Big Summer
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Kindle Notes & Highlights
Read between September 14 - September 23, 2024
4%
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an instant of perfect faith, of pure, untarnished hope that this dress, this blouse, this skirt, will be the one that transforms you, that makes you look shapely and pretty, and worthy of love, or respect, or whatever you most desire.
4%
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It’s almost religious, that belief, that faith that a piece of silk or denim or cotton jersey could disguise your flaws and amplify your assets and make you both invisible and seen, just another normal woman in the world; a woman who deserves to get what she wants.
4%
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It flattered, which, in my mind, meant that it didn’t make me look thin, or different, but instead like the best version of myself.
5%
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The trick of the Internet, I had learned, was not being unapologetically yourself or completely unfiltered; it was mastering the trick of appearing that way. It was spiking your posts with just the right amount of real… which meant, of course, that you were never being real at all.
6%
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Mostly, my life was in a holding pattern.
13%
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I could feel her allure, as insistent as the tide, the way the water tugged you when you stood at the edge of the ocean with your feet in the sand.
16%
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In space, nobody could hear you scream; on the Internet, nobody could tell if you were lying.
32%
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I finished my water, went back to the bar, asked for a shot of tequila, and slugged it down, feeling my throat burn, along with my eyes. I am going to die alone, I thought.
32%
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I was half-listening to her chatter, half-remembering the line of poetry that had preceded the bit I had quoted, about how “sitting by a lamp more often brings / Not peace, but other things. / Beyond the light stand failure and remorse / Whispering Dear Warlock-Williams: Why, of course—”
51%
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“If this was suspicious, the cops are probably looking at everyone who had any kind of beef with Drue. You need to get off their list, and the best way to do it is to start making one of your own.”
54%
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I thought of a line from a Joe Henry song: And I don’t miss you half as much / As who you made me think I was.
78%
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When you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. When you’re angry, everything looks like a target. There are a lot of angry people in the world. And these days, they’re all online.