Mara Abrahamson

Add friend

Mara’s currently-reading shelf

More…

Mara’s Bookshelves

to-read‎ (271)
currently-reading‎ (3)

read‎ (314)
did-not-finish‎ (7)

necessary‎ (2)

Stats | More…

Mara is Currently Reading

Mara Abrahamson is currently reading

Bird by Bird

by Anne Lamott (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Oct 08, 2026 08:19PM

Mara Abrahamson is currently reading

The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1)

by Rick Riordan (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Oct 08, 2026 10:38AM

Mara Abrahamson is currently reading

Conversations on Love

by Natasha Lunn

bookshelves: currently-reading

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Mara Abrahamson said: " Quotes:
The longer, more thrilling chapters were written in my mind, not in reality. My imaginary narrative formed a nostalgic will-they-won't-they romance that was constantly on the precipice of happening and yet never quite seemed to.

Did I want to k Quotes:
The longer, more thrilling chapters were written in my mind, not in reality. My imaginary narrative formed a nostalgic will-they-won't-they romance that was constantly on the precipice of happening and yet never quite seemed to.

Did I want to keep avoiding intimacy and lean back into the safety of a nostalgic crush that didn't require me to do anything differently? No. I wanted to form real relationships that existed in the real world. To do so would require courage and self-understanding, maybe a little loneliness, and a lot of responsibility....It meant, as bell hooks wrote in All About Love, wanting to know 'the meaning of love beyond the realm of fantasy - beyond what we imagine can happen'.

"If a rather charming candidate comes into view, we can slightly lose our faculties. We imagine who they are, how our lives are going to be together for ever, and that they are the fount of total happiness. At times like these, it's useful to recognize that we're in a crush. There should be another side of our mind that is aware this is going on. That side should be sympathetic to the enthusiasm, but still maintain a grip on reality, so that you're still aware that the other person is a stranger. That one good evening or one good weekend is not everything. That these feelings are not entirely reliable predictors of the future. I think those two sides are compatible: one can enjoy the crush just as one can go to a horror film, when one side of your mind is terrified (because you're thinking, oh my God, the monster is going to beat us) but the other side is going, no, it's a film, it's not real. We can play a similar sort of observer and feeler division in the early stages of love."
- Alain de Botton

"This black and white model of 'it's got to be like this and then it will be perfect' just doesn't work. It doesn't matter who you meet or when you meet them; there's pain and joy on each side of the ledger. So don't stick rigidly to one story about what your life means, because it's likely to be wrong. In fact, there are many ways of living this life."
- Alain de Botton

What makes a satisfactory coupling is not thinking, he or she is right for me, from the start. Nobody is right for anyone. Actually, what makes somebody right is commitment. Then when you're committed to each other and you have true dialogue, that means you allow the other to impact upon you and they allow you to impact on them....It's like two stones rubbing together until suddenly they fit. Rather than having a relationship with your fantasy of that person you begin to have a real relationship with them; you've impacted each other enough to actually know each other. And to know someone is to love them. So you make someone the right person and they make you the right person. There isn't someone the right shape out there for every person - that has to happen in relationships. That's why relationships get better, because we allow mutual impact.
- Philippa Perry

There will always be temptations to hide from ourselves. The important thing is to notice them, to resist them, and to keep finding ways to be honest in our relationships.

And when life forces you to live in the intensity of the unknown, between two possible futures, it's also a chance to develop the inner resources and love that will serve you well in the years ahead.
Part of me wants to share this epiphany with my younger self, sitting in that cafe, feeling silly for picturing a meet cute with another woman's boyfriend. To tell her, too, that one day she will sit at the exact same table, eating pancakes with a primary schoolteacher she's been seeing recently who she will grow to love. And that, even then, even thought that will be wonderful, it will only be one of many memorable mornings she will spend in that cafe. There will be the coffee with a new friend who will become a great love; the one time she will come there to grieve; the breakfast she will share with her brother in the sunshine when they first decide to move into a flat together round the corner. And then all the Sunday mornings she will come there on her own, to write this book, to understand - finally - the difference between loneliness and solitude, and the romance of trying to find meaning in the latter. ...more "

Sep 22, 2026 05:18AM · see review