“...Poleman kept telling them it was nearly Anzac Day and they needed to remember the sacrifices of the soldiers, and her thinking that the Civil War taught her that people in power don't give a fig about people like her and their sacrifice, they only cared about people who could help them cling to power, that there was no point trusting anyone with a story to tell or someone else's sacrifice to sell, that stories of sacrifice are only used to help those in power, otherwise it's not a sacrifice, it's just a non-grieved over death”
― Sodden Downstream
― Sodden Downstream
“How could the waves do it, through each and every moment, and so naturally, as if it was for the first time, as if it was for the last time, as if it was for the middle time, as if it would go on forever, and as if it would one day end. The sea moved forward and back with all of these possibilities, and all of them were true.”
― How Should a Person Be?
― How Should a Person Be?
“It occurred to me then that to be a child is to know the cradle rocks both toward the parent and away from them. That is the ebb and flow of life, swinging toward and away from one another, perhaps so we build up the strength for that one moment we will be rocked so far away, the person we love the most is gone by the time we return.”
― Betty
― Betty
“The only thing that looked at her was the dispassionate sky and it looked at everything with the same gaze.”
― The New Animals
― The New Animals
“...she had described love as the act of teaching another person how to wound you most, and then agreeing tacitly never to do so.”
― The Study of Animal Languages
― The Study of Animal Languages
Abby’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Abby’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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