“We are all, Esme decides, just vessels through which identities pass: we are lent features, gestures, habits, then we hand them on. Nothing is our own. We begin in the world as anagrams of our antecedents.”
― The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
― The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox
“Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.”
― A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books
― A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books
“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
― Music at Night and Other Essays
― Music at Night and Other Essays
“Emotions, in my experience, aren't covered by single words. I don't believe in "sadness," "joy," or "regret." Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I'd like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions, Germanic train-car constructions like, say, "the happiness that attends disaster." Or: "the disappointment of sleeping with one's fantasy." I'd like to show how "intimations of mortality brought on by aging family members" connects with "the hatred of mirrors that begins in middle age." I'd like to have a word for "the sadness inspired by failing restaurants" as well as for "the excitement of getting a room with a minibar." I've never had the right words to describe my life, and now that I've entered my story, I need them more than ever. ”
― Middlesex
― Middlesex
“We are, all of us, wandering about in a state of oblivion, borrowing our time, seizing our days, escaping our fates, slipping through loopholes, unaware of when the axe may fall.”
― I Am, I Am, I Am
― I Am, I Am, I Am
Lucía’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Lucía’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Lucía
Lists liked by Lucía






















