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The Midnight Library and Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore

I love Dolly Parton. For so many reasons, including that she's a badass feminist with a massive heart of gold who has contributed to kid's literacy among other charitable causes, including contributing to funding of the Moderna vaccine. Oh, and her incredible musical catalogue, of course.

But this story only about Dolly peripherally. Recently, Dolly did an interview with the NY Times, and she mentioned that she's been reading a book called The Midnight Library by Matt Haig. Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll have heard of this book as it's on all the lists this year. It's about a 35 year old woman called Nora Seed whose life is just not working out the way she hoped it would — in any area at all. She decides it's time to end things, and after she tries to do so, she finds herself in a place between life and death called The Midnight Library where her childhood library explains that she can try on different versions of her life to see what would have happened if she made different decisions she currently has regrets about. 

I loved the premise, and it was a smooth read, but I have to be honest — it didn't capture my heart in quite the same way it seems to have done for Dolly and everyone else. Perhaps it's because I've never truly been suicidal, so I can't quite relate to some of the feelings Nora finds herself dealing with, but I've certainly dealt with depression, and regrets? I've got plenty. I'm happy to hear the book has done so much for folks, but for me, ultimately, I gave it just three stars. 

At any rate, I love reading books about books or libraries, so this topic pleased me, and reminded me of a book I've had lying around for a while which I bought for a discount price from Bookoutlet.ca, I think. Anyway, the book is Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew J. Sullivan, and I'd heard great reviews. Also, people seemed to talk about it being a mystery which I couldn't quite tell from the description, but I took their word for it and I am very glad I did. 

The book is about a woman named Lydia who works as a clerk in a bookstore, and they have a variety of patrons who are under-employed men referred to as Book Frogs who are somewhat down on their luck, but are welcome to hang out and spend their days among the stacks. The book starts out with Lydia discovering one of her favourite Book Frogs, Joey, has taken his life and when he died, he was holding a picture of Lydia as a child. Needless to say, this is a very bizarre situation, and Lydia has to figure out how Joey came to find this photo, why he killed himself, and some lingering back story of a childhood trauma weaves its way into the tale as well. 

A mark of a great read to me is when I find it easy to keep picking the book up and pouring my attention into it without having to make an effort to keep going. This book required absolutely no effort to keep reading — I was utterly hooked after the first 50 pages, and happily kept going with enthusiasm to the end. I guessed the ending a bit before it happened, but overall, it was a beautifully layered mystery that I'm happy to have read. The story also does a great job of including the city of Denver as an important part of the story and atmosphere. I've never been to Denver myself, though I have a few co-workers there, but I can imagine myself liking the place. I gave this one a full five stars, even though it wasn't perfect and some of the bits around people hitting on Lydia were a bit over the top. A solid read, nonetheless.

The moral of the story here is that I heartily approve of people writing more books about books and libraries or bookstores. The end.

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