When my publisher told me they were marketing the Rewind trilogy as time travel books, I protested that they were wrong. Turns out, in the book marketing world any story that has anything to do with time manipulation (including dreams, alternate timelines/histories, and—as it turned out—stopping it) counts as “time travel”. Once I got over my initial confusion, I was pleased to join the ranks of authors who envision worlds where the rules of reality turn fluid. I grew up gobbling books filled with magic and it has been my pleasure as an adult to continue to immerse myself in alternate worlds—this time as their creator.
Sixteen-year-old Alex is a Spinner, born with the rare ability to freeze and rewind time to review past events. Hated and feared because of their ability to find the truth, the small population of Spinners is restricted to Centers—compounds created to house and protect them. Alex's society uses the Spinners' skills to solve major crimes, but messing with time comes with consequences: no Spinner lives past the age of twenty. At sixteen, Alex is in her prime—until time sickness strikes early. When she is offered an experimental treatment, Alex sees a future for herself for the first time. But the promising medication offers more than just a cure—it also brings with it dire consequences.
Yes, it’s true, the movie adaptations have been dreadful, but the book itself is amazing! A mind-bending love story with appealing characters that avoid the sappy side of romance tropes. It’s also one of the few books I’ve read where the logic of time travel actually makes sense. Bonus points because I always appreciate when a character’s “gifts” come with realistic—and uncomfortable—repercussions.
Now a series on HBO starring Rose Leslie and Theo James!
The iconic time travel love story and mega-bestselling first novel from Audrey Niffenegger is "a soaring celebration of the victory of love over time" (Chicago Tribune).
Henry DeTamble is a dashing, adventurous librarian who is at the mercy of his random time time-traveling abilities. Clare Abshire is an artist whose life moves through a natural sequential course. This is the celebrated and timeless tale of their love. Henry and Clare's passionate affair is built and endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap…
Who doesn’t want to know what would have happened if they’d chosen other roads? Nora, a woman on the verge of dying, gets to revisit decisions she’s made in her past and see how things might have played out differently. The book starts out a bit dark (fair warning: she attempts suicide) but the story itself is life-affirming and I just adore the concept of imagining how your life could have turned out if you made even the smallest tweak.
The #1 New York Times bestselling WORLDWIDE phenomenon
Winner of the Goodreads Choice Award for Fiction | A Good Morning America Book Club Pick | Independent (London) Ten Best Books of the Year
"A feel-good book guaranteed to lift your spirits."-The Washington Post
The dazzling reader-favorite about the choices that go into a life well lived, from the acclaimed author of How To Stop Time and The Comfort Book.
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of…
This is a book about the power of dreams. What would you do if you realized that whatever you dreamt became reality when you woke up? And what would you do if you had the power to control that dreamer? Like so many of LeGuin’s amazing novels, this one is both pure entertainment and a deeply thoughtful exploration of the consequences of power (as well as some fascinating thoughts about what an ideal world might look like). I find the concept of responsibility as it relates to power super intriguing, and I appreciate how using “magical” elements to explore the concept adds a purity to a conversation that could otherwise get bogged down in politics. (Plus it’s way more fun.)
'Her worlds have a magic sheen . . . She moulds them into dimensions we can only just sense. She is unique. She is legend' THE TIMES
'Le Guin is a writer of phenomenal power' OBSERVER
George Orr is a mild and unremarkable man who finds the world a less than pleasant place to live: seven billion people jostle for living space and food. But George dreams dreams which do in fact change reality - and he has no means of controlling this extraordinary power.
Psychiatrist Dr William Haber offers to help. At first sceptical of George's powers, he comes…
OK, I admit, I’m cheating a little with this one because the plot doesn’t technically mess with time, but the storytelling itself does since the narrator is remembering events that happened in the past. This is one of those Big Ending Plot Twist stories so I can’t say too much, but the thing that happened in the past has everything to do with the present in a way that completely blew me away. Wildly clever plotting (something I find super hard to do well). I loved this book.
The TikTok phenomenon and #1 New York Times bestseller.
A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends-the Liars-whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth.
We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honouree E. Lockhart.
Read it.
And if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE.
Don't miss FAMILY OF LIARS, the thrilling prequel to We Were Liars, published in May 2022.
I don’t think you can have a list of time books without including this classic. I read the book years ago but bits of it still pop into my head sometimes. It’s a beautiful story that combines adventure, actual science facts, brilliantly imagined other worlds, and at its heart, a tale of family love. This was one of the first science fiction novels I ever read and one of the reasons that for a long time, all I wanted to read were books about other worlds and alternate realities.
Puffin Classics: the definitive collection of timeless stories, for every child.
We can't take any credit for our talents. It's how we use them that counts.
When Charles and Meg Murry go searching through a 'wrinkle in time' for their lost father, they find themselves on an evil planet where all life is enslaved by a huge pulsating brain known as 'It'.
Meg, Charles and their friend Calvin embark on a cosmic journey helped by the funny and mysterious trio of guardian angels, Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which. Together they must find the weapon that will defeat It.…
The Road from Belhaven is set in 1880s Scotland. Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small girl that she can see the future. But she soon realises that she must keep her gift a secret. While she can sometimes glimpse the future, she can never change it.
Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis, visiting Belhaven for the harvest, begins to court her. Why have the adults around her never told her that the touch of a hand can change everything? When she follows Louis to Glasgow, she begins to learn the limits of his devotion and the complexities of her own affections.
From the New York Times best-selling author of The Flight of Gemma Hardy, a novel about a young woman whose gift of second sight complicates her coming of age in late-nineteenth-century Scotland
Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective—she doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but…
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