MoFo Book Club - March '22

I'm just hassling you.

I *could* have dredged up a few noms, but since your initial nomination was something already on my TBR list, I felt I had no reason to add to yours.

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I've got Midnight Library so I'll make a start on that today and get as far as I possibly can with it.

Oh shit! My gamble that Six Wakes would win failed - I am already halfway through it!

I will order the other book today and get started on it asap!


EDIT: Book is on the way - will arrive tomorrow, allegedly!

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It's not a super-long book so, for you, it shouldn't be a hardship to breeze right through it!

One day in and I'm already on Page 167.

My word what a read. Really smashing story. Inspiring and fun too. A great concept also with the library and all the possibilities it brings.

Won't go deep into spoilers until I've finished.

But, Wow!!! So happy this was picked.

Don't forget that on the 12th you can discuss the first half, spoiler free, and on the 22nd the entire book.

Ah no worries then. I'll leave it all bubbling in my head until the 22nd.

Wasn't able to start reading this until today. Totally agree with you on this. I'm on page 152 and completely engrossed.... Loving it!

Looking forward to some lively conversation of the first half on the 12th

Guess I am the odd man out here, as I just cannot abide this main character. I won't go into detail until the 12th, but suffice to say, I won't be giving this a glowing review!

Currently on page 220.

I haven't started the book yet (I just got an e-mail that my library got it today!). But I realized why Haig's name sounded familiar: I read his book How To Stop Time last year. I was pretty mixed on it, with a neat premise but some clumsy execution. Interested to see how this book compares.

Sounds about right!

While I agree, to some extent, regarding the main character, that's not what drives the narrative in this novel imo. It's the theme. The possibility. The 'What if'. I think to some extent the main character must be what they are to tell this story.

I'm about halfway through. I also really dislike the main character for a lot of reasons, but I see your point. You almost need this sort of character in order for the main premise to work.

MY issues so far are actually with that main premise. More later... once I finish.

Of course, exactly ONE page later, on page 221, the book began to rectify one of my main issues with the approach to the main theme. I finished up this morning, and my opinion of the book has gone up at least somewhat.

More later when we get to the discussion break.

I am going to continue on with Six Wakes now, which I must also report has been just OK so far. Definitely not blowing me away, anyway.

I did like the nod to “It’s a Wonderful life”, which may have the source inspiration for the book. She lives in Bedford (Falls) and the album she releases in her rock star life is entitled Pottersville.

I caught that, as well. I took the two main influences to this book to be It's a Wonderful Life and Richard Bach's The Bridge Across Forever, from which the author borrows/lifts a couple of concepts wholesale.

Also, in that same life her ex's last name was 'Bailey'.....

Feel free to discuss the first half of the book spoiler free.

As I inferred earlier, I was not over the moon for the first half of the book, although I never considered putting it into the DNF pile or anything. It's mostly just me, as I do not relate to books or films that examine anxiety or depression, as I have luckily never been the type of person to struggle with those problems. I would be curious to hear what people who did/do cope with depression feel about the approach of this book, and if it was helpful or not with their own struggles.

For the most part, I found the main character to be really off-putting and I didn't enjoy reading about her in the first half of the book. The library was a good idea, and some of the lives were interesting, but I kept wondering why she didn't chose a particular life, which I felt might give her the result she was looking for. I have to be vague here, because the book does eventually go there, and I liked that particular story thread enough for the book to go up in quality in my estimation. I will comment more on that when we hit the final discussion.

I will say that this author borrows heavily from Richard Bach's The Bridge Across Forever, and that kept pulling me out of the proceedings from time to time. Like Bach's book, this veers off into a sort of pseudo self-help territory that I found slightly annoying at times. I felt the same reading Bach, to be fair. Again though, I am sure others might get a lot more from this, and perhaps even gain some insight or strategy on how to cope with some serious problems in their life, which I only see as a good thing.

As I said upstream, at the halfway point I was loving the book. While I was put off a bit by the main character, I saw her as necessary for the story and easily got past her many flaws. I was really excited when she got to the library.

Then, shortly after the halfway point, something clicked and I was able to predict the ending long before I finished the book. More on that on the 22nd.