John's May Staff Picks

I had a blast with my reading in May. I was delighted to find the buzziest book of the year, Yesteryear, was brilliant. I got lost in French village gossip with Tata. I completely got it wrong with Every Time She Wakes which wasn't the domestic noir I thought it was. Matt Haig returned with The Midnight Train, a follow-up/companion to his mega bestseller The Midnight Library. And Ann Patchett stunned me with Whistler.

Matt Haig was already a successful author before the publication of The Midnight Library in 2020. His two honest and reassuring memoir/self-help books Reasons to Stay Alive & Notes on a Nervous Planet had won him a devoted following (I loved them both), and his bold, quirky novels (loved The Humans and How to Stop Time, too) and children's fiction were being turned into films and series. But then his uplifting The Midnight Library went on to sell - by some estimates - 12 million copies.

Suddenly he was one of the hottest properties on earth. In 2024 he published the beautiful, The Life Possible, which was another huge hit. But Haig must have felt he wasn’t quite done with the magical world of The Midnight Library because he has returned with The Midnight Train. And I, for one, am very happy he did.

The endearing novel is like a reimagining of A Christmas Carol, but takes place in that moment in death where your life flashes before your eyes. Then Haig asks, what if this was less a flash, and more a sedate train journey through your past where you got off at all the pivotal moments of your life. You’d be tempted to change a few things wouldn’t you? Delicious idea. And brilliantly executed. I loved it. It has ‘hit’ written all over it. I might go read it again.

Whistler is a delicious waltz of a novel that sets us twirling round and round a pivotal moment in two people's lives, lifting us out of the ordinary and asking us to believe that life can still surprise us. If you love Elizabeth Strout, you'll love Whistler.

Every Time She Wakes is a high octane Groundhog Day/Sliding Doors cross with a bit of multiverse mayhem thrown in for good measure. Packed with heart and drama, and littered with poignant life lessons Every Time She Wakes is more than it first appears while still being an absolute thrill ride. You’re in for a treat.

In Tata a woman receives the news that her aunt has died. But her aunt had died three years before. What does this second death mean? Cue a delicious, soap opera like descent into the past lives of an entire French village. This is the perfect book for a weekend getaway. So good.

Yesteryear, is the perfect book club book. It is a clever, biting, wicked book that lifts itself out of the cartoonish world of much modern satire by giving us far more to chew on than just caricature. I am not saying you will feel much more than pity for the deeply flawed and often repugnant ‘tradwife’, influencer protagonist, Natalie, but the attention the author, Caro Claire Burke, gives to her reveals a foe worthy of our attention.

Burke takes the trouble to build a rich backstory for Natalie, and makes her far more savvy and self aware than the plot requires. For in truth, as stupid as the far right in America may appear from afar, it has its own internal structures and logic, giving it a persuasive power and durability the left ignores at its own peril.

That said, Yesteryear is also just a lighthearted comedy about an influencer who gets her comeuppance by landing back in time and experiencing just how hard life was for a woman in ‘olden days’.

Yesteryear has already started a great deal of talk online. You don’t have to overthink it to enjoy it (like I have). But it will get you talking.