Meet your amazing summer read for 2010. If you haven’t got it yet, run out and buy My Name Is Memory because this one is going to plow through the charts to the top. My Name Is Memory has all the elements, including buzz that will make it a chart-topper and a people-pleaser. The big scramble for film rights and the fact that this author, Ann Brashares, who also wrote the Sisterhood of The Traveling Pants series, has been able to generate bidding wars for her work, got my interest and admiration right away. When this one landed on my desk here at brainfood I didn’t know quite what to expect, but I was truly excited to start this read. Would it be a young adult book? Was it a vampire tale ala Twilight? Was it for adults? Where exactly was it going to lead? My Name is Memory is a sexy epic love story that will keep you guessing and turning pages. At times it reminded me a bit of The Lovely Bones, by Alice Sebold, the story every bit as gripping. My Name Is Memory is driven by the two star-crossed lovers: Daniel and Sophia. Daniel is a charming, brooding, tortured teenager when we meet him at the high school prom and Sophia’s current incarnation is Lucy Broward, also a teenager. Daniel is an outsider of sorts dropped into the high school after many years of searching for his true love, Sophia, a woman he tells us he searches through time for, and has been seeking ever since he killed her. We meet Lucy heading to her prom, hoping to run into Daniel there and having rejected an offer or two escorts that would be appropriate and yet not memorable. We are told that Lucy’s sister Dana has suffered mental illness and is no longer with the family, details to be unveiled as the plot moves along. Lucy is the child her parents pin their hopes on, a good girl, and yet her mother notes disappointment: “She’d had two lovely fair-haired daughters and not one eager boy in a tuxedo to show for it. To look like Lucy had been enough in her day.” Daniel and Sophia are time travellers, reincarnated time and again. But Daniel also possesses the gift of memory, carrying his with him through his many past lives. It is a bitter gift that haunts him, especially when it comes to Sophia. Sophia’s spirit also travels through time, reincarnated often, but she doesn’t carry memory with her, so she is at times unable to recognize Daniel in his many shapes, forms and ages. There are moments she clearly has deja vu but doesn’t know why or how or what the mysterious pull to this apparent stranger is. Also as they parachute through various eras, they are sometimes incompatible in age, with him occasionally a child and her fully grown, he is often able to recognize and watch from afar, a voyeur to her relationships and many lives, unable to affect them because of the many factors keeping them apart. My Name is Memory is a great read, clearly plot-driven with strong characters. The research is meticulous and the many insights into various eras and lifestyles make this story truly educational, unique, and fast-paced. I will not spoil the ending as readers should pick this one up for themselves. Suffice it to say though, that if I had one small criticism of the novel, which is an adult fiction story with a strong romance and history plot, it would be that the ending lacked a huge emotional tug or twist. It isn’t a huge thing, because the book is great and the movie should be too. But for me as a reader, beginnings and endings are incredibly important. The quick punchy start gets you to buy the book and commit to reading, but it’s the ending that, when executed with just the right combination of style and emotion, makes a book resonate, or burrow beneath your skin to stay. My Name Is Memory was a great read, and yet as a writer I envisioned two or three alternative endings that I think might have kicked it up a notch and been more artistic. As it ends now, the author clearly leaves a strategic opening for a sequel, both in print, and on the big screen. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. It is immensely enjoyable and entertaining as it is, even if it failed to move me to tears or take my breath away.

My Name Is Memory, Ann Brashares, Riverhead Books, Penguin Group Canada, $32.50, New York 2010. Thriftymommas rating $$$$ out of $$$$$

Disclosure: Thriftymommasbrainfood is not paid for her opinions and they are all my own. However in order to review books I often receive a free copy from the publisher. Also as a result of being an Amazon affiliate I may receive a small commission from purchases.