“I would say that there exist a thousand unbreakable links between each of us and everything else, and that our dignity and our chances are one. The farthest star and the mud at our feet are a family; and there is no decency or sense in honoring one thing, or a few things, and then closing the list. The pine tree, the leopard, the Platte River, and ourselves - we are at risk together, or we are on our way to a sustainable world together. We are each other's destiny.”
― Upstream: Selected Essays
― Upstream: Selected Essays
“I wanted what we all want: everything. We want a mate who feels like family and a lover who is exotic, surprising. We want to be youthful adventurers and middle-aged mothers. We want intimacy and autonomy, safety and stimulation, reassurance and novelty, coziness and thrills. But we can’t have it all.”
― The Rules Do Not Apply
― The Rules Do Not Apply
“Reader, I cannot promise you will be less afraid when you finish this book, but I hope you will feel more able to name what lives inside you.”
― Life of the Party
― Life of the Party
“When I was young. When I had no idea that all over the city, all over the world, there were people walking around sealed in their own universes of loss, independent solar systems of suffering closed off from the regular world, where things make sense and language is all you need to tell the truth. —”
― The Rules Do Not Apply
― The Rules Do Not Apply
Alex’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Alex’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Alex
Lists liked by Alex


















