Sandra Lazzell > Recent Status Updates

How this book HITS the way it does. 90 years after publication. After multiple re-reads at different ages (ages 12, 16, 18, 30 and 42) and phases of my life with vastly different personal perspectives from my own shifting experience/wisdom and increased knowledge of history and social studies over time...I don't even try to compare any other book to this one. It's in a class of its own.

Still loving this. Reading it slower and savoring. Really enjoying each short story within and already wanting to go back and re-read them.

This has a perfect beginning to me. Descriptions of what a storyteller of old was and their importance to society. The first tale we hear is on the creation of the land mass that is now Ireland, and it is beautifully brought to life in words reminiscent of the styles of Carl Sagan and Neil deGrasse Tyson in their presentation of the show, Cosmos. Please, please let the rest of the book stay this strong!

Very strong start!

Remember for full review later - cultures. Have been reading this straight through for pleasure, with any individual thoughts being had and then melding into the pot of my thought on the whole story, which is, this is wonderful. While that's all very well, there are many things that can make for wonderful, and there are so many to this story I can't recollect them individually without noting as I go along.

I do not know how this wasn't on my radar sooner. Loving the New Orleans 1960's portrayal.

Haha I love this already! The type of writing that makes me wish I wrote too.

Well, I can say somewhere around half way through this book, right around the point when I was wondering if I would just give up wading it's shallow waters, this unexpectedly and pleasantly surprised me and took me to deeper depths. Many well written nuggets of lines - metaphors about life, meaning, aging...

The symbolism of the daughter inspecting her murdered father's watch, which she says will never fit, in relation to picking up the mantle of the other opportunities and responsibilities he left behind was touching.

I really enjoy finding out about the main character's background through the random flashbacks to old emails between young Jazz on the moon and her pen pal on Earth.

Dramedy at it's best. Highly quotable, dry, random laugh-out-loud humor. Dark, yes. But heavily tinged with relatable, thoughtful wit. First tear-up during the last two sentences of Chapter 18.

Dramedy at it's best. Highly quotable, dry, random laugh-out-loud humor. Dark, yes. But heavily tinged with relatable, thoughtful wit. First tear-up during the last two sentences of Chapter 18.

Chuck Palahniuk is gold!

Two chapters in I had already laughed and cried a handful of times. I'm giving a copy of this to every middle school student I know, it should get added to the syllabus.

Just wow. I'm not sure if I'm generally sensitive/open/emotional today or if it really is all spawned from this book but I can't stop contemplating the essence of life and love, and what makes it possible and how fragile it is. And looking at my own hands and seeing their frailty and that they're visibly aging...

Cutesy but very typical start. Crappy boyfriend dumps her in the first pages on V-Day. She gets an inheritance from a previously unheard of aunt, he's all of a sudden re-interested. At the same time, she is working on fulfilling an old dream of setting up her own home, made possible by the old house also left to her in the will. This leads her to meeting a kind architect. Gee, wonder which man will win her heart? ;)

Such a cool introduction! Great world building and character development. Set between Earth and Thera, the inverse of Earth, populated by natives as well as "Second Chancers". Second Chancers are those that died on Earth through accidental means and now are living out what would have been the rest of their lives - but with no memory of their previous existence and with a whole new set of dystopian rules!

This is so laughably proper in every way, from the manners of the characters to the technique of the writing. It makes me feel comfortable, all while incorporating murder, mystery, vampires and werewolves. Reminds me off "Murder She Wrote". :)

Unique world building, grabbing my attention early. Foreshadowing and mystery right from the start.

This reads like something straight out of Grimm's...love love love. The wording couldn't better mimic the traditional fairytale style, but instead of 2-20 pages like those originals, you get 350!

I like how this installment is jumping back and forth from the different characters' perspectives.

2 stars is generous when it comes to how well this was written. If a cute phrase was used, it was reused a few times, and it was only entertaining the first. Characters were silly and had no depth. But, sometimes what you want is just something silly. It wasn't horrible. If you just want to kill a couple hours and smile a couple times, this is a decent way to do it. No brain required.