The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

You'd think that all of the parallel universe/alternate timelines stories had been told but Haig manages to create a new one with Nora Seed. We learn in the first story that one day, Nora will decide to take her own life. We get a few chapters of prelude where we discover that the once promising Nora (she was a champion swimmer, an intelligent child, and a gifted pianist and songwriter) has hit her nadir. But before she actually dies, she has a chance to experience many different lives. We don't know all of them but she is afforded this opportunity through a library of books with the many options of the way that her life might have been written. Would she have been an iceberg researcher? Or a famous rock star? Perhaps the mother of a small child. Or a writer in Paris. While we do not get to see all of the lives, they lead Nora to a (perhaps expected) conclusion that will shake the foundations of the library itself.
It took me awhile to get into this book but then I finished it in my second sitting. A new take on an old idea and Haig seeds just enough to create a connected series of books with perhaps other characters.

Four stars
This book came out September 29th, 2020
Book borrowed from Libby
Opinions are my own

Father Christmas and Me by Matt Haig

I think I would have liked this book more had I known that it was part of a series. I felt like I was dumped into the middle of the story of Amelia, a human in Elfhelm. She is trying to navigate a world in which she really doesn't feel like she belongs. And there are definitely elves who would rather see her gone. Then, the Easter Bunny gets involved....

Three stars
This book comes out October 16
ARC kindly provided by NetGalley