Life after life kate Atkinson

[Gumnast2014]

Argghhh confused, restarted it twice.

Just can't get into it?

Keep going or give up?

Can anyone help with who is how? Honestly I'm lost.

[BritabroadinAsia]

Hi again Cote, thanks for your reply.

Fair point regarding Austen/Bronte. I see where you're coming from, (and happily agree to disagree wrt Life After Life) but am still intrigued by what I perceive as a fairly limited way of selecting what to read...

I would really love to hear some of your book recommendations, if you're willing? What you have you read that you have been challenged by? What have you loved?

Apologies, Gumnast, for derailing your thread. Did you carry on with the book or give up?

[KERALA1]

So subjective though and what I like depends on my mood. Sometimes I read Henry james. Sometimes I binge on ridiculous crime novels. Then something like life after life. Then wolf hall. Like them all for different reasons so incredibly hard to predict what someone else will enjoy.

[hackmum]

I thought Life after Life was both cleverly constructed and very moving. I think writing something that involves telling the same story over and again with minor variations is an extremely hard feat to pull off, but she did it brilliantly. She's a writer at the top of her game.

[wiltingfast]

Life After Life was one of my favorites of 2014. I personally loved the non linear narrative but be warned, it is not a traditional plot driven book. Yes, "darkness falls" a lot and each time the heroine must try again and try until she finds away through each patch of her life. The differences in each progression can be subtle and you see knock on consequences for the people around her. Ursula clearly retains some sense of her past lives but it is not clear how much. She strains to save Ted for example with varying degrees of success. There's a sense that her mother too may also be retaining some sense of past lives but it is not explicit. I found the German chapters particularly poignant.

It's probably not for everyone but I would certainly recommend you read the firs few chapters and try and assess how interested (or not) you are in the author's premise. Life is too short to waste reading a book for the sake of it! The style does not change really, the first flavor is how it is throughout and while Ursula does eventually progress through a long life, it is slow if your aim is merely to see where she ultimately ends up. It is just not that kind of book.

[CoteDAzur]

Brit - I'd be happy to give recommendations. What kind of books do you like to read? Non-fiction, historical fiction, sci-fi, biographies...?

[BritabroadinAsia]

Thanks, cote - I do like historical fiction, but Hilary Mantel rather than bodice rippers, and yy to biographies, sci-fi, quite like a bit of popular science (anything layman-ish suitable for a non-scientist with diminishing intellectual capabilities), literary fiction... Please inspire me!

[Eliza22]

Brit have you read The Crimson Petal & The White by Michel Faber? excellent historical fiction. Also, The Sunne In Splendour by Sharon Penman? A Richard the III fact based fiction. I loved them both.

[DuchessofMalfi]

I enjoyed Queen's Gambit by Elizabeth Fremantle. It's about the life of Katherine Parr - her three marriages, not just the difficult one to Henry VIII. I thought it very well written, and definitely not a bodice-ripper :o

[Eliza22]

Brit another brilliant book .... The Lost King of France by Deborah Cadbury. A heart rending account of the final years of Marie Antoinette's son, his treatment by the revolutionaries as the orphaned dauphin and the fascinating scientific examination of his heart, stolen at his autopsy. Unputdownable and made me cry. Obviously, non fiction.

[BritabroadinAsia]

Thank you Eliza and Duchess.... Much appreciated - would any of your recommendations above have enough discussion points for a book group that is rather limping along at the moment?

[Eliza22]

Definitely, The Crimson Petal & The White (bit of a tome, though) and the Dauphin.

All three, excellent reads!

[CoteDAzur]

Brit - I'm going to break hearts go against the grain again and say that Crimson Petal and the White started out promising and well-written but then descended into 1000+ pages of pointless drivel about domestic boredom. If it had any point at all, it may have been that even the most interesting & amazing woman you can imagine (like an intellectual prostitute in Victorian London) will get dull and boring once she starts taking care of a small child full time. I don't think this was the intention of the author, though

Here are a few of the books I have found head and shoulders above the rest. Some are quite challenging but also very rewarding imho. Search for my name under 50-Book Challenge threads for details on most of them:

Biographies/autobiographies:
Alan Turing: The Enigma
The Strangest Man (Paul Dirac's biography)
Miracles Of Life (J G Ballard's autobiography)
Confessions of a Sociopath
Music In The Castle Of Heaven (Bach's biography)

Other non-fiction:
Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You
My Stroke Of Insight
The Worst Journey In The World

Historical Fiction:
Measuring The World (about Gauss)
The Luminaries (about New Zealand's gold rush)
This Thing Of Darkness (about Darwin's 5-year voyage about survey brig The Beagle)
Middlesex

Sci-Fi:
Classics - Dune, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1984, The Foundation, Time Enough For Love.
Hyperion
Neal Stephenson's books: Snow Crash, The Diamond Age, Anathem, Cryptonomicon.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell (about magic, so fantasy not sci-fi)

Fiction:
Cloud Atlas
Anna Karenina
The Goldfinch
Umbrella
The Atrocity Exhibition

The last two are not only difficult to read but also likely to mess you up for weeks, so approach with caution. Great books, though

[DuchessofMalfi]

I'd say there is enough in Queen's Gambit for a book club discussion. In fact, to help discussions there's a list of Reading Group Questions at the back. together with a further reading list. There's a timeline and character list (very full cast of characters) for anyone who isn't clear on who's who in the Tudor Court.

[mmack]

I read Life after Life last year and I can barely remember a thing about it. I remember thinking at the time that the plotting was excellent but the characters were boring.

[BritabroadinAsia]

Hi cote - fantastic, thank so much.... have read and enjoyed some of your list - Cloud Atlas is up there amongst my all time favourites. Some great suggestions, much appreciated. Will take a look on the other thread you mentioned. If you had to pick one, which would be your favourite and why?

Duchess - my book club are a mix of nationalities, the majority being Aussies who haven't studied the Tudors as we did at primary school(?), so my raving about Wolf Hall rather fell on deaf ears... but I will try with Queen's Gambit, thank you!