Kate Atkinson

[londonartemis]

What should I read first by Kate Atkinson? I have been given Case Histories as a present but don't know if that's the best one to start off with.

[Tizzyjacko]

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

but Case Histories is great.

[WinkyWinkola]

Behind the Scenes at the Museum is a brilliant read.

I've not liked any of her stuff since that.

[FlyingMonkey]

Behind The Scenes At The Museum is a great book. Human Croquet is also good. I've read some of the more recent stuff (with Jackson Brodie as the main character) and thought it very average, like a poor man's Rebus TBH.

[Buddleja]

Behind the Scenes at the Museum for certain. It's brilliant

[kneedeepinthedirtylaundry]

Agree about behind the scenes at the museum ? her best novel. I also liked human croquet, but not the other novels after that. But her short story collection called it's not the end of the world is absolutely brilliant. One of my favourite short story collections of all time.

[londonartemis]

Thank you. Will save Case Histories then till after Behind the Scenes then!

[5Foot5]

Agree with everyone else about "Behind the Scenes..", have read it many times.

I have also read all three of the Jackson Brodie ones and I liked "Case Histories" very much.

The second one "One Good Turn" I found very dull. So much so that I almost gave up on the whole series. Thank goodness I didn't because I can highly recommend the third one, "When Will There Be Good News" I found that was unputdownable.

[mumblechum]

I'd second Not the End of The World, too. Have just reread Behind the Scenes for my bookclub and it's still a good one.

[suiledonne]

I love Kate Atkinson - even the Jackson Brodie ones. Case Histories and When Will There Be Good News are great.

Of the others I love Emotionally Weird. Set in a university in Scotland. Not many people seem to have read it but I was an English Lit student long ago so maybe it touches a chord with me.

I highly recommend Kate Atkinson.

[wildfig]

I love everything Kate Atkinson's written - she's on my 'buy in hardback' list! Her books do change, though, between her early novels which tend to explore complicated family backstories and secrets, and the later crime ones featuring Jackson Brodie, but the style is still the same: very sinuous, interlocking stories that turn in on each other by the end.

My two favourites are Human Croquet and Behind the Scenes. I also enjoyed Emotionally Weird, which got a bit of a critical panning for being rather tricksy. KA does like her technical literary effects (Not the End of the World is based on stories from Ovid's Metamorphoses), and Emotionally Weird is set in Dundee's English faculty and plays around with language and structure while still remaining (I think!) very readable and involving.

BUT they're all good. Wouldn't hesitate to recommend her whole backlist.