The Midnight Library, an incredible novel by Matt Haig

This is one of the most unique and uplifting novels that I have ever read.

Imagine a chance to fix every regret that you ever had. To live the life you always wondered about. To try out the opposite of all the decisions you made, right all of your wrongs, and explore all variations of your life in infinite numbers.

At the Midnight Library, you can.

Nora is miserable. She is lost. She is lonely. She feels she has squandered all of her potential, all of her opportunities, lost all of her relationships. 

When she loses her job, her elderly neighbor no longer needs Nora to help with his prescriptions and her cat is hit by a car, she is utterly alone and feels totally useless. She needs no one. No one needs her. No one.

She decides she has had enough. She wants to die. So she does.

However, before the process is complete, she finds herself in an infinite library with endless book shelves as far as the eye can see. There she meets the librarian, Mrs. Elm, her old school librarian and one of the few people she remembers being kind to her. 

Mrs. Elm explains that the library is a place that holds a book for every possible version of her life. With every choice she ever made, a new book is written.  She shows Nora her "Book of Regrets", which is literally sickening and toxic to hold and read. Nora chooses a regret to right and the a book/life in which she made a different decision, a different version of her life without that regret.

We journey with Nora, through countless lives, attempting to correct every regret, trying each on, finding it wanting and returning to the library. She's a rock star in one life. A glaciologist in another, in another a philosopher, a piano teacher. In one life she says yes to a coffee date instead of no and meets the daughter she would have had.

In each version of herself, she discovers incredible knowledge on the meaning of life, love, friendships.

The questions is... will she find the life she wants enough to stay in? A life she really wants to live?

Reading vs. Cleaning = Reading!

 

The Storyteller's Secret, a sumptuous novel by Sejal Badani

This novel is simply magnificent. The marvelous story of three generations of women in a family from India. 

It is an incredible love story: the love of family, the love of heritage, the love of friendship, and the love of a soulmate.

It addresses the turmoil caused by the desire to keep tradition and make your family proud by doing what is expected of you, while also harboring the desire to be true to ones own self, and to follow the path of your heart.

Jaya grew up in New York, the daughter of Indian immigrants, who is now a journalist and in the process of separating from her husband after several agonizing miscarriages.

When Jaya's mother, Lena, receives a letter from India about her fathers failing health, she refuses to ever return to India, for any reason. Much to Lena's distress, Jaya decides to go in her place, as she knows very little about her mothers family and hopes to learn about her roots.

Once in India, she goes to the home of her late grandmother, Amisha, an extraordinary woman. There she meets Ravi, her mothers former "servant" and dear friend and confidant. Ravi tells Jaya the remarkable story of her grandmother, the storyteller.

While living in her grandmothers house within her grandmother village and listening to the long story of her grandmothers exceptional life, Jaya learns of her grandmothers impact on her family and community. Jaya ultimately finds the connection that she feels that she has been lacking all along and her life is changed forever.

I give this lovely novel five stars, if not more, and highly recommend it to all.

The beauty of a good book.

Escapism at it's finest. 

Not sure who wrote this, but it's brilliant.

Shel Silverstein books and poetry.

I love Shel Silverstein! I still have my copies of "The Giving Tree" and "Where The Sidewalk Ends" from when I was a kid.

His poems just make you smile!

Reading for pleasure!

An excellent article about the importance of fiction.

Click link above to read.

Neil Gaiman: Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

"I’m going to suggest that reading fiction, that reading for pleasure, 

is one of the most important things one can do."

Behind Her Eyes, a juicy novel by Sarah Pinborough

Juicy. Twisty. Suspenseful.

I can only describe this novel as a masterful twist on the old love triangle theme, it's somewhere between the genres of exciting & suspenseful thriller (90%) and the genre of supernatural/paranormal (10%).

Either way, it was highly enjoyable in it's twists and the ending was a bit mind-blowing.

Our heroine, Louise, is a single mom who finds herself making out with a mysterious stranger one evening (NOT her usual behavior - but fun). The next day she arrives at her job, only to discover that the handsome, mysterious man, David, from the night before is to be her new boss, who is being show around the building with his stunningly gorgeous wife, Adele, on his arm. 

She does what we all would do, dives into the nearest bathroom before she's seen and hides there until everyone has left.

Later, she decides to simply forget that anything ever happened (they only kissed) and go on as usual. But before she know it, she has somehow become best friends with the seemingly perfect Adele, while simultaneously having a steamy affair with her boss, David. Honestly caring for and about them both, she is unsure of what to do.

Caught in the middle, not understanding how she even got there, she discovers what a strange relationship David and Adele actually have. Lot of mysterious and disturbing events and conversations lead Louise on a twisty and confusing path to discover if David is actually a terrible abusive and controlling husband to his lovely wife... or is the wife diabolical and the husband trapped in a terrifying marriage?

So now add in some paranormal threads... and you've got a GOOD book! (Not to mention the ENDING!)

I highly recommend this fun read!

My bucket list bookstore.

This little bookstore is located in Venice, Italy. 

It is called the Libreria Acqua Alta, meaning "Book Store of High Water."

In a city where the roads are water, this bookstore is ready for flooding by keeping its books in bathtubs, boats, a full sized gondola, and other water proof items and the books are stuffed and stacked in several small rooms. 

Can you imagine? I think I could hang out here for hours exploring thought these marvelous stacks!

Books. Books. My Dream Home. Books. Books.

A Little Princess, a wonderful novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett

This is a lovely, timeless book. Beloved by many of all ages. I recently re-read it and found that it is still one of my favorites.

Beautiful seven year old Sara has been raised in India by her father and is on her way to London to live in an all girls elite boarding school that her mother had attended. She and her father are very close and he dotes on her and purchases many beautiful dresses, books and a special doll for her to take with her to school.

You would think that someone so beautiful and with so many riches would be a snob, but Sara was just the opposite. She was friendly, generous, kind and had a magical imagination that she shared with her friends in the form of stories. She was well liked by most of the girls, except for the snobs that were jealous of her beauty and riches.

On her birthday, a solicitor shows up at the school to inform the stern headmistress of the school that Sara's father has been killed and nothing was left to little Sara, who also has no relatives. She is now homeless and penniless. The surly headmistress takes all of Sara's belongings to sell to repay herself for the cost of Sara's education and moves Sara from her lovely room to the cold and dirty attic to live as a servant rather than be thrown into the streets.

Devastated, Sara learns to use her imagination, not just for stories, but to make her life miserable surroundings tolerable. A few of the girls still visit, but she is lonely and befriends a rat and his family as well as a small monkey that creeps into her room occasionally from the roof.

This monkey belongs to the house next door that has recently been occupied by a mysterious and sickly man who is on a desperate mission to right a wrong.

In what could only be described as a minor miracle, this man's mission not only involves Sara, but it changes her life forever.

I highly recommend this book!

In 1995, a movie adaptation was made and directed by Alfonso Cuaron. While significantly altering some of the story, it was beautifully made, and captures the magic that surrounds this wonderful story that I also recommend.

A Witch in Time, a magical novel by Constance Sayers

Three people, one curse, several lifetimes.

1895, Juliet, a 16 year old girl in France, has a love affair with Marchant, a married painter. When her mother finds out not only about the affair, but that Juliet is pregnant and Marchant has left her, she places a curse on them both. She also includes a demon named Varner, whom she charges with maintaining her curse and keeping an eye on Juliet. However, due to inexperience, she botches the curse and dooms the three of them to re-live the affair over and over throughout time while Varner watches and slowly falls in love with Juliet, heartbroken to watch her devastation in each life when Marchant leaves her. 

In each life they are different people with no memories but meeting their counterparts and reliving the basic same love stories of their past lives, living and dying over and over. 

One day, the second "Juliet" starts to have strange memories that she can't explain. She learns a bit about a possible past life... and then dies. The third "Juliet" similarly has odd memories of two past lives and learns even more before she too dies.

In each life, she learns more until she makes a final discovery that changes all three involved in the curse.

Not a literary masterpiece, but a unique story nonetheless.

Books. Books. Books. Woops.

 

Happy New Year! Hope it's filled with many blessings and even more books!