Have you read this book? It’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. I finished it recently and enjoyed it. The blurb on the cover says it’s “a soaring celebration of the victory of love over time”. That’s a good short description. It’s a chronicle of a couple’s love against some very odd obstacles. Does love overcome all? Even for a man who time travels without any advance warning?

OK, it’s an unusual premise but it really works here. I recommend this book.

From Publisher’s Weekly:

This clever and inventive tale works on three levels: as an intriguing science fiction concept, a realistic character study and a touching love story. Henry De Tamble is a Chicago librarian with “Chrono Displacement” disorder; at random times, he suddenly disappears without warning and finds himself in the past or future, usually at a time or place of importance in his life. This leads to some wonderful paradoxes. From his point of view, he first met his wife, Clare, when he was 28 and she was 20. She ran up to him exclaiming that she’d known him all her life. He, however, had never seen her before. But when he reaches his 40s, already married to Clare, he suddenly finds himself time travelling to Clare’s childhood and meeting her as a 6-year-old. The book alternates between Henry and Clare’s points of view, and so does the narration.

I finished this book recently and really enjoyed it. The book is “Woody Allen on Woody Allen” and is subtitled “In Conversation with Stig Bjorkman”. It’s a thoughtful series of discussions between two very intelligent filmmakers about each of Woody’s movies (up through “Husbands and Wives”) in chronological order. There are no jokes, nothing personal, just a thorough, technical, insightful, and fascinating discussion of his films, and how and why they were made.

For a devoted fan, this book is a must. You will learn a lot about his creative process and the way he works with the other people in his films.

From Amazon.com:

Fans of Woody Allen have long waited to hear him tell us in his own words about his life, his tastes, and his films, but until recently he has been reluctant to give lengthy interviews. This book is the conversation we’ve been waiting for, a dialogue with Stig Bjorkman in which Allen speaks openly about himself and his art. Bjorkman invites the writer/director to talk at length about his lesser-known movies as well as his famous ones. We also learn about Allen’s filmmaking technique, his feelings about his stock company of actors, his influences, and why Stardust Memories and The Purple Rose of Cairo are his two personal favorites.

I love Stardust Memories too! If you are a big Woody fan like I am, you will probably enjoy this book.

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Over the years I’ve read a dozen or so Stephen King books, maybe even a couple more than that. Most of them did a pretty good job of keeping my interest and creating suspense. And if there was any gore or unpleasantness, well it was only a book so I didn’t actually see it (like, say, in a movie). A few bordered on the hokey, but most were good, interesting, and sometimes even a little scary works of fiction.

This one starts right off. No, really. A few pages into it the whole premise happens. And the rest of the book is just what happens after. But King develops the characters reasonably well and there is enough subsequent action and suspense to keep the reader reading. It might have drug a little a couple times but not much and it made for a few late nights reading when I didn’t want to stop.  If you like Stephen King then I would recommend it. My favorite of his is still Salem’s Lot, although I read it many, many years ago. Hope I am remembering it right!  😉

I recently finished reading ‘Mercy” by Jodi Picoult. It’s the third book I’ve read by her, after Nineteen Minutes and My Sister’s Keeper. Click those links to read my thoughts about those books.

This one covers ground that is a bit close (or could have been), a woman dying from cancer and in terrible pain, so she asks her husband to help end her life. And in this case, he does it for her. So, how far is too far if the act is out of love? And then there’s the police chief, in a comfortable marriage. That is, until a newcomer threatens to change everything. It’s a good story and a compelling read. As with the other two of her books, I enjoyed it.