Ashley Speed > Recent Status Updates

"I wonder if maybe all you do is meet people and lose them and your smile fades the further you go because you have to carry the space they leave. Maybe it all just turns into old pictures on a bookshelf, engraved rings, memories of sticking stars to a ceiling, and maybe the space gets bigger and heavier every year."

"Ladies are human beings, not sofas for you to jump around on. Is that clear?"

God, give me strength and wisdom to raise a son through his teens!

"I realized then that not only did Dad need us to believe his stories, we needed to believe them as well. To believe I'm unripe stars and eagles able to do extraordinary things. What it boiled down to was a frenzied hope that there was more to life than the reality around us. Only then could we claim a destiny we did not feel cursed to."

Oh I can already tell I'm gonna love this

"but here is the nature of life. That we must love things with our whole selves, knowing they will die."

This quote: We should measure our children not by the mountains they conquer but by their efforts to climb. Oh--and let them pick which hills to scale.

Really hate how this book switches perspectives.

I'm loving this. I appreciate NG trying something new.

I'm not even all the way done, but this is such a powerful read, I'm giving it 5 stars now. This is perhaps the most accessible read on trauma I've come across. I love The Body Keeps the Score, but this book explains trauma for the masses. Everyone in a helping field should read this book. EVERYONE.

"So she had to start from scratch, rebuilding her relationship with her body according to rules set by her body."

I'm quickly losing interest in this book. How much time are they going to spend setting up camp and grabbing a bite to eat?

Who picked the audio narrator? The protagonist lives in TN and just referred to the mountains as AppaLAYSHUNS. WRONG.

How many times is this dead chicken gonna come up?

"All I will say is that you show up for your friends on their hardest days. And you hold their hand through the roughest parts. Life is about who is holding your hand and, I think, whose hand you commit to holding."

This is interesting so far. Really enjoying the letter portions of the book.

This is my first Ann Patchett book, and I LOVE it. I had to press pause because I'm dealing with the yucky post-chemo side effects, but I cannot wait to see how this ends. Very interested in reading some of her other books.

This novel is captivating me. Can't wait to see how it ends.

Only 17 pages in and I can already tell I'm going to love Heller's newest book.

This book is watering my thirsty soul. May not be what everybody needs, but right book, right time for me.