1,436 books
—
1,308 voters
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Just last week, while I lamented the damage to our house from a passing storm, Zadie watched the sky, searching for rainbows.
“If others tell us something we make assumptions, and if they don't tell us something we make assumptions to fulfill our need to know and to replace the need to communicate. Even if we hear something and we don't understand we make assumptions about what it means and then believe the assumptions. We make all sorts of assumptions because we don't have the courage to ask questions.”
― The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
― The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom
“Once upon a time we were the standard colors of a rainbow, cheery and certain of ourselves. At some point, we all began to stumble into the in-betweens, the murky colors made dark and complicated by resentment and quiet anger. At some point, my mother slid so off track she sank into hues of gray, a world drawn only in shadows.”
― The Astonishing Color of After
― The Astonishing Color of After
“There are times when silence becomes an accomplice to injustice.”
― Infidel
― Infidel
“Where I grew up, death is a constant visitor. A virus, bacteria, a parasite; drought and famine; soldiers, and torturers; could bring it to anyone, any time. Death comes riding on raindrops that turned to floods. It catches the imagination of men in positions of authority who order their subordinates to hunt, torture, and kill people they imagine to be enemies. Death lures many others to take their own lives in order to escape a dismal reality. For many women, because of the perception of lost honor, death comes at the hands of a father, brother, or husband. Death comes to young women giving birth to new life, leaving the newborn orphaned in the hands of strangers. For those who live in anarchy and civil war, as in the country of my birth, Somalia, death is everywhere.”
― Infidel
― Infidel
“Coal, oil and gas are called fossil fuels, because they are mostly made of the fossil remains of beings from long ago. The chemical energy within them is a kind of stored sunlight originally accumulated by ancient plants. Our civilization runs by burning the remains of humble creatures who inhabited the Earth hundreds of millions of years before the first humans came on the scene. Like some ghastly cannibal cult, we subsist on the dead bodies of our ancestors and distant relatives.”
― Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
― Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium
Shyla’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Shyla’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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