Sponsored by Mexican Gothic by Sylvia Moreno-Garcia.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin, socialite Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. Her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region. Yet, there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness and may soon find it impossible to leave this enigmatic house behind.
Welcome to Read This Book, the newsletter where I recommend a book you should add to your TBR, STAT! I stan variety in all things, and my book recommendations will be no exception. These must-read books will span genres and age groups. There will be new releases, oldie but goldies from the backlist, and the classics you may have missed in high school. Oh my! If you’re ready to diversify your books, then LEGGO!!
Howdy fellow book nerds! Did you know it’s been five years since Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled to October 21, 2015 in Back to the Future: Part II? That’s right, it’s Back to the Future Day better known as the day Doc and Marty time traveled to the day when the Chicago Cubs could theoretically win The World Series! Funny enough, they missed the actual date by a year or so since the Cubs won the 2016 World Series. In honor of this day about fictional time travelers, I’m recommending a book about another fictional time traveler.
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
Clare is a beautiful art student. Henry is an adventurous librarian. They first meet when Clare is six, and Henry is 36. When they finally married, Clare was 23 while Henry was 31. Their story seems impossible, but Henry is one of the first people diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder. When his genetic clock periodically resets, Henry finds himself experiencing emotional moments of his life, both past and future.
Despite being called The Time Traveler’s Wife, the book focuses more on Henry, and his time traveling exploits, than on the wife, Clare. However, I’m glad the story focused on Henry traveling through time because that’s the aspect of the story I was most interested in reading. What I absolutely enjoyed about the book was although time travel is a sci-fi concept, it felt plausible and realistic in the story. Henry’s ability to time travel is a genetic condition, and he even sought medical help to cure his disorder.
What also makes the story grounded in reality was Henry being unable to change what has already occurred in his past, so there are no ways for him to change the course of history both in his own life and within greater society. Before reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, I was a bit apprehensive about the idea of Henry being in his 30s and Clare being decades younger when they first met. However, it didn’t actually read as creepy in the book as it sounded in the description.
Overall, I enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife as an unconventional telling of the traditional boy meets girl love story. I would recommend it for readers who want to experience a little science fiction in their romance.
Until next time bookish friends,
Katisha
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