Episode · The Book Review · 2026-05-15
Books mentioned on Matt Haig on ‘The Midnight Library,’ Mental Illness and Winnie-the-Pooh
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Midnight Library
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig is a globally successful fantasy novel about a depressed woman who finds herself in a magical library between life and death, where every book offers a chance to experience an alternative version of her existence.
Discussed“He's most known in the United States for his smash hit The Midnight Library. That's the story of a woman who has reached a breaking point. She ends up in a library filled with books that each hold a different version of her life.”
Where to get it
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The Midnight Train
Why people recommend it: Matt Haig's anticipated novel explores imaginative premises surrounding life choices, parallel realities, and the existential journeys that define human existence.
Discussed“Matt is now out with a new book, something he sees as kind of a sibling to The Midnight Library. It's called The Midnight Train.”
Where to get it
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Reasons to stay alive
Discussed“Of all the books I've written, it was the most accidental. It was called Reasons to Stay Alive, which is a very atypical me sort of two on the nose kind of title.”
Where to get it
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The House at Pooh Corner
Why people recommend it: A.
Recommended“I'd also say, you know, lots of children's books, but I'll go with um Winnie the Pooh or The House at Pooh Corner because I think you read it as a child and you're just enjoying the adventures and then you read it as an adult and you see the all these hidden depths.”
Where to get it
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The Outsiders
The Outsiders by S.
Discussed“Well, I love now looking back that it was just children's books, because I don't think I could have been reading I mean, it wasn't just children's books, there were some classics on there as well. But, it was basically books like proper childhood books like Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner and teenage books like The”
Where to get it
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Winnie the Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh)
Winnie the Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh) by A.
Recommended“I'd also say, you know, lots of children's books, but I'll go with um Winnie the Pooh or The House at Pooh Corner because I think you read it as a child and you're just enjoying the adventures and then you read it as an adult and you see the all these hidden depths.”
Where to get it
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The Labrador Pact
Discussed“So, I suppose it's 22, 23 years ago. I started writing a very strange novel, which in America it's called The Labrador Pact. My title for it was The Last Family in England, which is what it's called here.”
Where to get it
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The Last Family in England
Discussed“So, I suppose it's 22, 23 years ago. I started writing a very strange novel, which in America it's called The Labrador Pact. My title for it was The Last Family in England, which is what it's called here.”
Where to get it
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Henry IV, Part 1
Discussed“And to up the pretentiousness a little bit further, it's a retelling of Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 1 with Labradors.”
Where to get it
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Walden
Walden by Henry David Thoreau is a classic philosophical reflection on simple living, self-reliance, and intentional retreat from the pressures of modern society into nature.
Discussed“Well, I think Thoreau is like a very attractive figure for 21st century mind that feels overwhelmed by modernity and contemporary society, absolutism, everything else. Just not necessarily the real man who he was, but the idea of Walden, the idea of going into the woods, building a cabin, retreating from society, and then enriching yourself more.”
Where to get it
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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a classic children's fantasy novel by Lewis Carroll that follows a young girl named Alice down a rabbit hole into a bizarre underground world populated by peculiar creatures and illogical rules.
Discussed“Best book I've ever received as a gift, I've got it here. And for those who can actually see this, I am holding up a Alice's Adventures in Wonderland from the 19th century, but not a first edition, alas.”
Where to get it
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Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll is a classic Victorian children's novel and the celebrated sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, featuring a narrative structured around a game of chess.
Discussed“So, it's the closest thing I've got to a family heirloom and it was Through the Looking Glass and Alice's Adventures.”
Where to get it
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Invisible Cities
Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino is a lyrical and imaginative novel in which the explorer Marco Polo describes various fantastical urban centers to the ruler Kublai Khan.
Recommended“I would say two different ones. I would say Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, which is basically every page is a different city and it's an imagined city, they're fantastical cities.”
Where to get it
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The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.
Recommended“The first of which is The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab, who is predominantly a fantasy writer. She's also written some sci-fi... Addie LaRue is, I would say, probably the least heavy fantasy of her books.”
Where to get it
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The History of Love
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss is a poignant novel that weaves together the lives of various characters connected by a mysterious book.
Recommended“This is one of my all-time favorite books and one of the books I recommend to everyone I know, which is The History of Love by Nicole Krauss. This book came out in 2005.”
Where to get it
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We Burned So Bright
We Burned So Bright by T.
Recommended“Another one of my my favorites from the fantasy sci-fi world. Yeah, what's up with the initials here? Tell me about T.J. Klune... I'm actually going to talk about his newest one, which just came out in April. It's called We Burn So Bright.”
Where to get it
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The Someday Garden
The Someday Garden by Ashley Poston is a contemporary novel featuring a magical realism setup centered around a secluded nature sanctuary and a woman starting a new chapter in her life.
Recommended“If you like her she has a new book coming out on June 16th called The Someday Garden which is a secret garden again like a little a very teeny tiny pocket universe in this case about a woman who moves to Maine to be the sort of head groundskeeper at this nature estate”
Where to get it
