1,703 books
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6,872 voters
Barbara
https://www.goodreads.com/bluemusicnut
“I made her some coffee—real coffee, not instant, though I didn’t use my antique wooden grinder. I have never used my antique wooden grinder. It is useless. Then I sent her on her way. I was glad to see the back of her.”
― The Seven Sisters
― The Seven Sisters
“Barb Miller
Fri, Jun 21, 4:40 PM (3 days ago)
to me
How do men convince themselves that others must die so they might live? She thinks of Maria, who owned so little and who left so quietly, and of Licinius telling her about the Greeks camped outside the walls of Troy for ten years, and of the Trojan women trapped inside, weaving and worrying, wondering whether they would ever walk the fields or swim in the sea again, or whether the gates would fall, and they would have to watch their babies be tossed over the ramparts to die.”
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
Fri, Jun 21, 4:40 PM (3 days ago)
to me
How do men convince themselves that others must die so they might live? She thinks of Maria, who owned so little and who left so quietly, and of Licinius telling her about the Greeks camped outside the walls of Troy for ten years, and of the Trojan women trapped inside, weaving and worrying, wondering whether they would ever walk the fields or swim in the sea again, or whether the gates would fall, and they would have to watch their babies be tossed over the ramparts to die.”
― Cloud Cuckoo Land
“At the very least,” she’d written to me once, “when we die we will be as if asleep, in the same place we were before birth, so why fear death? Scattered on the wind, unaware as we were before we came into this world, with no memory of any of it.”
― Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
― Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
“Her mind seemed to have no room for anything but the crowded eventlessness of her everyday life.”
― The Glass Palace
― The Glass Palace
“All the world she needs is here, under this canopy—the densest biomass anywhere on Earth. Steep, steely streams scour through rickles of rock where salmon spawn—water cold enough to kill all pain. Falls flash over ridges turned jade by moss and tumbled with shed branches. In the scattered openings, shot here and there through the understory, sit secret congregations of salmonberry, elderberry, huckleberry, snowberry, devil’s club, ocean spray, and kinnikinnick. Great straight conifer monoliths fifteen stories high and a car-length thick hold a roof above all. The air around her resounds with the noise of life getting on with it. Cheebee of invisible winter wrens. Industrial pock from jackhammering woodpeckers. Warbler buzz. Thrush flutter. The scatterings of beeping grouse across the forest floor. At night, the cool hoot of owls chills her blood. And, always, the tree frogs’ song of eternity.”
― The Overstory
― The Overstory
Books on the Nightstand
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A group to discuss books and topics mentioned on Books on the Nightstand, a blog and podcast about books and reading.
Reading the Detectives
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Our group reads vintage British mysteries from the Golden Age and beyond. In 2025 and 2026 our challenge is Christie's Detectives: Poirot vs Marple. W ...more
What's the Name of That Book???
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Can't remember the title of a book you read? Come search our bookshelves and discussion posts. If you don’t find it there, post a description on our U ...more
Barbara ’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Barbara ’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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