My illness is both infamous and unusual. I have a severe case of mixed immunodeficiency, but basically, I have allergies to everything. I rarely leave my residence and haven’t done so in fifteen years. My mother and Carla, my nurse, are the only ones I ever see.
Then, though, a moving truck shows up one day. new neighbors next door. He is there when I glance out the window. He is tall, slender, and dressed all in black, including a black knit cap that completely conceals his hair, black pants, black sneakers, and a black t-shirt. He turns to face me when he sees me looking at him. I return the gaze. He goes by Olly. I aspire to know everything there is to know about him. I find out that he is fierce and hilarious. He has blue eyes like the Atlantic Ocean, and his vice is thieving cutlery, I discover. I discover that once I speak with him, my entire universe widens and I start to feel different—starting to crave things. to desire to leave my bubble. a desire for all that the world has to offer.
While we may not be able to anticipate the future, there are some things that we can do. For instance, I will undoubtedly become infatuated with Olly. It will almost likely end in disaster.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Everything’s a risk. Not doing anything is a risk. It’s up to you.”
“Maybe growing up means disappointing the people we love.”
“Spoiler alert: Love is worth everything. Everything.”
“Life is a gift. Don’t forget to live it.”
“Just because you can’t experience everything doesn’t mean you shouldn’t experience anything.”
The tale of Noah Calhoun, a recent veteran of the Second World War from a remote Southern state, is introduced among the stark grandeur of the North Carolina coast. A gorgeous girl Noah met fourteen years ago and fell in love with intensely is haunting him as he works to restore a plantation house to its former splendor. Noah is glad to live with only memories of her because he can’t seem to find her and doesn’t want to forget the summer they lived together. That is until she suddenly makes a surprise visit back to his hometown to see him.
The tale of Noah and Allie is only the first piece of a larger puzzle. As it progresses, their story mysteriously changes into another with considerably larger stakes. The overall effect is a profoundly emotional portrayal of love, with its sweet moments and universally felt changes. It is a tale of miracles and feelings that you will never forget.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You can’t live your life for other people. You’ve got to do what’s right for you, even if it hurts some people you love.”
“You are, and always have been, my dream.”
“You are the answer to every prayer I’ve offered. You are a song, a dream, a whisper, and I don’t know how I could have lived without you for as long as I have.”
“Every great love starts with a great story…”
“The scariest thing about distance is that you don’t know whether they’ll miss you or forget you.”
Before love gave them everything to lose, they had nothing in common. Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl who has seldom ventured outside of their small community. She has a steady boyfriend and a close-knit family. She accepts a position working for wheelchair-bound former Master of the Universe Will Traynor, which she desperately needs. Will has always led a lavish lifestyle—huge deals, intense sports, and international travel—and he is now very certain he cannot continue to live this way.
Will is sarcastic, temperamental, and domineering, but Lou won’t treat him like a baby, and eventually, his happiness matters more to her than she anticipated. She goes out to prove to Will that life is still worthwhile after learning that he has shocking plans of his own. Me Before You is a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks, “What do you do when trying to make the person you cherish happily also means breaking your own heart?” It is a love story for this generation and is ideal for fans of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You only get one life. It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible.”
“Push yourself. Don’t Settle. Just live well. Just LIVE.”
“Some mistakes… Just have greater consequences than others. But you don’t have to let the result of one mistake be the thing that defines you. You, Clark, have the choice not to let that happen.”
“I will never, ever regret the things I’ve done. Because most days, all you have are places in your memory that you can go to.”
“I hadn’t realized that music could unlock things in you, could transport you to somewhere even the composer hadn’t predicted. It left an imprint in the air around you, as if you carried its remnants with you when you went.”
Hazel has never been other than a terminal, with her final chapter having been written upon diagnosis, despite the cancer medical breakthrough that has given her a few extra years. But Hazel’s tale is about to be completely changed when a handsome plotline named Augustus Waters shows up at Cancer Kid Support Group out of nowhere.
The Fault in Our Stars is the most ambitious and emotional book yet by award-winning novelist John Green. It wonderfully explores the amusing, exhilarating, and heartbreaking business of living and in love. It is insightful, daring, irreverent, and real.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
“You don’t get to choose if you get hurt in this world…but you do have some say in who hurts you. I like my choices.”
“Some infinities are bigger than other infinities.”
“The marks humans leave are too often scars.”
“What a slut time is. She screws everybody.”
The first time the unworldly student Anastasia Steele met the ambitious and gorgeous young businessman Christian Grey, a sensuous relationship was born that would forever alter both of their lives. Ana requests a stronger commitment after being shocked, intrigued, and eventually repulsed by Christian’s peculiar sexual preferences. Christian, who is committed to keeping her, consents.
The future is now filled with love, passion, intimacy, prosperity, and endless possibilities for Ana and Christian. But Ana is aware that caring for Fifty Shades will not be simple and that sharing a relationship will present difficulties that neither of them could have predicted. Ana needs to find a way to adopt Christian’s lavish lifestyle without losing her sense of self. Christian must also fight the ghosts of his troubled past while overcoming his urge to manipulate others. When it seems as though their combined strength will overcome any difficulty, bad luck, evil, and fate work together to bring Ana’s worst nightmares to pass.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Christian, you are the state lottery, the cure for cancer, and the three wishes from Aladdin’s lamp all rolled into one”
“I want your world to begin and end with me.”
“I think you can only be truly mad at someone you really love.”
“He makes me graceful, that’s his skill. He makes me sexy, because that’s what he is. He makes me feel loved, because in spite of his fifty shades, he has a wealth of love to give.”
“It’s much easier to wear your pain on the outside…”
Stephenie Meyer published the young adult vampire romance book Twilight in 2005. The seventeen-year-old Isabella “Bella” Swan, who relocates from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington, is introduced in the first novel of the Twilight series.
Edward was formerly a vampire. Second, there was a part of him that yearned for my blood, but I wasn’t sure how dominant that part may be. Third, I had a complete and unbreakable affection for him.
Twilight is an intensely sensual and incredibly suspenseful love story.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I like the night. Without the dark, we’d never see the stars.”
“I decided as long as I’m going to hell, I might as well do it thoroughly.”
“Death is Peaceful, Life is Harder”
“Twilight, again. Another ending. No matter how perfect the day is, it always has to end.”
“Don’t be self-conscious, if I could dream at all, it would be about you. And I’m not ashamed of it.”
Lara Jean is the protagonist of the novel To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before. Rather than confessing her crushes out loud, Lara Jean wrote letters to each boy, sealed them, and put them in a box beneath her bed. But one day Lara Jean finds that her hidden box of letters has been delivered, and all of her old crushes approach her about them, including Josh, her sister’s ex-boyfriend, and the subject of her first kiss. Lara Jean realizes that something positive might come from these letters after all as she manages to deal with her former loves directly.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“When someone’s been gone a long time, at first you save up all the things you want to tell them. You try to keep track of everything in your head. But it’s like trying to hold on to a fistful of sand: all the little bits slip out of your hands, and then you’re just clutching air and grit.”
“You’d rather make up a fantasy version of somebody in your head than be with a real person.”
“Love is scary: it changes; it can go away. That’s the part of the risk. I don’t want to be scared anymore.”
“Life doesn’t have to be so planned. Just roll with it and let it happen.”
“It’s not like in the movies. It’s better, because it’s real.”
Margo Roth Spiegelman is a gloriously daring woman, and Quentin Jacobsen has spent his entire life admiring her from a distance. He, therefore, follows her when she opens a window and enters his life while dressed as a ninja and calling for him to participate in a cunning mission of vengeance. When a fresh day begins after their all-nighter, Q arrives at school to find Margo, who had always been a mystery, has now become one. Q quickly discovers, however, that the hints are directed against him. Q is led down a confusing path, and the closer he gets, the less he can make out the girl he believes he knows.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person.”
“I’m not saying that everything is survivable. Just that everything except the last thing is.”
“The town was paper, but the memories were not.”
“If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.”
“I didn’t need you, you idiot. I picked you. And then you picked me back.”
Every morning, Rachel rides the same commuter train. She is aware that it will consistently wait at the same signal in front of a row of backyard gardens. Even the residents from one of the homes have begun to give her the impression that she knows them. She addresses them as “Jess and Jason.” She believes that their life is ideal. If only Rachel could experience such joy. Then she notices a startling sight. The train won’t move on for another minute, but that’s ample time. Everything has changed now. Now Rachel has the opportunity to actively participate in the lives she has previously merely observed. They will now see that she is so much more than simply the girl on the train.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts.”
“There’s something comforting about the sight of strangers safe at home.”
“I have lost control over everything, even the places in my head.”
“it’s possible to miss what you’ve never had, to mourn for it.”
“The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps.”
The country of Panem, with a dazzling Capitol and twelve outlying districts, is located in the ruins of a region that was once known as North America. The annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live television, are held every year as a way for the Capitol, which is harsh and cruel, to keep the districts in line. Each district is obligated to send 1 boy and 1 girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen.
When Katniss Everdeen, 16, steps forward to fill her sister’s place in the Games, her mother and younger sister see it as a death sentence. Katniss Everdeen lives alone with her mother and sister. However, Katniss has already narrowly escaped death once, so for her, surviving comes naturally. She unexpectedly establishes herself as a contender. However, if she wants to succeed, she will be required to start making decisions that prioritize survival above humanity and life over love.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You don’t forget the face of the person who was your last hope.”
“Remember, we’re madly in love, so it’s all right to kiss me anytime you feel like it.”
“I am not pretty. I am not beautiful. I am as radiant as the sun.”
“Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in your favor.”
“Destroying things is much easier than making them.”
Rainbow Rowell’s debut young adult book is titled, Eleanor & Park. The story is told in parallel narratives by Eleanor and Park, two outcasts who lived in Omaha, Nebraska, between 1986 and 1987, and was published in 2012.
“Bono met his wife in high school,” Park says. “So did Jerry Lee Lewis,” Eleanor answers. “I’m not kidding,” he says. “You should be,” she says, “we’re 16.” “What about Romeo and Juliet?” “Shallow, confused, then dead.” “I love you,” Park says. “Wherefore art thou,” Eleanor answers. “I’m not kidding,” he says. “You should be.”
Eleanor & Park is the journey of two star-crossed freaks who are courageous and desperate enough to pursue first love despite knowing it virtually never lasts. It is set over the course of one school year in 1986.
Everything changes in the blink of an eye. Mia, who is now seventeen, has no recollection of the disaster; all she can recall is what happened later when she saw her own wounded body being removed from the wreck. She labors to piece everything together, to understand what she has gained, what she has sacrificed, and the extremely difficult decision she must make. This will alter how you view life, love, and family because it is so exquisitely beautiful and heartbreaking. Mia’s narrative will stick with you for a very, very long time. It is now a big-budget movie starring Chloe Grace Moretz.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”
“I realize now that dying is easy. Living is hard.”
“And that’s just it, isn’t it? That’s how we manage to survive the loss. Because love, it never dies, it never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it.”
“Love, it never dies. It never goes away, it never fades, so long as you hang on to it. Love can make you immortal”
“Losing me will hurt; it will be the kind of pain that won’t feel real at first, and when it does, it will take her breath away.”
In the dystopian Chicago society created by Beatrice Prior, there are five factions: Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the courageous), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the learned) (the intelligent). All sixteen-year-olds must choose the faction to which they’ll dedicate the rest of their lives on a designated day each year. Beatrice must choose between remaining with her family and coming out as who she truly is since she cannot be both. She thus makes a decision that shocks both herself and everyone else.
Beatrice adopts the name Tris during the extremely competitive induction that follows and battles with the other initiates to carry out their decisions. Together, they must endure difficult physical endurance tests and demanding psychological simulations, some of which have grave repercussions. Tris must decide who her true friends are as initiation alters them all and where precisely a romance with an often interesting, sometimes irritating boy fits into the world she has chosen. Tris has a secret, though, and she has kept it a secret from everyone since she has been warned it may be fatal. Additionally, she finds that her secret might either help her save the people she cares about or endanger them as she uncovers unrest and escalating conflict that threaten to tear apart her society’s façade of perfection.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“We believe in ordinary acts of bravery, in the courage that drives one person to stand up for another.”
“Becoming fearless isn’t the point. That’s impossible. It’s learning how to control your fear, and how to be free from it.”
“I might be in love with you.” He smiles a little. “I’m waiting until I’m sure to tell you, though.”
“I have a theory that selflessness and bravery aren’t all that different.”
“Fear doesn’t shut you down; it wakes you up”
A deliciously dishonest book about the most difficult employer in the annals of difficult bosses. Andrea Sachs, a young college graduate from a tiny town, is hired for the position that “millions of ladies would die for.” Andrea uncovers herself in a workplace that roars “Prada! Armani! Versace!” at every move, a world populated by impossibly thin, heart-wrenchingly stylish women and beautiful men dressed in fine-ribbed turtlenecks and strict leather pants that show off their lifelong dedication to the gym. Andrea has been recruited as the assistant to Miranda Priestly, the high-profile, marvelously successful editor of “Runway” magazine. Miranda has the ability to transform every single one of these stylish hipsters into a frightened child, whimpering in pain.
Complaints about “The Boss from Hell” take on a rich and humorous new meaning thanks to THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA. It tracks a deep, dark, wicked vision of life at the top that is only glimpsed in gossip magazines and over Cosmopolitans at the hottest cocktail parties, all told in Andrea’s sharp, pleasantly disarming manner. Andrea is put to the test on a daily basis—often late into the night with orders yelled over the phone—doing everything from finding an unnamed antique shop where Miranda had once admired a vintage dresser to finding the newest, not-yet-in-store Harry Potter to send to Miranda’s children in Paris by private jet.
By focusing on the goal—a reference from Miranda that will land Andrea a top position at any publication of her choice—she endures everything. But when things progress from being merely undesirable to outright absurd, Andrea starts to suspect that the career that a million females would die for might actually be killing her. She must also decide whether the work is worth the cost of her soul, even if she lives.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Oh, don’t be silly – EVERYONE wants this. Everyone wants to be *us*.”
“I’ve always expressed my thoughts in color but we remain blind.”
“Mom and Dad were great, but being asked where I was going every time I left the house – or where I’d been every time I returned – got old quickly.”
“She loved anyone and anything that didn’t love her back, so long as it made her feel alive.”
“Insatiable, impatient, impossible.”
Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.
Even though Lily hasn’t always found it easy, she’s never let that stop her from striving to live the life she desires. She had graduated from college, relocated to Boston, and launched her own business. She has traveled a long way from the small Maine hamlet where she was raised. So everything in Lily’s life appears almost too beautiful to be true when she gets a spark with a stunning neurosurgeon called Ryle Kincaid.
Ryle is aggressive, obstinate, and perhaps a little conceited. He is also intelligent, sensitive, and completely infatuated with Lily. And it surely doesn’t hurt that he looks good in scrubs. Lily is unable to shake him from her mind. But Ryle’s utter distaste for partnerships is unsettling. Lily cannot help but wonder what made him such a person in the first place, even as she finds herself breaking his “no dating” rule.
Her first love and a reminder of the past she left behind, Atlas Corrigan, comes to mind as uncertainty about her new relationship overwhelms her. He served as both her ally and defender. Everything Ryle and Lily have created together are in danger when Atlas arrives out of nowhere.
The 1813 novel Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is one of the most beloved works of literature among bookworms and romantics alike. When Elizabeth Bennet’s blunders and hasty decisions enchanted readers, they’ve been on the lookout for similar works of fiction for some time. Finding books like Pride and Prejudice, perhaps Austen’s most famous work isn’t too tough.
Many writers have been influenced by Austen’s writing, and there is a slew of works currently in print that deal with similar subjects and chronological periods. Despite Pride and Prejudice’s reputation as the pinnacle of feminist writing, there is a slew of other works by women authors that helped establish the notion that women might be successful novelists.
It doesn’t matter what your taste in literature is, these 10 works are sure to please you in the same manner as Pride and Prejudice did for me.
So who are you?
What harm have we caused one another?
When Nick Dunne’s wife Amy mysteriously vanishes on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, he is left questioning these concerns. Police believe Nick. His fear of Amy led to her keeping secrets from him, according to her friends. He vouches that it is untrue. His computer was examined by police, who discovered odd searches. He claims that he did not create them. The constant calls to his cellphone are another issue.
So what actually happened to Nick’s lovely wife?
Best Quotes from this Book:
“All the stuff I don’t like about myself has been pushed to the back of my brain. Maybe that is what I like best about him, the way he makes me. Not makes me feel, just makes me. I am fun. I am playful. I am game. I feel naturally happy and entirely satisfied.”
“I got it, Go said. Go home, fuck her brains out, then smack her with your penis and scream, There’s some wood for you bitch!”
“One should never marry a man who doesn’t own a decent set of scissors. That would be my advice. It leads to bad things.”
“He has a great smile, a cat’s smile. He should cough out yellow Tweety Bird feathers, the way he smiles at me.”
“I just want to live until I can’t anymore,” she said.”
One unprecedented move is about to be taken by three regular women. Skeeter, who is twenty-two years old, graduated from Ole Miss and has since moved back home. Even though she may have a degree, it is 1962 in Mississippi, and Skeeter’s mother won’t be content until she has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would often seek comfort from the lady who reared her, her loving maid Constantine, but Constantine has vanished, and no one would tell Skeeter where she has fled.
Aibileen is a smart, regal black maid who is parenting her seventeenth child who is white. After losing her beloved son, who passed away while his superiors turned a blind eye, something inside of her changed. Despite knowing that both of their hearts might be crushed, she is dedicated to the young girl she tends after.
Kathryn Stockett invents three exceptional people with pitch-perfect voices, whose will to begin a campaign of their own transforms a community and the way in which mothers, daughters, carers, and friends see one another. The Help is a profoundly touching book that is full of poignancy, comedy, and hope. It is a timeless and enduring tale about the lines we follow and the ones we can’t control.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.”
“All I’m saying is, kindness don’t have no boundaries.”
“Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.”
“Write about what disturbs you, particularly if it bothers no one else.”
“Stuart needs “space” and “time,” as if this were physics and not a human relationship.”
Miles “Pudge” Halter has an obsession with famous final words. His entire life has been pretty monotonous, so he heads to boarding school in pursuit of a “Great Perhaps,” François Rabelais’ famous dying words.
Miles meets Alaska Yong there, and his life becomes anything but mundane. Alaska is unpredictable, wild, and self-destructive, as well as the object of Miles’ emotions. Miles and Chip “Colonel” Martin become incredibly good friends and share many fantastic adventures at Culver Creek Boarding School, with Miles anticipating his own “Great Perhaps.”
When tragedy strikes, Miles is pushed to confront mortality, teaching him the value of life and loving completely. Looking for Alaska must be on your reading list if you’re looking for more contemporary novels like The Outsiders. This is a coming-of-age narrative about the meaning of life, grief, and hope, as well as the interactions between teenagers and adults.
Twilight’s Edward Cullen and Bella Swan’s encounter marked the beginning of a legendary love story. Fans, however, have only ever heard Bella’s perspective up until this point. In the eagerly anticipated companion book, Midnight Sun, readers can at last experience Edward’s interpretation.
Through Edward’s eyes, this remarkable story is portrayed in a fresh and unmistakably dark way. In all his years as a vampire, meeting Bella is the most unsettling and fascinating experience he has ever had. We comprehend why this is the most important conflict in Edward’s life as we uncover more fascinating insights about his past and the nuanced nature of his inner thoughts. How can he defend following his emotions if doing so puts Bella in harm’s way?
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Could a dead, frozen heart beat again? It felt like mine was about to.”
“Perhaps romance always seemed a slightly foolish thing to everyone until one actually fell into it.”
“I knew her well enough to see that the sight of so many books in one room was something of a dream to her.”
“I buried my face in the hollow of her neck and breathed in her searing essence, wishing again, as I had in the beginning, that I could dream with her.”
“She had changed me more than I’d known it was possible for me to change and still remain myself.”
This is the remarkable love tale of Clare and Henry, who were married at ages 22 and 30 respectively and met when Clare was six and Henry was 36. It’s impossible, but Henry has a disease that causes his genetic clock to periodically reset, causing him to be unexpectedly transported into the past or the future. Henry and Clare’s battle to conduct regular lives in the face of this force they can neither stop nor control is profoundly affecting and completely unforgettable.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I sit quietly and think about my mom. It’s funny how memory erodes, If all I had to work from were my childhood memories, my knowledge of my mother would be faded and soft, with a few sharp memories standing out.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“Henry loves my hair almost as though it is a creature unto itself, as though it has a soul to call its own, as though it could love him back.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“Everything seems simple until you think about it. Why is love intensified by absence?”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“absence can be present, like a damaged nerve, like a dark bird”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
“Every minute of his life since then has been marked by her absence, every action has lacked dimension because she is not there to measure against. And when I was young I didn’t understand, but now, I know, how absence can be present, like a damaged nerve, like a dark bird.”
― Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
The film (500) Days of Summer kicks off at breakneck speed into a witty, true-to-life, and original deconstruction of the turbulent and unexpected year and a half of one young man’s no-holds-barred love affair with the sarcastic, probing narrator declaring, “This is a narrative of boy meets girl.”
The Newmarket Shooting Script book also features production notes, the whole cast and crew credits, an 8-page color section, and special forewords by screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber in addition to the complete screenplay.
Best Quotes from this Book:
y made in between. Most days have no impact on the course of a life.”
― Scott Neustadter, (500) Days of Summer: The Shooting Script
“You can’t ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence. That’s all anything ever is. Nothing more than coincidence.”
― Scott Neustadter, (500) Days of Summer: The Shooting Script
“You can’t ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence. That’s all anything ever is. Nothing more than you can’t ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence. That’s all anything ever is. Nothing more than co”
― Scott Neustadter, (500) Days of Summer: The Shooting Script
“Since the disintegration of her parent’s marriage, she’d only loved two things. The first was her long blonde hair. The second was how easily she could cut it off… And feel nothing.”
― Scott Neustadter, (500) Days of Summer: The Shooting Script
There is a café in Tokyo that has been selling expertly prepared coffee for further than a century, hidden away in a little back lane. But this coffee shop gives its patrons a one-of-a-kind opportunity: the chance to go back in time.
We meet four visitors in Before the Coffee Gets Cold, each of whom wants to take advantage of the café’s time-traveling offer in order to: encounter the man who left them; get a letter from their husband for whom the memory has been chosen to take by early onset Alzheimer’s; see their sister for the last time; and encounter the daughter they never got the opportunity to learn.
However, the trip into the past is not without danger: patrons are required to occupy a specific seat, they are not allowed to leave the café, and finally, they must return to the current before the coffee goes cold. What would you alter if you could go back in time? is a timeless subject that is explored in Toshikazu Kawaguchi’s beautiful and poignant narrative. Who would you most like to meet, possibly for the final time?
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Remember—drink the coffee before it goes cold.”
― Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold
“At the end of the day, whether one returns to the past or travels to the future, the present does not change. So it raises the question: just what is the point of that chair?”
― Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold
“Water flows from high places to low places. That is the nature of gravity. Emotions also seem to act according to gravity. When I’m in the presence of someone with whom I have a bond, and to whom I have entrusted my feelings, it is hard to lie and get away with it. The truth just wants to come flowing out.”
― Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold
“Just remember. Drink the coffee before it goes cold,” she whispered.”
― Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold
“We must become friends before this coffee cools.”
― Toshikazu Kawaguchi, Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Theodore Finch is obsessed with death and frequently considers ways to commit suicide. But every time, he is stopped by something positive, no matter how minor. Violet Markey is counting down the days till graduation so she can leave her Indiana village and her agonising grief following the tragic passing of her sister.
It’s unknown who saves who when Finch and Violet encounter one other on the edge of the school bell tower. And Finch and Violet both make additional significant discoveries as they work together on a project to learn about the “natural wonders” of their state: Only with Violet can Finch be himself—a peculiar, humorous, and live-out-loud kind of guy who is actually not such a weirdo after all. And Violet can only stop counting the days and begin living them when she is with Finch. However, as Violet’s world expands, Finch starts to contract.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“You are all the colors in one, at full brightness.”
“The thing I realize is, that it’s not what you take, it’s what you leave.”
“We do not remember days, we remember moments.”
“The great thing about this life of ours is that you can be someone different to everybody.”
“The problem with people is they forget that most of the time it’s the small things that count.”
Jeffrey Eugenides, an American author, published his first book, The Virgin Suicides, in 1993. The Lisbon girls, five tragic sisters, are the main characters of the fictional drama, which takes place in Grosse Pointe, Michigan in the 1970s.
The girls’ appearance when their mom let them out for their one and only date in their life was stunning because it seemed almost regular. Twenty years later, the boys who worshipped the sisters can still vividly recall the details of their enigmatic personalities, including the brassiere that the promiscuous Lux draped over a crucifix, the sisters’ breathtaking entrance the night of the dance, and the sultry, lethargic street where they witnessed a family break apart and frail lives disappear.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“She held herself very straight, like Audrey Hepburn, whom all women idolize and men never think about.”
“Basically what we have here is a dreamer. Somebody out of touch with reality. When she jumped, she probably thought she’d fly”
“In the end, it wasn’t death that surprised her but the stubbornness of life.”
“We couldn’t imagine the emptiness of a creature who put a razor to her wrists and opened her veins, the emptiness and the calm.”
“I don’t know what you’re feeling. I won’t even pretend.”
Employers have identified a new, low-cost labor pool, mostly made up of roving older individuals, from the beet fields of North Dakota to the campgrounds of California to Amazon’s CamperForce program in Texas. Tens of thousands of these unnoticed victims of the Great Recession have hit the road in RVs and vans that have been converted, constituting a growing nomad society.
Nomadland is a startling account of the murky underbelly of the American economy, one that portends the uncertain future that may be in store for many of us in the future. It also recognizes the extraordinary resiliency and ingenuity of these Americans, who have given up their normal roots in order to live but have not given up on themselves.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“America is the wealthiest nation on Earth, but its people are mainly poor, and poor Americans are urged to hate themselves . . . Every other nation has folk traditions of men who were poor but extremely wise and virtuous, and therefore more estimable than anyone with power and gold. No such tales are told by the American poor. They mock themselves and glorify their betters.”
“A deepening class divide makes social mobility all but impossible. The result is a de facto caste system. This is not only morally wrong but also tremendously wasteful. Denying access to opportunity for large segments of the population means throwing away vast reserves of talent and brainpower. It’s also been shown to dampen economic growth.”
“The truth as I see it is that people can both struggle and remain upbeat simultaneously, through even the most soul-testing of challenges.”
“The capitalists don’t want anyone living off their economic grid.”
“The last free place in America is a parking spot.”
Starr Carter, a sixteen-year-old, alternates between her affluent suburban prep school and her impoverished neighborhood of residence. When Starr sees her childhood closest mate Khalil being fatally shot by a police officer, the delicate balance between the two worlds is upended. Khalil had no weapons.
His death makes national headlines not long after that. He is being referred to be a thug, possibly even a drug trafficker, and gangbanger, by some. In Khalil’s honor, demonstrators are marching in the streets. Starr and her family are being threatened by some police officers and the local drug lord. What actually happened that night is what everyone is interested in learning. Starr is the only living person who can respond to that.
However, what Starr says or doesn’t say could completely alter her community. It can potentially put her life in jeopardy. This compelling young adult story, which was motivated by the Black Lives Matter movement, is about one girl’s fight for justice.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?”
“Brave doesn’t mean you’re not scared. It means you go on even though you’re scared.”
“I can’t change where I come from or what I’ve been through, so why should I be ashamed of what makes me, me?”
“You can destroy wood and brick, but you can’t destroy a movement.”
“Pac said Thug Life stood for ‘The Hate U Give Little Infants Fucks Everybody’.”
In the vein of Peter Mayle’s A Year in Provence, this charming and poetic account of Tuscany’s way of life, customs, and cuisine.
When Frances Mayes started renovating an abandoned villa in the breathtaking Tuscan countryside, she stepped into a beautiful new world. Unexpected finds might be found everywhere: fading frescos hidden behind the whitewash in her dining room, a vineyard hidden beneath wildly out-of-control brambles in the garden, and in the adjacent hill towns, bustling marketplaces, and friendly locals. She invites readers to enjoy the pleasures of Italian life and to feast at her table in Under the Tuscan Sun with the poetic speech of a poet, the vision of a seasoned traveler, and the discriminating palette of a cook and food writer.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Life offers you a thousand chances… all you have to do is take one.”
― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun
“Any arbitrary turning along the way and I would be elsewhere; I would be different.”
― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun
“Where you are is who you are. The further inside you the place moves, the more your identity is intertwined with it. Never casual, the choice of place is the choice of something you crave.”
― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun
“There is no technique, there is just the way to do it.
Now, are we going to measure or are we going to cook?”
― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun
“I had the urge to examine my life in another culture and move beyond what I knew.”
― Frances Mayes, Under the Tuscan Sun