Shannon's Library

LET’S GET EXCITED ABOUT THESE BOOKS!

Time travel between family members is at the core of both, “The Mirror,” and “What the Wind Knows.” In, “The Mirror,” a young woman looks into a creepy, old mirror on her wedding night and changes places with her grandmother. In, “What the Wind Knows,” a young woman disappears into a fog, travels back in time and takes the place of her great-grandmother. I loved the way each of these women had to learn to adapt to these challenging and unique circumstances. Fun reads for fellow lovers of time travel stories! Read my full review of both books below. Feel free to leave a comment and let me know which of these two books sounds like something you would enjoy!

Shannon’s Rating —

What the Wind Knows — PG -13

The Mirror — R for “adult scenes” that will probably not be edited out of your copy, unless you happen to buy my mom’s copy at a used bookstore somewhere (explained in my full review!) – and 3 uses of the f-word

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LET’S TALK ABOUT THESE BOOKS!

Time travel books, TV shows and movies. Why do I love them so much? When I heard about “What the Wind Knows,” by Amy Harmon I knew immediately that I would read it. While I was reading, it reminded me of a book I read as a teenager called, “The Mirror,” by Marlys Millhiser. So…lucky you! Today you get a review of two books! A two-for-one!

I got sucked into history and time travel back in my childhood and adolescence. I remember when my mom was reading “The Mirror,” and told me about the plot. I knew I had to read it. The book is about a young woman who, on her wedding night, looks into a creepy old mirror and ends up switching places in time with her grandmother on HER wedding night. I wish I would have kept the copy of “The Mirror” that my mom gave me to read. It would have been so entertaining to look through now as an adult! You see, my mom was known to edit books before letting me read them. It was common for me to be reading along in a book and all of a sudden, a couple of pages would be missing. I instantly knew that some sort of “adult scene” had just taken place. Unfortunately, sometimes important parts of the plot would occur in those missing pages. I would be confused when the story picked back up and I had missed a few things! So, of course, “The Mirror” had been edited by the time I received it. I remember reading along and sentences would be blackened out like a redacted document from the CIA! Sadly, this original copy of the book was lost over the years and when I wanted to reread “The Mirror,” I had to order myself a new one. Is it strange that as I was reading I still remembered some of the edited parts and thought to myself, “Oh! So that’s what happened on this page!”

But I digress. Back to the review…

If you’re wondering just how creepy this mirror is, here’s one description…

“A full-length glass with a ragged crack running diagonally across the top. But the worst was the frame, bronze molded in the shape of hands, long, slender but masculine-looking hands that slithered and entwined about each other like snakes, and all with talon-like fingernails.  The base was a pair of hands turned downward, the mirror’s weight resting on the thumb, forefinger and little finger on each hand.”

When Shay and her grandmother, Brandy, switch places on their wedding nights, one has to learn to live far in the past and one has to learn to live far into her future. Each situation brings it’s own unique challenges. What I found most interesting about this story is how hard it was for Shay to give birth to and raise her own mother, Rachael. She didn’t cope with it well and it produced life-long, lingering issues for Rachael. Rachael felt that as a child “at times she had the uneasy feeling her mother clung to her rather than held her.” At the end of the book when Rachael figures out what had happened to both her mother and her daughter (who were actually the SAME PERSON!) she laughed out loud with the relief of finally understanding.

This time travel family intertwinement is also at the core of “What the Wind Knows.” Anne was raised by her beloved grandfather and after he passes away from cancer, she travels to Ireland to spread his ashes. Anne is unexpectedly pulled into the past and finds herself mistaken for her great-grandmother who had disappeared five years earlier. She is reunited with her “son” who is actually her grandfather. Adding to this already difficult situation, Anne arrives in Ireland at a tumultuous time when war is looming on the horizon.

When Anne is young and loses her parents in a car crash, her grandfather tells her a story to ease her pain.

“The wind that you hear is the same wind that has always blown. The rain that falls is the same rain. The wind and the water know all the earth’s secrets.  They’ve seen and heard all that has ever been said or done.  And if you listen, they will tell you all the stories and sing every song.  The stories of everyone who has ever lived.  Millions and millions of lives.  Millions and millions of stories.”

This story about the wind is one that Anne’s grandfather’s mother told him. So, when you think about it…Anne told the story to her grandfather as a boy who then told it back to her as a young girl. Doesn’t this stuff just mess with your mind? I love it!! At one point Anne thinks to herself about this story...“I told you. You told me. Only the wind knows which truly comes first.” It’s the age-old question of which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s the question that makes our heads spin, our brains hurt and keeps us up at night after reading or watching stories that involve time travel. And yet, we love it and keep coming back for more!

Both “The Mirror” and “What the Wind Knows” involve love stories…stories that are made infinitely more complicated than normal because of the time travelling.

Here’s my question to you, my friends… If you traveled back in time and fell in love, would you tell your significant other the truth?

Shay, in “The Mirror,” does not. Her husband spends his life with her thinking she’s a crazy fortune teller. While talking to his daughter he described what it felt like to live with Shay…”It’s like living with a witch. But I wouldn’t have missed her for anything.”  By contrast, Anne in “What the Wind Knows,” confides in her husband who she really is and what had happened to her. The risk in telling the truth would be him not believing you and risking the relationship, right? But I think it helped Anne’s relationship grow stronger because there weren’t any secrets between them. So…what would you do? Would you keep who you are a secret or tell the person you love? And, by the way, if you don’t lose sleep at night pondering these impossible, fictional dilemmas, what’s wrong with you? Or maybe what’s wrong with me because I DO stay up at night wondering about this stuff??

Now, if you had to pick just one of these books to read, I would recommend “What the Wind Knows.” While it was fun and nostalgic for me to reread “The Mirror,” the writing didn’t stand the test of time as much as I hoped it would. But I thoroughly enjoyed “What the Wind Knows,” as an easy and fun read. I know a lot of readers loved the romance between Anne and her husband, but for me, the relationship I loved most in the book was the one between Anne and her grandfather. It was just so endearing. And it made me think of my own granddad, who, incidentally, used to tell me imaginary stories about a little girl named, Shannon O’Leary, from Ireland. Every time I went to his house and he was sitting in his rocking chair, he’d pull me onto his lap and say, “I wonder what Shannon O’Leary has been up to these days…” Snuggling into his shoulder while he told me these Irish stories are some of my fondest childhood memories. But now after reading, “What the Wind Knows,” it makes me think – Where exactly did my granddad hear these stories?? Hmmm…?? “I told you. You told me. Only the wind knows which truly came first.” Oh great. Now THIS is going to keep me up at night!