Zola Books has released an e-book version of "The Time Traveler's Wife" — my favorite book — and it includes 25 new pages from the upcoming sequel.

From a news release:

New York, NY (September 23, 2013) – Marking the 10th anniversary of its publication, THE TIME TRAVELER'S WIFE by New York Times bestselling author Audrey Niffenegger is available today for the first time as an e-book, enhanced with 25 new pages from an upcoming sequel.

...

THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE is the story of art student Clare Abshire and librarian Henry DeTamble, who meet when he is twenty-eight and she is twenty. Though Henry has never met Clare before, Clare has known Henry since she was six – impossible but true, because Henry finds himself periodically displaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity from his life, past and future. Henry and Clare's attempts to live a normal life together are threatened by a force they can neither prevent nor control, making their love story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.

...

The pages from the as-yet-untitled sequel focus on Henry and Clare’s daughter Alba, who as an adult finds herself caught between her real-time husband, Zach, and her other husband, Oliver, a fellow time-traveler and musician.

“It’s been intense to revisit the world of THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE after ten years; Alba’s life has complications and delights that surprise even me. It’s funny how the imagination works quietly, secretly, just waiting to be asked for more story and serving it up as though it’s been there all along. I hope readers will be pleased, both with the new story and with Zola," said Niffenegger. "I am excited to be working with Zola Books; we are all are eager to give both readers and writers the best possible e-book experience and to benefit the community of book shops and publishers, too."

How to buy THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE e-book ($8.99):
1.      Visit zolabooks.com/book/the-time-travelers-wife
2.      Download the Zola Books app in the Apple App Store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/zola-books-read.-share.-discover./id563294598?mt=8
3.      To read, tap the Zola app on your iPad or iPhone. Swipe left to see your purchased books. Tap the book cover to download the book into your app. (This step can take a few minutes because the book files are big).

I didn't know a sequel was on the way, so I'm pretty excited about that news! Though I am disappointed this release is not available in Nook format, which is my e-reader of choice.

-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl

Sometimes I lie to myself -- like Friday night when I pledged I was not going to stay up all night reading. After all, I still had 200 pages left in "Her Fearful Symmetry", and there was no way I'd be able to get through it before falling asleep.

But stay up all night and read I did. At 4 a.m., I finished Page 401, wondering what the heck I would write about it, and what Tricia thought of it.

Tricia said you need to suspend your disbelief to read Niffenegger's work, which I agree with entirely. That's one of the things I loved about "The Time Travelers Wife" and "Symmetry": letting go of my conventional thoughts to get swept up in the realistic but slightly magical world of Niffenegger's imagination.

"Symmetry, set in London, is a story about ghosts and twins, living and dying. The ghosts are among the living, and the twins are learning to live with and without each other. The first 200 pages of the book were a lot of preparation for what would happen in the last 200, which were rather page-turning. (I found the same to be true of "The Time Travelers Wife," which I also stayed up until the wee hours finishing.)

I liked the story, and I liked that throughout the book I wasn't quite sure what was going to happen next. Niffenegger managed to create a suspenseful book by writing an impossible story. Tricia had imagined the story of twins Julia and Valentina taking a different turn, and I almost wish Niffenegger had taken that route in the book. But, that might have been more predictable, and maybe less enjoyable.

I finished "Symmetry" not exactly sure which of the characters I liked. I had trouble weighing all the good and bad each of them had done throughout the story, to figure out what I really thought of them in the end. I was happy for Julia and Valentina, but puzzled at the direction their relationship had taken. I felt sad for Elspeth and Edie, their aunt and mother, because their stories were tragic and unfixable.

The page before the story begins includes lyrics to a Beatles song. I once hear Niffenegger say in an interview on NPR that the song perfectly fit the story, but she wouldn't divulge further information without giving away the story. After finishing the book, I couldn't agree with her more:

She said "I know what it's like to be dead.
I know what it is to be sad"
And she's making me feel like I've never been born.
I said "Who put all those things in your head?
Things that make me feel that I'm mad
And you're making me feel like I've never been born."
She said "you don't understand what I said"
I said "No, no, no, you're wrong"
When I was a boy everything was right
Everything was right
I said "Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born."
She said "you don't understand what I said"
I said "No, no, no, you're wrong"
When I was a boy everything was right
Everything was right
I said "Even though you know what you know
I know that I'm ready to leave
'Cause you're making me feel like I've never been born."
She said , she said "I know what it's like to be dead"
("I know what it's like to be dead")
I know what it is to be sad...

Click the play button below to watch Niffenegger talk about writing "Her Fearful Symmetry" (including an explanation for the title):


Listen to Niffenegger read the second chapter of "Her Fearful Symmetry" here.


-- Cheryl Sadler | CSadler@News-Herald.com | @nhcheryl

Oddly enough, "Remarkable Creatures" is in the stack I borrowed from Euclid Library last week. After reading Jason's recent post, I may move it up a few spots on my list...

I just finished "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger. You may know her as the author of "The Time Traveler's Wife."

And if you're at all familiar with that novel or the movie it inspired, you know that you have to suspend a certain amount of disbelief when it comes to Niffenegger's work.

But it's worth it.

Symmetry is the story of twins who inherit their mom’s twin’s estate in London.

The move has them questioning their mother’s relationship with her sister, their relationship with each other.

Interesting as Julia and Valentina are; however; it’s the other folks in their aunt’s building I found most compelling.

There’s Robert, their aunt’s lover and now keeper of her secrets who’s finding a new love interest in one of the twins. And there’s Martin whose phobias keep him prisoner in his apartment even as he develops a friendship with the other twin.

The lines between life and death are blurred in ways both intriguing and a little bit creepy.

But that’s the beauty of Niffenegger’s stories; they get you thinking.

- Tricia Ambrose