“There is grandeur in this view of life.
....if you can’t see, shame on you.”
― Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
....if you can’t see, shame on you.”
― Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
“It was the dandelion principle! To some people a dandelion might look like a weed, but to others that same plant can be so much more. To an herbalist, it’s a medicine—a way of detoxifying the liver, clearing the skin, and strengthening the eyes. To a painter, it’s a pigment; to a hippie, a crown; a child, a wish. To a butterfly, it’s sustenance; to a bee, a mating bed; to an ant, one point in a vast olfactory atlas.”
― Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
― Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
“I have come to believe that it is our life's work to tear down this order, to keep tugging at it, trying to unravel it, to set free the organisms trapped underneath. That it is our life's work work to mistrust our measures. Especially those about moral and mental standing. To remember that behind every ruler there is a Ruler. To remember that a category is at best a proxy; at worst, a shackle.”
― Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
― Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
“Finding yourself" is not really how it works. You aren't a ten-dollar bill in last winter's coat pocket. You are also not lost. Your true self is right there, buried under cultural conditioning, other people's opinions, and inaccurate conclusions you drew as a kid that became your beliefs about who you are. "Finding yourself" is actually returning to yourself. An unlearning, an excavation, a remembering who you were before the world got its hands on you.”
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“When I give up the fish, I get, at long last, that thing I had been searching for: a mantra, a trick, a prescription for hope. I get the promise that there are good things in store. Not because I deserve them. Not because I worked for them. But because they are as much a part of Chaos as destruction and loss. Life, the flip side of death. Growth, of rot.”
― Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
― Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life
Emilie’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Emilie’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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Favorite Genres
Adult Fiction, Art, Biography, Book Club, Chick-lit, Classics, Comics, Crime, Fantasy, Fiction, Graphic novels, Historical fiction, History, Horror, Humor and Comedy, Literary Fiction, Memoir, Music, Mystery, Non-fiction, Philosophy, Poetry, Psychology, Romance, Science, Science fiction, Travel, and Young-adult
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