“What if the water that came out of the shower was treated with a chemical that responded to a combination of things, like your heartbeat, and your body temperature, and your brain waves, so that your skin changed color according to your mood? If you were extremely excited your skin would turn green, and if you were angry you'd turn red, obviously, and if you felt like shiitake you'd turn brown, and if you were blue you'd turn blue. Everyone could know what everyone else felt, and we could be more careful with each other, because you'd never want to tell a person whose skin was purple that you're angry at her for being late, just like you would want to pat a pink person on the back and tell him, "Congratulations!" Another reason it would be a good invention is that there are so many times when you know you're feeling a lot of something, but you don't know what the something is. Am I frustrated? Am I actually just panicky? And that confusion changes your mood, it becomes your mood, and you become a confused, gray person. But with the special water, you could look at your orange hands and think, I'm happy! That whole time I was actually happy! What a relief!”
― Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
― Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
“When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder.
Everything moved me. A dog following a stranger. That made me feel so much. A calendar that showed the wrong month. I could have cried over it. I did. Where the smoke from a chimney ended. How an overturned bottle rested at the edge of a table.
I spent my life learning to feel less.
Every day I felt less.
Is that growing old? Or is it something worse?
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”
― Everything Is Illuminated
Everything moved me. A dog following a stranger. That made me feel so much. A calendar that showed the wrong month. I could have cried over it. I did. Where the smoke from a chimney ended. How an overturned bottle rested at the edge of a table.
I spent my life learning to feel less.
Every day I felt less.
Is that growing old? Or is it something worse?
You cannot protect yourself from sadness without protecting yourself from happiness.”
― Everything Is Illuminated
“سأحلمُ ، لا لأصلح أيَّ معنىً خارجي
بل كي أرمّم داخلي المهجور
من أثر الجفاف العاطفيِّ . .
حفظت قلبي كله عن ظهر قلبٍ
و لم يعد متطفلاً و مدللاً
تكفيه حبة " اسبرين " لكي يلين و يستكين . .”
―
بل كي أرمّم داخلي المهجور
من أثر الجفاف العاطفيِّ . .
حفظت قلبي كله عن ظهر قلبٍ
و لم يعد متطفلاً و مدللاً
تكفيه حبة " اسبرين " لكي يلين و يستكين . .”
―
“Those who find ugly meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a fault. Those who find beautiful meanings in beautiful things are the cultivated. For these there is hope. They are the elect to whom beautiful things mean only Beauty. There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”
― The Picture of Dorian Gray
― The Picture of Dorian Gray
Joelle’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Joelle’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Art, Biography, Business, Chick-lit, Children's, Christian, Classics, Comics, Contemporary, Cookbooks, Crime, Ebooks, Fantasy, Fiction, Gay and Lesbian, Graphic novels, Historical fiction, History, Horror, Humor and Comedy, Manga, Memoir, Music, Mystery, Paranormal, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Religion, Romance, Science, Science fiction, Self help, Suspense, Spirituality, Sports, Thriller, Travel, and Young-adult
Polls voted on by Joelle
Lists liked by Joelle









