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Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone
Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of Being Alone | Olivia Laing
Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Criticism#1 Book of the Year from Brain PickingsNamed a best book of the year by NPR, Newsweek, Slate, Pop Sugar, Marie Claire, Elle, Publishers Weekly, and Lit HubA dazzling work of biography, memoir, and cultural criticism on the subject of loneliness, told through the lives of iconic artists, by the acclaimed author of The Trip to Echo Spring.When Olivia Laing moved to New York City in her midthirties, she found herself inhabiting loneliness on a daily basis. Increasingly fascinated by the most shameful of experiences, she began to explore the lonely city by way of art. Moving from Edward Hopper's Nighthawks to Andy Warhol's Time Capsules, from Henry Darger's hoarding to David Wojnarowicz's AIDS activism, Laing conducts an electric, dazzling investigation into what it means to be alone, illuminating not only the causes of loneliness but also how it might be resisted and redeemed.Humane, provocative, and moving, The Lonely City is a celebration of a strange and lovely state, adrift from the larger continent of human experience, but intrinsic to the very act of being alive.
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dariazeoli
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My first #nywd2022 purchase! I didn‘t see this one available through Hoopla or Libby, so I figured it was a good fit for a little weekend shopping.

monalyisha Woohoo! 🎉 3y
Moll Yay!! It's so good!!😁 3y
44 likes2 comments
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Moll
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Pickpick

Hands down one of the best pieces of writing I've ever read - I don't even know how to sum it up beyond that! SO much is contained within these pages; I related to lots of it and yet also feel like I've been introduced to so much that was brand new to me - the art and artists spoken about among so much else. Faaaaaabulous. I'm definitely going to be reading more by Laing!!

TrishB Oh good- this is on my piles. 3y
Moll @TrishB It's so good!! 3y
19 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Moll

I must admit I've not made a brilliant start to #Scarathlon2021😂 I've been such a busy bee that I've only managed to read for an hour so far, AND I'm still finishing The Lonely City haha

That said, I hope to finish that this week and can then crack on with #TeamHendrix 's #BuddyRead Warm Bodies and get more of those lovely points!

@StayCurious

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Moll
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I moved house this weekend and I am very pleased with how my books look in my new room😊

TrishB Lovely ❤️ 3y
Moll @TrishB Thank you!😊 3y
Nute Nice! 3y
Moll @Nute Thank you!😊 3y
22 likes4 comments
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Moll
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'Or the one in Morning Sun, who sits on her bed, hair twisted into a messy bun, gazing through her window at the city beyond. A pretty morning, light washing the walls, but nonetheless something desolate about her eyes and jaw, her slim wrists crossed over her legs. I often sat just like that, adrift in rumpled sheets, trying not to feel, trying simply to take consecutive breaths.'

AnneCecilie I love this book 3y
Moll @AnneCecilie I'm really enjoying it too so far!❤ 3y
13 likes2 comments
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Moll
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Next up!

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literateBee

A moving book.

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masakrasa
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I‘ve been feeling lonely for a while now. So I decided to google “books about loneliness”, you know, like everyone does and see what I find. ‘The Lonely City” was one of the books that came up so I‘m giving it a chance 🤷‍♀️

JamieArc I recently read the tagged book and it felt like the perfect companion. Maybe one for you to check out... 4y
masakrasa @JamieArc thanks! I will add it to my to-read list ☺️ 4y
4 likes2 comments
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Mskt6891
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#popsugarreadingchallenge2021
Read 14/50
Prompt: book about art or artists

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Mskt6891
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This hit hard as a single person living alone during lockdown

wanderinglynn Interesting though. And an interesting book synopsis. As someone who‘s lived alone for a couple of decades now and has frequently moved to new places where I have known no one, I have to say it‘s the rare that I‘ve been lonely. Usually alone but rarely lonely. So I‘ll be interested to hear what you think of the book. 4y
Mskt6891 I'm the same as you I think @wanderinglynn on the whole I prefer my own company (or that of animals!) but this particularly rang true after not speaking out loud (not even on the phone or a video call) to anyone at all except the cat for three days felt...not nice. 4y
wanderinglynn Oh yes, I feel you. The emptiness from the lack of verbal communication can be quite hard at times. 💜 4y
15 likes3 comments
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Legendofcool

a lonely one; not at all the same thing as admitting one is lonely. Instead, it suggests with that a, that unassuming indefinite article, a fact that loneliness by its nature resists. Though it feels entirely isolating, a private burden no one else could possibly experience or share, it is in reality a communal state, inhabited by many

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Legendofcool

Lonely people are restless sleepers, and experience a reduction in the restorative function of sleep. Loneliness drives up blood pressure, accelerates ageing, weakens the immune system and acts as a precursor to cognitive decline. According to a 2010 study, loneliness predicts increased morbidity and mortality, which is an elegant way of saying that loneliness can prove fatal.

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Legendofcool

loneliness inhibits empathy because it induces in its wake a kind of self-protective amnesia, so that when a person is no longer lonely they struggle to remember what the condition is like.

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Legendofcool

Loneliness feels like such a shameful experience, so counter to the lives we are supposed to lead, that it becomes increasingly inadmissible, a taboo state whose confession seems destined to cause others to turn and flee.

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Legendofcool

But loneliness doesn‘t necessarily correlate with an external or objective lack of company; what psychologists term social isolation or social privation. By no means all people who live their lives in the absence of company are lonely, while it is possible to experience acute loneliness while in a relationship or among a group of friends.

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Legendofcool

What does it feel like to be lonely? It feels like being hungry: like being hungry when everyone around you is readying for a feast. It feels shameful and alarming, and over time these feelings radiate outwards, making the lonely person increasingly isolated, increasingly estranged. It hurts, in the way that feelings do, and it also has physical consequences that take place invisibly, inside the closed compartments of the body.

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Legendofcool

Loneliness, I began to realise, was a populated place: a city in itself.

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Legendofcool

Interesting, the idea that loneliness might be taking you towards an otherwise unreachable experience of reality.

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Legendofcool

Perhaps I‘m wrong, but I don‘t think any experience so much a part of our common shared lives can be entirely devoid of meaning, without a richness and a value of some kind.

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Legendofcool

Loneliness is difficult to confess; difficult too to categorise. Like depression, a state with which it often intersects, it can run deep in the fabric of a person, as much a part of one‘s being as laughing easily or having red hair.

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Legendofcool

It‘s possible – easy, even – to feel desolate and unfrequented in oneself while living cheek by jowl with others. Cities can be lonely places, and in admitting this we see that loneliness doesn‘t necessarily require physical solitude, but rather an absence or paucity of connection, closeness, kinship: an inability, for one reason or another, to find as much intimacy as is desired.

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Legendofcool
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Was listening, now gonna be reading. To many good quotes to just listen to this one!

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Legendofcool
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You can be lonely anywhere, but there is a particular flavour to the loneliness that comes from living in a city, surrounded by millions of people.

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amyrohn
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I think this might be the perfect book for self-isolation

CarolynM Very appropriate 😬 5y
43 likes1 comment
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AlexGeorge
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This book is presently blowing me away. It‘s so smart, and so good.

19 likes1 stack add
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rachaich
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Interesting reading these two alongside each other.
Walden is for book club but has been on my shelf for a few years.... Lonely City was recommended based on previous reads.
They both give interesting insight into loneliness versus solitude and the impact or benefits on individuals.

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rachaich
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I've wanted to read this for a while and started last night. It's quite a detailed account of artists with a theme of loneliness for numerous reasons.

AnneCecilie I loved this book when I read and hope you do too 5y
rachaich @AnneCecilie thank you 5y
19 likes1 stack add2 comments
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Billypar
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Pickpick

I enjoyed Laing's approach to this part-memoir, part-mini bios on loneliness. It's difficult to do the topic justice without appearing self-pitying. Instead, her account of moving to NYC after a breakup and dealing with loneliness is frank and insightful. She threads her own experiences with those of artists like Hopper, Warhol, Wojnarowicz, and others. An interesting exploration into why a feeling that is so universal causes so much shame.

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mary.fel
Mehso-so

Одинокий город.

Девушка переехала из Англии в Нью Йорк к мужчине, который в итоге оставил её, она рассказывает о том, что такое одиночество и как люди разных эпох с ним справлялись.

LitsyWelcomeWagon Welcome to Litsy! Hope these #Litsytips by @RaimeyGallant http://bit.ly/litsytips and #LitsyHowTo videos: goo.gl/UrCpoU are helpful. There‘s so many fun things to do: book exchanges, buddy reads, photo challenges and more! #LitsyWelcomeWagon
5y
StillLookingForCarmenSanDiego Welcome to Litsy 💟📚💟 5y
3 likes2 comments
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quietlycuriouskate
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Pickpick

I adored "To the River" and was expecting something in a similar vein here. She does write about her own loneliness (as distinct from solitude) when adrift in New York but it's primarily about artists and the work made from their experience of social isolation and/or exclusion. No doubt I'd have enjoyed it more if I were already familiar with the artists and their work (she's made me want to look up David Wojnarowicz now). I do love her writing.

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quietlycuriouskate
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I'm rattled.
I feel for the man but he didn't respect her boundaries and years later she's still feeling ashamed of how she responded. ?
It enrages me how some men foist themselves upon women and demand attention as if it were their right. Beyond naming it Mr Ramsay Syndrome (from "To the Lighthouse") to myself I have yet to formulate a satisfactory response. I really hate to be rude and don't want to make a fuss but LEAVE ME ALONE, right?

sarahbarnes Mr Ramsay syndrome came to mind for me as well. 6y
merelybookish Yes Mr Ramsay syndrome! What's annoying and what she captures here is how these incidents do continue to haunt one long after they are past. I had one at a grocery store checkout once when I was a teen. And to this day, that memory can come back and make me feel bad as I unload my groceries. 6y
quietlycuriouskate @sarahbarnes @merelybookish Ughh! 😫 My dad does this all the time. And then a while ago I knew a man who seemed to have a perpetual little boy/mother dynamic going on. He was a big man, too, and I am tiny: I felt overpowered. I must admit that occasionally with strangers I have pretended I don't speak English: not the most mature response, granted, but needs must... 6y
Weaponxgirl I told a guy off a few months ago and told him he couldn‘t join me and some friends after I‘d seen him bother two girls before he tried to get into our group. and I still felt bad about it afterwards even though I knew he deserved it. It bugs me that I felt that way straight afterwards, we shouldn‘t feel bad for defending our personal space from unwanted intrusions. 6y
53 likes1 stack add4 comments
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erzascarletbookgasm
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This book is said to be a ‘meditation on loneliness‘. It‘s Olivia Laing adrift and alone in a foreign city, while she attempts to explore some artists‘ life and creativity.
#ItsGonnaBeMe #AMonthOfSongs

charl08 Great read, gave me itchy feet to do more travel! 6y
OriginalCyn620 Sounds like an interesting read! 📚🎶 6y
60 likes3 comments
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Leftcoastzen
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Pickpick

Laing took her time alone in New York to write this excellent book about how being alone can fuel creativity and art,and though I have read extensively about Hopper ,Warhol & Wojnarowicz, she brings different insights to the conversation.Heck,Darger had to create his own world.I would often schedule time alone in NY to let the magic ,weirdness,& wonder happen .I have yet to make great art of those experiences though.

TrishB Lovely review 💕 6y
Leftcoastzen @TrishB Thanks! Makes me want a NYC vacation desperately. 6y
TrishB I‘m desperate to even get there! 6y
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Leftcoastzen @TrishB You will! But wear your most comfortable cool shoes!😎 6y
TrishB Lol 😁 point well made! 6y
youneverarrived Love this book 🖤 6y
61 likes2 stack adds6 comments
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squirrelbrain
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Bit late to the #timbittunes party today - sorry about that! And that also means someone may have already posted this #lonelylonely book....

@Cinfhen @TheKidUpstairs

Cinfhen What a perfect choice 🏆 6y
Cathythoughts 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 6y
78 likes2 comments
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squirrelbrain
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I found sooo many books with a lot of sky on the cover... Here‘s just two more!

#showusyourcover
#sky

@kaye

Kaye Good choices ! I‘ve not read either of these. Have you, and how‘d you like them ? 6y
Tanisha_A Beautiful covers! 6y
tracey38 Very pretty covers! 6y
squirrelbrain @kaye I‘ve read both of them. Baggage was years and years ago but I enjoyed it. I read The Lonely City last year and really like that too. I love NYC though, which is why I wanted to read it, and it was less about the city itself and more about artists that had lived there.... 6y
79 likes4 comments
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Moray_Reads
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I've always been happy as a fairly solitary person, there are lots of aspects of being alone and it doesn't have to be negative. I've been meaning to read this one for ages #onmyown #musicalnewyear @Cinfhen @vivastory

Cinfhen I understand that completely, as I‘m sure MANY people on here do, too☺️ 6y
AmyG Me, too. I always say...there is no company I prefer more..than my own. ;) (edited) 6y
DivineDiana I loved this book! It taught me a great deal about contemporary art. Also choosing to be alone and being lonely are not the same. 6y
vivastory I was in a relationship & then married for 10 years & I am significantly happier #onmyown A lot more time to read! 6y
youneverarrived I love this book! 6y
79 likes3 stack adds5 comments
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AnneCecilie
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#adventrecommends day 13

A favorite from this year about the different ways that you can be alone. In Laing‘s examination she focuses a lot on artists and their art.

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Suet624
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Hmmm... I‘m sensing a theme here.

kspenmoll 💕💕 6y
53 likes1 stack add1 comment
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AnneCecilie
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1. Done. But ask me tomorrow, the answer might be different.

2. 59

3. Not one specific thing, but really happy about actually going to the art exhibits, literary happenings and other cultural things that I want to go to and not just talk about it.

4. Christmas

5. A day late so 👋 everyone

#HelloThursday

DivineDiana This book! ❤️ 6y
wanderinglynn Thanks for playing! 👋🏻😀 6y
AnneCecilie @DivineDiana I know, words fail you 6y
44 likes1 stack add3 comments
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squirrelbrain
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Pickpick

A bit different to what I expected as the reviews implied that the book is about the author‘s own experiences in New York City. It is much more about NYC based artists but still a fascinating, engrossing book nonetheless. Loved the section about Hopper and learnt a lot about Warhol, as well as other artists that were new to me. Book underneath is There There - next on the list after picking out of a hat....

Slajaunie That‘s a pretty baby sitting there! 6y
mabell 😻😻 6y
Leftcoastzen 😻😻 6y
youneverarrived I‘m glad you liked it! 😘 6y
75 likes4 comments
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squirrelbrain
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Finally got round to starting on my birthday books from the lovely #jbuk Littens. I really couldn‘t choose where to start so picked names out of a ‘hat‘. This one came out first and loving it so far!

Love this reference to Hopper‘s apartment on Washington Square as I‘ve been IN it! It was during Open House New York a couple of years ago and we somehow managed to get two of the very limited tickets!

Thanks @youneverarrived ❤️📖

DivineDiana Amazing! Hopper‘s house! This book captured a piece of me! I was so fortunate to see an exhibit of David Wojnarowicz at the Whitney just before it closed! 6y
77 likes1 comment
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Lindy
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Pickpick

This #nonfiction falls into several categories: history, biography, memoir and cultural journalism. The artists at the core of Laing‘s study include Andy Warhol, David Wojnarowicz, Klaus Nomi & Edward Hooper. People who felt alone even in a crowd. Loneliness is a fascinating topic, and often sad, but there‘s also a recognition that solitude can be a good thing. The #audiobook is narrated with a British accent by Susan Lyons. #LGBTQ

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Lindy
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Loneliness, longing, does not mean one has failed, but simply that one is alive.

(Author photo from Internet)

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Lindy
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“Not all wounds need healing, and not all scars are ugly.”

(#audiobook listening while picking grapes today.)

ephemeralwaltz Lovely! 6y
zsuzsanna_reads Jealous! Looks soooo lovely. 6y
See All 9 Comments
Tanisha_A I want to live where you live! How lovely! 😍 6y
Lindy @Tanisha_A We had one nice day today after two icy weeks. Rain and snow are supposed to return tomorrow. 😕 6y
Blaire Beautiful photo! 6y
Lindy @Blaire Thanks. ☺️ 6y
RealLifeReading Wow! 🍇 6y
Lindy @RealLifeReading They make delicious juice. Well, I have to make the juice from them. You know what I mean. 6y
53 likes1 stack add9 comments
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Lindy
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David Wojnarowicz on AIDS: “My rage is really about the fact that when I was told that I‘d contracted this virus, it didn‘t take me long to realize that I‘d contracted a diseased society as well.”

Wojnarowicz is one of the artists Laing focuses on in her exploration of loneliness. The Whitney in NYC currently has an exhibition of his work:
https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/DavidWojnarowicz

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Lindy
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I'd never been comfortable with the demands of femininity, had always felt more like a boy, a gay boy, that I inhabited a gender position somewhere between the binaries of male and female, some impossible other, some impossible both. Trans, I was starting to realise, which isn't to say I was transitioning from one thing to another, but rather that I inhabited a space in the centre, which didn't exist, except there I was.

#LGBTQ

56 likes5 stack adds
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Lindy
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Sameness, especially for the immigrant, the shy boy agonizingly aware of his failures to fit in, is a profoundly desirable state, an antidote against the pain of being singular, alone.

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squirrelbrain
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Thanks so much to @youneverarrived and @Cathythoughts for the birthday gifts! ❤️ Katie, The Lonely City looks fab, and I love books about NYC - I can‘t wait to read it if it‘s one of your favourites! Cathy - I‘m also really looking forward to the books you picked off my TBR - I‘m excited that both you and Barack rated Fates and Furies! 🤣 Loving the squirrel card and thanks for the ‘camping‘ socks - how did you know my feet are ALWAYS freezing?!

Cathythoughts So delighted for you ... you did well on your birthday 🎂. @youneverarrived The Lonely City sounds like a good one 💫. And you are very welcome Helen🙏🏻, enjoy XXX (edited) 6y
erzascarletbookgasm Lovely gifts 6y
TrishB Cool presents 💕 6y
youneverarrived You‘re welcome ❤️ hope you had a lovely day xx 6y
78 likes1 stack add4 comments