Review of Hooray for Lolo, by Niki Daly

Beginning Chapter Books, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Cross Cultural 0

Hooray for Lolo

by Niki Daly

Catalyst Press, 2020. 86 pages.
Review written July 23, 2020, from a library book

Hooray for Lolo is a beginning chapter book set in South Africa with four stories about a little girl and her family, doing life.

There’s a story about a show-off friend and her birthday party, a really fun story about a library book that all Lolo’s friends love, a story about Lolo dealing with appendicitis, and finally a story of Lolo and her family taking care of a baby.

This is a joyful book about simple things important to a child’s world with plenty of pictures and simple sentences. I like the window into another culture, which also shows that day-to-day life is much the same.

catalystpress.org

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/hooray_for_lolo.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Good Girl, Bad Blood, by Holly Jackson, performed by MacLeod Andrews and a full cast

Contemporary, Mystery, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Good Girl, Bad Blood

by Holly Jackson
performed by MacLeod Andrews and a full cast

Listening Library, 2021. 10 hours, 48 minutes.
Review written May 24, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Big thanks again to my coworker Lisa who recommended the Good Girl’s Guide to Murder series to me! This is Book Two. Each book has a complete case, but you’ll want to read them in order so you don’t have the surprises in the earlier books spoiled.

Pip is a high school senior and spent the last book solving a cold case of murder and disappearance as her Senior Project. She told about the case in a wildly popular podcast. But now her parents want her to slow down and focus on school. Her life was in danger at the end of the first investigation, and she was obsessed with finding out more. So when one of her best friends comes to Pip about his missing brother Jamie, Pip tries to say No.

But when the police don’t consider Jamie’s disappearance to be high-risk, Pip feels she has to get involved. Jamie’s mother and brother beg Pip to use her new notoriety to spread the word about Jamie’s disappearance and get more people looking.

And so a new case begins, and a new season of Pip’s podcast. Pip herself saw Jamie at a memorial service for the victims of her last case. So now her task is to trace Jamie’s movements after that event. But getting answers brings more questions. And yes, some of the answers bring danger to Pip and others.

Being a teenage sleuth sounds like a lot of fun, but this author explores how investigating affects Pip’s life and relationships. Besides a gripping mystery, these stories make us care about Pip and her family and friends. And we think with her about what it takes for justice to be served.

listeninglibrary.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/good_girl_bad_blood.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The 100 Years of Lenni and Margot, by Marianne Cronin

Audiobooks, Award Winners, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The 100 Years of Lenni and Margot

by Marianne Cronin
read by Sheila Reid and Rebecca Benson

HarperAudio, 2021. 10 hours, 54 minutes.
Review written July 9, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review
2022 Alex Award Winner (books published for adults of interest to teens)

Oh, this book touched my heart!

You’re warned right from the start. Lenni is a Swedish girl living in the terminal ward of the Princess Royal Hospital in Glasgow. She’s 17 years old, and she doesn’t want to die.

As the book begins, she can still go on adventures around the hospital. She goes to the chapel and meets Father Arthur. She asks him some uncomfortable questions about why she’s going to die, and ends up making friends with him. She helps a temp name the new room for hospital patients to do art. They call it the Rose Room — and that’s where Lenni meets Margot.

Margot is 83 years old and also dying — and Lenni notices that between the two of them, they’ve lived 100 years.

They begin a project together in the Rose Room — 100 paintings, one for each year of their lives. And along with the paintings, they started telling stories, stories from different years of their lives.

I love the two narrators for this audiobook. The narrator reading Lenni’s part sounds 17, and the narrator reading Margot’s stories sounds 83. And they both have wonderful accents, so the whole thing is a delight to read.

We know from the start that Lenni and Margot are dying. So you can simply expect some heartbreak at the end. But that’s going to come because this unlikely pair will have completely wound their way into your heart before you’re done with their stories and their enthusiasm for living.

Oh, and there’s a Swedish man in the book named Mr. Eklund, so that’s proof it’s a great book!

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/100_years_of_lenni_and_margot.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Boys in the Back Row, by Mike Jung

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

The Boys in the Back Row

by Mike Jung
read by Koong Sim

Dreamscape Media, 2020. 5 hours, 13 minutes, on 5 CDs.
Review written June 17, 2022, from a library audiobook
Starred Review

I missed this book when it came out because I was judging for the Cybils Awards in a different category, but I’m glad I finally caught up. The reader is excellent, making you believe you’re hearing the voices of middle school boys.

This is a book about deep and lasting friendship between two comic-book-and-band geeks. They’re bullied because of the friendship and because they’re geeks, but the friendship just shines.

Matt and Eric are starting another year of middle school. This time, instead of flute, where he was the only boy, Matt is playing bass drum, so he’s in the back row with his best friend, Eric. But there are some bullies in the back row, too.

Early in the year, the band learns that they’re going to compete in a band competition at World of Amazement at the end of the year. (I love the names Mike Jung invents for amusement parks and comic book characters!) But then they learn that Eric’s family is moving away after the year is done. So the final piece that sets their planning in motion is when they also learn that on the last day the band will be at World of Amazement, there’s going to be a DefenderCon where their favorite comic book creator is signing comics — just a mile away from the amusement park. Of course they have to go, in a final adventure together as best friends.

The catch is that they also realize they won’t be able to get permission. But if they can manage to keep things quiet, they might be able to pull this off. But then a back row bully finds out what they’re up to….

Naturally, I didn’t expect all to go smoothly with their plans, but I still was completely surprised by what happened. And the tenderness at the end almost brought tears to my eyes.

This all sounds serious, but the book is full of humor throughout, fun nerdy humor, the best kind.

Let’s hear it for nerdy middle school boys who care deeply about their friends!

dreamscapepublishing.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/boys_in_the_back_row.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of This Is a School, by John Schu, illustrations by Veronica Miller Jamison

Contemporary, Picture Book Review, Starred Review 0

This Is a School

words by John Schu
illustrations by Veronica Miller Jamison

Candlewick Press, 2022. 36 pages.
Review written April 20, 2022, from a library book
Starred Review

A disclaimer here is that I know the author from his work with ALSC, the Association for Library Services to Children, when we were on a committee together. He’s been working with children and children’s books for a long time, and this book reflects that.

This picture book is simple and lovely and reassuring. Here’s how it begins:

This is a kid.

This is a kid in a class. This is a class in a hall.

This is a hall in a school —

WELCOME!

It goes on with many things that happen in a school, with pictures of all kinds of kids interacting with others. There’s diversity in both ethnicity and abilities.

I love this page:

This is a community, growing.

The pages show kids celebrating, playing, learning, reading, performing, and more.

There’s a spread with a little girl putting a fishbowl on top of library shelves. It slips and the fishbowl breaks, so they need to clean up and find a new home for the fish. That’s portrayed in pictures, and the text says:

Some days we do the right thing . . . and some days we definitely don’t.

We fail.
We try.
We learn.
We trust.

The entire book would be wonderful to read to a new elementary school classroom as the year begins, picturing a group of people in community together.

I do love the way the school library is featured. And in the summing up at the end, librarians are listed first.

This is our class. This is our school:
librarians and coaches, helpers and staff,
principals and teachers, kids and friends.

And we are all important.

It’s not a flashy book, but it conveys a truly important message.

JohnSchu.com
veronicajamisonart.com
candlewick.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Picture_Books/this_is_a_school.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Different Kinds of Fruit, by Kyle Lukoff

Children's Fiction Review, Contemporary, Starred Review 0

Different Kinds of Fruit

by Kyle Lukoff

Dial Books for Young Readers, 2022. 313 pages.
Review written June 10, 2022, from my own copy, sent by the publisher
Starred Review

Kyle Lukoff won the Stonewall Award and Newbery Honor with his last book, Too Bright to See. Different Kinds of Fruit is another book exploring issues about gender in the lives of kids, and it does it with a happy and engaging story.

Annabelle has gone to school at the Lab all her life, so when they get a new teacher and a new student on the first day of sixth grade, she knows it’s going to be a different year than what she expected.

The new kid is named Bailey and explains that they are nonbinary and use they/them pronouns. But when Annabelle tells her parents, she’s surprised by her father’s reaction. Making friends with Bailey opens up discussion in her family and she learns family secrets that had been hidden from her.

Meanwhile, the new teacher gets the class excited about the topics they can explore — until one parent reports them and the principal squelches their plans. Can the kids find a way to stand up for what they want to learn?

The story doesn’t feel like an issue book, even though issues, very timely ones, do come up. I like the portrayal of Annabelle’s growing friendship with Bailey and Annabelle’s questions about herself when she realizes she’s got a crush on Bailey.

The characters in this book are interesting people, with lots more depth than the way they might be categorized by gender or whom they’re attracted to.

For example, when Annabelle goes over to Bailey’s house, she’s interested in some posters on her walls.

I was curious about the plant poster, and walked over to examine it more closely. “What is this?” I asked. “A flowchart or something?”

“Oh! There’s a whole series of these. Each poster is about a different taxonomy. Taxonomy is, like, groups of things, and how they’re organized. This one is about different kinds of fruit.”

I peered at it. Cucumbers and pumpkins and eggplants and avocados, all connected by lines and arrows. “Uh, no it’s not?” I said. “I mean, yeah, those are fruit up there” — I pointed to the top, where there were apples and oranges and bananas — “but the rest of these are vegetables! And those helicopter seeds aren’t fruits either.”

Bailey grinned wickedly. “I have news for you, my binary friend!” They dropped teir voice like they were about to utter a revealing truth of the universe. “There is no. Such. Thing. As a vegetable.”

I squinted at the chart, and then at them, and then back at the chart. “Yes there is! What are carrots, then? I don’t see those here.”

“Carrots are roots.”

“Okay, kale?”

“Leaves.”

“Artichokes? I mean, they’re gross, but those are definitely vegetables.”

“Wrong on both counts! Artichokes are delicious and flowers.”

“Flowers??”

“Yup. Broccoli and cauliflower and figs are all flowers too. ‘Vegetable’ is a made-up category.”

That didn’t make any sense. “If vegetables are made up, then why aren’t fruits?”

“Because they’re not!” Bailey looked triumphant, like this was a hill they would gladly die on. “‘Fruit’ is a job. It describes the part of the plant that distributes the seeds. Apples and oranges are fruits because they have seeds. So are pumpkins and cucumbers! And tomatoes. And those helicopter seeds. And berries. As a matter of fact, everything I named is a type of berry.”

“But ‘vegetable’ isn’t a job?” I wracked my brain to come up with something that all vegetables had in common, but I couldn’t. Except that they’re good for you.

“Nope! Leaves are a job and roots are a job and flowers are a job. ‘Vegetable’ is something people made up to sell salad mix.'”

This story has so much heart and is so much fun. On top of that, it gets you thinking about different kinds of people and what they all have in common. A joyful story that explores gender roles and the fakeness of vegetables.

penguin.com/kids

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Fiction/different_kinds_of_fruit.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Reading List, by Sara Nisha Adams

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Reading List

by Sara Nisha Adams
read by Tara Divina, Sagar Arya, and Paul Panting

HarperAudio, 2021. 12 hours, 47 minutes.
Review written June 8, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

This book is about a handwritten reading list that several people find in different surprising places in Wembley, a suburb of London. And then how reading those books changes people’s lives.

The two central characters who get most of the book’s time are Aleisha, a 17-year-old who’s working at the library as a summer job, and Mukesh, an elderly Indian gentleman who lost his wife two years before. Aleisha has her own pressures as she and her older brother are trying to care for their mother, who keeps the house dark and rarely leaves her bed. Aleisha’s planning to head to university and study to be a lawyer when the summer is over.

The first time Mukesh comes to the library, he encounters Aleisha, who has no recommendations for him and is quite rude. But Aleisha feels guilty, so when she finds the Reading List, she decides to read the books and then pass them on to Mukesh. Both their lives are profoundly touched.

I love the way this book highlights how a good book can affect you so deeply. Books can give you insights into your own life and even help build relationships. Besides Mukesh and Aleisha, Mukesh also gains new ground with his granddaughter through books.

I’ve read and loved all but three of the books on the list. Here are the books:

To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee
Rebecca, by Daphne DuMaurier
The Kite Runner, by Kaled Hosseini
Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
A Suitable Boy, by Vikram Seth

The book The Time Traveler’s Wife is also featured.

The three I haven’t read are The Kite Runner, Beloved, and A Suitable Boy. Now I want to go out and read those three if they’re anything as good as the others.

I did laugh that my favorite on the list – Pride and Prejudice – was the least favorite of the characters in the book. Oh well! At least it got included.

So it was all a wonderful story. I particularly loved the narrator who read Mukesh’s chapters. I felt like the character was talking with me and this kind elderly widower won my heart.

I did have some things that bothered me a lot about their portrayal of a library. Maybe things are different in the U.K., but I’m not really convinced they are.

First, a student working in the library for the summer is not called a librarian. A librarian is someone with a master’s degree in library science. Although a customer might mistakenly call such a person a librarian, the workers would not perpetuate that mistake.

Next, this poor hardly-occupied library needed library outsiders – Mukesh and Aleisha – to come up with an idea to “save” it – by having a program! A program where the community gets together. That’s all well and good and they had a very nice reason for it. But come on, is the author aware that most libraries have a full schedule of programs to engage their communities? It’s not actually a novel idea.

I did think it was interesting that while they talked about a few regulars, that particular library didn’t have any patrons experiencing homelessness. Maybe that’s not a problem in England? Of course, the library in the book was much, much less frequented than the one where I work. We get more than 800 customers on a typical day. I know there are libraries that don’t get so many, but the portrayal – in a book reminding us how reading can change lives – made me wince a little bit.

I also really wondered how the books on the list were chosen. It was interesting that there was only one children’s book – Little Women – and it’s a very old children’s book, set in 1860s America. But that of course got me thinking: If I were to make a list of my favorite books, books that had power to move people deeply and affect their lives and relationships, which books would I choose?

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/reading_list.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of Lawn Boy, by Jonathan Evison

Contemporary, Fiction Review 0

Lawn Boy

by Jonathan Evison

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2018. 312 pages.
Review written May 28, 2022, from a library book

Okay, I’ll be honest — the only reason I read this book was to find out what all the fuss was about. After another library in our system included this title in a display of banned books, a resident protested, and Fox News picked it up — and people from all over the country called our library and complained. I particularly remember a man from Arizona yelling at me and telling me that I approve of pornography.

So let me tackle the objections head-on. My first reaction after actually reading the entire book is disgust — disgust at the book banners, not at the book.

First, let me point out this is a book for adults. It is published for adults and marketed for adults. However, it features a 24-year-old protagonist who’s figuring out how to make a living and move out of his mom’s house, so it may well be of interest to juniors and seniors in high school who are thinking about their future. It won an Alex Award, which is specifically for adult books that have appeal for teens. So it is appropriate for high schools to carry it. Not middle schools, but I doubt that’s even an issue.

And I have read so many adult books that are much, much more explicit in sexual content. The difference? Most of those other books involve heterosexual relationships, and I can’t help but think it’s the same-sex relationship that bothers the book banners.

But — get this — there is absolutely no “on-screen” sex in this book. I’ll give a little bit of a spoiler that the main character finds a wonderful and affirming relationship with another man and spends the night with him. But the book pretty much fades to black and he simply wakes up in the morning next to his partner. Absolutely no description of having sex.

And I don’t hear much about that. What the banners seem to object to is that the main character mentions some experimentation with another boy in fourth grade. The other kid’s idea, but it was a mutual activity, and not by any stretch of the imagination does it constitute “pedophilia,” as the caller from Arizona seemed to think. The narrator does talk about it using coarse language, and he’s a tiny bit more detailed when he talks about losing his virginity with a girl six years before the book opens, but it’s funny how the banners don’t mention that.

Yes, the book is full of profanity. It’s talking about working-class families where this is how they talk. It would feel very inauthentic if they talked like a suburban mom. Now, I personally prefer novels where characters do talk like me, a suburban mom, and don’t use profanity. But sometimes it’s good to read about lives I wouldn’t otherwise know anything about and build some empathy.

Let me, finally, talk about the story. It’s about a kid named Mike Muñoz who loves landscaping. He even has a talent for topiary. But he currently works for a company that watches his every move and makes him pick up dog droppings (not referred to so delicately), and he has enough, so he quits. But he’s already living with his mom, who works two jobs, and caring for his three-hundred-pound older brother with special needs. It’s not easy to find something new. And meanwhile, there’s a waitress he has his eye on, but how can he impress a girl without having any money?

The book follows his efforts and his stumbles. He encounters various people who seem like they’re going to help but then let him down. About halfway through the book, I told myself I was only finishing it because I wanted to know what I was defending. However, I was glad I did finish. As the book progresses, Mike does learn from his mistakes and his setbacks — even the ones that weren’t his fault. And he really grew on me.

I’ve already given away that there’s a same-sex romance — that happening is the first Mike realizes he’s gay. The portrayal of that relationship is beautifully done and it’s lovely to see Mike relating to someone who builds him up instead of exploiting him. Outside of that, Mike figures out who he is and what he wants — and yes, the book has a happy and deeply satisfying ending, and I’m so glad I didn’t stop in the middle.

I’ll admit this novel is not for everyone. In fact, it’s not the sort of book I typically recommend. But I ended up very happy I’d expanded my horizons by reading this book and gaining empathy for someone whose life is quite different from mine.

So I do recommend putting this book on hold at your local library. Chances are good you won’t find it on the shelves because with all the attention it’s been getting, the Holds list is long.

algonquin.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/lawn_boy.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder

by Holly Jackson
read by Bailey Carr, Marisa Calin, and a full cast

Listening Library, 2020. 10 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written April 29, 2022, from a library eaudiobook
Starred Review

Big thanks to my coworker Lisa for telling me about this series!

High school senior Pippa decides to use her Capstone Project to investigate a local murder. Everyone in town knows that when pretty and popular Andie Bell disappeared five years ago, it was her boyfriend Sal Singh who killed her. After all, he texted a confession and killed himself shortly after, his body found with her phone.

But Pip remembers Sal. He was a kind person. Could he really have done that? Doesn’t it deserve a little more investigation?

The first person she interviews is Sal’s younger brother, Ravi. He has believed Sal is innocent all this time, but no one in town will talk to him. His whole family is despised because of Andie Bell’s murder. Now Pip is trying to clear his brother’s name, and Ravi has some information that might help.

Pip finds out pretty quickly that Andie wasn’t as sweet and innocent as the stories implied after her death. And as she digs, she starts getting threats that she needs to stop. How persistent will she be? And at what cost?

With a full cast presenting the story, this audiobook is perfect for fans of murder mysteries. How much sleuthing can a high school student do? I found myself believing that Pip’s perspective as a kid at the same high school gave her insight that the police had overlooked.

Now that the mystery is solved, I’m wondering what’s left to find out in the next two volumes of the trilogy, but I’m definitely going to find out.

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/good_girls_guide_to_murder.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?

Review of The Midnight Library, by Matt Haig, read by Carey Mulligan

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Fiction Review, Science Fiction 0

The Midnight Library

by Matt Haig
read by Carey Mulligan

Penguin Audio, 2020. 8 hours, 50 minutes.
Review written May 17, 2022, from a library eaudiobook

This audiobook was a lot of fun and kept me entertained and absorbed to the end — which is saying something because I’m not in the target audience. I don’t believe in parallel universes.

The characters in this book say that it’s science, but I’m sorry, just because a physicist came up with a theory to explain some equations, that doesn’t mean it’s science. This isn’t a theory you can verify, after all. To me, the theory that a new universe is created every time you make a decision, besides seeming wildly unlikely, takes away a lot of human agency. What does it matter what choice you make if in another universe you made a different one?

In fiction, it also takes away from the story — why should I care about this particular character if another character just like them is doing something different in another universe? Why should I care about this particular set of choices? But if your choices do make a difference — you’ve got a story.

The way parallel universes come up in The Midnight Library is that Nora Seed has some sad things happen and decides to end her life. After she attempts to do so, she finds herself in the Midnight Library. It’s a library with infinite shelves where the time is always midnight. She sees her old school librarian there, who tells Nora this is her chance to undo her regrets. Each book in the Midnight Library represents another life that Nora could have lived. Choosing a book and reading it takes Nora into another life in an alternate universe where she made a different decision somewhere along the way. If she finds a life that she likes, she can stay.

So, in this context, the alternate universes do provide a fascinating way to explore Nora’s regrets. She quickly sees that if she had done what other people wanted her to — things didn’t always turn out so wonderful. So can she find the life she actually wants?

It does work as an interesting frame, but I still have trouble with the logistics. Nora dropped into lives without the memories of the alternate-Nora from that life. A lot of good it would do to be a polar researcher if you know absolutely nothing about the topic, after all. And I kept wondering, Where did the alternate Nora go? And wouldn’t it be a shame to have fallen in love and gotten married and had a child if you couldn’t remember doing any of those things? So it didn’t seem like a fair trial of the alternate lives. And without having actually made the choices that got her there, they talked about Nora’s “root life” — as if that Nora is the real person and her alternate selves are disposable.

But if you think of this book as a version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” — a vivid look at what would have happened if things had been different — and don’t get too bogged down in the details (as I tend to do), it is always fun to speculate how things might have turned out if you had made different choices.

This book also helped me realize that I’ve outgrown my regrets. There was a time when I wondered how life would have turned out if, for example, I hadn’t dropped out of a PhD program in mathematics. But after my divorce, that all seems like water under the bridge. My divorce was something that got me wondering if I could have done something differently to prevent it (even though it was my ex-husband’s idea). But now, twelve years after the divorce was final, my career as a librarian is blossoming — and if I hadn’t gotten divorced, I would have been content to continue to work part-time. But because I got my library degree and became a librarian, I got to serve on the Newbery committee, and just this week, I got word that I landed my dream job as Youth Materials Selector for my whole public library system. Life is good! So who needs regrets?

Still, this book, and this interesting story of Nora and many different things she might have done, is what got me thinking about how nice it is to live without regrets. So if you can keep yourself from thinking too much about the mechanics, I do recommend this book.

matthaig.com

Buy from Amazon.com

Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Fiction/midnight_library.html

Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.

Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.

What did you think of this book?