Book Review: The Comfort Book by Matt Haig

“The sky isn’t more beautiful if you have perfect skin. Music doesn’t sound more interesting if you have a six-pack. Dogs aren’t better company if you’re famous. Pizza tastes good regardless of your job title. The best of life exists beyond the things we are encouraged to crave.” – Matt Haig from The Comfort Book

Anybody familiar with my corner of the internet knows I’m a huge fan of writer Matt Haig. I’ve reviewed several of his books, Reasons to Stay Alive, Notes on a Nervous Planet, and The Midnight Library. Haig’s writing always has a way of comforting me so it isn’t surprising his latest literary effort is The Comfort Book.

The Comfort Book is filled with quotes, stories, lists, advice and the wise views and opinions of Haig’s. He focuses on serious themes and provides fun pop culture talking points.

Haig came up with the idea for The Comfort Book when he began to write notes to his future self. These notes were to help guide him during difficult times. And considering the past few years have been difficult, this book is quite timely.

The Comfort book is filled with musings on social media, current events, society, and so much more. Haig provides lists of movies and music to brighten your day. There’s a recipe in case your inclined to make something. Haig even includes a lit of things it’s okay to say “no” to. After all, “no” is a complete sentence.

And positive and thought-provoking quotes on a multitude of topics. These quotes include those by James Baldwin, Helen Keller, and Charles Dickens.

I read somewhere that The Comfort Book is a hug but in book form. And that’s pretty much true. It’s a book one can read cover to cover or in piecemeal. I suggest keeping The Comfort Book close to your bed or maybe in your desk at work whenever you need a little pick-me-up. In fact, I think The Comfort Book would make a great gift for friends and family.

The Comfort Book, definitely a book we need right now.

Book Review: The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Nora Seed’s life is going nowhere. Her cat has died, her love life is stagnant, and professionally, her career is nearly non-existent. Nora has spent her entire life trying to please others and excel at everything from competitive swimming to music to getting an education. Yet all of it seems to have gotten her in a perpetual downward spiral of regret, shame, and a feeling her life is worth nothing.

Filled with remorse, Nora decides to take her life. And what unfolds is expertly conveyed in Matt Haig’s beautifully written novel, The Midnight Library.

In-between life and death, Nora finds herself at the Midnight Library. Awaiting her is the kindly Mrs. Elm, a librarian from Nora’s childhood. The Midnight Library is no ordinary library. It is a place where one can open a book and be transported into an alternative universe, which reflect the various choices a person can make in one’s life if given another chance.

In one life, Nora is living with her husband (an old boyfriend) in Australia running a pub. In another, she’s an Olympic-winning swimmer and motivational speaker. Nora works as a glaciologist in another live, and is also a wildly successful rock star in yet another. But all of those lives aren’t as ideal as Nora may want. They are filled with sadness, estrangement, death, and bitterness.

But it’s there is one book Nora opens, and it just might be the perfect life if things had gone differently. In it, she’s happily married to a doctor named Ash. Together, they have an adorable daughter named Molly. And Nora is taking a sabbatical from her job to write a book on Thoreau. Could this be the life she’s always dreamed of? Or perhaps, she’s meant to live the life she was living, but one where she can make more positive choices and changes.

The Midnight Library is stellar. It at turns heartbreaking and uplifting. Haig has a way of writing that connects as well as tells a story due his deep well of empathy and compassion. The Midnight Library is It’s a Wonderful Life with a twist, with fantastical sci-fi moments. It’s a book to be savored, understood, and beloved, a book that resonates with people, places, and things that make our lives worth living.

Book Review: Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

“When anger trawls the Internet,
Looking for a hook;
It’s time to disconnect,
And go and read a book.”
-An Ode to Social Media from the book Notes on a Nervous Planet by Matt Haig

Years ago I discovered a wonderful other, Matt Haig. Haig is the writer of Reasons to Stay Alive, one of the best books I’ve read on the issues of depression and mental health.

We live in a very chaotic world. The pandemic is still going on. Mass shootings seem to be a daily occurrence. There is racial strife, there are people still unemployed, and our planet is becoming more corroded. We’re stressed and anxious, and our continuously connected digital world is making our lives a bit crazy. So that is why Haig’s 2018 book Notes on a Nervous Planet so timely.

Notes on a Nervous Planet is a collection of essays that reflects on how certain advancements in technology like social media can actually create difficulties in achieving happiness. He also examines how our addiction to technology can be a difficult one to break. And Haig fully confesses he has a hard time letting go even though he realizes getting wrapped up in an argument on Twitter or thinking you constantly have to be connected to your devices isn’t always a good thing.

In Notes on a Nervous Planet, Haig claims he’s not so much anti-technology, as he is human connection. We need to log off every once in a while, stop comparing to the images we see on Instagram, stop binge watching Netflix, and so on. Granted during the pandemic, it may be more difficult to connect face to face, but perhaps the pandemic is making us more aware the importance of seeing each other in the flesh rather than Zoom or Facetime, though I am grateful those things exist.

If there is a message in the pages of Notes on a Nervous Planet, it is this: We are special and we matter. We need to connect in what makes us uniquely human and interesting. We need to appreciate what we have and not focus on what we don’t have, especially when it comes to prestige and material wealth.

Haig writes in a way that is both comforting and relatable. He never lectures; he just lays it honestly and realistically. It’s okay to disconnect from the smartphone, from the laptop, and the television. Look for other things to stimulate you whether it’s cooking a fine meal, practicing yoga, or reading a good book. Now excuse me while I disconnect from this blog and take a walk.

Book Review: Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig

After reading Melissa Broder’s TMI memoir, So Sad Today, I really wasn’t up to reading another memoir, especially one dealing with the thorny topic of depression and other mental illnesses. Then I came across British author Matt Haig’s book Reasons to Stay Alive while browsing the stacks at my local library. I read the book jacket and decided to check Haig’s book out…

…and I’m glad I did. Reasons to Stay Alive might be one of the most important books I have ever read on the issue of depression and mental illness, and one I am happy to share with my readers.

On the surface, Haig has a pretty ideal life. His parents are kind, compassionate and loving. His girlfriend (now wife) Andrea sounds like a delightful woman, one who chose to stick by Haig through even his darkest moments of  mental terror. Haig is educated, well-traveled, good-looking and a successful author. What does he have to be depressed about?

Well, often depression has no reason to exist; it just does. And sometimes there are reasons why people are depressed, which is something Haig also describes in Reasons to Stay Alive. But Reasons to Stay Alive is Haig’s story and it is painful to read at times. I often had to put the book down because at times I related to Haig way too much and have the dried up tears to prove it, and because I felt so much empathy for his struggles.

For Haig, depression was just something that was thrust upon him, almost like being an innocent victim of a violent crime. He couldn’t quite pinpoint why he felt the way he did. Even everyday activities from getting out of bed to doing basic ever day tasks were too much to handle. For a moment, Haig considered committing suicide while vacationing in Ibiza.

I’m just glad he never took that final step.

From these suicidal thoughts to writing Reasons to Stay Alive, Haig chronicles his struggles with depression with clarity that both chills and helps the reader gain insight on the cruelty of depression and how it not only affects the sufferer but those who live with the sufferer.

Haig writes about his anxiety and panic attacks. He is fully honest in how depression affected him physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. He goes through a whole alphabet of emotions—sadness, rage, hopelessness, apathy, frustration, terror and other assorted less than ideal feelings. But he also writes of the glimmers of hope he gained and he acknowledged his suffering and went on a very difficult journey of recovery. And he does it without self-pity, psychobabble or being a self-absorbed narcissistic curator of TMI.

In Reasons to Stay Alive, Haig fully explains why depression is so misunderstood (even by those who suffer from it). With depression, one’s pain is invisible. You wonder what suffering from depressions says about you. You wonder why you can’t get out of bed and stop crying. You worry tomorrow will be worse than today and beat yourself up for not being like everybody else.

Haig also describes certain aspects that some people with depression suffer from, including fatigue, low-self-esteem, irritability, crying jags, moving and speaking at a slower pace, and inability to experience pleasure.

Haig tells the readers that people with depression are not alone. And he names several notable figures who suffered from depression including Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Princess Diana, and Buzz Aldrin. Creative types also suffer from depression. These people include Halle Berry, Jon Hamm, Billy Joel, Emma Thompson and Tennessee Williams. Even the ever bubbly ray of sunshine, Dolly Parton, has issues with depression!

However, Haig leaves us hopeful, sharing both his journey and the journey of others. Reasons to Stay Alive, which include everything from kissing (yes, to lots and lots of kissing) and reading books (yes, to lots and lots of books). Ultimately, he shares with us 40 pieces how to not only live but thrive while dealing with depression and also offers names of books that may help those suffer from depression that can probably be found at your local library, on-line and at your favorite bookstore.

Reasons to Stay Alive is at times hard to read; dealing with my own depression is bad enough. But I am eternally grateful for Matt Haig and his valuable book. Reasons to Stay Alive should be read not just by those suffering from depression, but those who love someone with depression. Actually, Reasons to Stay Alive should be read by everyone!