You know Clement Clarke Moore's classic poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas, and you remember the line: "And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I'm in my cap." Well, that line reminds me of a time travel book I read half a century ago. In that book, there's a bedroom scene I recall on almost every cold, wintery morning. In that scene, our trusty time traveler is laying in bed with his wife on a cold, cold night. He thinks about how lucky he is to be able to live in the past with the woman he loves. H...

“I’ve always felt a wonder at old photographs not easy to explain… I mean the sense of wonder, staring at the strange clothes and varnished backgrounds, at knowing that what you’re seeing was once real. That light really did reflect into a lens from these lost faces and objects. That these people were really there once, smiling into a camera.”If you’ve ever been bewitched by antique photographs, intrigued by the lives of the people and places forever captured within, perhaps even wishing to take...

It isn’t very often that a book truly surprises me, particularly one that deals with a well-worn plot line, like time travel. But *Time and Again* is a time travel book unlike most of the others I have read. It is full of delicious descriptions that are so accurate and detailed that they make you feel you have literally stepped into the world of 1882. Since Jack Finney was able to take me to 1882 so easily, I had no reason to doubt that his character, Simon Morley, could get there as well. Si i...

I went into *Time and Again* with incredibly high expectations, given all the rave reviews it's received, but I came away with a rather lukewarm opinion. It was a perfectly pleasant read, but I just couldn't find that special spark that would have elevated it to a top-tier book. I'm a total sucker for a well-executed time travel story, but I wasn't particularly impressed with the method of travel used in Jack Finney's *Time and Again*. However, it served its purpose, and we were transported to ...

A vivid, romantic slip into the late 19th century. I very much enjoyed Jack Finney's *Time and Again* largely due to the development of the main character and his description of 1880s New York. The drawings and pictures add some interesting breaks in the story, but they are also a bit of a distraction and tended to pull me out of the moment. I picture Finney gathering pictures and drawings for research and the idea popping into his head to actually include them in the novel. I'm wondering if he ...

A delightful read from start to finish... and despite *Time and Again* being more than 50 years old, there were times the sentiments of Jack Finney's hero, Si Morley, felt absolutely timeless. This is a must-read for fans looking for the best time travel books!Its dual settings of 1970 NYC and 1882 NYC were the hook that kept me reading... the details were fascinating and endless, and yet stayed easy to read without getting boring. Finney's descriptive writing is superb!The New York of today and...

When I dive into a time travel story, I try not to get bogged down in the mechanics of *how* the character jumps through time. It's a rabbit hole that leads to unanswerable questions. For me, the real magic lies in the destination: what the character discovers, the events that unfold, and how it all reverberates in their present day. And oh, the wonders we find in 1882 New York City in Jack Finney's *Time and Again*! Stunning architecture, some of which still graces Si Morley's 1970 New York, i...

January 12, 2019 reviewMy year in books is kicking off with a re-read of my all-time favorite time travel novel, *Time and Again* by Jack Finney. Originally published in 1970, I'm happy to say that *Time and Again* remains a vibrant parallel universe romance and a true labor of love from an author who was genuinely captivated by 1880s New York City. If I were curating the best books to read each month, this would definitely be a contender for "Best of January," with its protagonist journeying to...

5/4/22 - An update on my time travel reading.I’m about to start my fifteenth time travel novel and thought I’d quickly list my 4 & 5 star rated novels for anyone who, like me, is somewhat obsessed with this sub-genre.5 Stars:11/22/63 - Stephen KingMan in the Empty Suit - Sean FerrellThe Time Traveller's Wife- Audrey NiffeneggerRecursion - Blake CrouchTime and Time Again - Ben Elton4 StarsTime and Again - Jack FinneySea of Tranquility - Emily St. John MandelThe Outcasts of Time - Ian Mortimer...

If Simon Morley, protagonist of Jack Finney's *Time and Again*, had any real personality beyond his nickname being "Si," perhaps the book's loose ends and rough edges would be less distracting. But he is neither a complex and interesting original nor a heavy-handed archetype. He's more of a blank slate onto which we might project ourselves, the first-person writing tone that of an amateur blogger trying their hand at a journalistic account of a very exciting place. No matter the topic, if the wr...