Imagine if you would have a conversation with someone about his or her life in which the conversation jumps from college experience, preschool experience and then back to being a teenager.Elizabeth Crane takes the reader on such a journey in her most recent novel.

Charlotte Anne Byers is a strong and often opinionated young lady who's experienced a lot in her life from the divorce of her parents, the death of her mother and the search for the perfect mate. Through vignettes, the reader learns that Charlotte Anne from a young age has had definite ideas for her life, and while she yearns to find connections with people, she's an individual with a strong self-image.

When Charlotte Anne is very young, her parents divorce and she begins to live two lives, one in New York with her mother, a world-class opera singer, and one of occasional visits with her father, a slightly absentminded professor living in Iowa City, Iowa. While in New York, Charlotte Anne struggles to fit in with her peers and eventually latches on to a kindred spirit in Jenna. Throughout the subsequent chapters, Jenna is a pivotal confidant in Charlotte Anne's life and is more constant than any of her family members.

As the novel meanders through Charlotte Anne's life, the reader is introduced to several styles of writing ranging from the whimsical to stream of consciousness. Readers charmed by Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones may find the reading of this series of short stories enchanting. Often as I was reading the novel, I felt I was actually having a conversation with Charlotte Anne rather than reading about her. Throughout the novel, her conversations jumped subjects and digressed into diatribes about her feelings on many topics. The opening chapter is a seven-page personal ad searching for the perfect mate, which is funny in parts, but often made me want to take a breath for her. On the whole, ALL THIS HEAVENLY GLORY was a fun read once I was able to get into the rhythm of the novel and realized the whimsy of the writing was half the fun.