Rupi Kaur wrote this collection of poems, Milk and Honey and my daughter gave me a copy for Christmas. Rupi takes us through a journey split into four sections: the hurting, the loving, the breaking, the healing. There were parts I grappled with, didn't entirely relate to - but her underlying honest emotion I found very relatable, especially towards the end. I read it in a day and didn't keep any quotes, but I skimmed over it and found a few short enough to celebrate here that I really liked (short being a criteria to some degree - for the sake of expedience.) You should check Kaur's work out. Her drawings are wonderful companions to her lovely words.
Page 47:
no it won't be love at first sight when we meet it will be love at first remembrance cause i've seen you in my mother's eyes when she tells me to marry the type of man i'd want to raise my son to be like
Page 151:
accept that you deserve more
than painful love
life is moving
the healthiest thing
for your heart is
to move with it
Page 160:
it takes grace
to remain kind
in cruel situations
Page 186:
how you love yourself is
how you teach others
to love you
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Monday, October 16, 2017
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry
I visited my best friend from high school, Carrie, over the summer. My son is her godson and he was to stay with her in Seattle to attend a jazz camp for a week. Carrie and I went to jazz camp together when we were kids, so it seemed especially appropriate. She lent me a wonderful book: My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry. Fredrik Backman, the author, originally wrote it in his native language, Swedish. There were some fun reminders of that throughout the story when the reader is informed that the protagonist spoke some phrases in English, like her favorite English phrase "No shit, Sherlock". Of course it's all in English for me and my English version.
I was initially skeptical that a seven-year-old (almost eight!) would be able to carry a story that would keep me interested, but I was definitely held rapt. Some favorite lines:
Page 11: Because all seven-year-olds deserve superhereoes.
Page 22: Elsa is the sort of child who learned early in life that it's easier to make your own way if you get to choose your own soundtrack.
Page 36: The room in the hospital smells as bad and feels as cold as hospital rooms tend to when it is barely above freezing outside and someone has hid beer bottles under her pillow and opened a window to try to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke.
Page 45: Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild's ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details. Even when you are wrong. Especially then, in fact.
Page 66: They sit there in the sort of silent eternity that only mothers and daughters can build up between themselves.
Page 80: People who have never been hunted always seem to think there's a reason for it. "They wouldn't do it without a cause, would they?" As if that's how oppression works.
Page 150: Mum puts her hand on Elsa's hand and inhales deeply from the point where they are touching, as if trying to fill her lungs with Elsa. As mums do with daughters who grow up too fast.
Page 276: Elsa doesn't believe in Santa, but she has a lot of faith in people who do believe in him. She used to write letters to Santa every Christmas, not just wish lists but whole letters. They weren't very much about Christmas, mainly about politics. Because Elsa mostly felt that Santa wasn't involving himself enough in social questions, and believed he needed to be informed about that, in the midst of the floods of greedy letters that she knew he must be receiving from all the other children every year. Someone had to take a bit of responsibility.
Carrie got me hooked! I'm looking forward to reading Backman's A Man Called Ove. A great writer.
I was initially skeptical that a seven-year-old (almost eight!) would be able to carry a story that would keep me interested, but I was definitely held rapt. Some favorite lines:
Page 11: Because all seven-year-olds deserve superhereoes.
Page 22: Elsa is the sort of child who learned early in life that it's easier to make your own way if you get to choose your own soundtrack.
Page 36: The room in the hospital smells as bad and feels as cold as hospital rooms tend to when it is barely above freezing outside and someone has hid beer bottles under her pillow and opened a window to try to get rid of the smell of cigarette smoke.
Page 45: Having a grandmother is like having an army. This is a grandchild's ultimate privilege: knowing that someone is on your side, always, whatever the details. Even when you are wrong. Especially then, in fact.
Page 66: They sit there in the sort of silent eternity that only mothers and daughters can build up between themselves.
Page 80: People who have never been hunted always seem to think there's a reason for it. "They wouldn't do it without a cause, would they?" As if that's how oppression works.
Page 150: Mum puts her hand on Elsa's hand and inhales deeply from the point where they are touching, as if trying to fill her lungs with Elsa. As mums do with daughters who grow up too fast.
Page 276: Elsa doesn't believe in Santa, but she has a lot of faith in people who do believe in him. She used to write letters to Santa every Christmas, not just wish lists but whole letters. They weren't very much about Christmas, mainly about politics. Because Elsa mostly felt that Santa wasn't involving himself enough in social questions, and believed he needed to be informed about that, in the midst of the floods of greedy letters that she knew he must be receiving from all the other children every year. Someone had to take a bit of responsibility.
Carrie got me hooked! I'm looking forward to reading Backman's A Man Called Ove. A great writer.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Gwendy's Button Box
I went to the library the other day when I was waiting for my son, who was waiting for his turn in the barber's chair. I haven't read a Stephen King story in awhile and this book had a big sticker saying "Lucky Day" on it. So I felt lucky. Gwendy's Button Box was co-authored by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar. I finished it the same day but I mused on it much longer. It was a quick and tidy ride through the problem of responsibility for world peace. I only kept one quote:
Pages 27-28: Gwendy has a thought (novel now in its adult implications, later to become a tiresome truth): secrets are a problem, maybe the biggest problem of all. They weigh on the mind and take up space in the world.
Pages 27-28: Gwendy has a thought (novel now in its adult implications, later to become a tiresome truth): secrets are a problem, maybe the biggest problem of all. They weigh on the mind and take up space in the world.
Sunday, June 4, 2017
The Secret Keeper
Kate Morton wrote an absorbing mystery story in The Secret Keeper. Beautifully crafted with a satisfying truth. It's told from the point of view of Laurel and a violent act she witnesses her mother commit when she was a child. But then we're put into the heads of the triangle of principle characters, taken back to the events that led up to it. Yes, I recommend this book!
I finished it several months ago and can only find one quote that I kept:
Page 109: Because people who'd led dull and blameless lives did not give thanks for second chances.
I finished it several months ago and can only find one quote that I kept:
Page 109: Because people who'd led dull and blameless lives did not give thanks for second chances.
Friday, August 19, 2016
The Hundred Secret Senses
Years ago I saw the movie based on Amy Tan's book The Joy Luck Club. I don't remember being amazed. But I just finished The Hundred Secret Senses. This is the second book of hers I've read and I am eager to read more of Tan's stories. Love them!
Amy Tan does a beautiful job showing a balance of real and possible, extra perception, deeper memory, in her character Kwan. We see Kwan from the point of view of her half sister Olivia, who doesn't quite understand or believe everything Kwan says but doesn't try to argue her out of it. So we are taken on an incredible journey just because Olivia stays open to the possibility. I adore this story! Yes, I highly recommend it.
Page 38: Our three different fates had flowed together in that river, and become as tangled and twisted as a drowned woman's hair.
Page 49: In time, however, I taught Miss Banner to see the world almost exactly like a Chinese person. Of cicadas, she would say they looked like dead leaves fluttering, felt like paper crackling, sounded like fire roaring, smelled like dust rising, and tasted like the devil frying in oil. She hated them, decided they had no purpose in this world. You see, in five ways she could sense the world like a Chinese person. But it was always the sixth way, her American sense of importance, that later caused trouble between us. Because her senses led to opinions, and her opinions led to conclusions, and sometimes they were different from mine.
Page 118: We listened patiently to Lester, words skittering out of his mouth like cartoon dogs on fresh-waxed linoleum, frantically going nowhere.
Amy Tan does a beautiful job showing a balance of real and possible, extra perception, deeper memory, in her character Kwan. We see Kwan from the point of view of her half sister Olivia, who doesn't quite understand or believe everything Kwan says but doesn't try to argue her out of it. So we are taken on an incredible journey just because Olivia stays open to the possibility. I adore this story! Yes, I highly recommend it.
Page 38: Our three different fates had flowed together in that river, and become as tangled and twisted as a drowned woman's hair.
Page 49: In time, however, I taught Miss Banner to see the world almost exactly like a Chinese person. Of cicadas, she would say they looked like dead leaves fluttering, felt like paper crackling, sounded like fire roaring, smelled like dust rising, and tasted like the devil frying in oil. She hated them, decided they had no purpose in this world. You see, in five ways she could sense the world like a Chinese person. But it was always the sixth way, her American sense of importance, that later caused trouble between us. Because her senses led to opinions, and her opinions led to conclusions, and sometimes they were different from mine.
Page 118: We listened patiently to Lester, words skittering out of his mouth like cartoon dogs on fresh-waxed linoleum, frantically going nowhere.
Friday, June 3, 2016
The Dead School
School is almost out for the summer. My daughter, my oldest kid, is graduating from high school in a week. If there's a connection to this book, it was unconsciously made.
The Dead School was written by Patrick McCabe, an Irishman. He wrote so that you could easily hear the Irish accent in your head. The story took an alarming turn to insanity, leaving me to feel that we are all on the edge of mental collapse. The characters moved me. And scared me.
The first quote shows the lilt of the language. The second is an illustration of the insanity.
Page 25: When The Canon heard this he did not quite know whether to fall about the place laughing or just draw out there and then and hit her a skelp of his walking stick. He just couldn't understand it. He could not for the life of him understand what was the matter with her. Fortunately for her in the end he just sighed and said "Ah, daughter, will you come on now. Stop your cod-acting like a good girl and put him into the holy water, I have confessions at eight."
Page 248: Anyway, when he had first noticed that Setanta wasn't moving and was probably dead, it had occurred to him to bury the animal. But then he went and forgot all about it and by the time he did remember, it was already too late, for what had once been a grand old cat growing old gracefully was nothing so much as a pile of mucky goo and moving maggots lying beneath the kitchen window.
The Dead School was written by Patrick McCabe, an Irishman. He wrote so that you could easily hear the Irish accent in your head. The story took an alarming turn to insanity, leaving me to feel that we are all on the edge of mental collapse. The characters moved me. And scared me.
The first quote shows the lilt of the language. The second is an illustration of the insanity.
Page 25: When The Canon heard this he did not quite know whether to fall about the place laughing or just draw out there and then and hit her a skelp of his walking stick. He just couldn't understand it. He could not for the life of him understand what was the matter with her. Fortunately for her in the end he just sighed and said "Ah, daughter, will you come on now. Stop your cod-acting like a good girl and put him into the holy water, I have confessions at eight."
Page 248: Anyway, when he had first noticed that Setanta wasn't moving and was probably dead, it had occurred to him to bury the animal. But then he went and forgot all about it and by the time he did remember, it was already too late, for what had once been a grand old cat growing old gracefully was nothing so much as a pile of mucky goo and moving maggots lying beneath the kitchen window.
Monday, May 23, 2016
The Invention of Wings
What a lovely story, Sue Monk Kidd's Invention of Wings. It's interesting to me how the characters in a story based on historical people often come across as less alive to me. I'm not sure why that is. Also it's a gross generalization; don't pay any attention to me!
This story was the perfect tale to tell with the fatalism of being strangle-held by the culture one is born into, and then doing what one can do about it in the end. I took only one quote - not sure why that was. It was certainly well written and smoothly crafted. Sometimes it's the highest compliment when I don't take quotes because it may be that I am too engrossed in the story to be bothered! I do recommend reading it.
Page 144: I'd been wandering about in the enchantments of romance, afflicted with the worst female curse on earth, the need to mold myself to expectations.
This story was the perfect tale to tell with the fatalism of being strangle-held by the culture one is born into, and then doing what one can do about it in the end. I took only one quote - not sure why that was. It was certainly well written and smoothly crafted. Sometimes it's the highest compliment when I don't take quotes because it may be that I am too engrossed in the story to be bothered! I do recommend reading it.
Page 144: I'd been wandering about in the enchantments of romance, afflicted with the worst female curse on earth, the need to mold myself to expectations.
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