How to Stop Time

How to Stop Time by Matt Haig.   325 pages

"The first rule is that you don't fall in love, ' he said... 'There are other rules too, but that is the main one. No falling in love. No staying in love. No daydreaming of love. If you stick to this you will just about be okay.'" 

Of course, it's never as easy as this, is it? And living for years upon years without love sounds just about impossible. Tom Hazard, who looks like an ordinary 40-something, has actually been alive for centuries, living through history. He's known Shakespeare and Captain Cook, shared cocktails with F. Scott Fitzgerald, and traveled the world. However, now he just wants an ordinary life. Of course, when you don't appear to age, it can become dangerous to stay in one place, so up until now, Tom has kept moving, changing locations about every eight years. Moving back to London, he takes a job as a history teacher, but finds he's fascinated by a young French teacher at his school. However, remember that first quote above; this is the one rule enforced by the Albatross Society, a secretive group which protects people like Tom.

I really loved this original story which had moments of being reflective, funny, and a bit sad. Tom has led quite the life, and you get parts of the story from the past, as well as the present-day, so you really get a good sense of how Tom's past has informed how he moves through the world in the present. Tom doesn't lose himself in the past, constantly dragging it forward, but he can't forget it, either. And that's what's tricky sometimes; he can't admit that he knows way more about history than he's letting on, and he can't really share his life with anyone without putting them in harm's way.  But that doesn't mean the story is completely sad; it's just a lot of thoughtfulness and reflection.

I did especially like that Tom's character is a musician and that thread runs through much of the story. In particular, this one bit stayed with me (p. 99): "Music doesn't get in. Music is already in. Music simply uncovers what is there, makes you feel emotions that you didn't necessarily know you had inside you, and runs around waking them all up. A rebirth of sorts."

First Frost

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen
296 Pages



"It's October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly. As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree... and all the magic that swirls around it. But this year, first frost has much more in store. Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley's Candies. Though her handcrafted confections - rose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds - are singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts. Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance. With each passing day she longs more for a baby - a namesake for her wonderful Henry. Yet the longer she tries, the more her desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the pleasure out of the life she already has. Sydney's daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to... if only he could see it, too. But how can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he appears to her as little more than a puff of smoke? When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost ."

This revist to the Waverly family takes place years after the first book and while still an entertaining read, is not quite as special as the first book Garden Spells.  I think the problem is that the problems presented in this book never really seem to become too threatening and there is no sense of any true adversity for the characters.  This coupled with having so many characters leads to a shallowness that was not present in the first book.