Communications Manager Kyla Merwin recommends The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
National Library Week is just begging me to read a “library” book. Despite the growing volume of books on my nightstand, another pile on the kitchen table, a short stack on my work desk, and a “to read” list that keeps expanding, I went back to one of my favorites: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig.
This book reminded me that all of us make mistakes in our lives from time to time, but nothing is so bad that there isn’t hope, or redemption, on the other side. And – typically – you can find these in a book (or a good therapist).
Paulo Coelho, author of The Alchemist (another one of my favorite books), once said, “Everything will be okay in the end. If it isn’t okay, it isn’t the end.”
Most of us get up in the morning with good intentions; we certainly don’t wake up thinking, “How can I massively screw up my life today?” Still, no one gets through adulthood without a few regrets along the way, eh? That said, if you could turn back time and make a different decision at a critical point in your life, would you?
Would you dare to live the life you could have had based on that decision?
This is exactly what The Midnight Library explores in the life of one Nora Seed, who has piled up wrong turns and bad timing. . .and consequently given up on life. Beyond the average every-day existential crisis, Nora decides to “off” herself.
That’s when all hell breaks loose.
Nora arrives at a very special library, subject to otherworldly rules and governed by her long-ago high school librarian. From endless stacks, Nora gets to experience not just one, but many, many different trajectories of her life based on past choices that she gets to change.
Mind blowing, fascinating, and ultimately uplifting, The Midnight Library invites you to explore a realm at the edge of the known universe, where the books are infinite, the stakes are high, and the choices limited only by one’s own imagination.
As National Library Week approaches, with its celebration of reading, literacy, and – ahem – libraries and the librarians at the heart of them, it might be fun to pop into your local library, thank the friendly and informed librarians, and get a tip for your next great read. Oh, and check out a book while your at it!
You’ll find adventure, imagination, facts, figures, and even hope, in the pages of a book.
Find The Midnight Library in our Collection in print, ebook, eaudiobook, and on CD here.
