I cannot praise The Time Traveler's Wife highly enough. I have not loved a book this much in many, many years. The little girl in me loved the romance. The thinker in me was fascinated by the complex turnings of time and plot. And the mature woman in me appreciated a story that showed mature love, love that quiets to a warm ember but lasts a lifetime and beyond. Oh, sorry. Are you not with me? Henry, the main character, has a genetic problem called Chrono-Impairment. During times of stress, he pops out of time. He could land anywhere in the past or future (though he usually only travels a few years either direction). He arrives naked, which can be a bit awkward. Clare is his wife, and the great love of his life. When she first meets him, he is 36, and she is 6. The last time they meet, he is 43, and she is 82. When he travels, she stays behind and waits, never knowing where in time he has gone, or when he will return. The twists of plot are just delightful. When the book opens, he is 28 and meeting her for the first time although she has known him since she was 6. He is, understandably, a little confused, especially when she blithely announces that she introduced him (will introduce him?) to her grandmother since they are to marry. On his trips back in time, he occasionally visits himself. His adult self instructs his boy-self on how to survive time travel. He visits events that were important in his life. In one scene, he appears as many as hundreds of times. He's in a car; he's walking alongside the car; he's perched on a tree branch, watching the whole thing. And yet, and this is where the author's almost mystical skill comes into play, the story unfolds seamlessly. The reader is never confused (at least, never more confused than Henry or Clare themselves), and when critical events transpire, one realizes they were inevitable. My only complaint is that the climatic ending is too obvious far too early. I knew the ending on Page 79 (of a 537-page book). But I realize, since she titled the chapter "After the End," Niffenegger wanted me to know this. And the richness and depth as the scene played out was such (and only this one stitch showed in the entire fabric of the book) that it is probably niggardly of me to mention it at all. If you only read one book this year, make it this one.* *Unless you choose Gods in Alabama, by Joshilyn Jackson, in which case you may save The Time Traveler's Wife for next year.