Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

I like the carefully controlled narrative voice and am curious to see what's going to happen with Joan.

I am really loving this! And while I do still think the book would stand alone, part of my enjoyment is certainly the familiarity of the characters and the glimpses of their lives from the last book.

I'm sure this could be enjoyed without any context for the characters, but I'm glad I reread Goon Squad so I can follow all the connections, because I love that sort of thing! It's already exciting to see who is showing up and how.

I'm enjoying the characters and their stories, but also the sentences: "In the dusk, a chorus line of palm trees vamped against a Bellini sky."

While this isn't really my sort of book (at least at this point in my life), I can appreciate that it's objectively a good book.

It's interesting seeing which pieces of the story I remembered and which I didn't. Still happy to be rereading this, and curious to see how connected the sequel will be.

A friend learned that I'd never read this and insisted I rectify that. I'm sure I would have appreciated it more when I was a kid, but it's interesting to read now.

I'm really glad to be rereading this, because I feel like a better reader for the unconventional structure this time around.

Decided to reread this again before reading The Candy House, especially since my original review suggests I missed many of the connections the first time around.

Wow, there is a LOT going on in this strange and wonderful story, and I'm only sad to realize I'll be at the end before long!

This story is so strange and wonderful, and so very Emily St. John Mandel in a variety of ways that I don't want to spoil!

I love how reading toward a historically inevitable outcome creates more tension in the story, not less.

"In a sense, all calendrical war is a game between competing sets of rules, fueled by the coherence of our beliefs. To win a calendrical war, you have to understand how game systems work." I'm getting more and more into this story as it goes along.

Enjoying the story and the dynamic between Cheris and Jedao as they figure out how to work together.

"John says that he wants to do something important, something with weight and consequence, something that will leave a mark. Asia can have no such hopes, but she is excited to think that someone might read the book about Father. In her own small way, she wishes to add esteem to the Booth name. John is not so interested in that. "No," he says, "I want to be known for something more than simply being Father's son.""

"Edwin works hard to perform well. He has moments of particular triumph. In Grass Valley, his Iago is so persuasive that one drunken miner draws a gun and shoots, shouting at Edwin, "You're a sneaking no-account cur and you'll get what's coming to you!" Edwin dives to the stage along with the rest of the cast, and the play only continues when everyone in the audience has voluntarily disarmed."

This is throw-you-into-the-deep-end scifi, with a whole lot of terms and names, and not a lot of context provided. But I'm more or less following what's going on, so I guess it's working.

Just marvelous. This is a delight to read!

Wonderful characters, fantastic writing, as I expect from Fowler!

"In his speech, [Abraham Lincoln] warns of two possible threats to the republic. The first is found in the lawless actions of the mob, the second in the inevitable rise someday of an aspiring dictator. The gravest peril will come if the mob and the dictator unite."

Interesting characters, setting, and premise!

The connections between the timelines are interesting, and I'm curious to see how it's all going to come together.

I've been getting more invested in the characters and story as it goes along.

This is utterly unlike We Ride Upon Sticks, and it's fascinating!

So far I've read one chapter in each of the three timelines, and I'm definitely intrigued. There is a LOT going on in this story, and some of the setup exposition felt a bit clunky, but I expect I'll grow more immersed as I get deeper in.

The scorching intimacy and honesty is making me feel so hard for these characters.

Engrossed in this story and these characters.

"Many people think a trans woman's deepest desire is to live in her true gender, but actually it is to always stand in good lighting."

A page or two in, and I'm already loving the narrative voice: "To jolt herself back to life, she went on Grindr, or Tinder, or whatever—and administered ten thousand volts to the heart by chasing the most dramatic tachycardia of an affair she could find."

Great how the tension and stakes have ramped up as the story develops!