Susan Coleman > Recent Status Updates

"We are all living, at most, half of a life, she thought. There was the life that you lived, which consisted of the choices you made. And then, there was the other life, the one that was the things you hadn't chosen. And sometimes, this other life felt as palpable as the one you were living."

"It isn't a sadness, but a joy, that we don't do the same things for the length of our lives." Page 227

Yesterday I started this book for the third time. I want to give it my full attention, and until now, I've not been able to do so. It really is a fascinating book. I love the fact that, just when I think it's getting a little too "woo-woo," the author, as if reading my mind, states, "I know this may seem a bit much to some people, but think of it this way ..." at which point she makes some very interesting arguments.

I'm finding that the author takes an entire chapter to say what could easily be said in a paragraph. And the writing (or maybe the translation?) isn't so good as to make all that extra verbiage enjoyable.

I'm thinking I should have stopped at 25%. This book really isn't doing it for me. But I'm going to keep at it, as it came highly recommended by an employee of a bookstore I favor.

I can't continue reading this. I'd hoped to give it a good 100 pages, as it's a long book and may take a while to really get started, but I just couldn't get any farther than 54 pages. The 1st person narrative is unconvincing, the language it is unadorned to the point of being bland, and the story plods along without enough hints about future excitement to make me want to keep reading

I've been completely sucked into this book and don't want to put it down. The descriptions of introverted characteristics are so completely in line with my personality, it's almost spooky. Reading the scientific research into why we behave the way we do has been fascinating.

Finding the characters all a bit too tragic and the style too gimmicky. Am curious as to whether there will be any bright points later on.

This book is not really clicking with me yet. One of the main characters, Teddy St. Cloud (sounds like a porn name), is so utterly unlikeable, I'm hoping that it turns out that she doesn't wield the power over men that she thinks she does. If that turns out to be the case, then I'm just not sure there's going to be enough believability to make me like this book.

This one truly grabs you from the get go. Great first sentence - "Father was wailing."

Beautiful language, wonderful dialect in the dialogue and a warmth that I just know will be shattered by tragedy. I already don't want to put this book down after only 40 pages.

Not sure yet about this one. As if often the case with books of this type, there is a central theme that is repeated over and over to the point the repetition is distracting. Not sure there's much of anything here that hasn't either been said before or is simply common sense to your average thinking person.

Very different book from "A Peculiar Grace" in setting and plot, but definitely some similarities in main characters. Enjoying the style and progress of the story.

Definitely pulled in by the story and characters. The style is a little tough--lack of commas, somewhat run-on--but very engaging.