Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

I appreciate the authors' honest talk about having an interracial friendship.

Intriguing start to what seems like it will be a sort of mystery/investigation of the past -- with ghosts!

"A healthy friendship involve stretches in both directions. When you're stretching, you're both making an effort to figure out how to adapt to your differences and to the shifting shape of your bond. Just like exercise, some of this emotional stretching feels good, and some of it will make you feel like you can't take it anymore. Stretching is being challenged, in a way that is both difficult and rewarding..."

"Almost immediately, though, we were making plans -- and, even more important, we were actually following through. We resisted the cheap thrill of canceling last minute because we'd rather spend the night alone in our underwear eating snacks. Eventually, we got close enough to spend time in our underwear *together* eating snacks."

Excited about this memoir of the friendship between the co-hosts of the excellent Call Your Girlfriend podcast.

Strange but compelling story full of foreshadowing and foreboding. Curious to see where it winds up.

The story is moving along at a pretty good clip for the most part. I can anticipate some of the reveals that are coming and am eager to get to them and find out if I'm right!

"I remember doing nothing, but doing it together, which made it something after all. Now when I put a dish in the microwave for thirty seconds I am paralyzed by the discomfort of an organized time. Is thirty seconds enough to read something? Check the weather? Pee? I reach for anything to occupy me, but now I've spent all of my time wondering how I should spend it, and the machine beeps, and I have purpose again."

Suspenseful plot threads are keeping me turning the pages!

I love the fun Temple has with sentences: "Of course, it didn't hurt that she was attractive. Of course, it didn't hurt that she radiated wealth. You could see the wealth in her cheeks, clear as anything. Day. Crystal. Vodka. My own parents managed, but things were harder for all of us after the separation. Corners and coupons were cut."

Interesting family story. Curious to see how the threads will connect.

Intriguing start as the narrator arrives for a summer program at a mediation retreat, colloquially known as the Levitation Center, that her father visited before he disappeared.

Such lyrical sentences: "Still, I am very lonely. They help me forget this, but sometimes it shows up like a continent shifting onto my chest. I'm so tired of being empty. I turned it inside out and wore it like a glove, smeared it on the walls until my house shouted 'empty, empty, empty.' I didn't know what to do with it afterward. All I know is that it hurts to be in the spaces between freedom."

I had been wondering when the story would start to indicate why it was eligible for the Otherwise Award. Curious to see where the gender aspect will go.

"She could tell the truth, she thought, but there was no single truth anymore. She'd lived a life split between two women -- each real, each a lie." Loving how the tension behind that is building, and can't wait to see where it ends up!

"Wait, is this how humans feel? To know that you are separate and special, to be individual and distinct? It's amazing. But I had to remind myself that I wasn't human or flesh. I was just a self, a little beast, if you like, locked inside Ada. Still, it was nice to be able to move her body and feel things."

Loving the complicated nuances of the characters and story.

Beautiful, powerful writing tells the unusual story of a family with a child whose body is occupied by gods.

As different threads are added into this story, it just keeps getting more interesting!

Great first section. Eager to see what happens when we shift to another POV and time!

Excellent opening providing a clear look at the town and the main characters.

Great mix of ongoing characters in a wide variety of situations, and the occasional one-off chapter with a new character showing yet another possibility.

Really enjoying getting to see all sorts of different ways characters are responding to the technology this book is about.

Loving this weird premise and the way it's being introduced by showing, rather than explaining.

"I hate having emotions about reality; I'd much rather have them about _Sanctuary Moon_."

Yikes! Really enjoying the characters and the exciting plot.

Finally getting around to trying this series, and I'm already charmed by Murderbot!

The section providing the backstory of the narrator's mother was a nice surprise and contrast to the main story. I've peeked ahead and am pleased to see that we'll also be getting the grandmother's story.

"She arrived right at noon. Punctual esa niña, como si no tuviera más que hacer. She arrived right when the heat lost its gaseous elements and the air transformed into a solid cotton ball of warmth pushing at bleeding nostrils, successfully inhibiting normal breathing so that just stepping outside felt like drowning in hot caldo.... Carmen at noon when Miami was a closed kitchen with a terrible gas-leak problem."

I am loving this strong narrative voice!