I once believed that "Speak" was Laurie Halse Anderson's only book, and I loved it. I recently learned she's actually written a lot of books and I was very excited to read them. Unfortunately I was mostly disappointed by this book. I really wasn't invested in the story until the last 80 pages, which is a huge difference from the instant hook I felt while reading "Speak". That's not to say this is a bad story, it's features a strong young woman character handling a tough situation admirably. I guess I just don't relate enough to this book to find it interesting, but I still want to read more books from her.
"There are two types of people in this world: 1. Zombies 2. Freaks. ... everyone is born a freak. ... every newborn baby, wet and hungry and screaming, is a fresh-hatched freak who wants to have a good time and make the world a better place."
"It's always there - fear - and if you don't stay on top of it, you'll drown."
"Sometimes I wonder if he cheats on us, too, if he's looking for new kids who won't disappoint him."
"It doesn't matter how much she loves him, he's not going to change."
"I called mom back to tell her I hadn't killed myself and then we got into a fight. Why? Because I didn't make my bed this morning."
"'You go to a cemetery on purpose?'
"'Isn't that the point?'"
"I kissed him until everything that hurt inside me melted into a pool of black water so deep I couldn't touch the bottom. As long as I was touching him, I wouldn't drown."
"'Do you think we've crossed the border...to the next town yet?'
"The moon chuckled. It did. I heard it."
"The remembering takes up every breath until there is no time for today. I pour a drink, ten drinks, so I can forget that I have forgotten today."
"Here's what you don't know. By five o'clock that morning, the officers had all gotten the message that the war would end that day. But lots of them ordered their men to keep fighting. ... Almost eleven thousand soldiers died on November 11, 1918. ... Politics beats out freedom, honor, and service every time. Don't ever forget that."
"Killing people is easier than it should be. Staying alive is harder."
"Odysseus had twenty years to shed his battle skin. My grandfather left the battlefield in France and rode home in a ship that crawled across the ocean slowly so he can catch his breath. I get on a plane in hell and get off, hours later, at home."
"I added it to the growing list of things I never thought I would do but did anyway."
"The clouds scuttled away from the sun and blinding light reflected off the fresh snow. We were standing in a sea of glass shards, millions of tiny frozen mirrors."
"I've been standing on the edge with you for years."
"Out there on the edge, the spinning of the earth had slowed to give us the time we needed to start giving each other again."
Thursday, April 27, 2017
Sunday, April 9, 2017
Sam Reviews "Riding in Cars with Boys" by Beverly Donofrio
I really should stop going into books blindly. I had never heard of his movie (or at least never seen it) and had no idea this was an actual memoir. (Although, it does go to further prove that I subconsciously read similar genre books really close together, been on a memoir/autobiography kick lately). Anyways, I went into this book expecting fiction, but it was really a memoir of a girls teenage life and how in eventually affected her adulthood, though her adulthood is a back burner subject. I liked it, I thought it was going to be a juicer story, but it was good, it was real and raw and honest and I appreciate that in books like this.
"Lately I've been thinking of the things I did and feeling like a maniac mother. Lately, I've been looking at my life like there's something to learn. ... i hear Frank Sinatra singing "My Way." I think, That's it. I wasn't a terrible person. I just did it like Frank Sinatra."
"When I was single, I had a job, I had money, I bought nice clothes, went on vacations. I did what I pleased. Then when you marry, you too where the man wants. ... If you want to be happy, stay single."
"I wondered if I'd still remember Bobby when I was thirty or forty. I'd be an adult, but in my memory he'd still be a kid. ... wondered if Bobby was the lucky one. ... Bobby would never get the chance to spread his wings and learn too fly. I wondered if any of us would."
"I felt like Hester Prynne must've felt in the next chapter, the one that never got written, the one where she's in the woods on her way to the rest of her life and finally rips off that ridiculous A and throws it in the camp fire."
"That was the thing with my mother. I'd bought this beautiful fourteen- year- old with- a- rebuilt- engine emerald- green Volkswagen after four years without a car - which, incidentally, was not only going to take me to college but eventually off welfare - and all my mother had to say was, Better keep it clean?"
"I've been thinking lately that maybe there's a big design, that the end is already there in the beginning and there's nothing we can do about it, not in a lifetime. Nothing we can do about the events, but plenty we can do with them."
"Lately I've been thinking of the things I did and feeling like a maniac mother. Lately, I've been looking at my life like there's something to learn. ... i hear Frank Sinatra singing "My Way." I think, That's it. I wasn't a terrible person. I just did it like Frank Sinatra."
"When I was single, I had a job, I had money, I bought nice clothes, went on vacations. I did what I pleased. Then when you marry, you too where the man wants. ... If you want to be happy, stay single."
"I wondered if I'd still remember Bobby when I was thirty or forty. I'd be an adult, but in my memory he'd still be a kid. ... wondered if Bobby was the lucky one. ... Bobby would never get the chance to spread his wings and learn too fly. I wondered if any of us would."
"I felt like Hester Prynne must've felt in the next chapter, the one that never got written, the one where she's in the woods on her way to the rest of her life and finally rips off that ridiculous A and throws it in the camp fire."
"That was the thing with my mother. I'd bought this beautiful fourteen- year- old with- a- rebuilt- engine emerald- green Volkswagen after four years without a car - which, incidentally, was not only going to take me to college but eventually off welfare - and all my mother had to say was, Better keep it clean?"
"I've been thinking lately that maybe there's a big design, that the end is already there in the beginning and there's nothing we can do about it, not in a lifetime. Nothing we can do about the events, but plenty we can do with them."
Monday, April 3, 2017
Sam Reviews "The Shack" by William Paul Young
I am going to give this four stars because it was a well written story that was easy to read, even if i didn't necessarily love the content all of the time. I was lent this book under the premise that it's "religious but not so religious that you'll hate it". Let me just say, while this is a very different (and in my opinion good) way to view, discuss, and write about religion, this book is So Very religious. There were a lot of things in the way this author explains religion that I love but I still walked away from this confused and questioning things and I don't know if that's a great thing.
Overall, the concept was unique and interesting and I was pretty well entranced with this book so I read it pretty quickly. I think it's a good read for a lot of people as long as you're okay with reading about God a lot.
"From the few stories Mack has told me, I know his daddy was not a fall-asleep-happy kind of alcoholic but a vicious, mean, beat-your-wife-and-then-ask-God-for-forgiveness drunk."
Overall, the concept was unique and interesting and I was pretty well entranced with this book so I read it pretty quickly. I think it's a good read for a lot of people as long as you're okay with reading about God a lot.
"From the few stories Mack has told me, I know his daddy was not a fall-asleep-happy kind of alcoholic but a vicious, mean, beat-your-wife-and-then-ask-God-for-forgiveness drunk."
"Techno gizmos that somehow make everything go faster, as if life weren't going fast enough already."
"Suffice it to say that while some things may not be scientifically provable, they can still be true nonetheless."
"Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets." - Paul Turnier
"Even his efforts to shake it [The Great Sadness] off were exhausting, as if his arms were sewn into its bleak folds of despair and he had somehow become part of it."
"He was a rich man ... in all the ways that mattered."
[On the death of his father] "Well, life is hard sometimes, but I have a lot to be thankful for."
"Please call me Sam. Short for Samantha, but I grew up kind of a tomboy and beat up the
kids who would dare call me Samantha to my face."
"Emotions seemed so near to the surface, and even the least bit of kindness seemed to poke holes in his reserve."
"God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them listen to and follow sacred scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners' access to God was mediated and controlled by intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?"
"Sometimes honesty can be incredibly messy."
"Oh, don't go [talk to God] because you feel obligated. That won't get you any points around here. Go because it's what you want to do."
"You were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around. ... Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly. ... And if it's left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place."
"Let's pray that the human race never escapes Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere." -C.S. Lewis
"He knew that it didn't matter whose fault it was - the mess from some bowl that had been broken, that a planned dish would not be shared. Obviously, what was truly important here was the love they had for one another and the fullness it brought them. He shook his head. How different this was from the way he sometimes treated the ones he loved."
"Being always transcends appearance - that which only seems to be. Once you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surface appearances fade away until they simply no longer matter."
"I'll never get tired of looking at this [starry sky]. The wonder of it all - the 'wastefulness of creation', as one of our brothers has called it. So elegant, so full of longing and beauty even now."
"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown."
"What you're seeing here is a relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. ... Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge. ... It's one reason why experiencing true relationship is so difficult for you. Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. ... When you choose independence over relationship, you become a danger to one another. Others became objects to be manipulated for your own happiness. Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong ones use to make others conform to what they want."
"Even should we find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever." - Henry Van Dyke
"Such a powerful ability, the imagination! ... But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel taskmaster."
"I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay."
"To force my will on you is exactly what love does not do. Genuine relationships are marked by submission even when your choices are not helpful or healthy. ... Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect."
"What they [my children] do might affect my pride, but not my love for them."
"[God] doesn't stop a lot of things that cause her pain. Your world is severely broken. You demanded your independence, and now you are angry with the One who loved you enough to give it to you. Nothing is as it should be, as Papa desires it to be, and as it will be one day. Right now your world is lost I darkness and chaos, and horrible things happen to those she is especially fond of."
"This life is only the anteroom of a greater reality to come. No one reaches their potential in your world. It's only preparation for what Papa had in mind all along."
"Even if you had been to blame, her love is stronger than your fault could ever be."
"As well-intentioned as it might be, you know religious machinery can chew people up."
"These terrors [institutions, religion, politics, as economics] are tools that many use to prop up their illusions of security and control. People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of failure. These institutions, these structures ave ideologies, are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn't any."
"Just because I [God] work out incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. ... Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."
"If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again."
"Even his efforts to shake it [The Great Sadness] off were exhausting, as if his arms were sewn into its bleak folds of despair and he had somehow become part of it."
"He was a rich man ... in all the ways that mattered."
[On the death of his father] "Well, life is hard sometimes, but I have a lot to be thankful for."
"Please call me Sam. Short for Samantha, but I grew up kind of a tomboy and beat up the
kids who would dare call me Samantha to my face."
"Emotions seemed so near to the surface, and even the least bit of kindness seemed to poke holes in his reserve."
"God had completely stopped any overt communication with moderns, preferring to have them listen to and follow sacred scripture, properly interpreted, of course. God's voice had been reduced to paper, and even that paper had to be moderated and deciphered by the proper authorities and intellects. It seemed that direct communication with God was something exclusively for the ancients and uncivilized, while educated Westerners' access to God was mediated and controlled by intelligentsia. Nobody wanted God in a box, just a book. Especially an expensive one bound in leather with gilt edges, or was that guilt edges?"
"Sometimes honesty can be incredibly messy."
"Oh, don't go [talk to God] because you feel obligated. That won't get you any points around here. Go because it's what you want to do."
"You were created to be loved. So for you to live as if you were unloved is a limitation, not the other way around. ... Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly. ... And if it's left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place."
"Let's pray that the human race never escapes Earth to spread its iniquity elsewhere." -C.S. Lewis
"He knew that it didn't matter whose fault it was - the mess from some bowl that had been broken, that a planned dish would not be shared. Obviously, what was truly important here was the love they had for one another and the fullness it brought them. He shook his head. How different this was from the way he sometimes treated the ones he loved."
"Being always transcends appearance - that which only seems to be. Once you begin to know the being behind the very pretty or very ugly face, as determined by your bias, the surface appearances fade away until they simply no longer matter."
"I'll never get tired of looking at this [starry sky]. The wonder of it all - the 'wastefulness of creation', as one of our brothers has called it. So elegant, so full of longing and beauty even now."
"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown."
"What you're seeing here is a relationship without any overlay of power. We don't need power over the other because we are always looking out for the best. ... Humans are so lost and damaged that to you it is almost incomprehensible that people could work or live together without someone being in charge. ... It's one reason why experiencing true relationship is so difficult for you. Once you have a hierarchy you need rules to protect and administer it, and then you need law and the enforcement of the rules, and you end up with some kind of chain of command or a system of order that destroys relationship rather than promotes it. ... When you choose independence over relationship, you become a danger to one another. Others became objects to be manipulated for your own happiness. Authority, as you usually think of it, is merely the excuse the strong ones use to make others conform to what they want."
"Even should we find another Eden, we would not be fit to enjoy it perfectly nor stay in it forever." - Henry Van Dyke
"Such a powerful ability, the imagination! ... But without wisdom, imagination is a cruel taskmaster."
"I live in the present. Not the past, although much can be remembered and learned by looking back, but only for a visit, not an extended stay."
"To force my will on you is exactly what love does not do. Genuine relationships are marked by submission even when your choices are not helpful or healthy. ... Submission is not about authority and it is not obedience; it is all about relationships of love and respect."
"What they [my children] do might affect my pride, but not my love for them."
"[God] doesn't stop a lot of things that cause her pain. Your world is severely broken. You demanded your independence, and now you are angry with the One who loved you enough to give it to you. Nothing is as it should be, as Papa desires it to be, and as it will be one day. Right now your world is lost I darkness and chaos, and horrible things happen to those she is especially fond of."
"This life is only the anteroom of a greater reality to come. No one reaches their potential in your world. It's only preparation for what Papa had in mind all along."
"Even if you had been to blame, her love is stronger than your fault could ever be."
"As well-intentioned as it might be, you know religious machinery can chew people up."
"These terrors [institutions, religion, politics, as economics] are tools that many use to prop up their illusions of security and control. People are afraid of uncertainty, afraid of failure. These institutions, these structures ave ideologies, are all a vain effort to create some sense of certainty and security where there isn't any."
"Just because I [God] work out incredible good out of unspeakable tragedies doesn't mean I orchestrate the tragedies. ... Grace doesn't depend on suffering to exist, but where there is suffering you will find grace in many facets and colors."
"If anything matters then everything matters. Because you are important, everything you do is important. Every time you forgive, the universe changes; every time you reach out and touch a heart or a life, the world changes; with every kindness and service, seen or unseen, my purposes are accomplished and nothing will ever be the same again."
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Sam Reviews "Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man" by Tim Allen
I'd like to preface this by saying my knowledge of Tim Allen begins and ends with Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor, "Last Man Standing", and that he is from Detroit, Michigan. I'd never seen any of his stand up comedy before reading this. Because I wasn't familiar with his stand up, a lot of the jokes he tried to incorporate into his book went over my head and I had to read things a few times to realize he had segued into a joke.
After getting mostly through this book, I did search YouTube for a few clips, and it honestly seems like he really only ever had one set as a comedian and most of the jokes from his set made it into this book, so if I had been familiar with his stand up I probably would have been disappointed by this book for it's lack of new content.
All of that being said, I don't think Tim Allen is very funny (oops). Also, jumping around to stories that seem somewhat unrelated may work well for a stand up set, but it falls flat in a book and made things severely lacking in flow and continuity.
However, the last chapter, the one that mostly talks about being a dad to his daughter was really touching.
The first interesting fact I learned in this book was this his real name is Tim Allen Dick, and that people in Hollywood encouraged him to drop the Dick from his name.
"They're just words. The symbols and meanings - positive, negative, enlightening, insulting - are in our heads, which is why the power of some words has a lot to do with all the social and sexual dysfunction in this country."
"Men look at women the way men look at cars. Everyone looks at Ferraris. Now and then we like a pick up truck, and we all end up with a station wagon."
"Even guys who weren't homosexual before will, after a while, try something, Prison and Hollywood are exactly the same thing."
"[Thoughts on] Guys with other guys girlfriends - Without even trying, other guys are nicer to your girlfriend than you are. Even if they're not really after her, she'll find it easy to lean on their shoulders, ask what they're thinking, and how she can get her concerns through to you."
"I'm also a bit suspicious of any two people who don't struggle with that decision [to get married]. ... Marriage is a big decision. Big enough to procrastinate about a decade."
"A lasting marriage is like a job. But here's the problem with jobs: They're great when you first get them. Then about a week into it you realize, "There are a few problems here." Then they get repetitive and boring. And pretty soon you think that the guy in the next cubicle has a much better job, which would suit you just fine. The trick is to get past this."
"Men have all the destructive tendencies. We're encouraged to be little destroyers from birth. These traits come in handy, though. Once we have a family, we'll destroy anything we have to that threatens it. Women like us for that. Sometimes men get so confused they actually destroy the family."
"'Philanthropist' means 'love or benevolence toward mankind, in general.' ... The definition includes the idea that a philanthropist is someone who makes an 'effort to promote the happiness or social elevation of mankind, by making donations.'"
"A 'philanderer' is someone who 'makes love without serious intentions."
I found this video randomly as I was looking for Tim Allen's stand up. They read bits of the book and just kind of talk about it, but their opinion is pretty similar to mine. Plus there's excerpts from the books so you can get a taste of it haha
After getting mostly through this book, I did search YouTube for a few clips, and it honestly seems like he really only ever had one set as a comedian and most of the jokes from his set made it into this book, so if I had been familiar with his stand up I probably would have been disappointed by this book for it's lack of new content.
All of that being said, I don't think Tim Allen is very funny (oops). Also, jumping around to stories that seem somewhat unrelated may work well for a stand up set, but it falls flat in a book and made things severely lacking in flow and continuity.
However, the last chapter, the one that mostly talks about being a dad to his daughter was really touching.
The first interesting fact I learned in this book was this his real name is Tim Allen Dick, and that people in Hollywood encouraged him to drop the Dick from his name.
"They're just words. The symbols and meanings - positive, negative, enlightening, insulting - are in our heads, which is why the power of some words has a lot to do with all the social and sexual dysfunction in this country."
"Men look at women the way men look at cars. Everyone looks at Ferraris. Now and then we like a pick up truck, and we all end up with a station wagon."
"Even guys who weren't homosexual before will, after a while, try something, Prison and Hollywood are exactly the same thing."
"[Thoughts on] Guys with other guys girlfriends - Without even trying, other guys are nicer to your girlfriend than you are. Even if they're not really after her, she'll find it easy to lean on their shoulders, ask what they're thinking, and how she can get her concerns through to you."
"I'm also a bit suspicious of any two people who don't struggle with that decision [to get married]. ... Marriage is a big decision. Big enough to procrastinate about a decade."
"A lasting marriage is like a job. But here's the problem with jobs: They're great when you first get them. Then about a week into it you realize, "There are a few problems here." Then they get repetitive and boring. And pretty soon you think that the guy in the next cubicle has a much better job, which would suit you just fine. The trick is to get past this."
"Men have all the destructive tendencies. We're encouraged to be little destroyers from birth. These traits come in handy, though. Once we have a family, we'll destroy anything we have to that threatens it. Women like us for that. Sometimes men get so confused they actually destroy the family."
"'Philanthropist' means 'love or benevolence toward mankind, in general.' ... The definition includes the idea that a philanthropist is someone who makes an 'effort to promote the happiness or social elevation of mankind, by making donations.'"
"A 'philanderer' is someone who 'makes love without serious intentions."
I found this video randomly as I was looking for Tim Allen's stand up. They read bits of the book and just kind of talk about it, but their opinion is pretty similar to mine. Plus there's excerpts from the books so you can get a taste of it haha
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Sunday, February 26, 2017
Sam Reviews "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
I know a lot of people who put this book on the short list of their favorites, and personally I don't get it. It's not a bad story, and it's written well, but it's not all that interesting. Part of my distaste for this book might have to do with my lack of interests in circuses, and the poor treatment of people and animals they are notorious for. I remember when I watched the movie I thought it was a more boring version of "Big Fish", where I would rather just wash "Big Fish". I felt pretty much the same after reading this, it was a well told story but it was mostly sad and pretty predictable. There was only a few twists at the end that took me by surprise. I'm giving this book three stars because it is not a book I'd read twice, and I don't see myself recommending it to anyone else.
"Even out of costume they [the performers] are glamorous. The drab workmen scuttle all around, occupying the same universe but seemingly on a different dimension."
"And so I leave, although every bone in my body screams against it."
"Even out of costume they [the performers] are glamorous. The drab workmen scuttle all around, occupying the same universe but seemingly on a different dimension."
"And so I leave, although every bone in my body screams against it."
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Sam Reviews "My Sister's Keeper" by Jodi Picoult
I really did enjoy this book. I think the only reason it took me a while to finish is because I had seen the move first so parts of the story weren't surprises. I put off reading this book for a long time because people told me it was "hard to read" but, personally, I didn't find the content any more difficult to read than any other book where a character is sick or dying. I regret not reading this book sooner. I do think it's kind of a one time read, for me at least, but it was a worthwhile one.
"In the end, though, I did not kill my sister. She did it all on her own. Or at least that is what I tell myself."
"I sometimes wonder if it is just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere."
"... seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound."
"It is so easy to think that the world revolves around you, but all you have to do is stare up at the sky to realize it isn't that way at all."
"I don't have expectations, and this way she beats them all."
"Supernovas, they're brighter than the brightest galaxies. They die but everyone watches them go."
"She slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward. She leaves a print that stains me long after it's faded. Just so you know: shame is five fingered."
"A real friend isn't capeable of feeling sorry for you."
"There's nothing worse than silence, strung like heavy beads on too delicate a conversation."
"Reason number 106 why dogs are smarter than humans: once you leave the litter, you server contact with your mothers".
"Love has all the lasting performance of a rainbow - beautiful while it's there, and just as likely to have disappeared by the time you blink."
"Growing up, Izzy was the Goody-Two-Shoes and I was the one who came up fighting - swinging my fists or shaving my head to get a rise out of my parents or wearing combat boots with my high school uniform. Yet now that we're thirty-two, I'm a card-carrying member of the Rat Race; while Izzy is a lesbian who builds jewelry out of paper clips and bolts. Go figure."
"Nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable."
"Timelines bracket her mouth, parentheses around a lifetime of words I was not around to hear."
"'I used to have pink hair.' I told Seven.
"'I used to have a real job,' he answered.
"'What happened?'
"He shrugged. 'I dyed my hair pink. What happened to you?'
"'I let mine grow out.' I answered.
"'Nobody ever wants what they've got,' he said."
"We're unnaturally quiet, as if they've taken all possible words with them and left us with nothing."
"'How do you get along with hem [your sisters]?'
"'They survive me, like everyone else.'"
"No one in this family ever covers up their mistakes."
"From that point of view, I realized that my hole was not miles deep after all. My father, in fact, could stand on the bottom and it only reached up to his chest. Darkness, you know, is relative."
"They [children] outgrow us so much faster than we outgrow them."
"The human capacity for burden is ... far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance."
"Shooting stars are not stars at all. They're just rocks that enter the atmosphere and catch fire under friction. What we wish on when we see one, is only a trail of debris."
"Do all the wonderful things happen when we are not aware of them?"
"There are some nights when you just want to know there's someone else besides you in this wide world."
"The Pawnee Indians say the star deities populated the world: Evening Star and Morning Star honed up and gave birth to the first female. The first boy came from the Sun and the Moon. Humans rode in on the back of a tornado."
"The really amazing thing about all this is no matter what you believe, it took some doing to get from a point where there was nothing, to a point where all the right neurons fire and pop so that we can make decisions. More amazing is how even though that's become second nature, we all still manage to screw it up."
"Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut."
"I can't answer a single one of these [questions], which is how I know that whether I'm ready or not, I'm growing up."
"Even if we win, we don't."
"The people you love can surprise you every day. That maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it."
"Time is an optical illusion - never quite as solid or strong as we think it is."
"I cannot begin to tell you the words I use; none of them are big enough to bear the weight behind them."
"Kate as a toddler being tossed into the air by Brian, her hair flying behind her, her arms and legs starfish-splayed, certain beyond a doubt that when she fell to earth again, there would be a safe landing, sure that she deserved nothing less."
"It doesn't take a whole long life to realize that what we deserve to have, we rarely get."
"This is not how I thought our lives would go; and maybe we cannot find our way out of this alley. But there is no one I'd rather be lost with."
"Life sometimes gets so bogged down in the details, you forget you are living it. There is always another appointment to be met, another bill to pay, another symptom presenting, another uneventful day to be notched onto the wooden wall. We have synchronized our watches, studied our calendars, existed in minutes, and completely forgotten to step back and see what we've accomplished."
"There are just as many stories to be told in the dark spots as there are in the bright ones."
"There are stars in the night sky that look brighter than the others, and when you look at them through a telescope you realize you are looking at twins. ... the first one shines so bright, by the time you notice the second one, it's really to late."
"As her heart stops beating beneath my palm - that tiny loss of rhythm, that hollow calm, that utter loss."
--
This book was published in 2004, what kind if question is "What kind of person can afford a cell phone but not their own washer and dryer?" Even then, those two items were very different prices.
"In the end, though, I did not kill my sister. She did it all on her own. Or at least that is what I tell myself."
"I sometimes wonder if it is just me, or if there are other women who figure out where they are supposed to be by going nowhere."
"... seeing her sitting there unresponsive makes me realize that silence has a sound."
"It is so easy to think that the world revolves around you, but all you have to do is stare up at the sky to realize it isn't that way at all."
"I don't have expectations, and this way she beats them all."
"Supernovas, they're brighter than the brightest galaxies. They die but everyone watches them go."
"She slaps my face hard enough to make my head snap backward. She leaves a print that stains me long after it's faded. Just so you know: shame is five fingered."
"A real friend isn't capeable of feeling sorry for you."
"There's nothing worse than silence, strung like heavy beads on too delicate a conversation."
"Reason number 106 why dogs are smarter than humans: once you leave the litter, you server contact with your mothers".
"Love has all the lasting performance of a rainbow - beautiful while it's there, and just as likely to have disappeared by the time you blink."
"Growing up, Izzy was the Goody-Two-Shoes and I was the one who came up fighting - swinging my fists or shaving my head to get a rise out of my parents or wearing combat boots with my high school uniform. Yet now that we're thirty-two, I'm a card-carrying member of the Rat Race; while Izzy is a lesbian who builds jewelry out of paper clips and bolts. Go figure."
"Nothing is worth having so much as something unattainable."
"Timelines bracket her mouth, parentheses around a lifetime of words I was not around to hear."
"'I used to have pink hair.' I told Seven.
"'I used to have a real job,' he answered.
"'What happened?'
"He shrugged. 'I dyed my hair pink. What happened to you?'
"'I let mine grow out.' I answered.
"'Nobody ever wants what they've got,' he said."
"We're unnaturally quiet, as if they've taken all possible words with them and left us with nothing."
"'How do you get along with hem [your sisters]?'
"'They survive me, like everyone else.'"
"No one in this family ever covers up their mistakes."
"From that point of view, I realized that my hole was not miles deep after all. My father, in fact, could stand on the bottom and it only reached up to his chest. Darkness, you know, is relative."
"They [children] outgrow us so much faster than we outgrow them."
"The human capacity for burden is ... far more flexible than you'd ever believe at first glance."
"Shooting stars are not stars at all. They're just rocks that enter the atmosphere and catch fire under friction. What we wish on when we see one, is only a trail of debris."
"Do all the wonderful things happen when we are not aware of them?"
"There are some nights when you just want to know there's someone else besides you in this wide world."
"The Pawnee Indians say the star deities populated the world: Evening Star and Morning Star honed up and gave birth to the first female. The first boy came from the Sun and the Moon. Humans rode in on the back of a tornado."
"The really amazing thing about all this is no matter what you believe, it took some doing to get from a point where there was nothing, to a point where all the right neurons fire and pop so that we can make decisions. More amazing is how even though that's become second nature, we all still manage to screw it up."
"Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut."
"I can't answer a single one of these [questions], which is how I know that whether I'm ready or not, I'm growing up."
"Even if we win, we don't."
"The people you love can surprise you every day. That maybe who we are isn't so much about what we do, but rather what we're capable of when we least expect it."
"Time is an optical illusion - never quite as solid or strong as we think it is."
"I cannot begin to tell you the words I use; none of them are big enough to bear the weight behind them."
"Kate as a toddler being tossed into the air by Brian, her hair flying behind her, her arms and legs starfish-splayed, certain beyond a doubt that when she fell to earth again, there would be a safe landing, sure that she deserved nothing less."
"It doesn't take a whole long life to realize that what we deserve to have, we rarely get."
"This is not how I thought our lives would go; and maybe we cannot find our way out of this alley. But there is no one I'd rather be lost with."
"Life sometimes gets so bogged down in the details, you forget you are living it. There is always another appointment to be met, another bill to pay, another symptom presenting, another uneventful day to be notched onto the wooden wall. We have synchronized our watches, studied our calendars, existed in minutes, and completely forgotten to step back and see what we've accomplished."
"There are just as many stories to be told in the dark spots as there are in the bright ones."
"There are stars in the night sky that look brighter than the others, and when you look at them through a telescope you realize you are looking at twins. ... the first one shines so bright, by the time you notice the second one, it's really to late."
"As her heart stops beating beneath my palm - that tiny loss of rhythm, that hollow calm, that utter loss."
--
This book was published in 2004, what kind if question is "What kind of person can afford a cell phone but not their own washer and dryer?" Even then, those two items were very different prices.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)