(Image from Barnes & Noble)

A couple years ago, my husband and I attended RootsTech, a big annual genealogy conference held in Salt Lake City.  One of the featured speakers that year was A.J. Jacobs, a self-proclaimed "human guinea pig" who enjoys coming up with crazy projects, then writing books about them.  That year, he spoke about his interest in family history.  He had just finished a year-long quest to learn how to research his roots and hold the biggest reunion on record with his newfound relatives (which basically includes everyone in the world, since he discovered we're all cousins in some way or another).  At that time, he was writing about his experience in the book that would become It's All Relative.  Jacobs' presentation was so engaging that I knew I wanted to read all about the project.  Not surprisingly, the book, which came out earlier this year, is funny, upbeat, and enjoyable.  If you're looking for a step-by-step how-to manual on how to research your family history, this is not it (for that, I recommend checking out familysearch.org or hitting up your local LDS research center for free help).  It's All Relative is much more about entertainment than instruction.  

If this were a movie, it would be rated: