From the Bookshelf of 100+ Books in 2025…

Northwest Corner

John Burnham Schwartz

Start date: May 31, 2011

Finish date: June 3, 2011

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

May 16, 2011 Dolly rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011, relationships, new-england, goodreads-first-reads-giveaways, education-school, fitness-sports, gardens-flowers, other-usa

I won a copy of this book on Goodreads Giveaways and I'm so very glad that I did. I have not read Reservation Road, but it will be added to my to-read list. This was a dramatic story, but I loved the roles that the mothers played in this book. It has some very troubled characters, but I feel that none of them are all that far away from any of us in many ways. The raw emotion displayed in this book is often tough to take, but I felt like it was a story that needed to be told.

interesting quotes: I won a copy of this book on Goodreads Giveaways and I'm so very glad that I did. I have not read Reservation Road, but it will be added to my to-read list. This was a dramatic story, but I loved the roles that the mothers played in this book. It has some very troubled characters, but I feel that none of them are all that far away from any of us in many ways. The raw emotion displayed in this book is often tough to take, but I felt like it was a story that needed to be told.

interesting quotes:

"There's a kind of ironic innocence involved, and it stems from genuine hope. The hope being that when judgment finally comes, if it does (and I'm not talking about law here -- that already happened -- or about God, either), good intentions might actually count for something concrete, or at least there might be an understanding by someone who matters that bad intentions were not originally present, but rather appeared unexpectedly at some horrible juncture, and somehow took root, and only then ruined everything." pp. 82-3

"...she has recently vowed to herself to give up the word always, because it is fraudulent. There is only now; there is only this." p. 113

"You can do all the planning you want, or you can do none; once their bags are packed, people leave."

"You cannot reach fifty years of age and still think that nothing is better than something, unless you are a fool as well as an asshole. Despite what the mathematicians assure us, zero is not a meaningful number in real life." p. 157

"When in a position of doubt or anxiety...it behooves you to speak politely and firmly, as though from a podium of formidable rectitude and calm wisdom." p. 167

regarding cancer:"...if they find nothing, you will live to come again. And if the constellations return, dark as dark matter, soon enough they will stop looking. And that will be the end.
To live, then, means continually opening her most hidden self up to clinical scrutiny. No other way to do it..." p.269

"We think we are solid and durable, only to find that, placed under a cruel and unexpected light, we are the opposite: only our thin, permeable skin holds us intact.
Hemophiliacs walking through a forest of thorns." p. 282

new words: pedantry, probity, fabulist, interstice ...more

Like · see review

Jul 28, 2011 Jennifer rated it really liked it

4.5/5
"...Schwartz, in a deliberate and beautiful style, captivates the reader’s attention with suspense and empathy for each of these flawed and damaged characters..." my full review may be read on my book review blog Rundpinne. ...more

Like · see review

Oct 19, 2011 Stephanie marked it as to-read

Oct 30, 2011 Elle rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, 2011

Dec 27, 2011 Brooke Watson rated it it was amazing

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls