Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

I'm now halfway through this book and still not really sure what it's about.

This is a slow, cerebral book so far, and I'm waiting for it to really get going, but I do always appreciate reading about writers not writing: "If I was slouching, I tried to fill my slouch with potential, the coiled readiness of someone who might imminently begin to write, might write at any time, but just happened not to be doing so."

"I have developed a visceral dislike of being watched while I write, not just because the content might be private, but because all the things one does while writing that are not actually writing—stretching, looking out into space, browsing the internet—seems somehow shameful if they're monitored by others." The protagonist doesn't sound too much like me, but that I can relate to!

This is so engrossing, and so heartbreaking.

Wow, this has pulled me right in. Layla is in a terrible home situation, and she works hard to protect her little brother and to keep anyone outside the family from knowing what their life is really like.

Lots of excitement, and Murderbot is kicking butt in all kinds of ways!

Happy to be back with Murderbot again, and anxious to see what it's going to discover about its past!

While the cover calls these poems, they are small prose stories, and each one is lovely!

"[My brother] Nana is the reason I began this work, but not in a wholesome, made-for-TED Talk kind of way. Instead, this science was a way for me to challenge myself, to do something truly hard, and in doing so to work through all of my misunderstandings about his addiction and all of my shame. Because I still have so much shame."

This is a much different sort of novel than the epic HOMEGOING, since it's an intimate family story, but that's a genre I love, and this is an excellent example.

"If I've thought of my mother as callous, and many times I have, then it is important to remind myself what a callus is: the hardened tissue that forms over a wound." Such good writing in this wrenching family story!

"I think when people heard about my brother they assumed that I had gone into neuroscience out of a sense of duty to him, but the truth is I'd started this work not because I wanted to help people but because it seemed like the hardest thing you could do, and I wanted you to the hardest thing. I wanted to flay any mental weakness off my body like fascia from muscle."

Lovely already: "When I'd first arrived in California, everything had looked so beautiful to me. Even the grass, yellowed, scorched from the sun and the seemingly endless drought, had looked otherworldly. This must be Mars, I thought, because how could this be America, too?"

This remains delightful.

Really enjoying the humor and observation in this.

Really enjoying this. Johnson is a great, funny writer, and this plot is developing quickly!

Cruel author is cruel.

Yup, pretty much nonstop things going wrong in this story!

Wow, the number of things going wrong for the characters!

"What a world we live in, that sunshine was rarer than being able to talk to my husband from the Moon."

Off to an exciting start, with a lot of stuff going wrong!

Wow, this story is disturbing!

”Noemí was struck with the desire to lean forward and kiss him, a feeling like wishing to light a match, a burning, bright, and eager feeling. Yet she hesitated. It was easy to kiss someone when it didn't matter; it was more difficult when it might be meaningful.” I like how the possible romance in this story fights to emerge from the constant tense horror.

"The house, so quiet, with its curtains drawn, was like a dress lined with lead. Everything was heavy, even the air, and a musty scent lingered along the hallways. It felt almost as if it were a temple, a church, where one must speak in low voices and genuflect, and she supposed the servants had acclimatized to this environment and therefore tiptoed along the staircase, unwilling nuns who had made vows of silence."

"'But the fact is everything they touch rots.'
Rots. The words sounded so ugly, it seemed to stick to the tongue, it made Noemí want to bite her nails even though she'd never done such a thing."

The damp, growing creepiness of the story is getting under my skin in the same way!

This book has already presented a very creepy letter, a scary house with strict rules, and a growing sense of dread! I don't read a lot of horror, so I'm nervous but excited!

Very caught up in the characters and the mystery. Impatient to find out the answers!

Interesting developments!

"It's hard to rationalize away a friend breakup. You can't blame a fizzled-out sex life or an attraction to a new partner. There's not even the classic half-hearted consolation of 'We can still be friends' to fall back on. And so friend breakups can cut even deeper than romantic ones."

The prose glides right along, and I'm excited about the story developing and the excellent characters teaming up to investigate!