Kindred by Octavia Butler

My book group book for the last few weeks was Kindred. Kindred is about a 26 year old African American woman named Dana who time travels to the past to save a young boy named Rufus. Over time she travels back as Rufus gets older, but she is still 26. Rufus lives in the 1800s, in a time of slavery, and Dana lives in 1976. Kindred is sad and pretty graphic in some parts, but the plot and the writing are all super poetic and good. I would definitely recommend Kindred if you are interested in books about slavery, but I wouldn't describe this book as a time travel themed book.

Slice of Life 6: The Camera

"Mom, can I change these batteries?" I ask. I am holding a white video camera. I don't know if it will work for my Short Story Film, and I don't know what videos I will find on it.
"Sure," she replies absentmindedly. I walk into the kitchen and grab the plastic container filled with batteries of all shapes and sizes.
After fixing the camera, I press the small power button and wait. To my surprise, the screen flickers on. I press all of the buttons, and figure out after some effort how to film a video. I then click the arrow button, which directs me to a short video. I press play, not really caring what I find.
In the video, I am only about 5 years old. There is a lot of yelling, and I make out the words "...noah's birthday...birthday cake...three years old!" Noah's face appears on the screen. Noah is my younger brother, and in the video he has two missing teeth. It is adorable!
I scroll through video after video. Most of them are just minutes of blackness, videos taken by accident, but a rare few actually seem important. I remember taking these videos with my 3 year old brother. I can barely believe that this camera actually hasn't been turned on in almost 5 years, according to the small date at the top of the most recent video. I wonder if, in 5 years, I will see these  videos again.

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Thirteen Reasons Why is a fiction novel about a boy named Clay who receives tapes shortly after a girl he had wanted to date named Hannah Baker committed suicide. Thirteen Reasons Why isn't a sad or depressing book, but it is emotional, and the topic of suicide is prominent. My favorite character was Hannah, because simply through her talking in the tapes you get to know her character really well. Hannah tells 13 stories to 12 people explaining why they are the reasons that she killed herself. I thought that a lot of the stories were really intriguing, but there were some parts that were pretty boring. Overall, though, I would recommend Thirteen Reasons Why, but it has multiple mature topics.

Unfair Slice of Life

I think that every time I experience the "no fair" feeling, the feeling that something is wrong, and I should be receiving more care, or attention, or substance, it is only a matter of time before I realize how incredibly fair all of these things are. They are a few dollars, or minutes difference that we complain about, when other things in the world are unfair by millions of dollars, or hundreds of years. When I was littler, my Dad would tell me that his least favorite words in the world were "no fair" and that was because kids always complain about the little things. But no one, kids or adults, seems to really complain about the big things, the things that are unfair by miles, not steps. So I feel like I understand more now how little personal issues are, because there are so many bigger issues in this world.