“Lila shook her head skeptically. She was trying to understand, we were both trying to understand, and understanding was something that we loved to do.”
― My Brilliant Friend
― My Brilliant Friend
“Everyone tries to make his life a work of art. We want love to last and we know that it does not last; even if, by some miracle, it were to last a whole lifetime, it would still be incomplete. Perhaps, in this insatiable need for perpetuation, we should better understand human suffering, if we knew that it was eternal. It appears that great minds are, sometimes, less horrified by suffering than by the fact that it does not endure. In default of inexhaustible happiness, eternal suffering would at least give us a destiny. But we do not even have that consolation, and our worst agonies come to an end one day. One morning, after many dark nights of despair, an irrepressible longing to live will announce to us the fact that all is finished and that suffering has no more meaning than happiness.”
― The Rebel
― The Rebel
“The woods call to us with a hundred voices, but the sea has one only — a mighty voice that drowns our souls in its majestic music. The woods are human, but the sea is of the company of the archangels.”
― Anne's House of Dreams
― Anne's House of Dreams
“We are uncomfortable because everything in our life keeps changing -- our inner moods, our bodies, our work, the people we love, the world we live in. We can't hold on to anything -- a beautiful sunset, a sweet taste, an intimate moment with a lover, our very existence as the body/mind we call self -- because all things come and go. Lacking any permanent satisfaction, we continuously need another injection of fuel, stimulation, reassurance from loved ones, medicine, exercise, and meditation. We are continually driven to become something more, to experience something else.”
― Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
― Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”
― The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
― The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
Our Shared Shelf
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— last activity Dec 16, 2025 12:22AM
OUR SHARED SHELF IS CURRENTLY DORMANT AND NOT MANAGED BY EMMA AND HER TEAM. Dear Readers, As part of my work with UN Women, I have started reading ...more
Harry Potter
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— last activity 2 hours, 3 min ago
We're fans of Rowling's series because we know that it is more than just a children's fantasy story. ...more
Around the World in 80 Books
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Reading takes you places. Where in the world will your next book take you? If you love world literature, translated works, travel writing, or explorin ...more
Cassondra’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Cassondra’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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