The Time Machine by H. G. Wells

(read on iPhone)

This is a classic, but I didn't really find it very interesting. I think movies and special effects have ruined my imagination for time travel. Perhaps I was reading it like a script for a movie. The time frames he used were really ambitious. I think he was saying man's future is bleak. But I might be quite mistaken. When the book ended, I felt like perhaps the return dial was slightly off and my mind was a few microseconds out of sync with the world. I feel better now.

The Sherlockian by Graham Moore

(read aloud from iPad)

This is a clever, fun read that will delight and at times distress Sherlock lovers of all levels of devotion. Doyle is finished with Holmes, but Holmes is not finished with him, or is it vice-versa? The book is delightfully confusing as it rocks between centuries and two unfolding investigations with murders to be explained and murderers caught. Always the brooding presence of Holmes looms large and his obsessive fans delight and infuriate. With Bram Stoker surprisingly (to me) in a major starring role. Elementary, indeed.

Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin

(read on iPhone!)

This is a wonderful encouraging book full of unexcelled explanation of doctrine and brilliant rebuttal of spiritual error. It uses the decalogue and the Apostles' Creed and copious amounts of scripture to argue for the true faith. He relies a great deal on Augustine though occasionally disagrees with him or the way his ideas have sometimes been distorted, ill-used, or misunderstood. A long work, it at times diverts into diatribes against the papacy. I found Calvin more charitable and magnanimous than I had been led to expect. There are great treasures to be found in these four volumes. As you might expect, I found only the section on baptism to be lacking in reason and consistency. The remainder is gold!

Decision Points by George W. Bush

Like the author, this book is free of pretense, careful, serious, committed and spare. It is presidential in tone and will read well 75 years from now. Though a husband and father and a son and brother, for eight years he was president every day. September 11 changed every day that followed. Readers who are fair-minded will note a lack of defensiveness and many admissions of some doubts about process, but seldom any doubts about goals or the goals of what he sees as America's enemies.

A Week at the Airport by Alain de Botton

Breezy and fascinating, this small book takes an experience everyone has and looks at it from all angles and behind all the doors and in the nooks and crannies. A delightfully-written cappuccino of an essay.

Shop Class as Soul Craft by Matthew B. Crawford

This book is about the importance of making things, of touching and crafting and thinking and figuring out how to fix something. Much of our lives is mindless, repetitious and unfulfilling. Much of what we consider success is really empty. The author went from managing a think tank to fixing vintage motorcycles and makes a case for the latter being fulfilling and enriching. He makes a good point very well but seems to make the same argument over and over in the book.

Better by Atul Gawande

Well-written essays about medical quality and safety. The discussion of the care of cystic fibrosis is fascinating and troubling. It seems the better get even better, the mediocre stay there. It seems one must be obsessive about improving.