It looks like we've got a considerable overlap in our reading tastes. I've read lots of Sheri Tepper. Some I've liked more than others, but they always make you think. Have you read Kage Baker? She's the sci-fi writer that I'm recommeding these days. Her Novels of the Company are excellent. Time traveling cyborgs with fascinating backstories, a big mystery, and tons of pop culture references which sounds cheesy in theory, but works really well in practice.
My other favorite book of 2004 was actually nonfiction. It's entitled The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson. A fascinating juxtaposition of the planning and implementation of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and its impact on the nation and the actions of the first American urban serial killer who was operating on its outskirts. It was riveting. Larson is a nonfiction writer with a novelist's sensibilities.
As for Time Traveler's Wife, I've managed to acquire multiple copies so I can lend it out to friends. At least four of my friends have read it so far. It occurred to me on rereading that all of Claire's major life events (losing her virginity, getting married, becoming pregnant with her surviving child, dying) all happen with an out of time Henry. Not to mention that the two places that Henry gets pulled to repetitively are both tied to death. His mother's accident and the Claire's meadow where he's shot. It's hard to believe that was Audrey Niffenegger's first novel.
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My other favorite book of 2004 was actually nonfiction. It's entitled The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America by Erik Larson. A fascinating juxtaposition of the planning and implementation of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and its impact on the nation and the actions of the first American urban serial killer who was operating on its outskirts. It was riveting. Larson is a nonfiction writer with a novelist's sensibilities.
As for Time Traveler's Wife, I've managed to acquire multiple copies so I can lend it out to friends. At least four of my friends have read it so far. It occurred to me on rereading that all of Claire's major life events (losing her virginity, getting married, becoming pregnant with her surviving child, dying) all happen with an out of time Henry. Not to mention that the two places that Henry gets pulled to repetitively are both tied to death. His mother's accident and the Claire's meadow where he's shot. It's hard to believe that was Audrey Niffenegger's first novel.