“I’ve come to believe that until I really examine my life I won’t be able to accept it, and either apologize or be grateful for everything in it . . .
“That’s how life is. Things happen. Lives get broken. Some people never can put themselves back together. I wondered if she would. I wondered if I would. . . . But what was that old saying my dad loved so much? The best revenge is forgetting. I clearly hadn’t forgotten a thing. Despite all my efforts.”
― Things You Save in a Fire
― Things You Save in a Fire
“Everyone has their own path. The choices they've made. How any two people end up in the same place at the same time is a mystery. You get on an elevator with a dozen strangers. You ride a bus, wait in line for the bathroom. It happens every day. To try to predict the places we'll go and the people we'll meet would be pointless.”
― Before the Fall
― Before the Fall
“Great meals rarely start at points that all look like beginnings. They usually pick up where something else leaves off. This is how most of the best things are made - imagine if the world had to begin from scratch each dawn: a tree would never grow, nor would we ever get to see the etchings of gentle rings on a clamshell... Meals' ingredients must be allowed to topple into one another like dominos. Broccoli stems, their florets perfectly boiled in salty water, must be simmered with olive oil and eaten with shaved Parmesan on toast; their leftover cooking liquid kept for the base for soup, studded with other vegetables, drizzled with good olive oil, with the rind of the Parmesan added for heartiness. This continuity is the heart and soul of cooking.”
― An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace
― An Everlasting Meal: Cooking with Economy and Grace
“Choosing to love—despite all the ways that people let you down, and disappear, and break your heart. Knowing everything we know about how hard life is and choosing to love, anyway.. That’s not weakness, that’s courage.”
― Things You Save in a Fire
― Things You Save in a Fire
“There are things in this world that no human being should be able to endure. We should die of heartbreak, but we do not. Instead, we are forced to survive, to bear witness.”
― The Good Father
― The Good Father
Books on the Nightstand
— 6094 members
— last activity Dec 21, 2025 03:56PM
A group to discuss books and topics mentioned on Books on the Nightstand, a blog and podcast about books and reading.
Kendra’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Kendra’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
More friends…
Favorite Genres
Polls voted on by Kendra
Lists liked by Kendra


















































