Who has read The Time Traveller's Wife?

workout junkie

workout junkie

Cathlete
I just finished this book this morning. I almost finished it last night but I couldn't because I was crying too much. I didn't want this book to end - I was afraid of the ending. What's with these books that just make me cry and ponder the meaning of life? I was practically bawling!

I hadn't read fiction for quite awhile (lately I'd just been reading fitness/health/cooking stuff), then those book threads a few months ago inspired me to read "The Kite Runner". What a great book. I thought about the story for days. And it got me motivated to start reading more.

Ok, so whoever has read "The Kite Runner" and "The Time Traveller's Wife", I like your taste in books. What should I get next??

Thanks,
Melissa
 
The Time Traveler's Wife is my favorite "new release." I just absolutely adored this book! I loved the way the author handled time travel, a very fresh approach, and the relationship between Clare and Henry was fascinating. I couldn't sleep for a couple of days after I finished reading this book. I couldn't handle the end. Very sad. Loved, loved, loved it.

I highly recommend you try the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. Also about time travel,kinda, and about a great relationship (oddly enough one of the characters in these books is also a Clair.)
 
I loved both the Time Travelers Wife and Kiterunner, and also highly recommend the Outlander Series. (Ivory: Did you see that a 6th book in the series is due out soon. I read "Lord John and the Private Matter" which is called book 6 but it didn't have anything to do with the series).

The books I like best are about relationships, and characters that are so real they become part of your life. Character development is very important for me. Some authors/books that do a really good job with what I am looking for in a book are: (Ok I ended up with so many recommendations I went back and made a rating system 1 = top of list, 3 = can't read them all at once, on the list for later)

Diana Gabaldon - (1) Outlander
Barbara Kingsolver. (1) Bean Trees - Pigs in Heaven duo, The Poisonwood Bible, Prodigal Summer.
Anne Tyler - (2) Amature Marraige, Patchwork Planet
Maeve Binchy - (2) Scarlet Feather, The Lilac Bus (Irish author-Irish setting)
Alexander McCall Smith - (1) No 1 Ladies Detective Agency (6 books) Loved these! Setting is Africa.
Carol Shields - (3) The Stone Diaries, Larry's Party
Lorna Landvik - (2) Patty Janes House of Curl - She is a great Minnesotan author and if you've ever lived near MN you will appreaciate her!
Richard Paul Evans - (2) The Locket
Elizabeth Berg - (3) Open House
Amy Tan - (3) The Joy Luck Club, Bonesetters Daughter (Asian setting)
 
Well, since you both mentioned the Outlander Series I will definitely put that at the top of my list.

I know what you mean about the characters becoming part of your life. I actually had to take about a week off from the Time Traveler's Wife because it was starting to affect my sleep, my thoughts, my dreams...

Thank you so much for the list of recommendations, I'm going to print it out and bring it with me when I go to Borders. I will definitely have to check out Lorna Landvik's book - I was born in MN, only lived there til I was 12, but I still consider myself a Minnesotan at heart.

Thanks!
 
I have not read this, but belong to book clubs and read all of the time. I loved Diana Galboldon's books. I read two of them. One of my daughters loved these as well. Lots of pages of reading. I like time travel stories. Right now I am reading Nora Roberts Black Rose second in a series. Reading is something that I have done since I was a child. Can't live without books:) I will definitely check it out.
http://wd.1ww.us
 
Yup, loved this book. Cried buckets, wanted to re-write the ending! I bought it for all my friends' birthdays that same year and recommended it to my kids' teachers. They have all loved it also.

Relationships fiction: you have to read Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility, both by Jane Austen, the ultimate in relationship fiction. You would probably also like Bronte's Wuthering Heights. I'm reading that soon.

Another great book, and undervalued, is Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone. A cast of plenty, a starring romance, a mystery and tales of exotic Indian gentleman suddenly appearing in LOndon: for what reason? What does it all have to do with the gift of the Moonstone that the young female protagonist has just received from her father? And when it goes missing: who stole it? Why?


You might also like Jodi Picoult. Her best is her most recent, but the name escapes me. She deals with tough moral issues in close- knit relationships.

If more occurs to me, I will return and list more.

clare
 
Clare,
I have to say I have a classics section in my office library and the Moonstone is there. I was just telling my daughter n law about this one as we share bookclub books. I really enjoyed this book. Often wondered why I had missed it earlier.
Diane Sue
http://wd.1ww.us
 
Clare's post:
"You might also like Jodi Picoult. Her best is her most recent, but the name escapes me. She deals with tough moral issues in close- knit relationships."

My Sisters Keeper? About parents *engineering* a sibling donor for their child with Lukemia? The moral question was if you did this were you a good mother? or a very bad one? It was a very intersting book. I was almost going to put this one on my recommended list. I was a about the sadest book I ever read though.
 
Yes, that's the one. It was sad, but also gritty. But, I thought the ending was too convenient for the author, totally gratuitous. It reflected the author's manipulation of her characters and of fate rather than the workings of everyday reality with its chance events. It let everyone off the hook about having to follow through on the tough moral decision that had been made. Far more interesting is for the young daughter to have her life in spite of her mother's obsession and let nature take its course with the elder daughter.

I find with Jodi Picoult that there's only so much of her I can take. I have read 2 of her books, the other was about the young, teenage couple who perform a disastrous "suicide pact" that rocks ther families and community. Ms. Picoult goes to extremes, takes an extreme circumstance and follows human action in light of it. Most of us actually lead humdrum lives.....

I just remembered a hilarious and touching novel: 'Cold Comfort Farm' by Stella Gibbons, full of the most outlandish characters and a young lady who likes interfering in people's lives. I really recommend this one.

Clare
 
Also try 'The House of Mirth' by Edith Wharton. Truly fabulous novel and I get too involved with it every time I read it, incensed with the characters and with the social dictates of early 20 th C New York, wanting to re-write the ending!! This is the best Wharton novel.

Also, try Maggie O'Farrell's 'After You'd Gone". Oh my God, talk about weepie. That is the saddest story I ever read, but it is also beautiful, deeply emotional, written with such sensitivity and caring for the characters. It's definitely O'Farell's best book.

Have you read 'Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier? If you haven't, get thee to a bookstore quick! Don't bother reading anthing else Chevalier has written: none of her 3 other novels comes close to this one. And it's so much more atmospheric and subtle than the film, if you saw it, with Colin Firth and Scarlett Johanssen. This is a novel that suggests love and passion, that shimmers with understated eroticism....a completely un-put-down-able novel.

I read constantly, I'm never without a book, there's always one in my handbag/purse, in case of boring moments during the day. So, if anyone has any reccies for me: bring 'em on!

Clare
 
Thank you for all the suggestions Clare. I have had "Girl with a Pearl Earring" on my list to get, just never got it.

I know I've read some of Jane Austen's books and also Wuthering Heights back in high school, but that was quite awhile ago - I could easily read those again.

When I was browsing the bookstore, the girl that worked there recommended Memoirs of a Geisha and Birth of Venus. Have you read those?

So many books and not enough time!
 
I've read Memoirs of a Geisha. I thought it was a good, well told story enlightening of other cultures. For me it was one of those books where I couldn't get emotionally attached to any of the characters though. (Just for discussion, please don't take my opinion as criticism of anyone's recommendations). I found Girl with the Pearl Earring to be the same. I enjoyed *experiencing* the period of the book, which was what? 1600's? I found that fascinating. I Also loved the art perspective, but I thought the book lacked a likable character. Another book (which I just finished - I go out and immediatly get the recommendations from this board :) ) is The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I really enjoyed the book, but couldn't really like any of the characters. Then the ending left me with a *what the?* feeling. I felt sort of empty and dissatisfied with life after that book. I'm not sure why. The Life of Pi is another. I liked so much of that book but not really the book as a whole. Again the lack of a really likeable character. Ok, I know this isn't supposed to be a book critism thread, just fishing for some thoughts on these books from you avid readers.

While I'm at it I will add another reccommended book. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. At first I thought *I am not going to like this book at all* It's about a young girl that was murdered, and the story is told by the young girl after her death. As the book goes on the girl watches her family and friends carry on, and the book becomes very likeable. It was an interesting perspective.
 
Yeah, read them both, liked them both, though perhaps 'Memoirs' was a touch more gripping and perhaps that is due to the "exoticism" of the East....

Both good books: see, I am consistent! I think you should try them, experiment.....

You know, a good way to find ideas for more reads is to go to "amazon.com" and type in the title of a book you have read. Somewhere on the page it will tell you "readers who bought this book also bought....." and if you follow some of those leads, you may find yourself in interesting territory. Also, at the right hand side of the page, lists of great books organized by themes and posted by different readers will pop up and they may well be of interest to you because they will pop up according to the themes and genre of the book title that you entered originally.

I have found reams of book titles I want to delve into this way.

Clare
 
>>Relationships fiction: you have to read Pride & Prejudice and
>Sense & Sensibility, both by Jane Austen, the ultimate in
>relationship fiction. You would probably also like Bronte's
>Wuthering Heights. I'm reading that soon.
>
>Another great book, and undervalued, is Wilkie Collins' The
>Moonstone. A cast of plenty, a starring romance, a mystery
>and tales of exotic Indian gentleman suddenly appearing in
>LOndon: for what reason? What does it all have to do with the
>gift of the Moonstone that the young female protagonist has
>just received from her father? And when it goes missing: who
>stole it? Why?
>
>clare
>
I have not read the Time Traveler's Wife--picked it up several times but then always found something else that caught my eye instead. I agree with you, Clare, about relationship fiction. Jane Austen is superb! I would put Mansfield Park a close 3rd on that list. I adore Fanny.

Wilkie Collins is an author you don't hear much about. Has anyone read The Woman in White? I just bought it but haven't gotten to it yet. I think Collins' work has been undervalued.

I loved Girl With a Pearl Earring. DH and I went to see the movie together. I had to drag him to it but in the end he really liked it.

Another favorite was The Secret Life of Bees. I couldn't put it down, and then was so disappointed when I went to buy other books by the same author, Sue Kidd I think. They just didn't hold my interest at all.

I love biographies and recently finished Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts. It was fantastic!! The wives of our founding fathers were remarkable in their own right. Our country owes much to their bravery and brilliance. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Currently, I'm reading Unwise Passions: A True Story of a Remarkable Woman and the First Great Scandal of 18th Century America by Alan Pell Crawford. I won't go into a lot of detail, but it's about Ann Carey Randolph, the much sought after daughter of a wealthy Virginia aristocrat that is accused of scandalous behavior. Major political figures and wealthy people of the day are intertwined in this story, including Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. A really good read.

Michele
 
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