Susanna Puns

I think it's safe to say that Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is my favorite novel of all time. And I'm sad that I may never read anything else like it.

When I try to pinpoint why it connected with me in such a way, it might be the novel's overall atmosphere which I would describe as "dreamlike." The loneliness and solitude of it all also really connected with me on a deep level.

I know I'll never find anything exactly like Piranesi, but please help me find something that scratches the same itch.

We're expecting our 3rd daughter this summer. I've fallen in love with the name Susanna. The problem is my 10 month old is named Joanna. Husband says no way, it's too close, and he's probably right, sigh. But I love this name and have not found anything else I really like.

Thoughts? Could we use it? Suggestions for names like Susanna?

(No spoilers) Piranesi by Susanna Clarke is a deep, wonderful, page-turner of a fantasy novel that evokes feelings of loneliness, liminality, and tension at the same time. The novel is largely about one’s connection with the world around them, about slowing down and appreciating the world, whatever that world may be. In parallel its also a thrilling fantasy-mystery with an intriguing and haunting puzzle for the reader to solve.

The setting is the hook of this novel, a sprawling endless house with room upon room of statues. The setting itself is simply yet beautifully described and observed by the protagonist. This leads itself to one of the strengths of the novel, the protagonist. The protagonist is sweet, smart and all around a pleasure to read. The other characters are curious and haunting but also distinct. The set up, the house, and the two characters present lead the reader to hundreds upon hundreds of questions and this is the catalyst for the central mystery. What is this world, how did the protagonist get here? This creates an atmosphere that makes it hard to put down as the protagonist gathers more and more clues throughout his exploration of the House. This leads me to the novels pacing, which is perfect. It is almost a meditative experience at first with beautiful descriptions of the House and an overall feeling of liminality. The writing is simple, but beautiful. The clues and worldbuilding are constantly fed to the reader making it a breeze to read. The climax and reveals near the end of the book are so heart wrenching and tense that you will be on the edge of your seat.

There is not much to complain about here, I didn’t enjoy the random capitalization at first. However, when I thought about it some more and realized it absolutely invokes the theme of connecting with the world and appreciating life it made more sense to me. The protagonist is capitalizing things because they have great meaning to him. It might be an inanimate object but to him it has purpose and is a part of the world and it perfectly encapsulate the deeper themes presented in the book. There are also some complaints that the book is too “weird”. I don’t agree with this sentiment at all. The setting and circumstances presented at the beginning of the book may seem outlandish and strange but the writing is clear and by the end most of the strangeness is explained rather frankly, this is not a surrealist novel in in the thread of Murakami, this is a fantasy novel with clear wo

I’m due with our second child in late March, and have been deciding on various names. We personally like Susanna or Shoshana best (I personally and leaning towards the former) - for context my husband is Jewish and I am a convert, though my family (East Asian) have criticized our choice heavily saying it’s “outdated” or difficult to pronounce... was wondering what pple think about these choices aside from my family who can be difficult to please many times ugh. Thanks so much in advance!!!

My son (Gabriel Jay) is going to have a little sister soon! My husband and I are 99% sure we will name her Susanna. We plan to call her Sunny, but if she wants to go by Susanna/Susie/Sanna/Sue later, that's totally fine.

So my two questions are:

1. What do you think of the name Susanna? Any potential issues you foresee, other than having to specify "no H" in the US? (We mostly live in Germany where Susanna is the more common spelling.)

2. Any ideas for middle names? My son's middle name is after his dad, and my name is a variation of Catherine, so we were thinking maybe Kate? We also like Daphne and Elise. But we're open to other suggestions. Last name is 2 syllables and starts with a T.

Hello to the subreddit!

Some time ago I succesfully asked for recommendations meant for an aunt who likes realistic thrillers and romance; now I come back to you asking for a opinion about my mother, that aunt's sister.
My mother has always been a strong reader (I got it from her, as a matter of fact) and her passions are, on roughly equal ground, detective novels, manner literature, and dynastical sagas, and while she would not admit it she is into overtly feminist fiction: if I were to single out her favourite authors I would go for Jane Austen, Virginia Woolf, and Agatha Christie, while in terms of "National milieus" she is fond anything Scandinavian and of our local Italian literature from the Umbertine age (it roughly matches the Edwardian period in the UK). This being said, she spent most of the life happily outside of the spec-fic ghetto, for in her mind spec-fic meant "elves and orcs and little green men and no feelings" – except that she did read and enjoy Harry Potter, The Mysteries of Udolpho, 1984, King's 11/22/'63, and Roth's The Plot Against America, which she either coded as children's literature, thrillers, and/or period pieces.

Recently, however, I pretty much tricked her into the ghetto by gifting her a number of (translated) works that could match her tastes in realistic fiction: Margaret Atwood's The Handmaiden's Tale, Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and Piranesi, The Best of C.L. Moore, and Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy. As I expected, she loved the diverse modes of Britishness employed by Clarke and Garrett, the politics in Atwood, and how most of Moore's short stories elaborate a character-driven drama in a speculative setting (while, as I thought, the sword-and-planet stuff left her cold) – she particularly enjoyed Moore's proto-cyberpunk story "No Woman Born", meaning that her next gift will be Tanith Lee's equally proto-cyberpunk novel Electric Forest. On this regard, I'd like to highlight that a couple days ago she commented on Lord Darcy with something like: "I don't understand how could this be marketed as sci-fi. It's whodunnit detective fiction, plain and simple, just in a parallel timeline, with magic." and I was like: "You said it. Parallel timeline with magic."

Now here comes my question of the day: I recently read and enjoyed Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar saga, so I would like to sha

I recently read both of Susanna Clarke’s novels and loved them both. They were unique, intensely imagined, had strong narrative voice, let the story unfold at its own pace, and had a decent balance between being character-driven and having an engaging plot.

Are there any other books that fit these characteristics/that you loved for the same reasons? Otherwise I may just end up re-reading Piranesi and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, I enjoyed them so much!

Like the title says, what is your overall impression of the name?

Looking back through our family trees, this is a name repeated multiple times. I already have a thing for the name Georgeanna, but have no connection to it personally. My husband really likes the idea of choosing names from our lineage and family; there are plenty of options to choose from, so I’m on board with it. I think Susanna is very similar to Georgeanna, but fear it may come off as too “country” or old fashioned as we live in the South. Also a bit concerned everyone’s first reaction will be the old song, “Oh, Susannah! Now don’t you cry for me!”

Some pairings hubs and I are considering:

Susanna Brooke

Susanna Shane

Susanna Eve

Susanna Grace

Susanna Gray

Other middle name pairing ideas are welcome! Our last name is an English profession surname (2 syllable) starting with “B” and ending in “er”.

Also, thoughts on the different spellings? Susannah, Susanna, Susana, Suzanna, etc.

Edit: Removed “Susanna Annette” due to redundancy/repetition