the only thing I care about鈥攖he one thing that matters most in the world to me鈥攊s that when every single one of you gets to the end of this crazy ride, you look back and can truly say you were happy.鈥


“am a person who trusts data and loves information and feels soothed by sorting things. I鈥檓 a person who sees cause for delight everywhere but can鈥檛 stop noticing danger everywhere, too, and who often struggles to reconcile the two. I鈥檓 a person who takes every personality test despite knowing her own personality very well, and then retakes them until she gets the label she wants.”
― Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives
― Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives

“We鈥檙e part of the sky, and the rocks in your mother鈥檚 garden, and that old man who sleeps by the train station. We鈥檙e all interconnected, and when you see that, you see how beautiful life is. Your mother and sisters don鈥檛 have that awareness. Not yet, anyway. They believe they鈥檙e contained in their bodies, in the biographical facts of their lives.”
― Hello Beautiful
― Hello Beautiful

“I鈥檇 never seen that kind of love in person. My parents loved each other, but badly, and they were miserable. So were all the other couples in my neighborhood. Have you ever actually seen that kind of love?鈥 William shook his head. He had married out of fear, because he didn鈥檛 think he was capable of steering himself into adulthood. He鈥檇 needed Julia to be his parent more than his”
― Hello Beautiful
― Hello Beautiful

“Sylvie had read somewhere that the more times a story was told, the less accurate it became. Humans were prone to exaggeration; they leaned away from the parts of the narrative they found boring and leaned into the exciting spots. Details and timelines changed over years of repetition. The story became more myth and less true. Sylvie thought about how she and William rarely told their story and felt pleased; by not being shared, their love story remained intact.”
― Hello Beautiful
― Hello Beautiful

“I looked at his hand, my insides wrenched and wrestling with wanting and not wanting to hold it.
I'd held the dying hands of perfect strangers. But only strangers are perfect. It's the known ones that muddle.”
― All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir
I'd held the dying hands of perfect strangers. But only strangers are perfect. It's the known ones that muddle.”
― All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir
Amanda鈥檚 2024 Year in Books
Take a look at Amanda鈥檚 Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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