Reading Right Now Wednesday

Good idea? Bad idea? Post about books I'm reading and what I think of them? Well, I'll give it a try for a while. I'm not the fastest reader on the planet, but I try to spend at least an hour a day doing it, so I do get through a fair number of books in a year. And, as you may be aware, I often give away brand-new copies of my particular faves. Bit of a disclaimer: I usually post about children's books, but with this particular series, there will be some adult reads thrown in too.

This Week: 

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

author: Claire North
pub info: Redhook, 2014; 432 pp
audience: adult
genre: time travel / science fiction
why I'm reading it: It's this month's selection for one of my book clubs, though I already had it on my to-read list because it looked so good
Goodreads link

Quick summary:
Harry is cursed (if you like) with a repetitive life--that is, when he dies, he is immediately reborn into exactly the same body at the same time, and his life begins again. Forever. When Harry learns that others like him may be responsible for bringing about the world's end, he decides to act--and that changes everything.

So Far:
So yeah, I'm aware that the premise is very like Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, which is a stunningly great book--probably the best I read last year. The story, though, couldn't be more different. The style is less literary, which I don't mean as a bad thing; the author just takes a very different voice from the Atkinson book. In both novels, the main characters ponder what it means to have foreknowledge of the future, and whether that compels one to "fix" things. This book is a real page turner, with a strong main character and fascinating storyline. I'm loving it.

Fun Fact:
Author Claire North has also written under the name Catherine Webb, which she used when writing YA fiction, as well as Kate Griffin. She wrote her first novel when she was 14, for which I have forgiven her. Pretty much.