This group has been designated for adults age 18 or older. Please sign in and confirm your date of birth in your profile so we can verify your eligibility. You may opt to make your date of birth private.

From the Bookshelf of Around the Year in 52 Books …

Doomsday Book (Oxford Time Travel, #1)

Connie Willis

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Oct 07, 2021 Marta rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio, historical-fiction, female-author, library, sci-fi

This is a tough book but also an easy book. The subject is tough: two very deadly pandemics, one in the past, another in the future. Willis is drawing parallels and differences, while making it all about the people. But the writing and character development makes this easy as pie. Written with humor and compassion, she draws a vivid, close-to-home and very human picture of characters, every day life, small annoyances and small and big joys - and also loss, unbearable suffering, loss of faith, bu This is a tough book but also an easy book. The subject is tough: two very deadly pandemics, one in the past, another in the future. Willis is drawing parallels and differences, while making it all about the people. But the writing and character development makes this easy as pie. Written with humor and compassion, she draws a vivid, close-to-home and very human picture of characters, every day life, small annoyances and small and big joys - and also loss, unbearable suffering, loss of faith, but also hope.

Connie Willis and I seem to click: I love her down-to-earth characters and writing, the humor, the tongue-in-cheek dialog, and just the overall plotting. She dribbles information and speculation so that even if we know what’s coming, it is still thrilling to see the character figuring it out. She is a great observer of little daily things like children being cranky or cute, sisters being mean or loving, fathers worrying over daughters, people cooking a feast or caring for the sick. She is equally apt speculating over time-travel paradoxes, academic bureaucracy and crazy crackpot ways to act in a pandemic. Yep, she got almost everything right in 1992, down to the lack of lavatory paper and too many Americans dying because they would not be told what to do.

There are many great themes explored, from father and mother figures taking care of children to religious ceremonies and church bells. The church bell theme reminded me of The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers, whom Willis definitely loves, as she refers to her work in To Say Nothing of the Dog. Her biggest theme though is that people are the same all through time, and there are blamers, busy-bodies but also caring, helpful people at every time and place; and children wex their parents, get bored and tired just as they did centuries ago. And the possible overarching theme is the role of the historian, who records what happened to the people even if he is the last to survive, even if he is dying.

I listened to the book, and I first found the first half somewhat slow as so much time was spent on character and world building. But the second half of the book requires all that as you must get to know how people lived and what they were like to truly care about them. It is a very tough and affecting second half and I thought I could never get through this again… But I found myself beginning to listen again to be reminded how they were before.

And on second listen, every little detail came to sharp focus as a portent for things to come, as heart-aching, as a clue that was missed the first time… it was all there.

And I realized that Connie Willis is a genius. ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Dec 27, 2010 Gretchen rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2011

I really enjoyed this books parallels between present and past. As in all books involving time travel there's a need to suspend disbelief, but the theory used by the author was reasonable. I found that I preferred the present-day challenges to the challenges in the past - maybe it was the British humor? My only complaint with the novel was the ending -- too little resolution and falling action. But other than that, an enjoyable read. ...more

Like · see review

Sep 22, 2019 Viktoriya marked it as didn-t-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, tbr-pick

DNF'ed at about 250 pages. It was such a straggle and a chore to read even those couple of hundred of pages (normally it takes me a little over an hour to read that, but with this book, it took me two whole weeks to read even that much). ...more

Like · see review

Jun 17, 2020 Dixie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, read-the-beast

4-1/2 stars. Couldn't put this down. ...more

Like · see review

Sep 12, 2010 Nathalie marked it as to-read

Sep 15, 2010 Monica marked it as to-read

Aug 15, 2011 Andrea marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Jan 26, 2013 Laura rated it it was amazing

Jun 06, 2013 Michael added it

Shelves: time-travel

2 likes · Like

Oct 19, 2013 Katt Hansen marked it as to-read

Dec 09, 2014 Cait rated it really liked it

Jan 14, 2015 Karigan marked it as to-read

Sep 07, 2015 Elina marked it as to-read

Jan 14, 2016 Paula S rated it really liked it

Jan 30, 2024 Holli rated it really liked it

3.5

Like · see review

Feb 24, 2016 Roxana rated it it was amazing

Feb 08, 2017 Hitzuji marked it as to-read

Dec 30, 2017 Amber marked it as to-read

Jul 26, 2018 Chrissie marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Dec 11, 2018 Theresa Wright marked it as to-read

Shelves: npr-top-100-scifi-fantasy

Apr 04, 2020 Jaclyn rated it really liked it

May 31, 2021 Donna marked it as to-read

Sep 22, 2021 Jillian (Peapod Historical Bookery) marked it as to-read

Shelves: series-starter, time-travel, sci-fi, 14th-century, at-my-library-bcl-od-ebook, at-my-library-hoopla-audio, series-complete, decades-1340s

Mar 03, 2025 Shannon SA rated it did not like it

Jan 11, 2024 Desta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

Jun 05, 2024 Rachael rated it really liked it

Aug 03, 2024 Traci marked it as check-these-out-further

Dec 17, 2024 Cate marked it as to-read

Shelves: 2025-popsugar-challenge

Apr 22, 2025 ilovebakedgoods (Teresa) marked it as to-read

May 25, 2025 Clare rated it really liked it · review of another edition

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 next »

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls