The Time Traveler’s Wife

Time Travelers Wife“A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels involuntarily through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures the two lovers in an impossibly romantic trap, and it is Audrey Niffenegger’s cinematic storytelling that makes the novel’s unconventional chronology so vibrantly triumphant. An enchanting debut and a spellbinding tale of fate and belief in the bonds of love, The Time Traveler’s Wife is destined to captivate readers for years to come.”

The rules about Henry’s time traveling ability/disorder are laid down and adhered to within the book. It acts as a fantastical element which spices things up while creating complications for Henry and Clare. The story centers on their relationship and focuses on each character equally. It’s a gripping story that incorporates time travel extremely well. I wouldn’t consider this a science fiction novel in the traditional sense. It’s more of a fiction novel with the time travel element added for a bit of excitement.

This book does contain a lot of sex and drug use. Not enough to put me off the story or make me consider it a romance novel but enough that I would not recommend this to younger readers. They made a movie based on this book which I greatly enjoyed as well. They take most of the mature content out and focus on Henry’s condition and his relationship with Clare. It stars Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams. If you don’t like the mature content but are interested in the story, check out the movie.

Interested in this book? Look for it at your local library. If you’re affiliated with Lindenwood, you can request this book from the Lindenwood Library.

Good Omens

Good Omens“The world is going to end next Saturday, but there are a few problems–the Antichrist has been misplaced, the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse ride motorcycles, and the representatives from heaven and hell decide that they like the human race.”

Look no further if you enjoy a comical telling of the end of the world. The characters of Crowley (a demon) and Aziraphale (an angel) are incredibly fun and, though fundamentally at opposition, they make the business of influencing humans toward good and evil extremely entertaining. They have fun and you can’t help but have fun too. Yes, there are some absurd moments, but you must have a little absurdity to have a comical Armageddon. After all, they are discussing the ineffable.

This book is great, but I must admit I watched the television adaptation of this book and it was incredible. Neil Gaiman wrote the script and therefore it stayed extremely close to the source material while making necessary changes for the new medium. Many changes I thought were improvements. With a stellar cast and great production, the show is a joy to watch. It is the right amount of quirky and absurd. It was produced by Amazon and was released on Amazon Prime but has been released on other services. It is a six-part miniseries and I highly recommend it.

Interested in this book? Look for it at your local library. If you’re affiliated with Lindenwood, you can request this book from the Lindenwood Library.