Jillian Cantor is a USA Today bestselling author whose latest book, Half Life, puts double Nobel Peace Prize winning physicist Marie Curie on a “what if” path of life, tracking two very different options she could have taken, and examining the outcome of both.

Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler, and in today’s Binge Reading Jillian talks about the movie that inspired Half Life, how Madame Curie’s scientific papers are still held in a lead box because of their high levels of radiation, and how she is re-telling F. Scott Fitzgerald’s masterpiece, The Great Gatsby, from the point of view of the female characters.

We've got three E book copies of Half Life to give away to three lucky readers in our Armchair Traveler Giveaway. Don't forget to Enter the Draw to win.

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Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:

The movie behind Half LifeTriumph and tragedy in Marie Curie's lifeThe secret life that became front page news.The daughter that rejected science as a careerWhy strong women appealThe lure of Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby

Where to find Jillian Cantor

Website: https://www.jilliancantor.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jilliancantor/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SarahPennerAuthor/

Twitter: @JillianCantor

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1651861.Jillian_Cantor

What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.

But now, here’s Jillian.

Jenny Wheeler: Hello there Jillian, and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.

Jillian Cantor - USA Today best-selling author.

Jillian Cantor: Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

Jenny Wheeler: You are a USA Today bestselling author, you have got 11 international books for adults and teens to your credit,and your latest book is Half Life.

It's based on the story of the Nobel Prize winning scientist, Marie Curie, and it is an Amazon Pick Of The Month, Best Book of the Month in Literature and Fiction for March 2021. You have got yourself in a great position, haven't you?

Jillian Cantor: Yes, thank you. I was really excited that Amazon chose it.

Jenny Wheeler: It is not the first book you've had chosen as an Amazon pick either, so it's a feather in your cap.

Jillian Cantor: Yes, it’s great. It is always exciting to see someone choose the book and support it and have some love for it. It was very exciting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Da-Mizk86AE

Jenny Wheeler: Half Life is a lovely parallel story, giving two versions of the life of the pioneering physicist, Marie Curie. You have said it was partly inspired by the movie Sliding Doors, a Gwyneth Paltrow movie from the late 1990s, where the character is shown having a contrasting and different life, depending on one key event, whether she made a train on time or whether she missed the train. Tell us about how that inspired you.

Temptation of alternate reality

Jillian Cantor: I have always loved that movie, but more than the movie, just the concept itself. I think about it in my own life a lot. I think we all do. We wonder what would have happened if we had made different choices in terms of career and school, and where that might have led us.

That is an idea I've always thought about in my own life, but in terms of Half Life I thought, what if this famous scientist had made a different choice. How would not only her life have been different, but the whole world and science as a whole,