PYL Book Club: Feb 2021 Bonus: The Midnight Library
There are a few February 2021 bonus books including The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. It came recommended in one of the many book newsletters I subscribe to. Per my 16 year old, it’s being promoted all over the place.
I struggled to get into the book and pretty much read it because I didn’t have anything else better to read.
The concept is reminiscent of The Good Place but with the main character living many lives for varied periods of time to get past her regrets to decide to live her life. I didn’t care enough about her or the story concept to really enage and ended up skimming the last third of the book.
Warning: there are spoilers in the questions.
What did you think of the book? If you are interested in chatting about it on Discord, join the text channel here. Or in the Piloting Your Life Facebook group.
Or you can simply read through and think about the discussion questions on your own.
Remember to buy local and support women owned bookstores.
- Were you able to care about Nora as a character or a person? If you weren’t able to, did it prevent you from engaging in the story (like it did for me)?
- Obviously the concept of a midnight library (or video store) is farfetched, but what did you think of the mechanism to allow someone to explore how their life could have gone had they made different choices? And to allow them to get past their regrets which may be holding them back?
- Were you surprised when Nora was near death and actually decided she wanted to live (polar bear scene)? Would this have been her reaction if she hadn’t explored other life options before this particular life?
- What did you think of her person in the Midnight Library being Mrs. Elm. Could it have been anyone else in her life and still work for the story?
- When she was in the library trying to get to the book Mrs. Elm directed her to, she said “She just needed potential.” Everyone else had seen potential in her but she had not. How did this change how she looked at life?
- Did it help or hurt her in her root life that she had a degree in philosophy. Did this help or prevent her from living her life?
- Which needs to come first? Caring for yourself and others, or others caring for you?
- How did you feel about the ending? Did it feel a bit too tidy or were you satisifed with how the author tied it all up with a nice bow?
If you have other discussions questions I should add to the list, drop me a line at pilotingyourlife@gmail.com or put them in the comments. I am happy to add to the list.
Piloting Your Life author Terri Hanson Mead started the PYL book club in September 2020 to provide a place to learn and talk about new books. Read more about the book club here.
Piloting Your Life is Terri’s debut book, ‘an inspiring, well-researched beach read’ written as a love letter to GenX women to design and live a life of their own creation’. Available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook on Amazon and other online retail outlets.
Terri is exploring more about her midlife (and being a tiara wearing, champagne drinking troublemaker) on her YouTube channel. New episodes every Tuesday and Saturday.
Follow Terri and Piloting Your Life on Instragram.
