How to Stop Time

Tom has met William Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Captain Cook. He's over four centuries old (but looks like he's only in his 40s) but of course he can't tell anyone that. As far as Tom is concerned, being practically immortal (he's not, but he should live well into his ninth century) isn't all it's cracked up to be. He probably would have done himself in a long time ago, except he has to find his daughter, who's out there somewhere. He thinks. But since he hasn't even had a hint of where she might be in about 350 years, he's decided to go back to his roots, which dredge up a lot of memories. Most of the book alternates between Tom's current life as a history teacher and his reminiscenses as he Forrest Gumps his way through history.

There's not so much plot for most of the book as there is deep, dark philosophical musing on life and time and history. Until suddenly Haig realizes that he has to actually end the book in some way, and several very dramatic things happen, Tom comes to some startling realizations, and they all live happily ever after. For a long time.

I will post my notes, highlights, and annotations on my "Denise Reads" blog.
https://denisereadsbooks.blogspot.com

The following text was meant to be an annotation in the beginning of the book, but there are too much words to fit in that small note space, so here you go:
I just wanted to add a note in the beginning of the book. I first got the audiobook from my library. So my local library, Phoenix Public Library, does this summer reading game every summer and it's the most exciting thing for my summers in the 120° heat! It's called Maricopa County Reads (Imagine Your Story) #read20az I do it every year because you can get a free book when you read for 1,000 minutes! Before the coronavirus they would mail your free book to your mailbox, but now you have to wait until August to get your free book in person. I have a lot of accounts just to get free books, but since it's different this year I have to actually play and read the amount of minutes I have to everyday, which is 20 minutes a day, but I don't mind because I love reading! My new real account name is DeniseSummerReading. What's really cool is that they gave me a free friends book! "Just for registering in the summer reading game, you have earned a free Friends book (used book from Friends Corner). Once our libraries are open to public, you will be able to select your free book." I love that so much! So I had another different account called DeniseFiggy7 and I put 1,000 points in the log and they have options if you want a free book, a free audiobook, or to donate your free book. I made 3 accounts to do all three. I made the DeniseFiggy7 account to get a free book, but last time I went into the library to get a coupon or something like that and I gave them my email and they saw my multiple accounts and they had a shocked face because they never saw anything like that before XD So I have to use an email that I haven't used with Maricopa County Reads before. I used DeniseFiggy8 to donate my book then DeniseFiggy9 to get a free audiobook and that's how I discovered this book! Then after I gave up on the previous book I was reading I decided to read this book because it was already ready to go with the audiobook. You see, when I get ready to read a book I usually get the audiobook AND ebook to read at the same time. I feel like the narrator's voice really brings the words and the story to life!! This is especially true with Anne Rice's The Vampire Chronicles! So I went to search for the ebook version of this book and saw that the Google Play Store had a special on ebooks, which is like perfect timing! I also have some credit saved for anything in the store, so it's double perfect because I got both items basically for free! SO GOOD!!! AND this book is amazing!!

I loved the main character, Tom, because he is so likeable and you can't help but feel sorry for him. I loved everything about this book and I love that in the acknowledgments at the end of the book that the author's, Matt Haig, main thing was hoping that the reader enjoys the story and I have to tell you that I sure did! I have to check out more from Matt for my next read! Thank you so much for this lovely and wonderful story, Matt!! <3

This was a really fun read. Humans who age super slowly, and all the problems related to that, was a unique concept to explore and a nice twist on the regular time travel genre. The novel was a good mix of entertaining and thought-provoking episodes and I appreciated the happy resolution after all the moments of despair.