The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

 

This was the second book I read on my second honeymoon. It is a very unique concept - a library with an infinite number of books, each telling your life story if you made a different choice at any point in your life.

This story chronicles Nora, who tries taking her own life. As she approaches death, she enters the midnight library, where she reads about different lives - if she married her long-term boyfriend, if she traveled with a friend, if she stayed in a band, if she dated a different guy, if she pursed swimming (which she excelled at). She finds that while some stories bring happiness, there can be unexpected lows leaving her wanting more. She keeps reading, trying to find the answer.

Like I said, this is a very unique concept, and something everyone probably day dreams about every now and then. The book was darker than I expected and frankly not really a light read on the beach. But, it was interesting.

My rating for The Midnight Library: 3 stars out of 5. Get it here!

The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave

As I was getting ready for my honeymoon (and summer in general), I wanted to stock my shelves with books to read. I asked around for suggestions and did some Googling. This was a suggestion and it really caught my eye as a light, fun read. Indeed, that is what it was.

The book is about a husband who disappears when a major fraud occurs at his company. He leaves behind a note for his wife to "protect her", implying for her to protect his 16-year-old daughter from a prior marriage. The wife and daughter do not get along, but they both really want to find out what happened to their husband and father. A U.S. Marshall and FBI agents meet with them to gather more information, but the two go on a journey as the daughter recalls information from her earliest years. They quickly find out he is not the man he pretends to be, as he has a complicated past.

The book is a page turner as you want to figure out A) will they find this guy before the investigators do and B) what exactly occurred in his past to make him go on the run. It is a very easy read as I finished it in one day on the beach. In my opinion, the story was a bit cliché and felt like it was written as a movie script...which it would not surprise me to see this turned into a movie some day. I should also say this is a very new book. It came out in May, so expect to see this book near you this summer.

My rating for The Last Thing He Told Me: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!

The Inner Game of Tennis by W. Timothy Gallwey

 

I heard about The Inner Game of Tennis a couple times, so I decided to give it a chance. As it was waiting in my queue, my work book club was looking for suggestions and I recommended this one.

The Inner Game of Tennis is about how to address the mental side of performance. It uses tennis as a metaphor, although frankly a lot of the examples are very much about tennis. The author's themes are things like fewer instructions = less overthinking, showing is better than telling, trusting oneself, no substitute for experience, and relaxed concentration. I liked the parts about competition bringing out the best in yourself and focusing on the next point, not the entire match.

The author's background is as a tennis player and coach, but he was written versions using other sports as the example. Tennis was the original book. It was actually written in 1974. It is impressive how much of what was written is still, and probably even more, true in today's world. 

The book is reader friendly in that it is only about 130 pages and an easy read. I loved all the tennis examples, but if you're not a big tennis fan then you might skim over some parts. But the ending tied it all together very well, connecting the dots to life, work, or really anything. I especially think this is useful for middle school & high school athletes as well as coaches.

My rating for The Inner Game of Tennis: 4 stars out of 5. Get it here!