“Mitchell Sanders was right. For the common soldier, at least, war has the feel-the spiritual texture-of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent. There is no clarity. Everything swirls. The old rules are no longer binding, the old truths no longer true. Right spills over into wrong. Order blends into chaos, love into hate, ugliness into beauty, law into anarchy, civility into savagery. The vapors suck you in. You can't tell where you are, or why you're there, and the only certainty is overwhelming ambiguity.”
― The Things They Carried
― The Things They Carried
“I survived, but it's not a happy ending.”
― The Things They Carried
― The Things They Carried
“But this too is true: stories can save us.”
― The Things They Carried
― The Things They Carried
“But it is the same with man as with the tree. The more he seeks to rise into the height and light, the more vigorously do his roots struggle earthword, downword, into the dark, the deep - into evil.”
― Thus Spoke Zarathustra
― Thus Spoke Zarathustra
“Certain blood was being shed for uncertain reasons.”
― The Things They Carried
― The Things They Carried
Mary’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Mary’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Mary
Lists liked by Mary














