One of my absolute favorite parts of this job is hosting book discussions. We have the most intriguing conversations (sometimes about the book and sometimes not). Tonight we discussed Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife and all of its literary goodness. I actually read the book a couple of years ago and opted not to re-read all 500+ pages of it for this discussion, but it's been a favorite of mine ever since. The book is simultaneously told from the perspective of Henry, a librarian at the Newberry Library in Chicago who has a genetic disorder that causes him to time travel into various points of his own life, and his wife, Clare.

When asked if this book was written specifically with women or men in mind, Rhonda, a thirty-something regular book club attendee, commented that her husband would read this book. "Well, actually," Rhonda clarifies, "not my real husband, but my imaginary husband who lives in my mind would read this book and he would love it!" The women in the room broke out in a fit of laughter because we all seem to have (or have had) both real husbands and imaginary ones who reside only in our minds. My imaginary husband is cleaning the kitchen as I type this. My real husband is watching The Sopranos on cable.

Allison Beasley