May 14 - Kate Atkinson's Life After Life

We were small group of 5 who gathered at Lisa's to discuss Kate Atkinson's Life After Life. Lisa mad a lovely strata with leftovers from a weekend BBQ, and who are we to argue with an entree that's easier for the hostess than an appetizer? Karen made cute little olive and cream cheese sandwiches, and we also had sushi (from Darla), almonds, stuffed olives, and pita chips. Even better, we had three desserts: Lisa's angel-food cake with a creamy strawberry icing, peanut butter chocolate chip brownies (from me), and fabulous multicolored layer cookies (from Leann).

Overall consensus on the book was it was good but violent and it lagged in the middle. Lisa had the most interesting theories about the plot (could Izzie's son have become Hitler?). Izzie and Hugh were favorite characters, and some of the scenes from Ursula's childhood, where she's trying to figure out how to change the course of things, were favorites as well. I think we all agreed that it was quite interesting and we didn't completely know what it all meant.

Naturally, we were reading and recommending many other books. Here are the ones Karen wrote down for us:

Canada, by Richard Ford
The Sherlockian, by Graham Moore
Overcome, by Carmen Tarleton
Fairy Tales From the Brothers Grimm, by Philip Pullman
The Voyage, by Philip Caputo
The 19^th Wife, by David Ebershoff

Other books by Kate Atkinson: Case Histories; One Good Turn; When Will There be Good News?; Started Early, Took My Dog.

NEXT MEETING

We looked through a copy of the newsletter Indie Next and decided to read the other book entitled Life After Life, which came out at the same time as Kate Atkinson's. And that's as far as we got. Expect another Doodle poll in your in-box soon.

What: Jill McCorkle's Life After Life 

When: TBD

Where: TBD