Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

Even the stories in this collection that are less to my taste in style or subject matter still often hit me in the feels!

It's unfortunate that this installment involves the narrator spending the most time with the characters I least enjoy, but I am still engaged with where it's all going.

Such great advice on important topics, such as both how to take criticism and how to take a compliment!

Insightful advice as always from S. Bear Bergman, enhanced by beautiful, personality-filled illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson.

Great mix of story styles. "Midnight Confetti" by D.K. Marlowe is another standout: delicious-to-read sentences crafting a reluctant love story with a light touch of magic.

There is just so much happening in this series, it's astounding. Sometimes a bit dense to get through, but fascinating nonetheless.

Really impressed by the strength of this anthology!

"The Invisible Bisexual" by S.L. Huang takes the phrase literally, in a way that complicates the main character's love life.

"Frequently Asked Questions About the Portals at Frank's Late-Night Starlite Drive-In" by Kristen Koopman is as weird and fun as that title suggests, with a really sweet story of a character coming into herself.

The plot is getting very dark, but fascinating!

"The Ghosts of Liberty Street" by Phoebe Barton starts this anthology off strong and thematic with a beautiful story that's all about possibilities.

I love the robot narrator of Amy Griswold's "Custom Options Available", who is on a carefully considered quest to explore sexuality, identity, and the parameters of a free life.

"Do images of our statue survive to your day, reader?.... In darker ages Justice stood alone before courthouses, but in Carlyle's vision her sister Temperance stands to one side holding back her sword, while from the other side Reason lifts away her blindfold so Justice can finally see the contents of her scales."

Lots of interesting developments, and another perspective on the story. Eager to continue on the journey!

Great to be back in this wow-so-fully-imagined world! The story is doing a good job at reminding us of the oh-so-many things that happened in the first two books.

"After one and a half hours, it was time to come home. That way, when one or the other of the children woke up to complain about how horrible it was being a baby, Vern would be there to tell them it only got worse, as well as to give them milk to make that fact less upsetting."

This is already nothing like I expected (for some reason, I'd thought it was set in slavery times, though I'm not sure why), besides that it's written with Solomon's usual great skill and emotion.

I love all the many threads of this story, and it's fascinating watching them entwine!

Cynical indeed, but thought-provoking and useful. Kanakia's core ideas are about how to refine and pitch a manuscript to strike that perfect balance of sounding just like all those other successful books, but with a fresh new hook!

I'm a fan of Kanakia's fiction and insightful blog, and it's great to read her perspective on how the industry works and doesn't work.

Glad the sequel is continuing the practice of following many different characters whose lives intersect with those of the Golem and the Jinni. And interesting to start seeing how this story will be different, by taking place over a much longer span of time.

Great to be reunited with the wonderful characters from the first book!

Reached the emotional turning point. Curious to see what will transpire in Part 2.

"What she has always dreaded is here. It has come. The moment she has feared most, the event she has thought about, mulled over, turned this way and that, rehearsed and re-rehearsed in her mind, during the dark of sleepless nights, at moments of idleness, when she is alone. The pestilence has reached her house."

This is wonderful, such a vivid capturing of moments!

Looking forward to reading this after hearing so many raves. Such an ominous start!

Enjoying this story of family and secrets and stories ancient and modern.

Fascinating story, and here's a hint of everything that's going on: "Still, how unnerving—I'd grown up thinking of my life as some immigrant's kid bildungsroman, but then things took a sci-fi supernatural turn in Antarctica with some recent feathery flourishes of gothic horror. Now I'm tripping into a rom-com setup. How do I seize control of my life when I can't even maintain a stable genre?"

Though the story was a bit slow to really get moving, things are definitely happening now!

Starts off great with the contrast of a mother telling Korean folk tales, then a particle physicist doing research at the South Pole, and a tantalizing glimpse into how these threads will combine.

"You know that phrase, 'out of the frying pan, into the fire'? People say that like it’s a bad thing. But what’s the alternative—out of the frying pan, onto the counter? Out of the frying pan, onto the sofa."

So angsty, but I do love these characters.

The story is slow in a way, just following the main character though the events of her life as she figures out growing up, but it's keeping me reading.