“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound or stab us. If the book we're reading doesn't wake us up with a blow to the head, what are we reading for? So that it will make us happy, as you write? Good Lord, we would be happy precisely if we had no books, and the kind of books that make us happy are the kind we could write ourselves if we had to. But we need books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us. That is my belief.”
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“Love doesn't mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness.”
― Community and Growth
― Community and Growth
“What if the church should be less concerned with creating saints than creating a world where we do not need saints? A world where people like Mother Teresa and MLK would have nothing to do.”
― Insurrection: To Believe Is Human To Doubt, Divine
― Insurrection: To Believe Is Human To Doubt, Divine
Joanne’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Joanne’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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