Which Kate Atkinson book?

[Cricketbelle]

I’d like to read one (or more) of her books.
Any favourites or recommendations please?

Start with her first, Behind the Scenes at the Museum. Or her short stories, Not the End of the World. I love KA but you have to get a feel for her, I think, and understand her style or reader can be left a bit bemused. So start at the beginning. I hope you love her.

Avoid Shrines of Gaiety. I love all her other books but am still wondering WTH about that one.

Agree with Lovelace. Our whole reading group thought Shrines of Gaiety was not her best. I'd start with Behind the Scenes too

Life After Life is brilliant and especially if you like time travel-y, what-if stories...

Agreed. Shrines of Gaiety disappointing.

A God In Ruins! I preferred it to Life After Life and think it works as a standalone read

All of them!

The Jackson Brodie ones can be read as a series.

for the others. I’d agree to start with Behind the Scenes and work your way forward.

i haven’t read Shrines - what’s so bad about it?

I love Kate Atkinson! (although I haven't read Shrines of Gaiety yet...)

My favourites are Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Life After Life, and Transcription.

I haven’t actually read any of her back catalogue but I LOVED Life after Life. It’s an amazing work. There’s a BBC adaptation as well. Then A God in Ruins was very good but LaL was better. I’m almost afraid to read her other stuff in case it just doesn’t measure up!

Behind The Scenes is one of the best books I've ever read.

Try any novel written by Kazuo Ishiguro instead

Love the Jackson Brodie series bar the final one, and enjoyed Behind the Scenes at the Museum, but I haven't really loved the later stuff.

I loved Shrines of Gaiety! I thought it was fantastic, so don't totally write it off.

I loved Shrines of Gaiety too! Listened to the audio book first which was so enjoyable and then I bought the book and read it again. God in Ruins is also really good and Life After Life. I loved the Museum one as it set in York as are many of her books.
Only ones I don't like are the short stories.

Not the awful Klara and the Sun though! I was so looking forward to it and found it unreadable.

Behind the Scenes and Life After Life are both fantastic. Behind the Scenes was the first one of hers I read and I never wanted Life After Life to end.

I've read quite a few and liked them but against the grain, I hated Life After Life. Awful characters.

I’ve only read life after life and found it immensely waffly! I definitely wouldn’t recommend that one.

Read nearly all her books, bar Shrines of gaiety.

They're all good. Love the Jackson Brody books, the last of those I read was Big Sky which was brilliant, but worth reading them in order.

Case Histories

I love her Jackson Brodie books although I'm not usually a detective/crime reader.

I feel like I miss the point in her others.

If you like the Jackson Brodie ones I'd suggest Jon McGregor as a next read.

I'm glad I'm not the only one finding Shrines of Gaiety hard going! I've been reading it for weeks and I just can't seem to finish it. I'm nearly 400 pages in so little has happened!!

Life after Life

I really didn't like Behind the Scenes. (Though I might have listened to it , not read it 🤔)

The TV mini series was really nice though, so I can recommend that if it's still on iPlayer.

I liked Life after Life - I thought the sections about the Blitz and the dreariness after the war ended were very evocative. Also liked A God in Ruins, though very sad.

I read Emotionally Weird recently & struggled to finish it.

Not as disappointing as Emotionally Weird which I have just finished. I see @Decorhate felt the same way.