The best books that bend time and space…with a heart

Time travel is a tricky thing to write about. Too much science, and you lose the heart. Too much heart, and you lose the science that makes it work. Usually, authors tend to pick one or the other, but Audrey Niffenegger manages to keep them both balanced beautifully. As someone who loves learning about quantum physics and string theory, but also loves a good cry and a story with emotional depth, this celebrated book remains the gold standard. At its core, you have a poignant, intricate love story told in a delightfully untraditional structure. But in the tale of Henry and Clare, we also learn something about the many complicated facets of relationships and the possibility that love, may in fact, be able to span time.

There have been other stories like this – those featuring prophetic dreams as the core – but none in recent history have carried quite the emotional impact for me like The Sight of You. When I read it, I felt like it carried me on an emotional ride that was at times, quiet, and then suddenly not. Holly Miller beautifully captures the burden that Joel carries with him in the gift/curse of his dreams and the loneliness and turmoil of his heartbreaking choices. All the while, Callie’s unending love and hope for their future made me believe that somehow, things had to end well for them. A heart-wrenching tale of lost loves, the dramatic conclusion of this beautiful story rocked me to my core.

The love of a mother and child is one that is dear to my heart, and so I was absolutely captivated by this book. A little girl’s desperate longing for the mother who mysteriously disappeared a decade earlier takes readers on a journey that is both strange and wondrous at the same time. I love a book that teaches me something, and Jodi Picoult elegantly weaves together the nature of motherhood in both humans and elephants in a way that adds depth and beauty to the story. Add to this a psychic medium who the main character, Jenna, employs to help her along the way, and I’m hooked. This story crosses time, space, life, and death all the way through to its shocking ending – which I never saw coming.

I was a teenager the first time I picked up this book. Romance novels weren’t my thing, and considering this one was heavily marketed as such, I nearly overlooked it. But once I got past the swooning, steamy promotional packaging, I realized there was quite more to it. In some ways it planted the seed in my younger self for the storyteller I would eventually become. It tells the story of a woman who has lost hope for her mess of a life, only to be given the rare opportunity to experience past-life-regression and alternate versions of herself in several previous lifetimes. Readers are swept through the centuries in richly told settings as we watch her experience the loves, losses, and lessons that have all led to the circumstances of her current, present-day life. 

When I’m asked to give a recommendation for a Young Adult book, Revolution is always at the top of my list. This story is both unique and captivating – taking readers into the hearts and minds of two teenage girls, separated by centuries, united by the mysterious pages of a journal that connects them. It has layers of music, loss, and healing woven together in a way that connects deeply layered characters and settings. From modern-day New York and Paris to the ghosts of the French Revolution, I – much like the main character, Andi – felt completely transported in time.