“On those we love:
"Every year that passed, it seemed a little more of her had slipped away; and I began to fear that one day I would come to forget her altogether. But the truth is: No matter how much time passes, those we have loved never slip away from us entirely.”
― A Gentleman in Moscow
"Every year that passed, it seemed a little more of her had slipped away; and I began to fear that one day I would come to forget her altogether. But the truth is: No matter how much time passes, those we have loved never slip away from us entirely.”
― A Gentleman in Moscow
“For what matters in life is not whether we receive a round of applause; what matters is whether we have the courage to venture forth despite the uncertainty of acclaim.”
― A Gentleman in Moscow
― A Gentleman in Moscow
“Alexander Rostov was neither scientist nor sage; but at the age of sixty-four he was wise enough to know that life does not proceed by leaps and bounds. It unfolds. At any given moment, it is the manifestation of a thousand transitions. Our faculties wax and wane, our experiences accumulate and our opinions evolve--if not glacially, then at least gradually. Such that the events of an average day are as likely to transform who we are as a pinch of pepper is to transform a stew.”
― A Gentleman in Moscow
― A Gentleman in Moscow
“Whichever wine was within, it was decidedly not identical to its neighbors. On the contrary, the contents of the bottle in his hand was the product of a history as unique and complex as that of a nation, or a man. In its color, aroma, and taste, it would certainly express the idiosyncratic geology and prevailing climate of its home terrain. But in addition, it would express all the natural phenomena of its vintage. In a sip, it would evoke the timing of that winter's thaw, the extent of that summer's rain, the prevailing winds, and the frequency of clouds. Yes, a bottle of wine was the ultimate distillation of time and place; a poetic expression of individuality itself.”
― A Gentleman in Moscow
― A Gentleman in Moscow
“One could spend a lifetime mastering the technical aspects of the piano and never achieve a state of musical expression - that alchemy by which the performer not only comprehends the sentiments of the composer, but somehow communicates them to her audience through the manner of her play.
Whatever personal sense of heartache Chopin had hoped to express through this little composition - whether it had been prompted by a loss of love, or simply sweet anguish one feels when witnessing a mist on a meadow in the morning - it was right there, ready to be experienced to its fullest, in the ballroom of the Hotel Metropol one hundred years after the composer's death. But how, the question remained, could a seventeen-year-old girl achieve this feat of expression, if not by channeling a sense of loss and longing of her own?”
― A Gentleman in Moscow
Whatever personal sense of heartache Chopin had hoped to express through this little composition - whether it had been prompted by a loss of love, or simply sweet anguish one feels when witnessing a mist on a meadow in the morning - it was right there, ready to be experienced to its fullest, in the ballroom of the Hotel Metropol one hundred years after the composer's death. But how, the question remained, could a seventeen-year-old girl achieve this feat of expression, if not by channeling a sense of loss and longing of her own?”
― A Gentleman in Moscow
Katrina’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Katrina’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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