“No baby knows when the nipple is pulled from his mouth for the last time. No child knows when he last calls his mother “Mama.” No small boy knows when the book has closed on the last bedtime story that will ever be read to him. No boy knows when the water drains from the last bath he will ever take with his brother. No young man knows, as he first feels his greatest pleasure, that he will never again not be sexual. No brinking woman knows, as she sleeps, that it will be four decades before she will again awake infertile. No mother knows she is hearing the word Mama for the last time. No father knows when the book has closed on the last bedtime story he will ever read: From that day on, and for many years to come, peace reigned on the island of Ithaca, and the gods looked favorably upon Odysseus, his wife, and his son.”
― Here I Am
― Here I Am
“I dispute the point that nuclear energy is 'clean' and 'cost-effective'. As I recall, when we first harnessed nuclear power it was to drop an atom bomb on a civilian population, not to save the environment. However, you must admit, the victors are never tried for war crimes.”
― Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
― Brushstrokes of a Gadfly
“A woman who was a schoolgirl at Hiroshima asked, “Those scientists who invented the atomic bomb, what did they think would happen if they dropped it?”
― Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
― Humanity: A Moral History of the Twentieth Century
“What a terrible feeling to love soemone and not be able to help them.”
― All the Bright Places
― All the Bright Places
“What the diary does not reveal, for it stops too soon, is the appalling fact that from late 1945 until 1952 Japanese medical researchers were prohibited by U.S. occupation authorities from publishing scientific articles on the effects of the atomic bombs.”
― Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945
― Hiroshima Diary: The Journal of a Japanese Physician, August 6-September 30, 1945
Alyssa’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Alyssa’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Alyssa
Lists liked by Alyssa

















