Lisa Eckstein > Recent Status Updates

The fairy tale style of this is intriguing. No idea where the story is going to go!

This is only the second Rushdie book I've read (I loved Midnight's Children long ago), and I'm immediately remembering how enjoyable he is to read!

The way the story is developing is fascinating and intense!

Fascinating digging into the lives of the protagonists and their experiences in the art world.

Enjoying the writing, the characters, the art, and the Brown University setting!

A lot of surprises in this story!

"'White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don't disappoint them,' I said. 'The only ones who suffer when they are made to feel inferior is us. Perhaps I should say "when they don't feel superior."'"

Book club read. Got through nearly half while flying home from vacation, so it goes quickly, but so far it's only moderately interesting, and I can't imagine what made it such a runaway bestseller.

I forgot what long stretches of the book are devoted to Huck's adventures with the fraudsters, escapades that don't involve Jim at all.

Rereading before James by Percival Everett. That Twain, he sure can do a narrative voice!

"A Man of the People" follows a character from childhood to adulthood, along the way showing a variety of cultures that Le Guin develops in her usual fascinating way.

The second story, "Forgiveness Day", shows far more of the political situation of the worlds where this collection is set, but remains a very personal story. And like the first, it's broadly about two people who initially don't like or understand each other coming to form a relationship, in keeping with the book's title.

It seems like there has not been as much buzz about this sequel as there should have been, since it's been out since January and there are only 15 ratings so far! Hey, everyone, there's a sequel to Everfair!

I really liked the first story, "Betrayals": Two people have each sought out solitude at the end of eventful lives, but circumstances force them together. It's a very personal story, but also conveys some of the history and politics of their world.

One of the stories in Birthday of the World is set on the same planet as these four stories, and I've been looking forward to learning more about the politics and people.

Interesting start with reminders of some of the characters from Everfair, and the introduction of some whole new stories.

"Poor Izzy, trying to live a Miami Scarface life when all the movie has given him in terms of location possibilities is a made-up map of places long since dismantled."

Really enjoying how the characters and story are developing!

Really enjoying the humor and heart in this. And with one of the point of view characters being an orca in captivity, I hope this might get some readership through comparison with the octopus novel (Remarkably Bright Creatures, which I haven't read yet).

"The Lesson" is the most realistic story so far, and the most emotional.

I liked the worldbuilding in "Valley of the Girls", but the disorientation of the story detracted from it.

"Origin Story" is the second story in the collection involving superheroes, and the two happen to be my favorites so far.

I really enjoyed "Secret Identity", a story in which first the reader has to figure out what's going on, and then the main character does.

It took me a little while to get into "I Can See Right Through You", but then I was hooked... and then a bit disappointed by how much is left unresolved at the end.

Surprised that I'm this far into the book and a big plot event revealed in the cover description hasn't happened yet.

I liked how the first story, "The Summer People", starts out with the protagonist's concerns grounded in the familiar (illness, bad parenting, work) and then gradually becomes weird. I'm expecting more of that as I continue through the collection!

I'm interested in the developing situations, but the writing style is more focused on telling and explaining than on developing the characters as complex, feeling people.

"He thinks again how being up above it all the time, you never really get a feel for how much ground there is in the ground, how much earth there is to the earth, what it takes for us to have something to walk on."

With some of these stories, I feel like there might be a layer of meaning that is lost on me, so I was glad to understand that the short, poetic "A Child Bride" is about Persephone.

"Ether, OR" is about the relationships between residents of a small town that doesn't stay put in a fixed location. Interesting characters, interesting premise that is mostly background flavor.

Enjoying this story about a family where everyone is caught up in a different plot that the others don't know about. (Though I'm skeptical about the choice to leave out all the periods in one of the POVs.)