The bestselling author of Riding Lessons presents an atmospheric, gritty, and fascinating story of star-crossed lovers, situated in the circus world around 1932.
Jacob Jankowski, who has just become orphaned and is now stranded, boards a passing train and joins a world of freaks, drifters, and misfits. This second-rate circus is striving to survive the Great Depression by having one-night stands in countless towns. Jacob, a veterinary student who was on the verge of graduating, is tasked with taking care of the circus’s animal collection. There, he meets August, the charming but deranged animal trainer, who is married to Marlena, the stunning young star of the equestrian act. He also encounters Rosie, an elephant who at first seems impossible to teach until he finds a method to get to her.
Water for Elephants is exquisitely written and has a fantastic feeling of place and time. In a society where even love is considered a commodity that few can afford, it depicts the tale of a romance between two people who triumph over extraordinary circumstances.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“When two people are meant to be together, they will be together. It’s fate.”
“With a secret like that, at some point the secret itself becomes irrelevant. The fact that you kept it does not.”
“Keeping up the appearance of having all your marbles is hard work, but important.”
“Life is the most spectacular show on earth ♥”
“The more distressing the memory, the more persistent it’s presence. ”
Yann Martel wrote the fantasy adventure book Life of Pi, which was released in 2001. Piscine Molitor “Pi” Patel, the main character and a Tamil child from Pondicherry, begins to investigate moral and practical questions at a young age. After being stuck on a ship in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days following a shipwreck, he makes it alive alongside Richard Parker, a Bengal tiger.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“It is true that those we meet can change us, sometimes so profoundly that we are not the same afterwards, even unto our names.”
“To choose doubt as a philosophy of life is akin to choosing immobility as a means of transportation.”
“When you’ve suffered a great deal in life, each additional pain is both unbearable and trifling.”
“You must take life the way it comes at you and make the best of it.”
“I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.”
The Kite Runner is a masterfully written book that is set in a nation that is about to be destroyed and tells the unforgettable, heartbreaking tale of the unexpected connection between a rich child and the son of his father’s servant. It discusses the influence of reading, the cost of betrayal, the potential for forgiveness, as well as the influence of dads upon their sons—their affection, their sacrifices, and their falsehoods.
The Kite Runner is the first Afghan book to be published in English. It recounts a grand tale of family, devotion, and friendships against a never-before-told historical backdrop, evoking the expansive canvases of nineteenth-century Russian writers. The catastrophic history of Afghanistan during the past 30 years is the focus of this narration, which is outdated in style. The Kite Runner is a unique and potent debut that is equally engrossing and sensitive on an emotional level.
Best Quotes from the book:
“For you, a thousand times over” “And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”
“For you, a thousand times over”
“And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.”
“There is only one sin. and that is theft… when you tell a lie, you steal someone’s right to the truth.”
“it always hurts more to have and lose than to not have in the first place.”
The third book written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, was released in 1925. It chronicles the tragic tale of self-made millionaire Jay Gatsby and his pursuit of Daisy Buchanan, a wealthy young woman he once loved, in Jazz Age New York. The narrative of the book is provided by Nick Carraway, who describes the happenings of the summer of 1922 after moving into the fictitious Long Island community of West Egg. He resides there among the newly wealthy, while his cousin Daisy and her violently wealthy husband, Tom Buchanan, reside across the water in the more affluent community of East Egg.
Nick eventually receives an invitation to one of Jay Gatsby’s glamorous parties as the summer goes on. Nick extends an invitation to Daisy to fulfill Gatsby’s wish, and there they rekindle their romance. Tom meets Gatsby at the Plaza Hotel as soon as he learns of the affair. Gatsby claims that he and Daisy have always been in adoration and that she has never loved Tom despite Daisy’s attempts to calm them down. As the altercation intensifies, Tom divulges what he discovered during an inquiry into Gatsby’s affairs: that the man had made his money by dealing in illicit booze. Daisy has abandoned her desire to divorce her husband, and despite Gatsby’s best efforts to the contrary, his case appears doomed.
Daisy, who just knew that Tom was engaging in an affair, does not know who Myrtle Wilson is until she is hit and killed on the road. Daisy is terrified as she continues to drive, but onlookers notice the car. George Wilson, Myrtle’s widower, arrives in East Egg the following afternoon. Tom informs him that Gatsby killed his wife. Wilson visits Gatsby’s home and shoots both the man and himself. Following the Buchanans’ departure from Long Island, Nick plans Gatsby’s burial. Fitzgerald regarded The Great Gatsby as his finest work when it was first released, yet the novel was neither a critical nor financial triumph.
Composed by Brazilian creator Paulo Coelho in 1988. The story is about a Shepherd kid from Spain whose name is Santiago. He continues to get the very dream about treasures that are covered in the Pyramids of Egypt. He sets out on an excursion to follow his fantasy in the wake of meeting an old lord who offers him enchantment stones and counsel. Santiago crosses the Mediterranean and Sahara to track down his fortunes in Egypt and furthermore achieve his own legend, which is his motivation throughout everyday life. The book subtleties his excursion and the different experiences that he has encountered while following his fantasy. All through the excursion, Santiago meets many new individuals and has a ton of challenges, which at last assist him with learning and developing the whole way.
The Alchemist is a phenomenal book and the narrating is lovely. The selection of words is faultless, brimming with insight and reasoning. I completely cherished it. The story is exceptionally charming and overflows with confidence which I believe is vital in our lives. The book shows that the excursion to your fate is all around as significant as the actual predetermination. I love the way the book underscores the significance of confidence, trust, and otherworldliness through the tale of a conventional kid. I think this book requests to everybody since we as a whole have dreams and once in a while we simply believe somebody should let us know that they might work out. Overall,”The Alchemist” is an exceptionally interesting fiction novel and it merits space on everybody’s shelf.
This magnificent debut novel, a literary sensation, and instant bestseller portrays one of Japan’s most famous geishas’ real confessions with perfect authenticity and exquisite lyricism.
Memoirs of a Geisha take us into a world where looks are everything, virginity is sold to the highest bidder, ladies are taught how to seduce the most powerful men, and love is ridiculed as a delusion. It is an original and outstanding piece of fiction that is thrilling, sexual, romantic, and absolutely unforgettable.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“The heart dies a slow death, shedding each hope like leaves until one day there are none. No hopes. Nothing remains.”
“This is why dreams can be such dangerous things: they smolder on like a fire does, and sometimes they consume us completely.”
“He was like a song I’d heard once in fragments but had been singing in my mind ever since.”
“I dont think any of us can speak frankly about pain until we are no longer enduring it.”
“Sometimes,” he sighed, “I think the things I remember are more real than the things I see. ”
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.”
The classic story of a boyhood in a peaceful Southern community and the moral crisis that shook it. When it was initially released in 1960, “To Kill A Mockingbird” has become an immediate bestseller and a popular book among critics. It later went on to receive the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was eventually turned into a great film that won an Oscar.
“To Kill A Mockingbird” is a compassionate, dramatic, and profoundly touching book that explores the fundamentals of human conduct, including purity and expertise, kindness and brutality, love and hatred, humor and pathos. This local tale by a young Alabama woman claims international appeal with over 18 million copies currently in print and adapted into forty languages. Harper Lee has always viewed her novel as a straightforward love story. It is considered a literary masterpiece in America today.
A descendant of one of the richest families in Sweden, Harriet Vanger vanished nearly 40 years ago. Her elderly uncle is still searching for the truth all these years later. Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently imprisoned for libel, is hired by him to conduct the investigation. The tattooed and pierced punk prodigy Lisbeth Salander supports him. Together, they are able to access a source of astounding corruption and unfathomable injustice.
Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, an international bestseller, mixes a murder investigation, a family history, a love story, and financial intrigue into one satisfyingly intricate and captivatingly atmospheric book.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have trust, the friendship will crumble.”
“What she had realized was that love was that moment when your heart was about to burst.”
“Everyone has secrets. It’s just a matter of finding out what they are.”
“Then I discovered that being related is no guarantee of love!”
“I’ve had many enemies over the years. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s never engage in a fight you’re sure to lose. On the other hand, never let anyone who has insulted you get away with it. Bide your time and strike back when you’re in a position of strength—even if you no longer need to strike back.”
So begins the story of Susie Salmon, who is watching life on earth go on without her while adjusting to her new place in heaven, a place that is very different from what she had anticipated. Her friends are spreading rumors about her whereabouts, her killer is attempting to hide his tracks, and her grieving family is breaking apart. The Lovely Bones manages, somehow, to create a story full of hope, humor, suspense, and even joy out of awful tragedy and loss.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.”
“Nothing is ever certain.”
“Murderers are not monsters, they’re men. And that’s the most frightening thing about them.”
“Each time I told my story, I lost a bit, the smallest drop of pain. It was that day that I knew I wanted to tell the story of my family. Because horror on Earth is real and it is every day. It is like a flower or like the sun; it cannot be contained.”
“Our only kiss was like an accident- a beautiful gasoline rainbow.”
William Golding, a British author who won the Nobel Prize, published Lord of the Flies in 1954. The story follows a bunch of British youths’ unsuccessful attempts to rule themselves while stuck on a deserted island.
The story revolves around a gang of schoolboys who get lost on a desolate island. However, don’t allow the young cast to fool you into believing that this is a kid’s book. I had no idea Lord of the Flies was as dark as it is, and I was shocked by some of the things that happened.
The young lads initially make an effort to emulate the island’s tidy adult society. To ensure that any passing ships can see the smoke coming from the island, they band together just to keep a fire going. However, without any adults there to watch over them, the lads start to act violently, cruelly, and brutally in an effort to live.
In the end, I gave this book a 3 out of 5-star rating since I was generally unimpressed and let down by the plot. For young adults who want to read a classic psychological survival thriller, this book’s brief length is ideal. Personally, I don’t think I’ll read this book again because I found most of the tale to be really boring. Although it was intriguing to observe how the mind can evolve to survive such a challenging circumstance and turn it into a game. I think you’ll also enjoy reading this book if you have any interests in sociology or psychology.
It is 1939—Hitler’s Germany. The nation is gasping for air. The afterlife will continue to be busier than it has ever been.
Liesel’s life is transformed at her brother’s grave when she picks up a single item partially buried in the snow. She accidentally left The Gravedigger’s Handbook behind, marking her first instance of book theft. As Liesel learns to read with the aid of her accordion-playing foster father, a love affair with words and books begins. She soon starts taking books from libraries owned by the mayor’s wife and Nazi book burnings, among other places.
However, these are perilous times. Liesel’s world is opened and closed when her foster family hides a Jew in their basement. The award-winning novelist Markus Zusak has provided us with one of the greatest fascinating stories of our times in exquisitely constructed prose that burns with fire.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“The only thing worse than a boy who hates you: a boy that loves you.”
“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”
“Like most misery, it started with apparent happiness.”
“It kills me sometimes, how people die.”
“I am haunted by humans.”
As he pinballs about New York City in search of relief from the thieves at Pencey Prep, he gets banged up by gangsters and cut down by ex-girlfriends while playing bulls with strangers in dump motels and roaming alone through Central Park. In all its neon melancholy and sleazy beauty, it’s a dual feeling of possibility and emptiness, the city is both beautiful and dreadful. Holden moves through it like a ghost, always thinking of his younger sister Phoebe, the only one who truly knows him, and his resolve to leave the fake people behind and lead a life that truly matters.
The Catcher in the Rye is a great work of young adult fiction that captures the profound human urge for connection and the perplexing sense of loss we experience as we grow up. It is an elegy to teen alienation.
The first edition of the timeless book of adolescent anguish and rebellion by J.D. Salinger (1919–2010) came out in 1951. The book was listed among the top 100 English-language novels published since 1923 in Time’s 2005 edition. It was chosen as one of the top 100 English-language novels of the 20th century by Modern Library and its readers. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was the book that every teenage male wanted to read. However, it has repeatedly been contested in court due to its liberal use of profanity and representation of sexuality.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
“I’m quite illiterate, but I read a lot. ”
“I’m sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.”
“I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It’s nice.”
“I’m sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a unique masterpiece that ranks among the 20th century’s most influential books; as its dystopian purgatory becomes more real, it gets more menacing. The dystopian social science fiction book Nineteen Eighty-Four by English author George Orwell serves as a warning. It was Orwell’s ninth and last book that he finished during his lifetime, and Secker & Warburg released it on June 8, 1949.
The 1949 publication of the book features political satirist George Orwell’s terrifying portrayal of a totalitarian, bureaucratic world and one poor stiff’s quest for identity. The novel’s genius lies in Orwell’s prescience of contemporary life—the pervasiveness of television, the linguistic distortion—and his capacity to provide such an in-depth depiction of hell. It has been compulsory reading for students from the moment it was published and is one of the scariest books ever.
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.”
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.”
Animal Farm, a satirical allegorical novella by George Orwell about a farm, was first released in England on August 17, 1945. It depicts the tale of a band of farm animals who rise up to confront their man farmer in an effort to establish an animal-friendly society.
Animals that have been abused and overworked on a farm take over. They went out to construct a paradise of advancement, fairness, and equality with fiery idealism and passionate slogans. The setting is therefore set for one of the most incisive satiric tales ever written—a sharp-edged fairy tale for adults that charts the progression from the revolt against oppression to totalitarianism that is just as dreadful. As Animal Farm was initially published, it was thought to be directed toward Stalinist Russia. Today, it is glaringly obvious that George Orwell’s masterpiece has a meaning and a message that are still fiercely relevant wherever and whenever liberty is attacked, regardless of the cause.
John Steinbeck wrote the novella Of Mice and Men. It was published in 1937 and tells the story of George and Lenny that make an unusual couple. George is “small and quick and dark of face,” but Lennie has the brains of a kid despite his gigantic bulk. Regardless, they are just like family to me.
Laborers in the parched vegetable fields of California labor more than they can, whenever they can. Lennie and George have a plan: they want to buy an acre of property and build their own shack.
When they find work on a farm in the Salinas Valley, their dream looks to be within reach. But even George cannot shield Lennie from the acts of others, nor can he predict the consequences of Lennie’s unshakeable devotion to the lessons George taught him.
The heartwarming love tale of a woman who has lost her sight and her husband, who fights for their existence as they travel through Syria as refugees to Europe. Beekeeper Nuri and artist Afra are married. In the lovely Syrian city of Aleppo, they have a straightforward existence full of family and friends—until the unthinkable occurs. They are compelled to flee after the war destroys all they care about. However, Afra’s experience was so horrific that it caused her to lose her vision. As a result, they must go across Turkey and Greece at great risk in order to reach an unknown future in Britain.
Nuri is kept going on the journey by the knowledge that Mustafa, his cousin and business partner, who has established an apiary and is instructing other refugees in Yorkshire in beekeeping, will be waiting for them. In addition to the sorrow of their own unfathomable loss, Nuri and Afra must face perils that would weaken even the most courageous individuals as they journey through a ruined world. They must travel in order to reconnect, above all. The Beekeeper of Aleppo is a moving, potent, sympathetic, and exquisitely written example of how the human spirit may prevail. It is the kind of book that serves as a reminder of the importance of narrative.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Where there are bees there are flowers, and wherever there are flowers there is new life and hope.”
“But in Syria there is a saying: inside the person you know, there is a person you do not know.”
“Sometimes we create such powerful illusions, so that we do not get lost in the darkness.”
“When you belong to someone and they are gone, who are you?”
“It’s amazing, the way we love people from the day we are born, the way we hold on, as if we are holding on to life itself.”
The Secret Life of Bees is a 1964 South Carolina-set novel about Lily Owens, whose life has been molded by the hazy memory of the afternoon her mother was murdered. Lily chooses to set both of the town’s most virulent racists free when Rosaleen, her strong-willed black “stand-in mother,” taunts them. They flee to Tiburon, South Carolina, a place where the truth about her mother’s background may be found. Lily is taken in by an oddball group of three black beekeeping sisters, who show her around their fascinating world of bees, honey, and the Black Madonna. Women will share and pass on this amazing book on divine female strength to their daughters in the coming years.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“Someone who thinks death is the scariest thing doesn’t know a thing about life.”
“If you need something from somebody always give that person a way to hand it to you.”
“Stories have to be told or they die, and when they die, we can’t remember who we are or why we’re here.”
“It is the peculiar nature of the world to go on spinning no matter what sort of heartbreak is happening.”
“Sunset is the saddest light there is.”
“The hardest thing on earth is choosing what matters.”
Years of “Marsh Girl” rumors pervaded the sleepy fishing community of Barkley Cove. Kya Clark is wild and untamable; she has no business in a civilized society. Thus, when the well-known Chase Andrews is discovered dead in late 1969, the neighborhood quickly suspects her.
Kya, however, is not who they claim. She is a born naturalist who attended school for one day before learning from the countryside and observing the deceitful signals of fireflies to understand the true ways of the world. She has the ability to remain alone forever, but eventually, she starts to long to be caressed and loved. Kya discovers a brand-new and unexpected world after being drawn to two young guys from the area who are all taken by her untamed beauty—until the unimaginable occurs.
In Where the Crawdads Sing, Owens contrasts a beautiful hymn to nature with a moving coming-of-age tale and eerie mystery. The thought-provoking, sage, and profoundly emotional debut book by Owens remind us that we are always being formed by the child within of us and are equally vulnerable to the violent and beautiful mysteries that nature holds. The plot concerns the impact of solitude on the actions of a young woman who, like all of us, is genetically predisposed to group membership. The rich ecosystem and natural history of its wild inhabitants are dusted with hints of mystery.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“I wasn’t aware that words could hold so much. I didn’t know a sentence could be so full.”
“Autumn leaves don’t fall, they fly. They take their time and wander on this their only chance to soar.”
“Unworthy boys make a lot of noise”
“Why should the injured, the still bleeding, bear the onus of forgiveness?”
“If anyone would understand loneliness, the moon would.”
Christopher John Francis Boone, is a 15-year-old child who lives with his dad, Ed, and views the world differently. He can name all of the nations and capitals in the world, and every prime number up to 7,057. He has a good grasp of animals but not of human emotions. He can’t bear being touched. He also despises the color yellow.
Christopher discovers Wellington, the neighbor’s dog, dead one day and conducts an investigation into the dog’s death. Despite his father’s warnings, Christopher investigates the crime scene and interviews the people who live on his street. During his inquiry, he discovers a more complex scheme than he had suspected.
This is the narrative of an odd adolescent who clings to order, deals with family strife, and tries to make sense of things around him. On a deeper level, it is a story about diversity, being an outsider, and seeing the world in new and surprising ways.
American author Alice Sebold published “The Lovely Bones” in 2002. It is the tale of a young woman who, following her rape and murder, observes from her own special Heaven as her friends and loved ones strive to move on with their lives as she is confronted with her own passing.
“My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973.”
The story of Susie Salmon begins, who is watching life on earth go on without her while trying to adjust to her new home in heaven, a place that is very different from what she had anticipated. Her friends are spreading rumors about her whereabouts, her killer is attempting to hide his tracks, and her grieving family is breaking apart. The Lovely Bones manages, somehow, to create a story full of hope, humor, suspense, and even joy out of awful tragedy and loss.
Jhumpa Lahiri’s Interpreter of Maladies established her as one of the most outstanding writers of her generation. Her stories are one of just a few debut works – and only a few collections – to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The New Yorker Debut of the Year award, the PEN/Hemingway Award, and the highest critical acclaim for its grace, insight, and compassion in depicting lives transplanted from India to America were among the many other awards and distinctions it garnered.
Lahiri expands on the issues that made her compilation an international phenomenon, including the immigrant experience, cultural clashes, assimilation struggles, and, most poignantly, the braided relationships between generations. Lahiri’s fine touch for the exact detail — the fleeting instant, the turn of phrase — opens up huge worlds of feeling on display once more.
Lahiri portrays Gogol with amazing empathy as he struggles along the first-generation path, which is littered with conflicted loyalties, humorous detours, and wrenching love affairs. She illustrates, with razor-sharp clarity, not just the defining impact of the names and expectations put upon us by our parents, but also the process by which we gradually, and sometimes painfully, begin to define ourselves.
Best Quotes from this Book:
“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.”
“You are still young, free.. Do yourself a favor. Before it’s too late, without thinking too much about it first, pack a pillow and a blanket and see as much of the world as you can. You will not regret it. One day it will be too late.”
“They were things for which it was impossible to prepare but which one spent a lifetime looking back at, trying to accept, interpret, comprehend. Things that should never have happened, that seemed out of place and wrong, these were what prevailed, what endured, in the end.”
“Pet names are a persistent remnant of childhood, a reminder that life is not always so serious, so formal, so complicated. They are a reminder, too, that one is not all things to all people.”
“She has the gift of accepting her life.”