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Barbara
https://www.goodreads.com/bluemusicnut
“Her mind seemed to have no room for anything but the crowded eventlessness of her everyday life.”
― The Glass Palace
― The Glass Palace
“He’d known for a long time by then that the world’s changes wouldn’t be reversed, but still, the realization cast his memories in a sharper light. The last time I ate an ice-cream cone in a park in the sunlight. The last time I danced in a club. The last time I saw a moving bus. The last time I boarded an airplane that hadn’t been repurposed as living quarters, an airplane that actually took off. The last time I ate an orange.”
― Station Eleven
― Station Eleven
“What do Americans know about morality? They don’t want their presidents to have penises but they don’t mind if their presidents covertly arrange to support the Nicaraguan rebel forces after Congress has restricted such aid; they don’t want their presidents to deceive their wives but they don’t mind if their presidents deceive Congress—lie to the people and violate the people’s constitution!”
― A Prayer for Owen Meany
― A Prayer for Owen Meany
“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
“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
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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— last activity 4 hours, 28 min ago
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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