'The Time Traveler's Wife' by Audrey Niffennegger

 The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffennegger (3.5)

I first read this book in the early 2000’s and was captivated by the plot. The idea of a man who travels back and forth through his own life made for fascinating ‘what if’ scenarios. This time I was a bit less enthralled (older, more critical, or just less novelty the second time around?). I still enjoyed the puzzle – if an older Henry meets a younger Henry in a scene, what portends when we get to the later part of the book? I also found the love story touching, if not totally believable. Interesting that the idea of older Henry visiting his future wife as a child is fine in the book, but creepy in the movie. The questions of how one behaves if we know our future, how you can appreciate the time you do have together, and how we make choices knowing what we know are very interesting and thought provoking. I also liked how the author considers the ability to travel through time as an evolutionary change in humans – a condition, not something one does with a machine. Oddly that premise made it easier to ignore the issues with physics. Sadly, upon this recent reading the secondary characters don’t hold up well. They are very stereotypical of their ethnicity and/or culture. While I would have given this a ‘4’ in 2005, given my more critical older eyes, it rates a ‘3.5’.

'Entangled Life: How Fungi Make our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures' by Merlin Sheldrake

Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures, Merlin Sheldrake (3.0)

This book is filled with many eye-opening facts about Fungi and their relationships with plants and animals. I particularly enjoyed the chapter on truffles and how they have evolved a desirable scent in order to procreate. Since they are buried deep at a plant’s roots, their odor needs to be strong enough for a pig or dog to find it, eat it and defecate farther away for it to spread it’s ‘genes’. Also, interesting that the symbiotic relationship of the truffle with the plant is too complex for farmers to replicate, hence there are no real cultivated truffles! Mr. Sheldrake does a good job of describing the vastness of fungi (2.2-3.8 million species) and their complexities. I did find the book was a little redundant at times and didn’t hold my interest through all the chapters. If you are at all interested in the largest Kingdom, you will likely find this book interesting.

'Words of Radiance' by Brandon Sanderson

 

Words of Radiance, Brandon Sanderson (4.5)

At 1500 pages, this is one of the longest books I’ve read in a while, my only complaint is that it ended in the middle of the climatic battle! Apparently, there are 10 books planned in this series, with 4 already written.  This book is very interesting with a lot of movement of the plot and further character development. It’s hard to come up with new ideas in the fantasy/world building genre, but Mr. Sanderson has done just that. While the first book in the series could have easily been 200-300 pages shorter, this volume didn’t waste any pages- lots of action and forwarding of the story as the main characters find out more and more about what changes are happening in themselves and in their world. I don’t think you can skip the first book, but for those interested in a refreshing fantasy book with new concepts, this series is one of the best.