7,214 books
—
28,376 voters
to-read
(85)
currently-reading (3)
read (298)
did-not-finish (6)
read-2019 (34)
read-2021 (22)
1000-books-before-school (118)
read-2011 (63)
read-2015 (60)
read-2012 (56)
read-2008 (49)
read-2009 (46)
currently-reading (3)
read (298)
did-not-finish (6)
read-2019 (34)
read-2021 (22)
1000-books-before-school (118)
read-2011 (63)
read-2015 (60)
read-2012 (56)
read-2008 (49)
read-2009 (46)
read-2018
(43)
read-2010 (40)
read-2013 (38)
read-2014 (36)
read-2017 (36)
read-2016 (26)
read-2020 (26)
read-2022 (7)
wish-list (1)
women-authors (107)
australian-authors (57)
science-and-speculative-fiction (34)
read-2010 (40)
read-2013 (38)
read-2014 (36)
read-2017 (36)
read-2016 (26)
read-2020 (26)
read-2022 (7)
wish-list (1)
women-authors (107)
australian-authors (57)
science-and-speculative-fiction (34)
“Parents, she thought, learned to survive touching their children less and less. As a baby Pearl had clung to her; she’d worn Pearl in a sling because whenever she’d set her down, Pearl would cry. There’d scarcely been a moment in the day when they had not been pressed together. As she got older, Pearl would still cling to her mother’s leg, then her waist, then her hand, as if there was something in her mother she needed to absorb through the skin. Even when she had her own bed, she would often crawl into Mia’s in the middle of the night and burrow under the old patchwork quilt, and in the morning they would wake up tangled, Mia’s arm pinned beneath Pearl’s head, or Pearl’s legs thrown across Mia’s belly. Now, as a teenager, Pearl’s caresses had become rare—a peck on the cheek, a one-armed, half-hearted hug—and all the more precious because of that. It was the way of things, Mia thought to herself, but how hard it was. The occasional embrace, a head leaned for just a moment on your shoulder, when what you really wanted more than anything was to press them to you and hold them so tight you fused together and could never be taken apart. It was like training yourself to live on the smell of an apple alone, when what you really wanted was to devour it, to sink your teeth into it and consume it, seeds, core, and all.”
― Little Fires Everywhere
― Little Fires Everywhere
“In Vietnamese, the word for water and the word for a nation, a country and a homeland are one and the same: nu’o'c.”
― The Gangster We Are All Looking For
― The Gangster We Are All Looking For
“To a parent, your child wasn't just a person: your child was a place, a kind of Narnia, a vast eternal place where the present you were living and the past you remembered and the future you longed for all at the same time. You could see it every time you looked at her: layered in her face was the baby she'd been and the child she'd become and the adult she would grow up to be, and you saw them all simultaneously, like a 3-D image. It made your head spin. It was a place you could take refuge, if you knew how to get in. And each time you left it, each time your child passed out of your sight, you feared you might never be able to return to that place again.”
― Little Fires Everywhere
― Little Fires Everywhere
“I really did not feel okay about any of this, and there was really nothing I could do about any of it.”
― No One Belongs Here More Than You
― No One Belongs Here More Than You
“I can't exactly say why I've chosen to write about the things that I am writing about. There are doubtless better stories from my life that I am missing, events and escapades I am not wise enough to know were important. If heaven is tolerant and writers are allowed (bunch of liars that they are), I wonder if they gather for coffee to ponder the prose they should have written instead.
p 179 ”
― The Girls
p 179 ”
― The Girls
Australian Women Writers Challenge
— 963 members
— last activity Oct 29, 2022 10:17PM
AS AT JANUARY 1st 2022, THIS GROUP IS NO LONGER IN OPERATION. This group is for participants in the Australian Women Writers Challenge. Everyone who ...more
Oanh’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Oanh’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Polls voted on by Oanh
Lists liked by Oanh





















