Books you get lost in

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books by

Summary

“Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig’s enchanting blockbuster novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

This is the next book being read for the book club I’m in and I’m not sure if I would have stumbled across this book without them. I absolutely devoured this book in about 2 days, and it only took that long because I was busy and I needed some time to digest what I was reading. This story was utterly unique in my opinion and was filled with some interesting lessons about what could be a very complicated subject, but ultimately boiled it down to something simple. While this book did address themes of suicide and death, I would say that it was so gentle and eloquently done no trigger warnings would be needed, however, if that is a theme you do not like do be aware of that.

A world between worlds – The Midnight Library!

The Midnight Library was essentially like purgatory in a way. A place between heaven and hell when you die that allows you to try other lives to possibly not die. The library is filled with an infinite number of books which represent all the lives out there across all the universes. Some of these lives are parallel and some are perpendicular. Someone who is crossing over could experience other lives and, if the universe deemed it so, would allow them to live in that life and carry on if they fit. If no life was chosen, the root life (or the life of the person dying who arrived in the library ) would cease to exist. This honestly was such a beautiful way to describe this kind of in-between.

A journey to find what is wanted in life, or what isn’t. Nothing is perfect.

This book followed Nora to travel through hundreds and thousands of different lives to find a meaning to live. In the beginning of the book (not a spoiler) she ultimately committed suicide because she felt completely and utterly alone. She felt that she was pretty much a waste of space because everything was going wrong in her life – or that is what she perceived. Arriving in the library, she got to try all these various lives based on what she thought would be the perfect life and make her happy. She was wealthy, she lived abroad, she had a career she wanted and every other permeation. And in almost all of them she wasn’t what she would describe as happy. In all those lives there was something that she didn’t like – a worse relationship with her brother, being with someone that she couldn’t stand or just the general life style. Nora seemed to be searching for this textbook perfect life.

When she did find one she did like – a life that was honestly very beautiful – she wanted to stay but couldn’t. The narrator librarian, Mrs. Elm, seemed to express that she couldn’t find one because she wanted to live in her own root life and the universe couldn’t let her take over another life when she wanted to live. She ultimately fell back into her root life and from all the lives she lived, took those experiences and was able to make something positive in her new one.

A story of healing and self-awareness.

The story really showed how insularly we sometimes view our lives and that every small thing that happens is because of us. Through this book, Nora got to see how potentially fortunate she was  and also become aware of some poor choices. She also was able to erase some of her regrets which seemed to weigh her down. As she was able to experience regrets in other lives she was able to see that she wasn’t missing out on anything. This removed a weight from her and allowed her to see the world in a new light.

Was just a little confused a few times.

The story itself is simple but there were moments that I was maybe slightly confused or felt maybe it was a little like…huh? The idea that a person can slide into another persons life felt a bit creepy to me to be honest. That you could juts slide into someone else’s consciousness and not only live through them for a bit but take over. That did feel like the root life was the most important life which kind of diminished the other lives in my opinion. I know this is super small but that just bothered me deep down. Just thinking about it from big picture but in a weird way, it also pulled at the idea mentioned in the beginning by Nora. Essentially that having a choice in life (depending on what you believe) can be an illusion. So this is a weird point to bring up. But I just kept feeling that as she’d slide into lives and take over the consciousness of someone else.

An absolutely beautiful story of challenges and gaining new perspectives.

This book was honestly beautiful! I absolutely loved it from the first page until the last one. It had so many good lessons, so many interesting things to share and just the idea of presenting it this way was creative. I felt Haig crafted a beautiful story that will stick with you and a beautiful library to journey through the story.

I will absolutely be reading this again over the years because it does feel like a story that you will take different things from it depending on where you are in your life. That is just the nature of this kind of story.

I give this a 5 out of 5 stars! An absolutely wonderful read and one I would recommend to others!

There’s some interesting other reviews on it like over at NPR and The New York Times.

Happy Reading!

 

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson [Book Review]

 in Book Reviews / Books / Books-to-Movie by

Summary

“Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate.”

-From Amazon.com

Review

This book honestly was not even on my radar until I saw a trailer for the movie coming out soon. So immediately I had to read the book. I adored Jackson’s other book, The Haunting of Hill House, and was really curious about her other works. I certainly wasn’t disappointed with this wonderful read.

A perfectly manageable size.
This book is honestly the perfect length. It’s about 150 pages and a relatively quick read. With my course load at the moment, I’m trying to avoid really meaty texts (which is why Anna Karenina is taking me so long to get through) so something that is more bite sized is my style. But don’t be fooled that just because it is a small book doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot going on with lots of underlying meanings and messages.

A slow beginning and then suddenly a twist happens.
This book isn’t going to keep you on the edge of your seat or biting your nails, like I’m sure the movie will. The movie, while looking fantastic, will definitely need to spice the book up because it was relatively simple with just a few darker themes and ideas. Nothing creepy. Just kind of a ‘woah’ moment. If you choose to read this, don’t feel discouraged that nothing is happening. The twists begin about 3/4 through. The beginning is a large set up to really give this atmospheric vibe to the town and the family.

Giving life to houses seems to be Jackon’s ‘thing’.
While this did book didn’t give life to the house like it did in The Haunting of Hill House, there certainly were these underlying ideas of this house being alive. To me, I loved that. This book didn’t have any ghosts or anything like that, but you constantly were questioning if there was something more going on. But never really got to know. I adored that because it made it real but with this supernatural air about it.

This is one of those books that keeps you guessing as to what is going to happen next. You are constantly wondering if there is something supernatural going on or if it’s just your imagination. It’s fantastically written with all these little ideas being weaved throughout the pages which makes you need to keep reading to find out what happens!

Honestly, I can’t say too much about this book because it was incredibly short. It’s a simple book with a few twists that just kept me reading. It was honestly amazing. I read it and my mum read it as well and we have a generation between us but we were able to share an experience and it was so wonderful. It’s a ‘read in a day’ kind of book. And with the movie coming, this is definitely one to read.

 

5 teacups

Happy Reading!

 

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal [Book Review] 7

 in Book Reviews / Books / History / Older Readers by

This post contains affiliate links. Please see my full disclosure here.

Summary

“A 2014 Michael L. Printz Honor Book

A young seamstress and a royal nursemaid find themselves at the center of an epic power struggle in this stunning young-adult debut.

On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches: brocade and satin and jewels, feasts of sugar fruit and sweet spiced wine. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion. Here in the palace at Skyggehavn, things are seldom as they seem — and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined with that of mad Queen Isabel. As they navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power-lust, and deception, Ava and Midi must carve out their own survival any way they can.”

– From Amazon.com

Purchase here!

Review

An absolutely refreshing read that I’m super happy I picked up.

A definite cover grab for me.

Yup, this was another one that I got because of the cover. I’m super guilty of this but with all the books out there, with how many there are, you need one to grab your attention and this one did. I think for me it was the bright pink at the top that it looked like it was glowing. Something about it really just dragged me in. Also the fact it had a big fat award symbol on the front which always gets me. I like checking out books that have been nominated or won awards.

Older YA due to themes and writing style.

Honestly this was unlike any other book I’ve read in a while. It’s straight historical fiction and really feels like it. At moments I was waiting for something fantastical to happen but it was just basic historical fiction. The themes though I should probably address as a warning.

Trigger warnings would be: rape, miscarriage and violence.

To me, I liked these themes because it made the book real to the time period. People slept with one another to gain power, men used the servants for their own purposes, miscarriage was a thing during that time and could be prevalent. To me, I think it added to the book. I’ve read a lot of historical fiction and sometimes their lives are a little too simple and nice to be believeable. In this one, you felt the pain and struggle of the characters and to me that was so beautifully done.

Love, betrayal, hurt and revenge – you go girls!

Most of the main characters in this book were women, so we had some bad-asses and you got to see them develop from being these weaker females to formidable ones and watch them go up in power. And ultimately get revenge on those who hurt them later on. It was such a wonderful thing to read about and I loved it. It was maybe a little unbelievable in how it happened, maybe but I’m not an expert on this time period and I don’t really mind. To me I loved it.

Diverse characters and positions.

I really liked how you didn’t just get to see the life from one point of view. You got to understand royalty, those who were vying for more power in the castle and then see it from the view of servants. You got a broad view of life in a castle and to me it was such a journey.

Writing was a little challenging at times.

I’m not meaning the book was written in old english or anything, but some of the sentences were longer and had some bigger ideas and for one of the characters, when it was from her perspective, you really got into her mind and since she was uneducated, her speaking was much more choppy with words missing. I really really really liked that as you got to understand her more and really connect with her. But it did take some time to get used to.

Overall, fantastic read! Highly recommend!

This book was just so fantastic. I really loved it. I personally give it 5 tea cups out of 5. It was different and I liked that. Maybe I’m a bit biased as I don’t really read tons of historical fiction currently so it may be more of a novelty to me, but I know for a fact with everything it’s a solid 4 out of 5 but personally I give it a 5. I do recommend checking this one out. It is a bit longer and I read it in chunks as the themes were sometimes a lot. It is an older YA read because of the themes and adults would love it too because it would definitely keep you entertained!

5 teacups

Happy Reading!

Books To Read While You Relax This Summer

 in Books / Interesting by

If you’re anything like me, and a lot of other people, it’s hard to choose what to read during the summer.

Unlike in the winter when you can curl up inside and remove a lot of distractions from your point of view, summer reading is harder.

You go and sit outside and get distractions, such as when you’re at the beach.

So what should you read?!

Books To Read While You Relax This Summer

No fear! The NY Times has a list of 73 Books to Read While the Sun Is Out and the Days Are Long. I highly recommend checking this list out (but remember you’re only allowed 5 free reads a month for articles at the NY Times).

I just bought my subscription to them and am so happy! As a student, it’s only $1 a week (so you get charged $4 a month) which is nothing considering the great quality of information you get!

So worth it!

Book Review: When You Lunch With the Emperor by Ludwig Bemelmans

 in Book Reviews / Books / Travel by

Book Review: When you Lunch With the EmperorSummary

“Ludwig Bemelmans–legendary bon vivant and raconteur, and author of the Madeline stories as well as the surprise success of last year, Hotel Bemelmans–lived life like a character in a novel. Wherever Ludwig went and whatever he did–letting Parisian criminals baby-sit his daughter, getting caught with his toenails painted red by the Gestapo, or discovering the only restaurant with toilets in the Amazon Jungle–his escapades are guaranteed entertainment.

When You Lunch with the Emperor collects Bemelman’s work under the headings of Childhood, Work, and Play. Readers will enjoy their lunch with the Bemelmans!”

-From Amazon.com

 

Review

This was my traveling book that I took to Japan with me (so it got a nice bunch of miles) and I’m so glad that I brought it. It kept me company during the long flight there and during a long train ride in Japan on the way to visit the Great Buddha. It was so much fun to read a book about someone who traveled all over and had this incredible life, while being abroad.

First off, the story was fantastic. There was just so much going on and I had to keep reading to find out what disastrous thing happened next. Ludwig went through so much in his life and seeing it all recounted was just such an amazing story.

There was food talked about, different locations, traveling, high and low times in his life, and success and failure. It was so impressive to read because Ludwig just struggled and struggled, doing well and then failing but he never gave up. It was amazing to see his resilience.

I think the other thing that I loved was the fact that there were pictures now and then, drawn in the famous style that you see in Madeline. It was a surprise to be reading and reading and then suddenly get a page with pictures. It’s extremely rare in adult books and just added a little surprise to the book, which I loved.

This wasn’t exactly a difficult read. In total, I read it in a few days (it just seems longer because there was traveling in between).

When You Lunch With the Emperor is one of those books that is hard to review by talking about the story, because it’s technically nonfiction (as far as I’m aware there was nothing fantasy in the story). It’s an experience book, but it reads like an epic tale. I highly recommend reading it if you’re looking for something unique and different. This 100% fits the bill.

I’d give this book a 5 out of 5 teacups because I absolutely loved it!

Have you read it? What do you think?

rating 5 tea cups mlcwo