“Australia eventually offered us sanctuary. Mum and Dad were overjoyed. Dad walked around the island asking people if they had any spare warm clothes. He collected a big bundle of jumpers and blankets because he’d heard about Australia—‘Beautiful country, friendly people, but really cold. It’s right near Switzerland.’ That’s my dad, great at rescues, crap at geography. We touched down in Sydney, Australia in thirty-degree Celsius heat and my family were thinking, Geez, Austria’s really hot, man!”
― The Happiest Refugee
― The Happiest Refugee
“Her Majesty Victoria, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland Queen, Defender of the Faith, had a lamp shade on her head. Again.”
― The Traitor in the Tunnel
― The Traitor in the Tunnel
“Usually we walk around constantly believing ourselves. "I'm okay" we say. "I'm alright". But sometimes the truth arrives on you and you can't get it off. That's when you realize that sometimes it isn't even an answer--it's a question. Even now, I wonder how much of my life is convinced.”
― The Book Thief
― The Book Thief
“May I ask you what these questions tend?'
'Merely to the illustration of your character,' said she, endeavouring to shake off her gravity. 'I am trying to make it out.'
'And what is your success?'
She shook her head. 'I do not get on at all. I hear such different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly.”
― Pride and Prejudice
'Merely to the illustration of your character,' said she, endeavouring to shake off her gravity. 'I am trying to make it out.'
'And what is your success?'
She shook her head. 'I do not get on at all. I hear such different accounts of you as puzzle me exceedingly.”
― Pride and Prejudice
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”
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Laura’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Laura’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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