Four library employees, including my darling wife, and a host of bloggers had recommended The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I had a Border’s 30% off coupon burning a hole in my pocket last week and so I took their advice and picked up a copy. I had been meaning to pick up this book since I first laid eyes on it as I was struck by the cover image and colors as well as the intriguing title. Showing uncharacteristic restraint, however, I managed to put it off until now in an effort to reduce my reading pile. Let me tell you right now, reading pile be damned, quit reading this review and start reading this book now! It is that good.

It is no secret that reading is one of my great loves and I have a pretty good knack for choosing books that I end up enjoying. That being said the books that grab on to me and won’t let go…those that talk to me while I am sleeping and say “Quit wasting time, read me!” are few and far between. The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of those books. Despite clocking in at a hearty 536 pages the time literally flew by as I was lost in its pages.

Though the title may indicate otherwise, this is not a science fiction book. There are no Dr. Who-ish travels to visit the dinosaurs or trips into future space-age realms. The Time Traveler’s Wife is a love story. It is the story of Henry DeTamble, a Chicago librarian with Chrono-displacement Disorder, and the love of his life, Clare. It is the story about a man whose time travels are involuntary and often unwanted. This is also the story about a woman who chooses to love and live with this very difficult disorder. It is also a story about living life to its fullest in the time that is given.

This is, unbelievably, Audrey Niffenegger’s first mainstream novel. It is so well crafted and flows so well that I am in awe of her talent and aching for another book. The story is told entirely by Henry and Clare in vignettes describing the occurences on certain dates. While Clare’s story is relatively chronological, Henry’s jumps around in time. Each vingette begins with the date and time and the ages of both Henry and Clare. While Henry is 8 years older than Clare in “real time” he actually meets her at various ages beginning when she is 6 years old. It has been a long time since I’ve read Time and Again by Jack Finney (another amazing book) but something about this book felt like Time and Again. The time travel element is no doubt part of that similarity but I think the fact that both books focus on the relationship of characters in a real world vs. a science fiction focus on time travel gives them a similar feel.

Niffenegger does a marvelous job of infusing Henry and Clare with life. Each character has hobbies and talents (again no spoilers) that give the story such depth and dimension. Their sexual relationship (this is an adult story, not for kids) is not gratuitous and is handled in a loving way that gives richness and realism to their relationship. Also both characters have very interesting careers. Henry works in a fascinating library in Chicago and Clare is an artist who makes hand crafted papers, a hobby Niffenegger shares.

Audrey Niffenegger is a professor in the MFA program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. The program teaches such things as bookbinding, papermaking, and letterpress printing. Niffenegger’s previous books were small print runs of visual books with letterpress type and aquatint illustrations that she hand made. A self-professed woman “fixated on oddity” her previous creations touched on ideas surrounding “mutants, peculiar nature things, taxidermy, [and] amputation.” Her website gives a hint of what some of her other work may look like but is sadly still largely under construction.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is rare that I find myself so easily enthralled in a story. Like any good love story this tale has happy and sad moments, both of which are powerfully rendered. Be prepared to smile but also to shed a few tears. I’m not ashamed to admit that at one point in the story I began crying and was still crying some 40 or 50 pages later. The Time Traveler’s Wife is an inspiring tale about the power of love, the value of good relationships, and the need to make the most of every moment in life.

I know many of you have read this book so I’m doing something a little different and am allowing and encouraging spoiler conversations in the comments. Please comment away but if you don’t want to read anything specific about the book then you may want to avoid reading the comments. Thanks!

The Faces of Fantasy is a book of photographs taken by Patti Perret in and around 1996. She had published a book years earlier called The Faces of Science Fiction and found herself wanting to do a similar project and so, young children in tow, she traveled across American, Britain, and Ireland photographing various fantasy authors. That, unfortunately, is about as much information as you get from her introduction to this book. The book, borrowed from Jeff (thank you!), is a nice coffee table book-sized hefty paperback book and Ms. Perret’s black and white photographs range from commonplace to quite fantastic. The facing page of each photograph contains a brief comment by the author and at the bottom is a list of 2 or 3 of the author’s books.

All the authors, as the title suggests, are those considered to have written fiction that could be categorized as fantasy. I counted 101 authors whose photos are included. There are many things missing from this book that I would’ve liked to have seen. As I stated above there is little written about the motivation behind this project. There is no explanation as to why the authors in this book were chosen for the project. There is likewise no explanation as to why the books listed at the bottom of each author’s page were the ones chosen to be included as examples of their work. Were these books she has read, books that won awards, books the author picked him/herself to be included? Also, what were the stipulations given to the authors about what to write for their page? Some authors filled up the large space while others made one or two word statements. One author had unfortunately died while the book was awaiting publication and his facing page simply read “Edward Whittemore passed away.” What?!?!? The page is approximately 12X14 and all I get is that he died?!? Granted, everyone else wrote their own artist statements but surely someone could’ve submitted something about this guy to include with his photograph, otherwise what is the point? I would have also like to see Ms. Perret include some stories about this adventure of hers. She traveled the world and sat in the homes of some of the most amazing authors of our time and the only information we get about this is a few lines in the introduction written by Terri Windling. You get the impression that she traveled countless miles only to snap a quick photograph and leave. Maybe that is exactly what happened but it would be interesting to know this. I look at this book and see a great deal of lost potential.

Lest you get the idea that I completely disliked this book, please let me change my focus and tell you that I really enjoyed reading it. While there is a great deal of lost potential this book also holds a great deal of hidden potential. The introduction by Terri Windling is a fascinating historical look at the fantasy genre and is not one to be missed. One could simply jot down the authors and books that she mentions and have quality reading material for years to come. On a similar note there are many authors whose pictures are included that I had not heard of before. This is again potential for books to add to one’s reading list. And I gather that more than anything this was the point of this book. To introduce you to authors that you may or may not have heard of as a way of encouraging you to read their material. I enjoyed discovering the images of authors who I hadn’t seen before. I also liked getting a glimpse into the homes and yards of authors that I had seen. The cover image is a photograph of Neil Gaiman standing in front of the “Addams Family House” that he frequently talks about on his blog. Peter David, in a glamour shot pose reminiscent of George Costanza on Seinfeld, was the most entertaining picture. I also enjoyed seeing a more recent picture of Harry Harrison, whose appreciation for his readers was evident in his quote. Over all it was an entertaining and quick read. I was glad that I hadn’t purchased it but feel like I was bettered by the experience of reading it. I have more appreciation for authors that I already enjoyed, am curious about authors I hadn’t heard of, and I have a list of books spanning the last century that I would like to read.

(Terri Windlings’ site, The Endicott Studio, contains many excellent recommendations for fantasy reading along with many non-fiction articles about fantasy. Her essays entitled Les Contes de Fées: The Literary Fairy Tales of France and Women and Fairy Tales contain a great deal of the material she discussed in her introduction to this book.)