Michelle

“But what I thought then, and what I still think now, is this: the way we read now is, by and large, morally bankrupt and indefensible, and must change immediately, because we are indeed failing not just our writers and ourselves, but more pressingly our future—which will never look any different from our current daily feed of apocalypse if we don’t figure out a different way to read the world we live”
― Elaine Castillo, How to Read Now

“state? Such systems may seem to appear out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning. But really, this is because many choose not to see the warning signs, even when they become all too obvious.”
― Azar Nafisi, Read Dangerously: The Subversive Power of Literature in Troubled Times

“He didn't look at her, instead keeping his gaze on the piles of books still waiting to be returned to their shelves.

"Which one do you want to borrow?" she asked him after another moment's silence.

He carefully picked up a copy of Marie NDiaye's Trois femmes puissantes. Long fingers traced the black swirls of letters against the yellowed paper of an open page. "All of them.”
― Zoe B. Wallbrook, History Lessons

“The love of a good woman amounts to nil when a man’s problem is that he doesn’t feel validated by the world. When there’s an insecurity in him that no validation can erase.”
― Sherry Thomas, The Librarians