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Kindle Notes & Highlights
It was important for her to leave a place better than we found it.
“People are awkward, they don’t always know what to do or say. Don’t hold it against them. You never know what’s in their hearts.”
I had learned that love was not patient, love was not kind. Love was conditional. The people closest to you could turn their backs on you, saying goodbye for something that seemed like nothing. You could only depend on yourself.
The ladies, old hands at death, did what was needed, serenely, efficiently. They cooked, they served, they cleaned up. Behind the buffet or in the kitchen, they did all they could to make the worst day of our lives go smoothly.
It had been four months since Mom died, and for the first time, I didn’t feel heartbroken when I thought of her.
GRIEF IS A sea made of your own tears. Salty swells cover the dark depths you must swim at your own pace. It takes time to build stamina. Some days, my arms sliced through the water, and I felt things would be okay, the shore wasn’t so far off. Then one memory, one moment would nearly drown me, and I’d be back to the beginning, fighting to stay above the waves, exhausted, sinking in my own sorrow.
IN GEOGRAPHY, we learned about China, where the government tells couples they can have only one child. Seeing how worn-out Eleanor was, it didn’t seem like a bad policy.
Love is accepting someone, all parts of them, even the ones you don’t like or understand.
need your honesty as much as your love. Having only a little of you, sensing you censor each sentence is killing me. We’re not together, but we needn’t be distant.
she realized it was true, she’d gotten everything she wanted. She wished she’d known to want more.
‘Try to accept people for who they are, not who you want them to be.’ ”
It was Miss Reeder who said about books that “no other thing possesses that mystical faculty to make people see with other people’s eyes. The Library is a bridge of books between cultures” when she publicized the Soldiers’ Service.
Language is a gate that we can open and close on people. The words we use shape perception, as do the books we read, the stories we tell one another, and the stories we tell ourselves.
I think a better question to ask is what can we do now to ensure that libraries and learning are accessible to all and that we treat people with dignity and compassion.
The books stay the same, but we readers evolve.
the universal truth that we can’t protect the people we love, and we can’t make their choices or live their lives.
They’d lived through hard times, and wanted to makes these difficult moments easier for others.
the importance of putting oneself in another’s skin (or shoes) and trying not to judge.
Many people today would rather cut off relatives and friends completely than express how they actually feel. We tend to bottle our feelings and then come to a breaking point. And then the fabric of community tears more. I hope this book will help us mend it.
communication is key. It’s important to learn how to talk about our feelings before they overwhelm us. Libraries are key.
we must appreciate and support these vital community centers.
