1,907 books
—
264 voters
to-read
(219)
currently-reading (2)
read (1041)
review-of-the-year (9)
fiction (897)
non-fiction (297)
wishlist (156)
kindle (96)
en-français (94)
mooched (71)
book-group (62)
travel (61)
currently-reading (2)
read (1041)
review-of-the-year (9)
fiction (897)
non-fiction (297)
wishlist (156)
kindle (96)
en-français (94)
mooched (71)
book-group (62)
travel (61)
found
(38)
unfinished (38)
french-book-group (28)
postal-book-group (27)
bookcrossing (23)
en-espanol (23)
cookbooks (11)
borrowed (9)
backlisted (8)
mrbsemporium (6)
best-books-2025 (5)
blip-book (5)
unfinished (38)
french-book-group (28)
postal-book-group (27)
bookcrossing (23)
en-espanol (23)
cookbooks (11)
borrowed (9)
backlisted (8)
mrbsemporium (6)
best-books-2025 (5)
blip-book (5)
“Novel-writing is a highly skilled and laborious trade. One does not just sit behind a screen jotting down other people’s conversation. One has for one’s raw material every single thing one has ever seen or heard or felt, and one has to go over that vast, smoldering rubbish-heap of experience, half stifled by fumes and dust, scraping and delving until one finds a few discarded valuables. Then one has to assemble these tarnished and dented fragments, polish them, set them in order, and try to make a coherent and significant arrangement of them.”
―
―
“Her mind was like a bookcase whose shelves had been pulled away, leaving the books pell-mell. All the stories of her life were in there, only confounded one into the other.”
― This Is Happiness
― This Is Happiness
“Nobody in Faha could remember when it started. Rain there on the western seaboard was a condition of living. It came straight-down and sideways, frontwards, backwards and any other wards God could think of. It came in sweeps, in waves, sometimes in veils. It came dressed as drizzle, as mizzle, as mist, as showers, frequent and widespread, as a wet fog, as a damp day, a drop, a dripping, and an out-and-out downpour. It came the fine day, the bright day, and the day promised dry. It came at any time of the day and night, and in all seasons, regardless of calendar and forecast, until in Faha your clothes were rain and your skin was rain and your house was rain with a fireplace. It came off the grey vastness of an Atlantic that threw itself against the land like a lover once spurned and resolved not to be so again. It came accompanied by seagulls and smells of salt and seaweed. It came with cold air and curtained light. It came like a judgment, or, in benign version, like a blessing God had forgotten he had left on. It came for a handkerchief of blue sky, came on westerlies, sometimes—why not?—on easterlies, came in clouds that broke their backs on the mountains in Kerry and fell into Clare, making mud the ground and blind the air. It came disguised as hail, as sleet, but never as snow. It came softly sometimes, tenderly sometimes, its spears turned to kisses, in rain that pretended it was not rain, that had come down to be closer to the fields whose green it loved and fostered, until it drowned them.”
― This is Happiness
― This is Happiness
“And here am I, she thought, fixed in the religious life like a candle on a spike. I consume, I burn away, always lighting the same corner, always beleaguered by the same shadows; and in the end I shall burn out and another candle will be fixed in my stead.”
― The Corner That Held Them
― The Corner That Held Them
“... the house seemed filled with dusty sunlight, which rose politely from wherever it had been resting on floors and windowsills, and then hung motionless and golden in the air until they moved to another room.”
― The Long View
― The Long View
Goodreads Librarians Group
— 311743 members
— last activity 1 minute ago
Goodreads Librarians are volunteers who help ensure the accuracy of information about books and authors in the Goodreads' catalog. The Goodreads Libra ...more
Veronica’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Veronica’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Veronica
Lists liked by Veronica










































