The Time Traveler's Wife

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. Henry DeTamble is a librarian with "Chrono Displacement" disorder. At random times he suddenly disappears and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. From his point of view, he first met his wife Clare when he was 28 and she was 20. She had known him her whole life. The book alternates from Henry's point of view to Clare's. Publisher's Weekly described it as an "intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study, and a touching love story".

I thought it was fantastic! The characters had a lot of depth and the story was believable, even with the time travel. It was funny, touching, and even tragic. I recommend it! 

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe is a truly amazing novella, a haunting and astonishing story. The characters range from odd to freakish, but the author makes them come alive and their motivations ring true. Loneliness is the main theme here, as it is in much of Carson McCullers' work. So it's sad tale, but well worth reading. Beautiful sentences, a sad and lovely voice.

This book also contains some very fine short stories, including her first, published at age 17, about a young girl in the moment of realizing she will not become a great pianist. I understand that story is somewhat autobiographical., and to that I say, Ms. McCullers, you may not have become a virtuouso pianist, but you are a virtuoso storyteller.

The Book Thief

By far my favorite book this year. The narrator, Death, is among the most fascinating I've ever read. He is grimly witty, reluctantly compassionate, and, in his own words, "haunted by humans." He marvels that "the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant."

It's a book about words, their power to create and destroy, and humans, their stunning cruelty and kindness. But it weaves together so many other themes and motifs that I had to list them in the front pages so I wouldn't forget them all. Zusak writes with language so potent I found myself marking passages on nearly all of its 550 pages. Add to that endearingly human characters--sometimes cruel, but so often breath-takingly kind--and a page-turning plot, and you've got a book you really shouldn't miss.

The Shadow of the Wind

The Shadow of the Wind is kind of a DaVinci Code for book lovers. It has all the mystery, suspense and intrigue, but instead of being about art and conspiracy theories, it's about a kid named Daniel who finds a book – The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julián Carax – which he loves. But when he tries to find the author's other works, he discovers that someone has been mysteriously tracking and destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. Daniel's investigation leads him to discover a tragic web of murder, revenge and doomed love.

Overall it's a pretty good book I guess. One of the aspects I found most interesting – and most cheesy – is that it's a very gothic novel. You don't see too many of those nowawadays what with the 19th century being well in the past, but this book has all the elements – melodrama, horror, danger, dark/decaying settings, terrible secrets, tragic figures, heroes and villains, etc. Sometimes the writing is a little clunky, and I don't know if the author or the translator is to blame for that, but I found I could mostly overlook the clunkiness because of the grippingness of the story. It was pretty engrossing. I'd recommend this if you feel like reading a kind of middle-brow thriller, because as thrillers go it's a fairly literate one – very readable, too.

Me Again

I slacked off on my other books, so now I'll just have to do a three in one. Since I last posted, I've read The Power of One, A Room with a View, and the Bell Jar.

The Power of One was not what I expected at all. I expected it to actually be about apartheid or WWII and instead it was only about the kid. And I found it wasn't emotional at all. Mich said it was one of the only movies she's cried in, but I wasn't even close to tearing up. It was a pretty good story about, well, the power of one, but the end where he beats the crap out of his childhood bully kind of ruined it, I thought. So, not an A+ from me. Not that I didn't enjoy it, it was a pretty good read, but definitely not my fave.

A Room with a View was pretty great. At first it was boring, had long descriptive paragraphs that I didn't understand, and action that was vague so I felt like I was only getting the gist of the story. And now I feel like I'm hating on this book... But after the first bit of the book, I really enjoyed it and it was a lovely romance. Very cute!

I freaking loved the Bell Jar. When I got that at Christmas, I remember Went and Cris saying they loved it as well. It was intense and so well written! It was surprising how subtle it was at first, and then bam. But also, it didn't seem like she was insane, only really depressed. But I liked it mucho, I couldn't put it down!

So, there's a few little blips for ya! Love ya lots!