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![What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] by Zoë Heller](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386922976l/13258._SY75_.jpg "What Was She Thinking? [Notes on a Scandal] by Zoë Heller")
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Cynthia said:
"
I am sure that the writing is very good, but I just could not get drawn into this book and I did not finish it.
"
She feels, too, unbelievably tired, stymied by gravity; so much of motherhood has, for her, been this particular feeling, abject disbelief that she’s not only expected but obligated to do one more thing.
“I was young and had no idea the world killed people so casually.”
― In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife
― In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife
“Like every other mother in the history of time, I wondered if I would ever be able to love another child as much as I loved her.”
― Tom Lake
― Tom Lake
“You will know yourself best at that moment; you will be at your most real, your most honest, your most uncalculated. If you could travel back in time to make use of such knowledge during your life, you would become exactly the person you’d always hoped to be—but none of us do that. We don’t get that knowledge until it’s too late because then it can’t be tainted by vanity or pride or desire.”
― In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife
― In My Time of Dying: How I Came Face to Face with the Idea of an Afterlife
“I look at my girls, my brilliant young women. I want them to think I was better than I was, and I want to tell them the truth in case the truth will be useful. Those two desires to not neatly coexist, but this is where we are in the story.”
― Tom Lake
― Tom Lake
“There is no explaining this simple truth about life: you will forget much of it. The painful things you were certain you’d never be able to let go? Now you’re not entirely sure when they happened, while the thrilling parts, the heart-stopping joys, splintered and scattered and became something else. Memories are then replaced by different joys and larger sorrows, and unbelievably, those things get knocked aside as well, until one morning you’re picking cherries with your three grown daughters and your husband goes by on the Gator and you are positive that this is all you’ve ever wanted in the world.”
― Tom Lake
― Tom Lake
Cynthia’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Cynthia’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
22 books
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1,725 friends
272 books
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191 friends
850 books
|
115 friends
475 books
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36 friends
200 books
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116 friends
278 books
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92 friends
17 books
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131 friends
802 books
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25 friends
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