caroline's musical schooling abroad. When Call returns from the war, he has become a strapping man. He asks Caroline to marry him. This infuriates Louise. Just another case of where Caroline gets everything.

When the men were away for war, Caroline dropped out of school and was able to help her father with his seafood business. Eventually she complains to the captain and her mom how unfair life is for her. The captain encourages Louise to go live her dreams. That includes leaving the island to try to go to med school. In that time, women generally did not become doctors. So she became a nurse instead. She achieves another part of her dream by moving aboard to the mountains.

Louise meets Joseph in the mountains. He is surprised about her background, and wonders why she would come out to nowhere and live there. They eventually marry and have kids. 

A Wind in the Door

This book is the direct sequel to A Wrinkle in Time. Main character is Meg. Her little brother is Charles Wallace. He is bullied badly at school for being smart and weird. Their parents are doctors Murray. They meet Progo the Cherubim who Meg must pass a test with. Mr. Jenkins has some clones. Meg needs to discern the true principal, love him, and name him.

We also meet Blajeny the teacher. He is the one who set out the tests. He does not seem to be a main character. The enemy the Echthoi want to X everyone I think that means murder. Meg meets Sporos the faradolae. She need to convince him to join them in healing Charles and fighting the Echthoi. 

There are a number of other characters such as Calvin, who is Meg's boyfriend. There is also Louise the snake, he we find out is also a teacher. In the end, Progo gets X'd by the bad guys. But Charles is saved. The majority of the story was Meg learning to kythe (communicate telepathically) with assorted people. There were also other faradolae to convince and rally. 

Then Again, Maybe I Won't

Tony is 12 years old. He lives in Jersey with his mom, dad, grandmother, brother, and sister in law. Grandma cannot speak. But she cooks all meals. Tony's brother gets his wife pregnant. The family is worried about money. Tony's dad invents some electrical device. He sells it to some big wig, then gets hired to head up the plant that will manufacture them. They get rich due to this arrangement.

Tony and his immediate family move to Long Island. His brother and sister in law also move to New York. They now have a nice house. They hire a maid who takes over cooking, to grandma's dismay. There is a rich kid who lives next door. He is a thief. It causes Tony pain when the kid steals from stores. Lisa also lives next door. She is the big sister. Tony spies on her at night in her bedroom.

There is a tall skinny girl nicknamed Corky at school that has the hots for Tony. But he thinks he is in love with Lisa. Eventually the boy next door gets caught stealing by store security. They have him on tape. By then, Tony has had sessions with a shrink who helps him cope with troubling situations. Two years later, the thief kid is sent away to a military boarding school. And Tony think about warming up to Corky, seemingly giving up on his dreams about Lisa.

This book is by Judy Blume. It was published back in 1971. I must have read it before. I only recognized a scene when Tony and his pals hide a tip for a diner waitress in a milk jugs. The waitress screams at them that the tip pays for her loaf of bread. They stop sitting at her tables in the diner.

Damned, Volume 1, Three Days Dead

This is a graphic novel. Eddie is a man who worked for a demon. Apparently he was dead for three days. But he awoke. He was summoned by his demon boss. The boss and another clan were trying to broker a peace deal. The mediator went missing. The boss sent Eddie to investigate.

Eddie is searching for his ex-girlfriend's brother, who is in hiding. Eddie runs into assorted members of the gangs. He eventually finds out that there is something going down bigger than some gang truce. A book has been found that has an accounting of deals humans made with demons. And it lists demon names. Those names can be used to obtain power over those demons.

Eddie confronts the mastermind behind trying to translate the demon names from the books. He has a gun to this human's head. But then his ex-girlfriend shoots Eddie from behind. Luckily Eddie has the power to come back from the dead. The mastermind is apprehended. Eddie takes back the book. His demon boss gives Eddie a club to run. Eddie hands the book over to his boss.

Eddie creates a new rule for the club. No demons. During the ruckus he learns his ex-girlfriend also made a deal with the devil. He does not use his new found luck and power to save her.

Be a Work in Progress

This is a book by WWE wrestling star John Cena. It is actually a collection of quotes. These seem to be from his Twitter. Here are some example sayings:

• Do things for the reward of doing them
• Crisis can breed opportunity
• Be who you say you are