ZZ Packer’s Drinking Coffee Elsewhere is a collection of solid, if predictable, short stories with a single opening gem that outshines all the others in the collection. “Brownies” is an excellent, challenging and powerful story that starts off the collection with a bang. The rest of the stories are good, well-crafted with compelling characters, but predictable. I enjoyed the book, but aside from “Brownies” none of the tales jumped off the page. ( )

A mind-blowing short story collection with characters who truly live and breathe and stay with the reader. ZZ Packer is an extremely talented storyteller and has a realistically imaginative way of subjecting characters to tight, nail-biting situations where they miraculously survive. Highly recommended for short story and novel reading enthusiasts. ( )

These short stories are expertly told with just the right amount of tension towards the end that makes the reader want to reread again and again to glean even more insight. The refined language and the memorable characters make this book a real treat to read. It can be useful to any young adult who wants to explore the complexity of being human. ( )

[close] I read this book in a college creative writing course, since the wonderful Mickey Hess wanted us to go beyond the classics to see learn about newer, more experimental writing techniques from writers and subject matter with a more varied background. ZZ Packer definitely fit the bill. I, being from a small-town, predominately white area, was largely unfamiliar with the plight of urban African-Americans, and the situations were so different than my realm of experience even when I'd been in a similar sitaution. I too was a Girl Scout, for instance, but it was nothing like this.

Still, I did not like Packer's style, and the skill level seemed a bit too simple. In short, I readit simply for eduactional purposes. I will not read any more of her work. ( )

After reading the other reviews I've decided to go back and re-read this one. Maybe I missed something the first time around. ( )