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“There wasn’t a Black author on the New York Times bestseller list until 1970. By running the bookstore the way he does, Ralph is keeping it very, very white.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“There is an enveloping warmth caused by knowing your best friend believes in you.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“But somehow, books weren’t enough anymore. Staring at ink on a page and trying to get swept away was harder lately.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“There was something magical about possibility. It makes everything fluttery and light and so wonderfully possible.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“She had the opportunities. She was told to take those opportunities and find her dream job, something that would fulfill her. It was internalized now, this idea of fulfillment. It made her feel weak to put this much stock in something her parents couldn’t even consider. They had managed just”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“Rochelle was a firm believer that books were the answer to everything—a belief that has never rubbed off on me, no matter how many novels she’s gifted me over the years.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“Why had she relied on her unfulfilling job to give her the experience she needed for a fulfilling one?”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“But my life isn't planned, and it's not perfect. It's okay that yours isn't, either. You don't need to compare yourself to anyone”
― The Secret Book Club
― The Secret Book Club
“In this corner of ours, we celebrate our favorites, but we have fun with them, too. Because if you can't have fun with what you love, then what's the point?”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“coming back to her. Whenever she faced something even slightly difficult or felt that pinch of despair, it crept out of the dark corners of her mind to remind her it was still there, willing to talk whenever she was. Nora began to think of life as a battle between herself and this creature. It lurked in the shadows of her mind, always watching, always waiting for a moment when she was vulnerable”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“But a bookstore is a bookstore is a bookstore. And there was always magic in that.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“I wish I were capable of being excited about a job, but that's never been the case for me. I have to scrounge for something to like, something that has nothing to do with the job itself. It always makes me feel broken, because I don't think it's like that for everyone.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“But the point of my tragic backstory is that seven-year-old Andrew learned”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“guess I hate that I’ve had to stumble upon it myself. Like, if the books I liked had been assigned in school, I might have actually gotten into reading. Being forced to read Hamlet and The Great Gatsby and having to analyze everything to death made me hate the concept of literature.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“Since Nora’s first introduction to the allure of suicide, it kept coming back to her. Whenever she faced something even slightly difficult or felt that pinch of despair, it crept out of the dark corners of her mind to remind her it was still there, willing to talk whenever she was. Nora began to think of life as a battle between herself and this creature. It lurked in the shadows of her mind, always watching, always waiting for a moment when she was vulnerable enough to listen to what it had to say.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“And so she couldn't even feel proud about taking one step forward in search of happiness. Not when she had reason to fear where that step would lead her next.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“She stopped at a post from Sierra. A small plate held a neat, square dessert: perfect layers of wafer cookies, banana slices, and pudding, topped with browned meringue and cookie crumbs. It looked like a fancy version of the banana pudding her dad used to get from a bakery in their neighborhood. He'd told her his mom rarely made dessert, but that this pudding was one of the few she did make. It was always a momentous occasion, he'd said, to come home and see a box of Nilla wafers and a bunch of ripe bananas sitting on the counter.
Mae eagerly scrolled down to read the caption.
Banana pudding is the first dessert I ever learned to make. My grandma taught me how when I was six. Watching pudding thicken over the stove, layering Nilla wafers and banana slices, whipping egg whites into stiff peaks, I fell in love with baking.”
― The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster
Mae eagerly scrolled down to read the caption.
Banana pudding is the first dessert I ever learned to make. My grandma taught me how when I was six. Watching pudding thicken over the stove, layering Nilla wafers and banana slices, whipping egg whites into stiff peaks, I fell in love with baking.”
― The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster
“Adventure, that’s what it was. Not a plan. Plans were malleable, less certain. They were made with the understanding that nothing was definite.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“like herself made Nora feel like she could be part of something magnificent.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“books were more important than anything.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“Since Nora’s first introduction to the allure of suicide, it kept”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“Like, if the books I liked had been assigned in school, I might have actually gotten into reading. Being forced to read Hamlet and The Great Gatsby and having to analyze everything to death made me hate the concept of literature. Finding meaning in an eyeball and then patting yourself on the back just didn’t make sense to me.”
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
― The Banned Bookshop of Maggie Banks
“vulnerable enough to listen to what it had to say.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“The scroll slowed on a post from Madison. Predictably, she was sharing more pregnancy content. Today's post was a column graph about maternal mortality rates, accompanied by the caption:
This makes me so sad. Growing a human is hard enough. We shouldn't have to fear for our lives on top of that.
Mae frowned. The graph was cut off. It showed rates for All, White, and Hispanic, but there was a sliver of what looked like another bar on the far right. Under it, the only part of the word that didn't get cut off was Bl.
Ordinarily, Mae wouldn't have wasted any time on this. It was just Madison being Madison, thinking of herself and no one else. But after learning about her grandma Doris's racist past yesterday, it was hard to look past anything about the Parkers anymore.
A reverse-image search turned up the original article, titled Black women three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. The full graph showed that the column for Black women towered over the other columns Madison had posted.
Anger and annoyance rising within her, Mae returned to Madison's post and started typing.
You'll be fine. If you'd read the article and shared the full graph, you'd know the point of the piece is that Black women are way more at risk. Or do you not care about that?”
― The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster
This makes me so sad. Growing a human is hard enough. We shouldn't have to fear for our lives on top of that.
Mae frowned. The graph was cut off. It showed rates for All, White, and Hispanic, but there was a sliver of what looked like another bar on the far right. Under it, the only part of the word that didn't get cut off was Bl.
Ordinarily, Mae wouldn't have wasted any time on this. It was just Madison being Madison, thinking of herself and no one else. But after learning about her grandma Doris's racist past yesterday, it was hard to look past anything about the Parkers anymore.
A reverse-image search turned up the original article, titled Black women three times more likely to die in childbirth than white women. The full graph showed that the column for Black women towered over the other columns Madison had posted.
Anger and annoyance rising within her, Mae returned to Madison's post and started typing.
You'll be fine. If you'd read the article and shared the full graph, you'd know the point of the piece is that Black women are way more at risk. Or do you not care about that?”
― The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster
“It felt like she was letting them in on a secret: books were more important than anything.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“Part of her wanted to bring him down further, find the depths of his misery and swim in it, revel in their mutual unhappiness.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“these books written by and for people like them, these books that weren’t around when they were young.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“Dad didn't hate weddings," Mae said.
Her mom's brow creased. "Yes, he did," she said with a chuckle. "He was always going on about how he could go the rest of his life without hearing the wedding march ever again."
"No, he didn't," Mae said more firmly. She set her fork down. "He hated going to your family's weddings. Because it meant being around a bunch of white people who were just subtle enough to keep their racism discreet."
That did it. Susan froze. John took a long drink from his wineglass. Connor's gaze steadied on Mae, a haze of uncertainty in his eyes. Madison jerked her head back. Sierra watched her, looking vaguely curious. Her mom stared, mouth open.
"It was inevitable," Mae continued. "Whenever we had to be around the Parkers. Someone would always say something borderline. Dad and I would exchange a look, like, Here we go. Every wedding, every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, every Easter, we would sit across from each other at a table full of white people and share our silent little looks."
Her face was burning. Every pair of eyes at the table was laser-focused on her. Even Jayla, sitting one table over with the wedding party, was staring. Mae's mom opened her mouth, which just reminded Mae she had more to say.
"I wish you'd told me about grandma being racist to Althea."
It was mortifying, spilling her guts in front of her in-laws, but it was freeing, too. Like she was invincible. Like even though she was about to wreck her entire life, at least no one could stop her. You couldn't stop a hurricane.
"You said you didn't want me to feel different around her, but, Mom, I already did. And I wish you'd told me I had a sister. Do you know how much less alone I would have felt, knowing Sierra was my sister? Being around family that looked like me? Instead of a grandpa who said the n-word in front of me when I was eight? Or my husband's mom asking me how dark my skin gets in the sun?" Susan paled. "Or a cousin who--- you know what, Madison," Mae said, catching her eye across the table, "it is racist to say you refuse to shop at Black-owned businesses, and I shouldn't have defended you when Sierra called you on it." Madison's cheeks reddened, and she looked like she was going to object, but Mae wasn't done. "Is it any wonder that I would drive to Hobson and sacrifice so much to stay there, burning through all my PTO, giving up my entire honeymoon, because I finally had a family that didn't make me feel out of place?”
― The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster
Her mom's brow creased. "Yes, he did," she said with a chuckle. "He was always going on about how he could go the rest of his life without hearing the wedding march ever again."
"No, he didn't," Mae said more firmly. She set her fork down. "He hated going to your family's weddings. Because it meant being around a bunch of white people who were just subtle enough to keep their racism discreet."
That did it. Susan froze. John took a long drink from his wineglass. Connor's gaze steadied on Mae, a haze of uncertainty in his eyes. Madison jerked her head back. Sierra watched her, looking vaguely curious. Her mom stared, mouth open.
"It was inevitable," Mae continued. "Whenever we had to be around the Parkers. Someone would always say something borderline. Dad and I would exchange a look, like, Here we go. Every wedding, every Christmas, every Thanksgiving, every Easter, we would sit across from each other at a table full of white people and share our silent little looks."
Her face was burning. Every pair of eyes at the table was laser-focused on her. Even Jayla, sitting one table over with the wedding party, was staring. Mae's mom opened her mouth, which just reminded Mae she had more to say.
"I wish you'd told me about grandma being racist to Althea."
It was mortifying, spilling her guts in front of her in-laws, but it was freeing, too. Like she was invincible. Like even though she was about to wreck her entire life, at least no one could stop her. You couldn't stop a hurricane.
"You said you didn't want me to feel different around her, but, Mom, I already did. And I wish you'd told me I had a sister. Do you know how much less alone I would have felt, knowing Sierra was my sister? Being around family that looked like me? Instead of a grandpa who said the n-word in front of me when I was eight? Or my husband's mom asking me how dark my skin gets in the sun?" Susan paled. "Or a cousin who--- you know what, Madison," Mae said, catching her eye across the table, "it is racist to say you refuse to shop at Black-owned businesses, and I shouldn't have defended you when Sierra called you on it." Madison's cheeks reddened, and she looked like she was going to object, but Mae wasn't done. "Is it any wonder that I would drive to Hobson and sacrifice so much to stay there, burning through all my PTO, giving up my entire honeymoon, because I finally had a family that didn't make me feel out of place?”
― The Townsend Family Recipe for Disaster
“But a bookstore is a bookstore is a bookstore”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
“And there was always magic in that.”
― Must Love Books
― Must Love Books
