Happy New Year Book: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig & Upcoming Book Ideas

We are reading The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (the sequel to the book, The Midnight Train, will be out in May 2026).

For January, please bring a favorite poem or book passage/ quote to share!

Between life and death there is a library.
When Nora Seed finds herself in the Midnight Library, she has a chance to make things right. Up until now, her life has been full of misery and regret. She feels she has let everyone down, including herself. But things are about to change.

The books in the Midnight Library enable Nora to live as if she had done things differently. With the help of an old friend, she can now undo every one of her regrets as she tries to work out her perfect life. But things aren't always what she imagined they'd be, and soon her choices place the library and herself in extreme danger.

Before time runs out, she must answer the ultimate question: what is the best way to live?

Read on for more book ideas &
Share Your Own:

Midnight library (midnight train sequel out May 26, 2026) ~ author of The Life Impossible and How to Stop Time

Lion women of Tehran by Marjam Kamali

Atmosphere by Taylor Jenkins Reid

All the Lives We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy

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Sci~Fi Classic/ Dystopia:

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
by Philip K. Dick (basis for the film, Blade Runner)

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

1984 by Orwell

The Handmaid’s Tale by Atwood

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Divergent series

Hunger Games series

Dystopia adjacent (in which life is recognizable yet still fucked):
Blue Skies by TC Boyle
The Dream Hotel by Laila lalami

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Magical Realism:
rKafka on the Shore, The City and its uncertain walls ~ both by Haruki Murakami

The island of missing trees by elif shafa

The Humans by Matt Haig

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Historical Fiction:
Sarah’s key
Diamond Eye
The Paris Library
The Guernsey literary and potato peel pie society

Suspense/ Mystery:
The Paris Apartment by Lucy Foley
The Doorman by Chris Pavone
The Woman in Cabin 10, The Woman in Suite 11 by Lucy Foley

Non Fiction ideas:

An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong

A day in the life of abed salama ~ Nathan thrall

Local author alert:
La conchita: a different side of paradise by
Bonnie g Kelm

Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Soul of an octopus by Sy Montgomery

The botany of desire by Michael Pollan

When the earth was green by Riley black

World of wonders by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean
By Susan Casey

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World
By Steve Brusatte

Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship
By Jon Meacham

Life on the Rocks: Building a Future for Coral Reefs
By Juli Berwald

Pulitzer Prize~ winning author: Playground by Richard Powers

Goodreads Choice AwardNominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction (2024)

Four lives are drawn together in a sweeping, panoramic new novel from Richard Powers, showcasing the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Overstory at the height of his skills. Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a three-thousand-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough.

They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.

Set in the world’s largest ocean, this awe-filled book explores that last wild place we have yet to colonize in a still-unfolding oceanic game, and interweaves beautiful writing, rich characterization, profound themes of technology and the environment, and a deep exploration of our shared humanity in a way only Richard Powers can.