"Everything that loomed so large close up--school, their parents, their lives--all you had to do was step away, and they shrank to nothing. You could stop taking their phone calls, tear up their letters, pretend they'd never existed. Start over as a new person with a new life. Just a problem of geography, he thought, with the confidence of someone who had never yet tried to free himself of family."

"Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life."

"We are all honey." Such a succinct capture of why being called honey is so rage-inducing. Thank you Margaret Atwood.

"We all need the illusion of control...We need to preserve the myth that we're in charge. We don't like to face the fact that we're as vulnerable as skunks or shorebirds...if we admit how truly vulnerable we are, then humility isn't just the wise choice, it's the obvious one." ~John Hay

A nice snowy read to take my mind off the heat #fridayreads

"The first dish was a clear consommé that tasted as if a million chickens had died to make it."

Moral allegories about people determined to root out wickedness in others while denying it in themselves.

So glad I decided to read this one. Worthy read

"That is how the European tribes operate, she said. If they can't control it, they destroy it."

"Now a page here and there, in the golden afternoon light, sustained him."

"But if he didn't read, he was a slave."

This week's read #pulitzer

Rarely do I love a book enough to recommend without hesitation. Here is one of the few.

I am in love with this book. A few pages into the chapter entitled Arachne's Art.

"But then, the measure of fifteen minutes is entirely different for a man in step than for a man with nothing to do."

"For centuries champagne has been used to launch marriages and ships. Most assume this is because the drink is so intrinsically celebratory; but, in fact, it is used at the onset of these dangerous enterprises because it so capably boosts one's resolve."

"The only difference between everybody and nobody is all the shoes."

"Here, indeed, was a formidable sentence--one that was on intimate terms with the comma, and that held the period in healthy disregard."

"Our textbook could have been called Proven Theories We Decry."

"In spite of all his irritating qualities, I couldn't help liking a man who despised a fictional character with such passion."

"...truth might be stranger than fiction, but it needs a better editor."

"They decided nothing can kill them but God himself, and they don't even believe in him."

"One person fighting for the truth can disqualify for me the platitudes of centuries. And one human being who meets with injustice can render invalid the entire system which has dispensed it." ~ Leonard Bernstein

Great day off reading with the offspring

This was a re-read for me of the book that made me fall in love with Barbara Kingsolver. A young woman just out on her own is given a Cherokee toddler. Entertaining story with some good lessons. Now on to book two in the series!

She had always known a thousand ways to circle them all around with what must have seemed like grace.

"I can see right now that I'm going to do one of two things...either shove food at you or run off at the mouth. When I get nervous I fall back on good solid female traditions."

Maybe some day I can read this, but right now I can't take the cruelty and violence described.

"Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice. Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment." ~ Polonius Fantastic advice during this election season.

I believe in the absolute and unlimited liberty of reading. I believe in wandering through the stacks and picking out the first thing that strikes me. I believe in choosing books based on the dust jacket. I believe in reading books because others dislike them them or find them dangerous. Rick Moody

Enjoyable read. Now I want to go to Bhutan!

Today's reason she's ignoring me. Belle Belle doesn't like the books.

"Everything is always in a state of flux. Nothing lasts forever--not triumph, love, no happy feeling, no state of sadness. Clinging to a person or place or moment in time was futile and unwise and led to suffering; so did wanting things to be different..."

Starting another new-to-me book thanks to @BkClubCare 's generosity

This book gave me a stress backache and made me cry, but if you can take the vicarious pain, it's an engrossing story. I'm choosing "pick" because there's not an option for "great story that will make you angry at humanity."

"Men tell stories...Women get on with it. For us it was a shadow war. There were no parades for us when it was over, no medals or mentions in history books. We did what we had to during the war, and when it was over, we picked up the pieces and started our lives over."

What an entertaining book given to me by book friend Care @BkClubCare who received it from some unknown book friend. I passed it on to book friend Jen @Jsloan. Book friend/book fiend...fiendishly similar. Care has inspired me to start giving books away. Let's keep it going, people!

Today's library loot

"I flop into a chair and life goes on its way." But maybe not. This book absolutely slew me. So lovely

"Yes, the world may aspire to vacuousness, lost souls mourn beauty, insignificance surrounds us. Then let us drink a cup of tea. Silence descends, one hears the wind outside, autumn leaves rustle and take flight, the cat sleeps in a warm pool of light. And, with each swallow, time is sublimed."

"It appeared the whole trouble with his character was that he had a somewhat higher opinion of himself than his real virtues warranted."

"With the exception of love, friendship and the beauty of art, I don't see much else that can nurture human life."

Excited finally to get my hands on this one...thank you Care!!