Books of the Year 2010: Fiction and Poetry

There’s no formula for choosing the books of the year. Some break ground, some tackle familiar themes with new energy. Some represent the best work from established authors, some introduce us to important new voices. And some are simply in-house favourites we feel deserve a little more attention. Here are the Fiction and Poetry books that made the most impact in 2010.
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Canadian Connections

Sponsored Blog Post: Canadian connections found in The Time Traveler’s Wife include actors Rachel McAdams as Claire Tabshire and actress Fiona Reid as Lucille Abshire; film locations in Toronto, Hamilton and Scugog Township; and one of the soundtrack songs is ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, recorded by Canadian band Broken Social Scene.

Currently The Time Traveler’s Wife is number one in Amazon.ca’s ranking of literature and fiction, number two in Amazon.ca’s ranking of science fiction and fantasy and is the number nine bestseller overall on Amazon.ca as well as one the Globe and Mail’s top 10 trade paperback bestsellers in Canada.

Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin

Sponsored Blog Post: Screenwriter Bruce Joel Rubin has adapted The Time Traveler’s Wife for the silver screen. His previous writing projects including Ghost, for which he won the Academy Award for best screenplay, Deep Impact starring Robert Duvall,  My Life starring Michael Keaton and Nicole Kidman,  Stuart Little 2 starring Michael J. Fox and Geena Davis, and The Last Mimzy starring Joely Richardson and Timothy Hutton. Rubin worked with German director Robert Schwentke, who directed Jodie Foster in action/thriller Flight Plan and is best known for his direction of German crime film Tattoo, which won a special mention at the International Fantasy Film Awards.

Crossing Genres from Science Fiction to Romance

Sponsored Blog Post: According to Librarything.com, The Time Traveler’s Wife is the most tagged book in reference to time travel. Crossing genres from science fiction to romance, this novel joins a category that includes The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, Timeline by Michael Crichton, Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut and several novels by Diana Gabaldon, including Outlander,  Dragonfly in Amber, and Voyager. The backbone of the story is the sudden appearance and unknown timing of his disappearance of Henry deTamble and how his wife Claire Tabshire deals with his presence and absence. The story’s timeline shifts between the years of 1966 to 2053.

Filming Locations

Sponsored Blog Post: The Time Traveler’s Wife is set in Chicago, the third largest city in the United States and was filmed in Fall 2007. Chicago’s Newberry Library on West Walton Street is a primary location used in the film, as the employer of lead character Henry deTamble played by Eric Bana. This research library houses a non-circulating collection of rare books, maps, music and manuscripts and was the first public library established on the north side of Chicago in 1887 thanks to a bequest from the estate of Chicago land developer Walter Loomis Newberry. The city of Toronto provided many locations for the film, including Glendon College at York University, Varsity Stadium at the University of Toronto, and Keele subway station. Hamilton and Scugog Township were also additional locations used in filming The Time Traveler’s Wife.

Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplays

Sponsored Blog Post: Author Audrey Niffenegger joins a well-known group of female writers whose books have been adapted for the silver screen. This list includes:  Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, All About Eve based on a short story The Wisdom of Eve by Mary Orr, Gigi by Colette, To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, Ordinary People by Judith Guest, Out of Africa based on the memoir of Isak Dinesen, Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar, and Brokeback Mountain based on a short story by Annie Proulx. All of these adaptations won the Academy Award for best adapted screenplay.

Rachel McAdams as Claire Tabshire

Sponsored Blog Post: Born in London, Ontario, Canadian actress Rachel McAdams plays artist Claire Tabshire in The Time Traveler’s Wife.  McAdams competed as a figure skater as a child and by age 13 was performing in Shakespeare plays at summer camp. An honours graduate of York University, McAdams first major role was in The Famous Jett Jackson, a Disney television series. The actress has since starred in The Hot Chick, Mean Girls, The Notebook (where she met now ex-fiance /actor Ryan Gosling), the tv series Slings & Arrows, Wedding Crashers, The Family Stone, Lucky Ones and State of Play. McAdams was chosen this year as the Showest 2009 outstanding female star.

Eric Bana as Henry deTamble

Sponsored Blog Post: Australian actor Eric Bana stars as Henry deTamble, the time-travelling librarian in The Time Traveler’s Wife. Bana began his career as a comedian and gained notoreity in Australia for his impressions of actors Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarznegger, Sylvester Stallone and tv detective Colombo. His performance in Chopper in 2000 was a career highpoint; gaining 30 pounds and transforming into a fat, bald, disturbed killer, Bana won several awards, including three from the Australian Film Institute as well as notice from fellow actor/producer Brad Pitt who chose him for the role of Prince Hector in Troy.  After filming The Time Traveler’s Wife, Bana filmed Star Trek, which required him to shave his head. When reshoots were needed, the production had to wait until his hair grew back.

About Author Audrey Niffenegger

Sponsored Blog Post: Audrey Niffenegger resides in Chicago, where she is a visual artist and professor in the MFA program at the Columbia College Chicago Centre for Book and Paper Arts. At the end of four and half years of writing The Time Traveler’s Wife, Niffenegger dyed her hair red, as a tribute and a way to say goodbye to lead character Claire Tabshire.  She has published The Three Incestuous Sisters: An Illustrated Novel ( Harry N. Abrams Publishers, 2005) a fairytale about the lives of three sisters who live by the sea, and The Adventuress (Harry N. Abrams, 2006) a dreamy tale of an alchemist’s daughter and her discovery of love. Both books featured illustrations done by Niffenegger. This September, Audrey Niffenegger will publish Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel (Scribner), about the lives of twin girls who inherit a home near Highgate cemetery in London. According to the NY Times, she received an advance of US$5 million. Currently the trade paperback edition of The Time Traveler’s Wife is one of the top five bestsellers on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Author Audrey Niffenegger’s Debut

Sponsored Blog Post: Published in September 2003, The Time Traveler’s Wife is the debut novel of Audrey Niffenegger.  The love story is between a librarian, Henry deTamble , who involuntarily travels through time and his wife, artist Claire Tabshire, who leads a sequential course of life. The author wrote the story as a metaphor for her own failed relationships and wrote the novel at night, on weekends, and during her summer holidays. Niffenegger sent the manuscript unsolicited to publisher MacAdam Cage. After publication, the novel was endorsed by author and family friend Scott Turow on NBC’s The Today Show, which helped kick off sales. The book has sold over 2.5 million copies in North America.