The Time-Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger

This book is so sad. Not slash-your-wrists-in-despair sad, but romantic sad. Henry DeTamble can time travel within his own life. Seems like a good thing, right? He visits himself and people he loves, people he's lost. He gives his younger self stock tips, knows things about the future and meets his future wife, age 6. But when he time travels, it's uncontrollably and unpredictably. He never knows when or where he'll go, and he can't take anything with him, so he's constantly leaving behind piles of empty clothing. And when he arrives wherever, whenever, he's naked and sick and lost. He materializes in front of moving cars, in winter snow, in water. It's a genetic mutation he can't prevent. But through his time traveling, he meets his wife Clare, who knows him most of his life -- and waits for him when he's not there. Sounds like science fiction, but it's really a love story.

Kushiel's Dart, Jacqueline Carey

This book is only for the serious fantasy enthusiast, and maybe not for all of those, either. "Kushiel's dart" is the story of PhËdre nÛ Delaunay, who is born into a world of indentured prostitution and trained by a politician to mix sex, spying and sado-masochism. PhËdre quickly becomes a favorite of the court and intrigue follows. This is not the book for you if you're wondering whether you like fantasy or not ñ Carey is highly romantic, and PhËdre is full of "if I knew then what I know now" melodrama. Nonetheless, it's a good, complicated story, fantasy that you can sink your teeth into. And it's kinky.

The Dogs of Babel, Carolyn Parkhurst

I think I may need to add a new category to Unfavorablepink: books you shouldn't read while your spouse is out of town. "The Dogs of Babel" tells the story of Paul Iverson, whose wife Lexy Ransome (what a name!), is killed when she falls out of the apple tree in their back yard. Paul goes into an understandable tailspin trying to understand Lexy's death -- and life, as he finds "incongruities" around the house. Why did Lexy rearrange all the books in the house the day she died? Why was she climbing the apple tree, anyway? Paul eventually fixates on their dog, Lorelei, who was with Lexy that afternoon. If Lorelei could talk, could she explain why Lexy climbed the tree? Could she tell Paul whether Lexy committed suicide or just fell? Paul takes a sabbatical from his university professorship to teach Lorelei to talk. Things get a little bizarre from there. Parkhurst's book is sad and a little crazy, and it feels much too real when read late at night in a quiet house when your husband is 6000 miles away.