Ursula Maki is two years old, blond, and adorable in both physical appearance and personality. Her parents, Annie and Justin, love her to pieces, and the three make up an exceptionally happy family. Then, one day, the three go on a picnic somewhere in the woods of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and Ursula accidently falls down a disused mine shaft. Just like that, she is gone.

Of course, this sends both Annie and Justin into a frenzy. Annie stays by the mine shaft, praying and worrying, while Justin frantically goes off in search of help. As the story goes on, more and more people become connected to Ursula. Either they are part of the group helping to get her out of the mine shaft, or they are reporting about it, or they are watching it all unfold on their television screen.

In between the chapters that describe Ursula’s plight, are chapters that describe Ursula’s ancestry. We learn why Annie needs a cane to walk, why Justin plays harmonica, why Ursula hasn’t met all her grandparents. We learn just how important Ursula is to everyone in her family, and why. In addition to being wonderful, she is the last of the line.

Hill goes even further back, detailing the lives of Ursula’s ancestors. Justin has an ancestor from the third century B.C., in China, who was an alchemist. Annie has an ancestor who was the abandoned playmate of a Swedish Queen in the seventeenth century. There are many more for the reader to meet. One of Ursula’s ancestors died in a mine shaft. Will Ursula have the same fate?

This story emphasizes how we all are connected to each other. Ancestors from hundreds of years ago who a person never even knows the existence of still directly affect a person’s life. Perhaps that is where you got your special eye color, or the shape of your nose? Personality traits of Ursula’s ancestors show up in Annie, and in Justin, and also in Ursula. In many ways, a person’s ancestors are still alive, still influencing events, still coloring how people see the world.

Readers who enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger, will love this book. (Read my review of The Time Traveler’s Wife here.) Both jump around in time, but not in exactly the same way. Both writers do a great job of describing the scenes for the reader. It’s like you can see it all in front of you as you read. Readers who, like me, find stories about ancestors to be interesting will also enjoy this book.

Take a peek inside the head of Brad Listi, author of Attention. Deficit. Disorder. (Read my review of it here.) This is What My Head Sounds Like is a collection of the blogs that Listi wrote between August of 2005 and December 25 of 2006. (Check out the A.D.D. blog here.) The time span is significant because this is what Listi was writing when his first book came out. This is when the A.D.D. blog got big. As a long time reader of the A.D.D. blog, I was really excited to read this collection. The fact that I have read all of these blogs before, the first time they were on the internet, didn’t diminish the wonder, joy, and sometimes even disgust that Listi’s writing brings (depending on the topic). All good things. If you are brand new to the A.D.D. blog, this book will give you a good idea of what to expect in Listi’s future blogs. And then you can tune in and read them “live” all week long, like the rest of the Listi Fans.

What are the blogs about? A whole lot of different things, actually. Some touch on political candidates and issues, other blogs cover celebrity news. Many blogs point out the stranger news stories found on the internet. Some of the blogs touch on Listi’s day to day life, (or on scenes from his childhood), and the candid observations about these events he shares with all of us. All blogs are what was inside Listi’s head when he started writing the blog. It is what he was thinking about. This collection also gives the reader something of a “time capsule” sort of feeling, because the news (and sports) related stories really did happen. No matter who you are, you likely saw or read about the news article Listi is commenting on, which makes this book of blogs something everyone can relate to. It even has a happy ending!

My favorite blogs in this collection are the “Hyper Caffeinated Self Interviews”. I think there are seven of them in the book. No other author does self interviews as well as Brad Listi! What does a “Hyper Caffeinated Self Interview” look like?

Brad Listi was kind enough to do an interview with… himself… for Book Sandwich.

Hi.

Hi.

What is this?

What do you mean “What is this”?

I mean what are you doing?

I’m doing a hyper-caffeinated self-interview for Jen.

Why?

Because she asked me to. She’s reviewing a book of mine called ‘This is What My Head Sounds Like,’ and she thought it might be interesting if I interviewed myself in conjunction with the review.

Oh.

Yeah.

So what do you have to say about yourself?

I’m sitting at my desk, staring at a flashing cursor.

And what do you have to say about “This is What My Head Sounds Like”?

TIWMHSL is a compendium of things I published online during 2005-2006 at The A. D. D. Blog. It functions as a humor book, a memoir, a nonfiction non sequitur, a journal, a scrapbook, and a Farmer’s Alamanac. It is the Swiss Army knife of books, and it’s perfect for reading in the bathroom.

Perfect for reading in the bathroom?

It performs wonderfully as a nice, gentle laxative.

Gross.

Sorry.

Are you really sorry?

No.

Why did you publish this book?

Because readers kept asking for it. They wanted a “Best of the Blog” book, essentially. So I figured, give the kids what they want. Make them happy. Feed the beast.

Do you feel that the beast will now be sated?

The beast is never sated.

The beast.

The Beast.

Do you remember that roller coaster named The Beast at King’s Island?

Yeah. The largest all-wood roller coaster in the world.

It kinda sucked.

Yeah. It kinda did. I preferred The Vortex.

The Vortex.

Yeah.

What’s a vortex?

It’s a whirlpool or a whirling motion or a whirling mass. Essentially it involves whirling.

Did The Vortex whirl? (The roller coaster?)

Yes, it did indeed whirl. It whirled a great deal.

Do you feel that This is What My Head Sounds Like is, perhaps, the literary equivalent of a vortex?

Indeed I do. The book is a whirling mass. And if you’re not careful it could suck you in.

Suck you in.

Yes. Suck you in.

Do you believe that readers are looking to get sucked in?

Yes. Anyone who reads a book is hoping, on some level, to get sucked in. Getting sucked in is kind of the whole point.

Maybe you should’ve titled the book This Book Will Suck You In.

Maybe I should have.

Maybe when people ask what you do for a living, you should look them dead in the eye and say, “I suck people in for a living.”

Maybe I should call my website suckyouin. com.

Maybe you should.

Maybe I should.

I like getting sucked in.

Me too.