Lily Pendleton > Recent Status Updates

“She apologized right to my face, and I accepted that… I need to learn not just to forget but to forgive. But the movement of time seemed not to be fixed properly. The bloody weight of desire and the rusty anchor of remorse were blocking its normal flow.”

“I started to build a new kind of person: one who was rude sometimes and who didn’t always do the right thing, and whose big stupid heart made her endlessly seem to hurt, but also who deserved to be here, because she now had something to give.”

“Becoming a team didn’t mean the end of their arguments, but it did mean that the arguments became a part of the adventure. Became discussions not threats…. Feeling like a team is something that happens invisibly. You might call it caring, or even love.”

"There were two types of drinkers: those who drank to enhance their personalities, and those who sought to rid themselves of something... Kafuku could not tell what it was that he was trying to get rid of. Maybe weakness in his character, or trauma from his past. Or perhaps something in the present was causing his problem...Whatever it was, he was trying like mad to either forget it or numb the pain it caused."

Set in America 2035, a charismatic conservative president reigns after winning with the campaign slogan "Make America Great Again". I was expecting a continuation of Parable of the Sower, but it's much more about the mommy issues that stem from being the only non-prodigy child (and only daughter) of very successful prodigy mother. Shaping up to be another very timely read.

“she tried in every way she knew how to connect with me, and it was only that I never truly knew myself that kept us at bay.”

“It is really better to say frankly “I can’t imagine how it can be done” (which is a literal truth) than to confuse the mind with a picture of an enlarged man performing the impossible” God is not “ a harassed telephone operator answering callers at a switchboard of superhuman size”

“Those whose lives have been governed… from early childhood have never been allowed to develop their real selves. Forced to be “loving”, they have never actually learned how to love.” pg 29

“We were like Fleetwood Mac but without the sex, or drugs, or hair, or songs.” - on her first cover band Excuse 17

Homeless black man in 1950’s NYC reflecting on how he became invisible in society despite his potential, starting with his time as a student at the US’ first ever college for black men.

Short stories with a similar vibe to Octavia Butler’s revolutionary science fiction. Much more readable than Emergent Strategy lol