The Midnight Library by Matt Haig **

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig beat out Anxious People by Fredrik Backman by 5 votes for the 2020 Goodreads novel award. I highly recommend the Backman book. This one, not so much. IMHO Haig’s book is a cross between a self-help book and It’s a Wonderful Life.

The Midnight Library is about Nora Seed, who wants to die, but instead ends up in the Midnight Library where she gets to relive all the decisions she regrets and visit all her lives that might have been. Unsurprisingly, the answer is there’s no place like home.

Advice to live a better life: Acceptance.

“And there really were quite a lot of things she hadn’t become. The regrets which were on permanent repeat in her mind. I haven’t become an Olympic swimmer. I haven’t become a glaciologist. I haven’t become Dan’s wife. I haven’t become a mother. I haven’t become the lead singer of The Labyrinths. I haven’t managed to become a truly good or truly happy person. I haven’t managed to look after Voltaire.”

"Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be different if you had made other choices. Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?

More advice to live a better life: An attitude of gratitude.

“I have run out of lives. I have been everything. And yet I always end up back here. There is always something that stops my enjoyment. Always. I feel ungrateful.”

“We only know what we perceive. Everything we experience is ultimately just our perception of it.”

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.” — Thoreau

A cross between The Wizard of Oz and A Christmas Carol.

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Nobody’s Princess by Esther Friesner *****

Helen of Troy was “the face that launched a thousand ships,” but in the 21st-century women are more than just pretty faces. In Nobody’s Princess, author Esther Friesner, asks, “Who was Helen?... Did she know that everyone agreed that she was the most beautiful woman in the world? Did knowing that make her feel proud, or smug, or embarrassed, or bored with all the never-ending compliments?” This Helen fights and rides instead of spinning and weaving, and much more.

In addition to giving life and agency to Helen of Troy, the book also reexamines Pythia, the high priestess of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the Oracle of Delphi.

Another female character brought into the story of Helen is Atalanta and the Calydonian boar hunt. Atalanta is the huntress who draws the first blood, but the patriarchs refuse to recognize her contribution because she is a woman.

A modern revisit to the woman who started the Trojan War, an ancient story with too few female characters.

This is an 8-book series: Princesses of Myth.

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Squeeze Me by Carl Hiaasen *****

Carl Hiaasen writes humorous hyperbolic satire about crazy Floridians. The 45^th president was too good a subject to pass up. Squeeze Me is about Mastodon, his wife Mockingbird, and his country club Casa Bellicosa. It also includes a plague of giant pythons and the POTUS Pussies, a fiercely loyal group of Palm Beach women fiercely loyal to the president. Fans of Hiaasen will not be disappointed. N.B., when Biden was elected Hiaasen added an epilogue to commemorate the end of Mastodon’s fall from power.

The protagonist is Angie Armstrong, a wildlife removal expert. “Tonight’s feature starred the commander-in-chief himself. Angie had been summoned to Casa Bellicosa to unfasten a screech owl from the presidential pompadour, which the low-swooping raptor had mistaken for a road-kill fox.”

Mockingbird on her husband, “All because my husband doesn’t trust anyone with an Islamic name. Or Jews, or blacks, or Asians, or Hispanics, or Mormons, or whatever. God, it’s exhausting to keep track.”

“The sitting President of the United States was a soulless imbecile who hated the outdoors.”

Summary: “I don’t know. Prepare for a plague of pythons?” “Shit, Angie.” “Major fuckage,”

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Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle ***

Brooklyn Wainwright restores old books. Homicide in Hardcover by Kate Carlisle is the first of a series of 16 books. It centers around a cursed,1880, jewel-encrusted edition of Goethe’s Faust. Her mentor Abraham Karastovsky was murdered while working on the restoration. Brooklyn receives the assignment and apparently the curse. For a book restorer and detective, Brooklyn is a bit ditsy for my taste. She faints at the sight of blood and gets flustered in the presence of a sexy guy. (They seem to be everywhere.) I can’t decide whether this is a romance or a mystery. Maybe the other 16 books in this series will answer my question.

Her parents are an interesting addition to the book. They are hippies who joined a commune in Sonoma County (California wine country, north of San Francisco) in the 1960s. The value of their land and the winery has appreciated since its founding. The commune and its early members are very rich. Rich hippies!

The novel includes lots of details on the restoration of old books.

 

Anxious People by Fredrik Backman *****

Fredrik Backman opens chapter one of AnxiousPeople with “A bank robbery. A hostage drama.” The author goes on to write, “This story is about a lot of things, but mostly about idiots. So it needs saying from the outset that it’s always very easy to declare that other people are idiots, but only if you forget how idiotically difficult being human is.” Also, this book is about how easy it is to misjudge people. It is a mystery where the reader’s prejudices supply all the misdirection.

I read this book in October, a month dedicated to fright and horror. This book is about a bank robbery and hostage drama. Also, divorce, death, desperation, and suicide. Plus, murder, alcoholism, and drugs. However, every character—and this is a novel about the characters—is nice.

The author is an astute and humorous observer of people.

·       The real estate agent takes a deep breath and says what women usually say to men who never seem to think that their lack of knowledge should get in the way of a confident opinion. “I’m sure you’re right.”

·       When a banker is asked what she does with her money, she states, “I buy distance from other people.”

·       Roger was silent for a long, long time before—without looking at her—he said three of the hardest words an older man can say to a younger woman: “You’ll manage it.”

·       “The planet will survive for billions of years even without human help. The only people we’re killing are ourselves.”

Neil Smith deserves special mention. He is the translator. Fredrik Backman writes in Swedish. The book includes plenty of wordplay—wonderfully translated. For example, this is how the real estate agent answers her phone, “Hello, you’ve reached the House Tricks Real Estate Agency! HOW’S TRICKS?” There is also a scene where a character confuses “inverted commas,” for “perverted commas,” indicating that the translation is British.

The truth? The truth about all this? The truth is that this was a story about many different things, but most of all about idiots. Because we’re doing the best we can, we really are. We’re trying to be grown-up and love each other and understand how the hell you’re supposed to insert USB leads. We’re looking for something to cling on to, something to fight for, something to look forward to. We’re doing all we can to teach our children how to swim. We have all of this in common, yet most of us remain strangers, we never know what we do to each other, how your life is affected by mine.

Do you need proof of all the love in the world? Notice: “All the apartments that aren’t for sale.”

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