The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger

I loved this book. (I started and finished this book in the Keys over the weekend - so much better than the last book I chose to read while on vacation there).

I became so engrossed that I was (almost) oblivious to my boyfriend and his dad playing Tiger Woods golf on the Wii for 5 hours. (I'm not kidding. It rained for almost 8 hours straight while we were in Key Largo this weekend).

The story of Henry and Clare and his time traveling was so fascinating. At first I thought all the dates were going to create one big headache, but after awhile I started getting it, and I jumped easily from present to future and past and back. What an incredible love story. For Clare to spend her life waiting for Henry and to love him despite his flaw was just amazing. How unreal that Henry could see what his future holds. (And then, at the end, how devastating as well.) The couples' struggle to have a child was heartbreaking, two times over especially that we learned that their daughter Alba was also a time traveler, and knew her father was going to die early.

I was determined to read this book before seeing the movie, and when I realized it was coming out soon (it opened on Friday, 8/14), I knew I had to read it fast incase I happened to overhear any reviews. I had had the book on my shelf for over a year but for some reason hadn't touched it. I had no idea the story took place in Chicago, Illionois and South Haven, Michigan, a place I am familiar with as that's where I went to the beach as I grew up. The book even referenced my hometown, Kalamazoo, MI, several times. There is nothing quite like reading a book with ties to your hometown.

Here are just a couple of my favorite passages:

And what do you vote for?

Clare is silent. Her pragmatism and her romantic feelings about Jesus and Mary are, at thirteen, almost equally balanced. A year ago she would have said God without hesitation. In ten years she will vote for determinism, and ten years after that Clare will believe that the universe is arbitrary, that if God exists he does not hear our prayers, that cause and effect are inescapable and brutal, but meaningless. And after that? I don't know. But right now Clare sits on the threshold of adolescence with her faith in one hand and her growing skepticism in the other, and all she can do is try to juggle them, or squeeze them together until they fuse. (p. 77)

(Discussing the scenery on the drive from Chicago to South Haven, Michigan) We pass a Wal-Mart, a Dairy Queen, a McDonald's. More cornfields. An orchard. U-Pick M Strawberries, Blueberries. In the summer this road is a long corridor of fruit, grain, and capitalism. (p. 167)

I loved the references to Michigan, I loved the Chicago scenery, I loved the love story and the time traveling and Clare's art and Henry's work in the library. I loved that Henry and Clare were finally able to have the child they so desperately wanted, little Alba. I absolutely loved this book.