Groundhog Day

 

The best part of Groundhog Day? The movie of course, (Groundhog Day [videorecording]), not just because Bill Murray is in it, it was also directed by the late great Harold Ramis. I would go on about my love for these two, but I covered that in the Ghostbusters post, (Afterlife was amazing, incredible, and perfect by the way).

In celebration of what I consider cinematic greatness in all its repetitive glory, let's take a look at some books that incorporate time travel/time loops.

The Midnight Library by Haig, Matt

"'Between life and death there is a library, and within that library, the shelves go on forever. Every book provides a chance to try another life you could have lived. To see how things would be if you had made other choices... Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?' A dazzling novel about all the choices that go into a life well lived, from the internationally bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive and How To Stop Time. Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? In The Midnight Library, Matt Haig's enchanting new novel, Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place"--. Provided by publisher.

Neverworld Wake by Pessl, Marisha

It's been one year since graduation, and Beatrice Hartley has mixed feelings about joining her friends at a weekend reunion.

She's right to be worried. After a night out, they narrowly avoid a collision with a car on a deserted road. Or so they believe.

Back at the mansion where they are staying, a mysterious man knocks on the door during a raging storm. He tells them that they must make a choice: one of them will live, and the rest will die. And the decision must be unanimous.

Soon time backbends. Beatrice and her friends are forced to repeat that dreadful day so many times they lose count. With each replay, events twist and fears come alive in horrifying ways.

This nightmare, this nothingness . . . this is the Neverworld Wake.

To escape, they have to vote. But how do you choose who to kill? And then how do you live with yourself?

Before I fall by Oliver, Lauren

After she dies in a car crash, teenaged Samantha relives the day of her death over and over again until, on the seventh day, she finally discovers a way to save herself.

The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Turton, Stuart

Doomed to repeat the same day over and over, Aiden Bishop must solve the murder of Evelyn Hardcastle in order to escape the curse in a world filled with enemies where nothing and no one is quite what they seem.

11/22/63: a novel by King, Stephen

On November 22, 1963, three shots changed the world. What if it never happened? Jake Epping is a 35-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. Jake's friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane - and insanely impossible - mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination.

The Time Traveler's Wife: a novel by Niffenegger, Audrey

Clare and Henry, deeply in love, try desperately to maintain normal lives even though he has been diagnosed with Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition in which his genetic clock periodically resets, pulling him through time to the past or future.

The time traveler's wife [videorecording]

Life after Life: a novel by Atkinson, Kate

"What if you could live again and again until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first breath. On that same cold and snowy night, Ursula Todd is born, lets out a lusty wail, and embarks upon a life that will be, to say the least, unusual. For as she grows, she also dies, repeatedly, in a variety of ways, while the young century marches on towards its second cataclysmic world war. Does Ursula's apparently infinite number of lives give her the power to save the world from its inevitable destiny? And if she can -- will she? Darkly comic, startlingly poignant, and utterly original -- this is Kate Atkinson at her absolute best"-- Provided by publisher.

 

In A Holidaze by Lauren, Christina 

"Love Actually meets Groundhog Day in the quintessential holiday romance by the New York Times bestselling author of The Honey-Don't List"-- Provided by publisher.

Maelyn Jones is living with her parents, hates her job, and just messed up her love life. She is dreading the family's last Christmas at their Utah cabin, but one random wish and she may just get a do-over.

Opposite of Always by Reynolds, Justin A.

After falling for Kate, her unexpected death sends Jack back in time to the moment they first met. He soon learns that his actions have consequences when someone else close to him dies.

Recursion by Crouch, Blake

Investigating a suicide, New York City police officer Barry Sutton finds a connection to the outbreak of a memory-altering disease and a controversial neuroscientist working to preserve precious memories.