This Time Tomorrow

I’m on a role this week. I finished reading 3 amazing books in a few days. “This Time Tomorrow,” I have to say is the best book I read in this month of May and it’s my first time reading from author Emma Straub. “This Time Tomorrow,” is about a woman named Alice Stern. Alice has a good life even if it isn’t what she expected. Alice has a decent job, a great boyfriend and her best friend Sam who is like a sister. Though Alice can’t help thinking that there’s something missing from her life and the downside is her father Leonard Stern is sick and doesn’t have long to live. On the eve of Alice’s 40^th birthday she gets herself drunk and falls asleep in the guardhouse. Only when Alice wakes up the next morning it’s in 1996 on her 16^th birthday and not only that she sees the younger version of her father happy healthy and handsome. Alice wants to change certain things about her life and possibly change her father’s fate but Alice also learns important lessons on her time traveling journey.

Pros

I love all the characters. I think Sam, Alice’s best friend is hilarious. I also like Alice and her father Leonard. I like that it touches on a single father raising a daughter you rarely read about that. I also like the lesson this novel teaches about enjoying the present moments more because once they come they become memories. I also like the 90s setting. Although I wasn’t a teenager I was a kid in the 90s it took me to my own childhood reminding me of all the kids movies and tv shows I watched and other pleasant memories. My favorite quote was when Alice as her 16 year old self again, sees her guidance counselor/administrator lady, and the lady says an unforgettable quote, Our choices in life matter but most are not permanent face tattoos. I agree with one reviewer online when they said that this should be told to our youth more when it comes to SAT and other standardized tests and knowing what they want to do with their life. After all we make choices but sometimes changes come along the way and that’s okay. The book made me look back to when I was in highschool and really I was only encouraged to study and get the good grades, graduate and go to college without really knowing what did I want to do with my life?

Cons

There wasn’t much I disliked about this book. I devoured it in a day and a half I started it Monday evening and finished it today. To paraphrase Jane Austen when I really enjoy a book it seems as though it’s too short.

Overall

Overall I really love this novel. I recommend it for everyone who is close to their father or father figure in their lives. We all wonder if we made different decisions and we could change things if our lives would be better off or worse off than they are now. Truth is, we don’t know and we never will know for sure but what we do know is things happen for a reason and to enjoy the present as much as we can. As soon as these present moments are gone they are just memories. This message is important especially now in the age of social media on our phones, a pandemic (and possibly a second one with monkey pox) etc. While we can’t change the past we can control the present which will set a course for the future.