Greeks, Time Traveling, and Happy Birthday Baby!

I need your help.

As most of you know, my dear friend Sarah is getting married in just a few short weeks. There is only one problem.

She’s short a groom.

Pete, her lovely fiancé, is trapped in France, awaiting some Greek paperwork to finish processing his fiancé visa for the US. Once this is done he can move here and we can have ourselves a wedding!

I realize that this is not a life-threatening situation. Not like what’s happening in the south in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, or what happened on that bridge in Iraq.

But she’s dear to me, and I thought, maybe, just maybe, someone who reads this blog knows someone who knows someone in the Greek government (or police department). Anyone? Please?

So I realize that I might be the very last person on the planet that hasn’t read The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Nffenegger (judging by the reaction of folks I ride the train with), but I just finished it.

It wrecked me.

I enjoy almost everything I read, but this book was just beautiful. The language was fluid and lovely;it felt like poetry. Good poetry. The love story was completely convincing and I was deeply invested in every detail. Everyone in the book felt like family to me.

Oy, I’ve been left a quivering pile of heart-wrenched muck. Maybe it’s because I’m someone blessed with that incredible cliché—absolutely perfect and amazing True Love--but I didn’t doubt Clare and Henry’s love for a moment. I was swept away by their story, and wept as the book drew to a close (I always feel sad when a really good book ends).

If you haven’t read it yet, I heartily recommend it. By the way, this book also features infertility, multiple miscarriages, and the birth of a baby girl. Just so you know.

Speaking of my True Love, today is Charlie’s birthday.

Happy Birthday, baby. I love you more than anything.

Comments

[Lana]

What a great day to have a birthday....it's my husband's too :-) Have a great day Charlie & Cecily!!!

[Heatherg]

awe.............Happy Birthday Charlie!

Good luck to Sarah, I read her blog too and i think i am a nervous wreck waiting on the "He's here!" news!

Somebody help them pa-lease!

[Sarah]

Aw, thanks sweetie!

Just everyone keep their fingers crossed! I know we'll get there...we HAVE to.

And I want that book to borrow next!!! :-)

[KelliAmanda]

Nope - apparently *I'm* the only one who hasn't read that book. It's always checked out at the library. :-( I guess I could reserve it, but... oh well, not like I have time to read anyway.

Hope someone can help get Sarah's fiancé back to the states. The world needs some more happiness right about now.

[Blanche]

Oh man was that the best book ever or what?!?! I thought it was beautiful, too. I was reading it last Christmastime while "on assignment" as a temp. It was at a super slow oil company and the phone rang maybe once a day so I had all the time in the world to read - and get paid for it! Woo hoo! I, too, didn't want it to end. What a story teller she is! I wonder if she's written more. Okay, I'll just go out into that little world-wide web and see!

Happy Birthday to Charlie! Many happy returns! I read his post the other day about the credit card craziness and it cracked me up!

[Jen (yup, another one)]

OH! I *loved* TTW! (It also had nice geek factor because I'm a librarian, too!) I could not stop talking or thinking about it for weeks after I read it. Beautiful, breathtaking, heartbreaking and thought-provoking.

[Molly]

LOVED the book as well. Glad you read it.

[Cat, Galloping]

I teared up every time I thought about it for WEEKS after reading that book. I can't remember any other book ever affecting me that way.

Happy birthday to Charlie!

[wavybrains]

That book was unspeakably wonderful and beautiful--quickly made it to my all-time favorite short list.

[danielle]

Loved that book! So much that I didn't want it to end.

[MamaPajama]

TTW was the best book I've read in years. The whole concept that he knew some things that would happen in the future and she did knew some things that he wouldn't know. I'd almost (but that would take effort) like to make a linear time line of what happened, and who was what age. Glad you enjoyed it, I'm going to search Amazon to see if she's written anything else.

If you want a recommendation, try Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt. A beautifully written memoir that that will tear your heart out. If you saw the movie, try to forget it and read the book. It never did justice to McCourt's beautiful words.

[Christine]

Holy,

I just finished that book too...loved it ... Funny, and I read your blog all the time...and love it aswell....

[Ollie]

Happy Birthday Charlie!!

TTW wrecked me too. I spent hours sobbing while reading it.

[Sheri Guyse]

Don't you wonder how people can WRITE like that? I mean *really*.

Another book that wrecked me was A God-Shaped Hole by Tiffanie DeBartolo. I loved that book and I remember that when I finished it my husband had to hold me while I cried for 15 minutes. I haven't reread it because I'm afraid I won't love it like I did the first time.

[suze]

Oh my...that book was wonderful. i hated that it had to end. gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous book.

happy birthday to charlie.

[Maryann]

Ditto on TTW!!! Like others, I thought about it for weeks. Now that you mention it, I think I need to pull it out and read it again. BTW, everyone I have ever talked to about "Pillars of the Earth" by Ken Follett agrees that is the best book ever written - men and women alike. In case your reading list is running short and you missed that one... :)

Happy, Happy Birthday to Charlie!

Another happy thought - my very dear friend here in Houston TX has a son who was in Baton Rouge when the hurricane hit. She FINALLY heard from him today and he's ok! Even though he's 21, he's still her "baby".

Cec- I would be interested to know what your readers are doing re: the hurricane. Hubby and I are debating a donation to Red Cross vs. finding a family we can help directly.

Cheers!
Maryann

[Maryann]

P.S. - No Greek connections here, but sending prayers, good thoughts, positive karma et. al. Sarah's way!

[Ninotchka]

Aww, Happy Birthday to your beloved.

:)

[luolin]

I am 3/4 through that book right now!

[luolin]

P.S. I recommend the Unabridged Book on Tape for Angela's Ashes-or whichever brand it is that has Frank McCourt reading it. (Normally I just do books on tape for long drives, but I had heard FMcC read passages from his book on npr and decided to rent the tape instead of reading the book.

[Anna]

Sadly, The Time Traveller's Wife was not a book I thought about at any time I wasn't reading it. I enjoyed it, it was an interesting read, but it didn't capture me the way it seems to have so many people here. And I lent it to a friend, and he can't even get into it enough to bother finishing it.

For me... eh. Like I said, I was interested, but it didn't leave me thinking.

[maia]

Sending all the best for Sarah, how frustrated she must feel!
Happy Birthday to your mate, hope you two enjoyed the day.

[margi]

I read TTW while actually traveling. I read the last 1/3 while on a plane from Amsterdam Holland to Seattle Washington. I was kind of time traveling..getting on the plane at 12:00 p.m, and getting off the plane at 12:00 p.m. I loved it.

Have you read The Kite Runner? I highly recommend it. It can be hard to read at times, but is soooo worth it.

[DMouse]

Happy birthday Charlie!

The TTW is just amazing.

[Pamplemousse]

I sobbed my way through the last half of that book. Thankfully crying is good for you.

I hope you give that man good birthday times!!