“the search for beauty isn’t always associated with anything practical and yet we still search for it as if it were the most important thing in the world.”
― The Witch of Portobello
― The Witch of Portobello
“I lost myself. I said it wouldn’t happen, but it did. And the thing is, I am not just talking about the obvious – about forgetting what real clothes look like and how to have a conversation with other adults that doesn’t mention children. I am talking about forgetting who I was. What my real name is – not “mom” – my actual name and what I need. And as I was in the process of losing myself I kept thinking that this was what I was supposed to be doing. “The kids are still young. There will be time to start living again when they get older,” people would say. Well, you know what? They were wrong. As moms, it’s not part of our job to fade away into the background and disappear. It’s not part of the job to put our lives on hold till the kids reach 18 and leave the house. Where does it say that? I found there was a secret code no one talked about – it was like a competition of who has it the worst. Who is working the hardest? Who is wearing the most hats and juggling the most plates up in the air? It is such an exhausting reality, and one that weighs down so many women, yet it’s so hard to break out of that cycle.”
― F*cked at 40: Life Beyond Suburbia, Monogamy and Stretch Marks
― F*cked at 40: Life Beyond Suburbia, Monogamy and Stretch Marks
“Just like Trump, America loves to lie about itself, and Americans love to eat those lies up—anything that obliterates our sins, that tells us everything will be okay, that makes us the infallible, gallant protagonist in the story of Earth. We must root out the assumptions we swallow as fact and the facts we deny. We must not just examine but actively counter the disastrous, narcissistic death grip of mediocre white men on our past century’s art, media, and politics. We must start telling true stories about who we are, who is free and who is not, what we are doing to the planet.”
― The Witches are Coming
― The Witches are Coming
“From the ground up, I was going to detox my identity of any and everything that someone else put there without my blessing.”
― Fresh Off the Boat
― Fresh Off the Boat
“I don’t subscribe to the idea that there’s one objective way to be excellent, I don’t like when an international class of moneyed people dictates the way we present local cultures,”
― Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China
― Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China
Chanelle’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Chanelle’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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