God in Ruins | 
pickIn this follow up to Life After Life, Atkinson follows Ursula‘s brother Teddy into war where he becomes a respected bomber pilot and beyond. She expertly weaves the story back and forth in time, giving us the full picture of Teddy‘s life. Compelling and powerful and with a twist I didn‘t see coming, this is a great book. It would be a great one to discuss with a book group because I‘m sure I missed half the clever things Atkinson wrote into this!
so-soI really wanted to love this one but, much like Life After Life, it was really hard to follow the rapid changes in timeline and situations, especially as an audiobook. The writing is beautiful, though, and the ending was quite thought provoking. A very interesting way to view English life and one particular family from about WWII to the present time. 🌟🌟🌟
pickThis was a slower read than its companion book, but Atkinson is in fine form, with woven details making each chapter a meal of a read- the ending a bitter-sweet palette cleanser; it all falls into place.
so-soI‘m sorry to say I found this a tad boring.
pickI was in the mood for historical fiction, and after having an enjoyable discussion about Life After Life back in January (when we could have in person book club!) I thought I'd pick up the sequel. It's great, but it's really, really sad and dark, moreso than I was really in the mood for. Anyways, it's well done, I can't knock it--it's not you, book, it's me. I'm glad I did read it, it brings up interesting points about mortality.
pickGreat sequel to Life after Life. Liked getting into his entire life
pickI love Kate Atkinson so much! This is the companion to her previous novel Life After Life - not so much as a sequel as a spinoff. It is focused on Teddy, the RAF pilot and beloved younger brother of Ursula. Teddy survives the war but is never quite sure about the rest of his life, and the book bounces around in time between WWII and the next generations of the family to his grandchildren. Beautiful and a little heartbreaking.
#7books7days Day 2
Books that made an impact on me, change how I think or will just never leave me (no explanation).
pick#booked2020 @4thhouseontheleft @Cinfhen @BarbaraTheBibliophage Animal on cover. I was hesitant to read this as i loved life after life but it was a wonderful read, written with such skill as we weave our way around the life of teddy todd, bomber pilot, br of ursula, son of sylvie husband of nancy, father of viola and grandpa to sunny and bertie. The stories intertwine with gradual reveals that stop you short +at times had me wiping away a tear👇
pickI picked up this book from the grocery store bargain bin several years ago and delayed reading it because I wanted to read Life After Life first. It was well worth the wait! I‘m sad to now have to leave these wonderful characters behind. 😥😥
#jan2020wrapup
Thanks to audiobooks, I was able to feed my voracious reading habit while recovering from a concussion.
Two memorable titles are #BlameitonLitsy: the tagged audio (buddy read with @shawnmooney ) + Emily of New Moon ( @TheBookHippie ).
Stats: 31 books (16 audio; 8 print; 4 GN; 2 picturebooks; 1 poetry; 1 DNF)
12 NF; 5 Canadian; 12 by PoC or Indigenous; 11 by queers; 25 by women, trans or nonbinary authors; 2 in translation (French).
pickWhat is the meaning of an individual life, specifically when viewed through the lens of war? Atkinson creates vivid fictional characters, beguiles with her sentence wizardry and treats time like a plaything. An absolutely outstanding #audiobook, narrated by Alex Jennings. I have loved pretty much all of Atkinson‘s other books and it appears that I have saved the best for last. Thanks to @shawnmooney for suggesting this buddy read. ❤️
“…geofencing …we should want to do because …the new normal …client-agency relationship or on the other hand …as well as near-field communication …”
The man who was speaking had a degree in jargon and a doctorate in nonsense. His words were floating in the air, language devoid of meaning, sucking out the oxygen, making Bertie feel mildly hypoxic.
She had worked on herself. Years of therapy and fresh starts, although nothing that really required an effort on her part. She wanted someone else to effect change in her. It seemed a shame you couldn‘t just get an injection that would suddenly make everything all right. (“Try heroin,” Bertie [her daughter] said.)
Bea had moved in a medical world during the Blitz when she had been recruited to work in a mortuary, piecing together jigsaws of body parts. Her art college background had, for some unlikely reason, deemed her suitable for this work.
His grandfather was a hero too, wasn‘t he? He‘d had a life. Sunny wondered how you went about getting one of those.
She drew heavily on the cigarette and then, in a touching display of maternal responsibility, lifted her chin so that the smoke blew over her children‘s heads. When she got pregnant the first time, Viola had no idea what it would involve further down the line. She wasn‘t sure she‘d ever seen a baby, let alone held one, and imagined it would be like getting a cat, or, at worst, a puppy. (Turned out it was nothing like either.)
[Internet photo]
“I heard they take drugs and dance naked in the moonlight,” the farmer said. (True, although it wasn‘t as interesting as it sounded.)
[Internet photo]
The Great War had made Sylvie into a pacifist, albeit a rather belligerent one.
She was disappointingly unimpressed by the bluebells. At Fox Corner the annual exhibition was greeted with the same reverence that others accorded the Great Masters. Visitors were trooped proudly out to the wood to admire the seemingly endless blur of blue. “Wordsworth has his daffodils,” Sylvie said, “we have our bluebells.”
He had seen the bull with the cows and Maurice had said that was what people did too, including their mother and father, he sniggered. Teddy was pretty sure he was lying. Hugh and Sylvie were far too dignified for such acrobatics.
Was he supposed to be educating his aunt, he wondered? Was that why they were here? “The lark‘s known for its song,” he said instructively. “It‘s beautiful.” It was impossible to instruct on the subject of beauty, of course. It simply was. You were either moved by it or you weren‘t.
Poor mice, he had thought when he was a boy. Still thought the same now that he was a man. Nursery rhymes were brutal affairs.
(Internet image)
pickKate Atkinson is one of my favourite authors. This is the companion novel to Life After Life. It follows Teddy through life from an idyllic childhood to being a fighter pilot in the second world war and beyond. I love the backwards and forwards nature of the book as you explore different elements of Teddy's life, Viola's, Bertie's and Sunny's. And oh poor Sunny.
Oh gosh how I appreciate my once a week commute for the uninterrupted reading time.
#gratefulreads #readinonesitting
I read at a slower pace and usually don't read books in one sitting but this is an exception. Probably my favourite Kate Atkinson read one Saturday when I barely moved ❤️❤️
@Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks @OriginalCyn620
I‘m not positive, but I‘m reading this as a “Doctor Who” reference and that makes me happy 😁
I‘m really enjoying “A God of Ruins”. When I was halfway thru I knew I had to read the campion book (“Life after Life”) so I borrowed it from my library👍🏻
One of my favorite books of the year is on sale today for the digital edition... It‘s remarkable.
"The purpose of Art," his mother, Sylvie, said- instructed even- "is to CONVEY the truth of a thing, not to BE the truth itself."
~Sylvie~
#LitsyQuotes
pickA companion book to Life After Life.
In Life After Life, Ursula Todd dies and reboots to the day of her birth time after time as the author creates alternate realities and gives Ursula the chance to do things correctly. Ursula plays a minor role here, as this is Teddy‘s story.
Teddy is a fighter pilot during WWII, and even though he fights on the “right” side, he is still damaged by the savagery of war.
This book was picked for my book club, and I have tried to read it a couple of times but just can‘t! Normally I finish books deliberately, but this is a book I just can‘t get into. I‘m not enjoying the writing style at all. Maybe I‘d enjoy it more if I‘d read the first book beforehand.
so-soI enjoyed this more than I expected, and a lot more than Life After Life. I liked the ending, I liked everything about Nancy and I realised things slowly through fragments.
Tho there was lots I enjoyed, I really don‘t feel I needed another book about ww2. All the war sections just reminded me of every other book I‘ve read about ww2 (too many) and I don‘t think this added anything that interesting. I‘d rather it had focused on after the war.
This is up next from my audio backlist on my phone. I honestly didn‘t enjoy Life After Life at all, i found it a cool concept but the multiple lives thing was swamped by average historical fiction, but I already owned this so I‘m ploughing through. I‘ll try to enjoy it but i guess mainly I‘m trying to tick it off my tbr
pickI don‘t even know how to begin reviewing this. Kate Atkinson‘s books hit all the capitalized notes. They are Art and Work and Love and Family. Don‘t believe for a second that (as the author herself implies) this is a novel about WWII; this is so much more and it utterly wrecked me. This book needs no context, just follow the red thread and you‘ll find yourself rising and falling through the unsentimental truth of what it means to be human.
I haven‘t read Life After Life. Should I read that before I read this one? Or does this one stand on its own?
pickThe companion novel to Atkinson's "Life After Life," which told the story (stories) of Ursula Todd as she was born and lived and died and was born again. Technically speaking, this book is just one of those lives. It focuses on Teddy, Ursula's brother, and the life he lives. Or does it? As always, Atkinson writes well, but I couldn't get as emotionally engaged in Teddy's life as I did in Ursula's many lives. I liked "Life After Life" better.
pickThis turned into a long listen through all of November, and honestly I could have spent twice as many hours with Teddy Todd and Atkinson‘s prose, which was often bitingly clever and always stunningly beautiful.
This intimate epic covers Teddy‘s life from his childhood in the 1920s to his time as a bomber pilot in WWII to his death in 2012, omnisciently weaving back and forth through time, sometimes focusing on his wife, child, and grandchildren.
Went into Barnes & Noble for a gift...and came out with 4 books for myself...(and I actually put one back right before I checked out, thinking "that's too many!")
This is from the Author‘s Note and I wholeheartedly agree. As long as the author plays fair, I don‘t mind a bit of trickery.
pickThis is a companion book to Life After Life. I was not a big fan of L.A.L. So I was hesitant to give this one a chance and I'm so glad I did! That ending though 😲 I was not expecting THAT! #54
Reading Susan Orlean‘s By the Book in the Times today and thinking SAME. The end of this book slayed me. 😭
I feel very Seen #yearofmarvellousreading
