The Book Faire: Life After Life

Life After Life

How do you pass the time when you're making a 12 hour round-trip drive for work...alone?

Normally I stock up on Twizzlers and Josh Groban CDs, but this time I decided to try something new. Audio Book!

I checked out Life After Life from my local library, and I have to say it was nice company. I've never listened to a complete audio book before. I prefer the feel of having a book in my hands, to hear the character's voices how I would imagine them, and to read as much or as little as I want.

Life After Life is the tale of one girl on a journey to get her life right, no matter how many times it takes. Through a form of reincarnation, Ursula repeatedly lives and dies throughout the book. In a game of "Is this the right choice?" Ursula's decisions lead to her drowning, dying of the plague, starving and other extreme circumstances. But as soon as her life is over, the refresh button is hit and she begins it again. What's unique is that when she is reborn, her life is the exact same but she doesn't remember any of it.

This probably wasn't the best option for my first audio book. Life After Life involves a lot of year jumping, going from past to present and then back to the past which becomes the present. If that sounds confusing, try following it over an audio book :)

Once I got used to the time jumping, I was intrigued by the plot. It's like the choose your own adventure books I read when I was younger. One set of choices could end the story after three pages. You start over at the beginning and try a different set of pages, to find that the story lasts a little longer this time. Can you imagine living life this way? Getting third or fourth or fifteenth chances to live your life the way is was meant to be?

Life After Life shows how even the smallest decisions can have the largest impact in our life and in the course of history. What small decisions will you make today that will shape the rest of your future?