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The Woman Who Died a Lot (Thursday Next #7)
The Bookworld's leading enforcement officer Thursday Next is four months into an enforced semi-retirement following a near fatal assassination attempt. She returns home to Swindon for what you'd expect to be a time of recuperation and rest. If only life were that simple. Thursday is faced with an array of family problems - her son Friday's lack of focus since his career in...more
ebook, 384 pages
Published
October 2nd 2012
by Viking Adult
(first published July 12th 2012)
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ZOMG a new Thursday Next book!! And I was lucky enough to score a proof at a teeny secondhand bookshop upstate!!!
I will tell you this right now: I just got back from a 10-day vacation. I have gallons of emails to answer, scads of laundry to do, and an entire apartment to clean before I go back to work tomorrow, yet I am still going to spend at least a half hour finishing this book with a cup of coffee before I do any of it.
***
And I did! And it was soooo worth it, even though, exactly a week lat...more
I will tell you this right now: I just got back from a 10-day vacation. I have gallons of emails to answer, scads of laundry to do, and an entire apartment to clean before I go back to work tomorrow, yet I am still going to spend at least a half hour finishing this book with a cup of coffee before I do any of it.
***
And I did! And it was soooo worth it, even though, exactly a week lat...more
Jasper Fforde has built one of the most intriguing and thoroughly odd worlds in his alternate Earth within his Thursday Next series. Unfortunately, the very strengths of that fully developed world are transmogrifying into a weakness that threatens the series.
It's a case of too much. In The Woman who Died a Lot, the wackiness of the world becomes too much for the narrative to sustain, and while the series has always felt like Fforde is barely controlling the craziness, he loses that control here...more
It's a case of too much. In The Woman who Died a Lot, the wackiness of the world becomes too much for the narrative to sustain, and while the series has always felt like Fforde is barely controlling the craziness, he loses that control here...more
22 likes · like · see review
Aug 10, 2012
sj
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
end-of-the-world-challenge,
favourites
You know, I keep thinking I'm going to be able to write this review, but I still don't know exactly what I want to say about it yet.
It's probably my favourite so far of the Thursday Next series, which kind of surprises me, seeing as how it has so little of the things I generally love the most about these books.
(view spoiler)
Now, I get that there's a reason for that, and the way it was explained made complete sense.
The thing that surp...more
It's probably my favourite so far of the Thursday Next series, which kind of surprises me, seeing as how it has so little of the things I generally love the most about these books.
(view spoiler)
Now, I get that there's a reason for that, and the way it was explained made complete sense.
The thing that surp...more
9 likes · like · see review
I’ve enjoyed the Thursday Next series since encountering her in the wonderful The Eyre Affair 10 years ago despite my worry that Fforde had read rather too many classics, pulp police procedurals and postmodern theory which he seemed to weave together through a slightly absurd public school/Oxbridge wit. Hits his stride again here after what seems like a bit of a detour in One of Our Thursdays is Missing, despite its verve, wit, meta-fictional commentary and freshness. The last Thursday Next stru...more
I think this is the best Thursday Next novel. Clones in tupperware. Armed library agents (better make sure I return my books on time). Libraries named like football stadiums. It made me laugh - a lot.
4 likes · like · see review
I love the Thursday Next series, but wasn't as fond of this one. Probably I'll like it better the next time I read it, but I'm not sure; the ending seemed a little contrived, or at the very least rushed. Although Fforde sets up the denouement throughout the book, the fact that it involves not only new characters but also a hitherto unknown organization makes it feel forced.
Aside from this, the storyline with Thursday's son Friday trying to change his destiny was really good. I especially liked t...more
Aside from this, the storyline with Thursday's son Friday trying to change his destiny was really good. I especially liked t...more
Another good and fun read from series that target on book nerds.
What's not to like about this?
The writer has been moving away from the familiar books, and jumping to the "book world". A few plots devices include doomsday, asteroid striking Earth, god smiting people, and destiny notification that comes in the letters.
All good and well and I've a hundred pages or so to go. Will come back and give my second half review.
Second half
It is kind of fun to keep making the readers know what's going with...more
What's not to like about this?
The writer has been moving away from the familiar books, and jumping to the "book world". A few plots devices include doomsday, asteroid striking Earth, god smiting people, and destiny notification that comes in the letters.
All good and well and I've a hundred pages or so to go. Will come back and give my second half review.
Second half
It is kind of fun to keep making the readers know what's going with...more
It’s 2004 in the alternate Britain of the now semiretired literary detective Thursday Next, and she’s getting older—54—but as her husband Landon tells her, when weird comes knocking gray hairs count more than the lost physical prowess she’s mourning. Weird, ironic, and mind-bendingly wonderful is of course exactly what you get in a Thursday Next novel. I’ve loved just about all of Jasper Fforde’s books, but the Thursday Next series is my favorite by far and even in that group this new one is ste...more
'I think it's an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard'Dedication:
To all the librarians
that have ever been
ever will be
are now
this book is respectfully dedicated
Everything comes to an end. A good bottle of wine, a summer's day, a long-running sitcom, one's life, and eventually our species. The question for many of us is not that everything will come to an end, but when, and can we do anything vaguely useful until it does?
5* The Eyre Affair
5* Lost in a Good Book
5* The Well of Lost Plots
5* Something...more
7 likes · like · see review
4.5 Stars but I don't give out many five star reviews. This was fantastic. As a librarian I love the alternate version of librarians that Fforde has created. This book unlike the earlier ones was set in the real world not in Book World and while I suspect that that might bother some people I liked it. Thursday's real world is a little insane too.
There is resolution to a lot of things that happened earlier which is nice because I was wondering whether those things would get resolved.
There is resolution to a lot of things that happened earlier which is nice because I was wondering whether those things would get resolved.
Oct 29, 2012
PopcornReads
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
jasper-fforde,
librarian,
assassin,
bestselling-author,
comedy,
computer,
detective-story,
family,
fantasy,
fiction,
funny,
giveaway,
god,
humorous,
magic,
mysteries-thrillers,
old-gods,
paranormal,
politics,
relationships,
satire,
science-fiction,
scifi-fantasy,
secrets,
sorcery,
suspense,
time-travel
Book Review & Giveaway: Our beloved Thursday Next is back in The Woman Who Died a Lot – yikes, what a title! I’m so relieved she’s back because I thought she was a goner in more ways than one. If you haven’t read any of the Thursday Next series, should you start on this one? Read the rest of my review & enter to win a hardcover copy at http://popcornreads.com/?p=4856.
You know that exquisite fresh feeling you got from reading The Eyre Affair? Don't expect it here. This one felt forced, even awkward (very mild spoiler: (view spoiler)).
Fforde is brilliant. He keeps proving it over and over: The Big Over Easy, Shades of Grey, even The Last Dragonslayer. Not merely creative,...more
Fforde is brilliant. He keeps proving it over and over: The Big Over Easy, Shades of Grey, even The Last Dragonslayer. Not merely creative,...more
I've been reading the Thursday Next books for more than a decade, and have greatly enjoyed my travels with Thursday. The early books seemed to have four things which made them quite enjoyable--a feisty protagonist, biting satire of modern life, a wide ranging yet well written plot filled with dozens of characters, and most importantly references to an entire library full of books in Bookworld which made every in-joke you got a good laugh and every one you didn't made you want to run to the neare...more
From thepickygirl.com:
*I received this book from the publisher Viking in exchange for an honest review.
Thursday Next lives in a world…slightly different than ours. Librarians are highly respected and well paid. The punishment for overdue library books is a bit stiffer than a quarter-per-day fine, and then there’s Bookworld, where the characters and places in books actually exist. After being injured in the line of duty as a literary detective, Thursday Next is recuperating. But that doesn’t mean...more
*I received this book from the publisher Viking in exchange for an honest review.
Thursday Next lives in a world…slightly different than ours. Librarians are highly respected and well paid. The punishment for overdue library books is a bit stiffer than a quarter-per-day fine, and then there’s Bookworld, where the characters and places in books actually exist. After being injured in the line of duty as a literary detective, Thursday Next is recuperating. But that doesn’t mean...more
1 like · like · see review
In The Woman Who Died A Lot, the seventh volume of the ongoing series involving Thursday Next, author Jasper Fforde takes a break from the BookWorld to tell a story set firmly in his alternate universe town of Swindon.
Thursday, now four months into her forced retirement due to the events of the previous book, is still finding “real” life a bit of a problem. The assassination attempt has left her with scares that will never heal but she must also deal with certain family issues –one that include...more
Thursday, now four months into her forced retirement due to the events of the previous book, is still finding “real” life a bit of a problem. The assassination attempt has left her with scares that will never heal but she must also deal with certain family issues –one that include...more
The Woman Who Died a Lot
And yet another one of Fforde’s creations that I thoroughly enjoyed. Having lost her ability to read herself into the Book World after the accident that almost killed her, Thursday Next is read to join the work force again. Not as head of the newly reinstated SO-27, as she had originally hoped, but as Chief Librarian of the Wessex All You Can Eat at Fatso’s Drink Not Included Library Services. My initial disappointment at the apparent lack of Book World related adventures...more
And yet another one of Fforde’s creations that I thoroughly enjoyed. Having lost her ability to read herself into the Book World after the accident that almost killed her, Thursday Next is read to join the work force again. Not as head of the newly reinstated SO-27, as she had originally hoped, but as Chief Librarian of the Wessex All You Can Eat at Fatso’s Drink Not Included Library Services. My initial disappointment at the apparent lack of Book World related adventures...more
It always takes me a while to get into a Thursday Next novel because the setting is so odd. It’s a world, well, a couple of different, overlapping worlds actually, in which the line between fiction and reality is much blurrier than it is in our mundane world. If you wish to know more about these, read the earlier Thursday Next books. Now, on with our review.
This book is set in Fforde’s alternate England. It is not as strange as the book world setting, but even here fiction affects reality in a v...more
This book is set in Fforde’s alternate England. It is not as strange as the book world setting, but even here fiction affects reality in a v...more
Ahhhh, Jasper Fforde and Thursday Next (the real Thursday, not the Written) are back!
Some new things/adjustments: Thursday's in her 50s! Her children are teenagers! Difficult to imagine butt-kicking Thursday being...a little slower with the butt-kicking. And truthfully, a little sad. But she's still whipsmart and ready to take down Goliath!
Some old things that we love: Landon (le sigh--perfect husband). Friday and Tuesday. And you guuuuuys, time travel stuff still happening. Whew, I thought Ffor...more
Some new things/adjustments: Thursday's in her 50s! Her children are teenagers! Difficult to imagine butt-kicking Thursday being...a little slower with the butt-kicking. And truthfully, a little sad. But she's still whipsmart and ready to take down Goliath!
Some old things that we love: Landon (le sigh--perfect husband). Friday and Tuesday. And you guuuuuys, time travel stuff still happening. Whew, I thought Ffor...more
In the latest Thursday Next book, Thursday is middle-aged and embroiled in trouble again. This book is centered in Thursday's world, not the Book World, and I thought that worked very well; only one main world to keep straight. I am always entertained by Thursday's weird world, a world in which librarians perform dawn raids to get back overdue books, and where the head librarian is one of the most powerful positions in England. There were some interesting time travel ideas in here, some good con...more
Although the author abolished time travel several books ago, it returns as a theme in this story. Characters, including Thursday’s son Friday, who would have been Chronoguard time police, have been sent letters describing what their careers would have been and how their lives will turn out now that those doors are closed to them. Thursday, who is in terrible shape due to an assassination attempt, is faced with some old enemies including the monolithic Goliath Corporation. Because she is injured,...more
Oh, Jasper Fforde, I am so in love with the Thursday Next series and this book is, as usual, a delight. And its cross-genre leaping, puns and parody filled pages, and reverance for books made for another amazing read. At first, I was distressed that Thursday was passed over to head SO-27 (Special Ops), but I came to realize that her job as chief librarian at the Wessex All-You-Can-Eat-at-Fatso's Drink Not Included Library Service may prove to be an even more interesting assignment. I grieved wit...more
*Check out http://www.infinitereads.com for other reviews and sundry thoughts!*
Jasper Fforde fans, rejoice! The Woman Who Died a Lot, the seventh installment in his Thursday Next series, delivers all the imagination, complexity and laughs we've come to expect from Fforde and his book-hopping, butt-kicking heroine.
Following the events of One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, Thursday's physical injuries have forced her to retire from Jurisfiction, a policing agency that deals with crime in the BookW...more
Jasper Fforde fans, rejoice! The Woman Who Died a Lot, the seventh installment in his Thursday Next series, delivers all the imagination, complexity and laughs we've come to expect from Fforde and his book-hopping, butt-kicking heroine.
Following the events of One of Our Thursdays Is Missing, Thursday's physical injuries have forced her to retire from Jurisfiction, a policing agency that deals with crime in the BookW...more
1 like · like · see review
Very impressed, as always, in fact 25% more impressed! Although no meet-ups with fictional characters, just like how One of Our Thursdays... was entirely set in BookWorld, the richness of RealWorld is no less enthralling. The Next family deals with very unique problems that could only happen in a Goliath-influenced world - thank Google we don't have any issues like that in ours ;-)One of the greatest aspects of this novel was the moral tone it takes while avoiding preachiness - a hard thing to p...more
I can't believe I forgot to review this. I have no idea how it slipped my mind, either. I thought I had, but then I checked and discovered I hadn't, but... anyway. Here it is.
There's a reason Jasper Fforde is my favorite author. For one, he is brilliant at creating odd worlds and alternative universes, which happens to be the sort of literature I enjoy very much, and he also happens to be a genius at wordplay and puns and putting in just the right amount of zaniness to keep you interested long...more
There's a reason Jasper Fforde is my favorite author. For one, he is brilliant at creating odd worlds and alternative universes, which happens to be the sort of literature I enjoy very much, and he also happens to be a genius at wordplay and puns and putting in just the right amount of zaniness to keep you interested long...more
This reached my home three weeks before going on holiday, and it took a lot of self control to leave it alone for that period. Worth the wait - both that short one and the much longer one since Thursday Next's previous outing. Jasper Fforde has lost none of his ingenuity, and none of his power to entertain. Inevitably there is a familiarity with the characters which the reader is assumed to have, but if you have that you will be delighted. He's just as funny as ever.
The plot is just too intricat...more
The plot is just too intricat...more
In my opinion, this is Jasper Fforde back at his marvellous best.
I will, however reluctantly, admit that I found the previous Next tale - One of Our Thursdays is Missing - just a little flat. I'm not sure even now that I can quite put my finger on why and it's not as if it was a poor effort; it just didn't meet the expectations that JF has caused me to have.
This book, though, places any loss of form firmly into the past. The Bookworld is, this time, of peripheral interest only; it's not giving t...more
I will, however reluctantly, admit that I found the previous Next tale - One of Our Thursdays is Missing - just a little flat. I'm not sure even now that I can quite put my finger on why and it's not as if it was a poor effort; it just didn't meet the expectations that JF has caused me to have.
This book, though, places any loss of form firmly into the past. The Bookworld is, this time, of peripheral interest only; it's not giving t...more
6 likes · like · see review
I love Jasper Fforde and Thursday Next, otherwise why would I have read this book? That said, the last two books in the series have left me less than satisfied. In One of our Thursdays is Missing, the plot takes place almost entirely in BookWorld with the protagonist being the written Thursday. In TWWDAL, we have a book that takes place entirely in the "real" world. In the former, I missed the real Thursday, and in the latter, I missed the whimsy of BookWorld. Something in the recipe of each is...more
3 likes · like · see review
Thursday Next remains, as ever, my all-time favorite literary hero. And after she spent most of her last feature, One of Our Thursdays is Missing, well, missing, it was wonderful to spend some time with her again. It's almost like slipping into your old, comfortable body--bum leg, pain patches, and all. Oh, pardon me. I'm getting ahead of myself. This installment of Jasper Fforde's longest series gets back to basics, letting us wander through wacky-old Swindon, spend time with beloved characters...more
I became a huge fan of Jasper Fforde from when I first read The Eyre Affair. It was like having an author write a book solely aimed at my taste and sense of humour and this has continued through out the entire series. The Woman who died a lot does not disappoint. Thursday Next is back and she is now head of the Wessex All You Can Eat at Fatso's Drink Not Included Library Services. And it's my sort of library where dawn raids are considered to retrieve overdue books. "I'd also like you to review...more
Very early in the book, Fforde references this line: to keep the Menai bridge from rust by boiling it in wine from this poem and I was terribly thrilled because I once memorised most of that poem for no particular reason other than I rather thought at one stage that I should memorise some poetry. It may have had something to do with Anne of Green Gables.
I felt very clever for knowing the reference, since it felt as though it was something obscure, but of course for the rest of the book I was onc...more
I felt very clever for knowing the reference, since it felt as though it was something obscure, but of course for the rest of the book I was onc...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Live Video Chat with Jasper Fforde | 72 | 110 | Nov 26, 2012 10:06am | |
| The Indie Exchang...: Win The Woman Who Died a Lot by Jasper Fforde | 1 | 18 | Oct 29, 2012 10:58am | |
| Book Giveaways: Win a copy of The Woman Who Died a Lot! | 5 | 80 | Oct 04, 2012 07:02am |
Jasper Fforde is a novelist living in Wales. He is the son of John Standish Fforde, the 24th Chief Cashier for the Bank of England, whose signature used to appear on sterling banknotes, and is cousin of Desmond Fforde, married with the author Katie Fforde. His early career was spent as a focus puller in the film industry, where he worked on a number of films including Quills, GoldenEye, and Entrap...more
More about Jasper Fforde...
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5 trivia questions
More quizzes & trivia...
“Do I have to talk to insane people?"
"You're a librarian now. I'm afraid it's mandatory.”
—
66 people liked it
"You're a librarian now. I'm afraid it's mandatory.”
“Librarying is a harder profession than the public realizes, he said. People think it's all rubber stamps, knowing that Dewey 521 is celestial mechanics and saying 'Try looking under fiction' sixty eight times a day.”
—
9 people liked it
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Nick and Jen: Yay, do it!!!
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