Five Books About Time that Are Worth Your Time
Five Books About Time that Are Worth Your Time
After reading and loving the first book in this roundup, I went on a mad hunt for others like it. The following books address many questions about time: what would you do with an infinite amount of it, what makes a life worth living, and what would you do differently if you could reverse time. While these reads don’t provide clear-cut answers, they do leave you wondering about how you might discover your own. In its own way, each book asks us to think about how we choose to live our one and only lifetime.
1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab (448 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
The year is 1714 when Addie LaRue makes a choice that will change her life literally, forever. Yearning for a full and exciting life free from an arranged marriage, she makes a Faustian bargain that allows her to live forever but without being remembered by anyone. Over the next 300 years, Addie eventually learns how to lead an invisible life except for visits every birthday from Lue, the dark entity who granted her wish and is ready and willing to take her soul when she finally decides to die. Then in 2014, Addie discovers a young man who can remember her, and suddenly everything changes. After having mastered living a lonely life full of experiences, Addie is reminded of the one experience she’s been missing for centuries: true human connection.
Why You Should Read It
I can’t say enough good things about this book, and I recommend it to everyone I can. Schwab effortlessly and accurately depicts life in multiple centuries: a picnic on the steps of the Sacré-Cœur in the 1700s, the opera in Germany during the late 1800s, New York living in the 21st century. Schwab layers Addie’s life as she takes the reader between past and present and carries along the plot using Addie’s only two relationships – her tantalizing, cautious one with Lue and her surprising, budding one with the only person who has ever remembered her. You won’t be able to put the book down, and you’ll be praying for a sequel before the back cover is closed.
Brookie Scale
5/5 Brookie Stars
2. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (560 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
One night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born and dies before she can take her first breath. On the same night, Ursula Todd is born again. Throughout the novel, Ursula is born multiple times as she lives, dies, and gets the chance to live again. Even without her complete understanding, each new life offers Ursula the chance to make different choices and ultimately write a different ending for herself. In the midst of the second world war, her life and choices also offer the chance to write a different ending for the world.
Why You Should Read It
I’ll be honest I’m a strong proponent of not finishing books I don’t like (controversial opinion, I know). I personally think there are too many books in the world to waste time on finishing ones you don’t enjoy. As so, about a quarter into Life After Life, I almost closed the cover for good. It has a pretty slow start, but you’ll notice I still gave it four stars. Once Ursula was old enough, I found it extremely interesting to see how the different events in her life played out based on her changing decisions. By the end of the book, the possibilities of Ursula’s life create such a rich, intricate character that it’s impossible not to love her and her winding life story.
Brookie Scale
4/5 Brookie Stars
3. The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (304 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
Nora Seed lives a life full of regret until she finds herself in the Midnight Library, a place between life and death, where she is given the opportunity to choose a different life. Every book in the library represents a version of Nora’s life played out in parallel universes, some drastically different, all resulting from the infinite number of big and small decisions she makes. Nora tries out multiple lives as she attempts to undo her regrets, but before time runs out and she and the Midnight Library are both destroyed, Nora must determine the best way to live.
Why You Should Read It
I think it’s safe to say we’ve all experienced some form of regret in our lives and have wondered “what if” about both big and small decisions. As you follow Nora’s attempts to pick the perfect life, it’s easy to imagine what choices you yourself might change. If you’re like me, you’ll find yourself somewhat foolishly hoping that Nora eventually picks the “correct” book from the Midnight Library’s shelves. However, without spoiling the ending, I’ll simply say the book left me with the bittersweet reminder that there is no such thing as a perfect life.
Brookie Scale
3/5 Brookie Stars
4. The Versions of Us by Laura Barnett (432 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
Three versions of life. Two people. One love. On Cambridge’s campus in 1958, Eva Edelstein and Jim Taylor meet by chance. What follows are three different versions of their lives based on the choices they make that afternoon. Spanning decades, each version tells a different story of success and failure, betrayal and support, joy and sorrow, love and loss. The common thread of all three versions is the inevitable connection between Eva and Jim.
Why You Should Read It
When I recommended this book to my mom, I somewhat jokingly suggested she keep a notepad and pen nearby to keep track of the story’s three versions. With each chapter, Barnett switches to a different version of the couple’s life, and the crossover between storylines is sometimes hard to keep straight. But while the small details may be a little difficult to remember, Jim and Eva’s connection is one you won’t forget. I experienced so many emotions while reading this book and loved that even though some parts especially frustrated or saddened me, there was a sweet feeling of rightness in every version about two people who were meant to be a part of each other’s lives.
Brookie Scale
5/5 Brookie Stars
5. How To Stop Time by Matt Haig (352 pages)
Image via Barnes & Noble
Tom Hazard is a 41-year-old history teacher who has lived through the very history he teaches. Having been alive for centuries, Tom must change his identity as necessary and do everything in his power to conceal his dangerous secret. There are others like him and for all of their safety, they must lead discreet, mostly solitary lives. For this reason, Tom must not fall in love, which has been simple enough for the past few centuries until he meets a fellow teacher. Suddenly, Tom is questioning not only his way of life but what it means to have a future.
Why You Should Read It
It’s a joy to read this book and follow the life of Tom through centuries of exploration and art, love and loneliness, and the highs and lows of the world’s history. Because the novel switches from past to present, you’ll feel as though you’re reading multiple stories while all along, you’re growing connected to a single complex character. Tom as a naive but hopeful young man in 1599 and as a quirky, quiet middle-aged history teacher in the 21st century exist as two separate characters in mind whom I continue to love equally since finishing the book.
Brookie Scale
4/5 Brookie Stars
Did one of these reads feel especially worth your time? Can you recommend other books about time? Let us know here!
Taylor Stawecki is a 20-something Michigander with a love for the great outdoors and written word. She spends her weekdays working for a digital marketing company and as a freelance copywriter. In her free time, you can find her reading, writing poetry, running, watching a Grey’s Anatomy rerun, or spending time with her family and friends. As an old soul, she enjoys collecting salt and pepper shakers and cuddling up in oversized sweaters.
