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“As a nation, we began by declaring that 'all men are created equal.' We now practically read it 'all men are created equal, except negroes.' When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read 'all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics.' When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretense of loving liberty – to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocrisy.”
― Lincoln Letters
― Lincoln Letters
“The only reason you say that race was not an issue is because you wish it was not. We all wish it was not. But it’s a lie. I came from a country where race was not an issue; I did not think of myself as black and I only became black when I came to America. When you are black in America and you fall in love with a white person, race doesn’t matter when you’re alone together because it’s just you and your love. But the minute you step outside, race matters. But we don’t talk about it. We don’t even tell our white partners the small things that piss us off and the things we wish they understood better, because we’re worried they will say we’re overreacting, or we’re being too sensitive. And we don’t want them to say, Look how far we’ve come, just forty years ago it would have been illegal for us to even be a couple blah blah blah, because you know what we’re thinking when they say that? We’re thinking why the fuck should it ever have been illegal anyway? But we don’t say any of this stuff. We let it pile up inside our heads and when we come to nice liberal dinners like this, we say that race doesn’t matter because that’s what we’re supposed to say, to keep our nice liberal friends comfortable. It’s true. I speak from experience.”
― Americanah
― Americanah
“Something shines out, a truth so self-evident that the words dictate themselves. We’re cashing in a billion years of planetary savings bonds and blowing it on assorted bling.”
― The Overstory
― The Overstory
“True heroism is minutes, hours, weeks, year upon year of the quiet, precise, judicious exercise of probity and care—with no one there to see or cheer. This is the world.”
― The Pale King
― The Pale King
“There was a time with his wife on this river or a river just like it, it can't be this river, but in his memory it is this one. A time on a wash just like this where he lay shirtless with her shivering in the August night, jeans pasted dark and wet to his knocking legs, his torso white to glowing in the moonlight. Her hair tendriled and framed about her face like an outlandish black tattoo. Her wet dress like a sleeve of molting skin, which of a sort it had been that whole night in their dancing. Her heart in its red and white cage knocking just inches from his own, like two young prisoners tapping out simpleton Morse I am here I am here I am here. Here I am for your pleasure for you forever. On a river like this where he impregnated her. A river promise too, he said I love you I love you. Seventeen years old. A pleasure so total that even then he knew he had mortgaged years to her and he did not care.”
― Fourth of July Creek
― Fourth of July Creek
Ask Mary Roach - Wednesday, April 10th!
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— last activity Sep 19, 2022 12:25PM
Join us on Wednesday, April 10th for a special discussion with author Mary Roach! Mary will be discussing her work, including her most recent book Gul ...more
Ask Nick Harkaway - November 12
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— last activity Nov 12, 2012 01:31AM
Nick Harkaway is the bestselling author of The Gone-Away World and Angelmaker, among other titles. We are thrilled to announce that Nick will be answe ...more
Monigle Book Recommendation Club
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— last activity Jun 14, 2016 12:58PM
These are books we've discussed at the Monigle Book Recommendation Club so far. ...more
Overdue Podcast
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— last activity Nov 08, 2021 04:26PM
A group for reading along and discussing the books featured on the Overdue Podcast. Overdue is a podcast about the books you've been meaning to read. ...more
Joel’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Joel’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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