The Night Bookmobile, by Audrey Niffenegger

Oh, Audrey. I know we've had our differences before, but I was hoping that maybe if you wrote another book with a librarian in it, we'd be good as new. Sadly, I am still ambivalent.

This is a super-duper short story, told in a graphic format, and there's not much I can say without giving the whole thing away. Baaaasically, there's a thing called a Night Bookmobile, which is a sort of mobile library that comes when you need it. Or something. And it holds all of the things you've ever read in your life. And the main character, Alexandra, finds her bookmobile and becomes a little obsessed with it, as I imagine one might.

And so that's an interesting premise, but then the story goes a little crazy at the end, there, and a whole host of issues crop up that would be interesting to address but that do not get addressed. Niffenegger writes in the "After Words" that this is the first installment of a larger work, so I hope that perhaps I will get to see that larger work and that it will tell me what the heck is going on.

Recommendation: Eh, it's a quick read and it's certainly ripe for discussion... probably an interesting pick for a voracious reader.

Rating: 5/10
(A to Z Challenge, Support Your Local Library Challenge)

See also:
[your link here]

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger (9 October — 13 October)

I was really super duper excited about this book, and I think that might have been why I didn't like it so much. I will pause here for a collective gasp from the Blogosphere.

Recovered? Good. :)

The plot: Elspeth Noblin (great name, BTW) dies and leaves her estate not to her manfriend Robert, but to her twin Edie's daughters who are also twins and who are called Julia and Valentina. Elspeth's will stipulates that the twins must come live in her flat for a year before they can sell it, so they do. And then while they're there they get haunted by Elspeth, who becomes a ghost (which is neat), and the reasons for the twins having never actually met Elspeth are slowly revealed (oooh, family secrets!).

Good things: I love Niffenegger's writing, I just do, and it was all very pretty and fun and descriptive. The fact that we got to learn about Elspeth as a ghost was cool. Playing with a Ouija board is always fun. I loved Martin and I was rooting for him the whole time.

Bad things: I didn't understand why Elspeth left all of her stuff to the twins. She called it "an experiment," but since she didn't seem to know she'd be becoming a ghost, I don't know who was supposed to be monitoring the results. The big family secret is something I figured out in the first few chapters and then had to wait 300 pages to officially find out. And then it was unnecessarily complicated. The whole end-of-book storyline was really weird to me and I didn't understand why any of that had to happen. Does no one in London have any sense? Also, Martin was the only character I really gave a crap about.

So... yes. This is a book that I would like to discuss with people, so if you have any insight, feel free to leave a comment!

And don't think that I hated the book... I liked following along with the twins' lives and I am totally on Team Get Martin Better. But those Bad Things prevented me from loving it.

Rating: 7/10
(RIP Challenge, Countdown Challenge: 2009)

See also:
books i done read
Literate Housewife
Devourer of Books
Stainless Steel Droppings

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Time Traveler's Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger (13 August)

-contented sigh- I love this book. You should, too. Go read it, now.

What? That's not enough information, you say? Well. Fine.

I first read this book three years ago while in New Zealand and had to tear myself away from the pages to go hang out with people in Auckland, which is one of my favorite places in the world, so... yeah. I'd been wanting to re-read it for awhile, but I worried it wouldn't hold up to a second reading, but then the movie was coming out and other people were reading it and I really wanted to read it again so I did! And it held up just fine.

This is a giant sappy love story about a girl called Clare who meets her future husband, Henry when she's six and he's thirty-six. But Henry doesn't meet Clare until he's twenty-eight and she is twenty. Right. Because Henry randomly travels through time, going to seemingly arbitrary wheres and whens. The story flows mostly chronologically through Clare's life, with brief jaunts elsewhen here and there, and describes Henry and Clare's meetings and courtship and attempts (successful and failed) to be a normal couple.

It's really sweet and made me cry a whole bunch at three in the morning while I was finishing it, even though I knew what was going to happen, even though everyone and his brother knows what's going to happen, which I think is a strong point of the novel. Or I'm just a big ol' sap. Or both. You never know.

Rating: 10/10
(Summer Lovin' Challenge)

See also:
The Soul of the Reviewer
book-a-rama

Pass me yours, if you've got 'em.

The Adventuress, by Audrey Niffenegger (11 January)

I'm not sure I can really count this as a book read, since a quick flip through the pages tells me this book is maybe 120 pages long, with exactly half of those pages illustrated and half with but a few words on each. I picked it up because it's by Audrey Niffenegger and I love The Time Traveler's Wife (soon to be re-read because it's awesome), but when I heard it was a "novel in pictures" I was thinking more graphic novel when it's actually more picture book.

The story, if there is one, revolves around an unnamed "she" who is created by a scientist and wears only a skirt. Not a book for little kids, here. Her adventures include a foiled marriage, a relationship with Napoleon, giving birth to a cat, and going to a nunnery. These are all supposedly interrelated.

I'm really indifferent to this novel; it's sort of like how I feel about modern dance. I don't really get it, but it's interesting to watch nonetheless. Plus, it only takes like 10 minutes to read, so why not?

Rating: 5/10
(Countdown Challenge: 2006, Support Your Local Library Challenge)