“But sometimes, unexpectedly, grief pounded over me in waves that left me gasping; and when the waves washed back, I found myself looking out over a brackish wreck which was illumined in a light so lucid, so heartsick and empty, that I could hardly remember that the world had ever been anything but dead.”
― The Goldfinch
― The Goldfinch
“Books were safer than other people anyway.”
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
“And did I pass?" The face of the old woman on my right was unreadable in the gathering dusk. On my left the younger woman said, "You don't pass or fail at being a person, dear.”
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
“That life - whatever else it is - is short. That fate is cruel but maybe not random. That Nature (meaning Death) always wins but that doesn’t mean we have to bow and grovel to it. That maybe even if we’re not always so glad to be here, it’s our task to immerse ourselves anyway: wade straight through it, right through the cesspool, while keeping eyes and hearts open. And in the midst of our dying, as we rise from the organic and sink back ignominiously into the organic, it is a glory and a privilege to love what Death doesn’t touch.”
― The Goldfinch
― The Goldfinch
“Nothing's ever the same," she said. "Be it a second later or a hundred years. It's always churning and roiling. And people change as much as oceans.”
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
― The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Chandler’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Chandler’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Chandler
Lists liked by Chandler






















