It is time for summer reading lists!!!
And yes, I hope To Be Made Well will be on the top of many lists this summer, but I also want to recommend a novel I just read and loved.
The Midnight Library is a story about regrets. Nora comes to a place in her life when she is ready to end it all, but when she tries to do so, she finds herself in “the midnight library.” It’s a place where all the possible existences she could have lived are options for her to try. She can see what it would be like to marry her ex-fiance. Or what would have happened if she had continued pushing herself as a competitive swimmer. Or if she had pursued the research project she loved.
Of course, in every life she lives she is still herself. She still has questions of purpose. She still has pain.
I’ve realized over the past few years, now that I’m in my 40s, that I have closed many doors. It is practically impossible for me to become a doctor or a lawyer or an English professor or management consultant or journalist or novelist. It is hard to imagine a scenario in which I have four children (which was once a dream of mine). After years of thinking I might take up tennis, I really don’t see that happening.
I’ve spent a fair amount of time regretting all those closed doors and wondering what if…, but recently I’ve had a greater sense of gratitude for where I have ended up and trust that this is where I want to be, where God has me.
The Midnight Library is a great way into these types of questions about limitations and possibilities and who and how we want to be.
Have you read The Midnight Library? If so, what did you think? What’s on your summer reading list?
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More with Amy Julia:
- Friday Favorites and AJB Recommends
- Favorite Books for Kids and Adults That We Read in 2021
- What’s the Purpose of Life?
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