Carrington Curphy’s Reviews > Things You Save in a Fire > Status Update

Another page filled with really good quotes & I just can't pick one

“Yes, the world is full of unspeakable cruelty. But the answer wasn't to never feel hope, or bliss, or love—-but to savor every fleeting, precious second of those feelings when they came.
The answer wasn't to never love anyone. It was to love like crazy whenever you could.”

Cassie finding out about Dianne and the tumor — each paragraph, each page, it feels like the most poignant and most important part of the story. I could save all the pages as a memorable quote

“It's more a shift in thinking than anything else. You have to think about the person you're angry at—in this case, your eight-year-old self-and try to be compassionate with him.

Empathy soothes anger”

“…but there they were: tears. I’m not even sure I could've told you what they were for. There were many different emotions making up their alchemy, I had no idea how to separate them out. There was sadness in the mix, for sure. As well as relief and joy and longing and anxiety. Tears of everything, I guess. They were tears of intensity. Tears of coming back to life.”

“It [the kiss] felt almost nostalgic, like remembering what it felt like to believe that the world was full of good things and good people and good luck. It tasted bittersweet, because it insisted there was so much to look forward to—even when I already knew there was far more to dread.”

“I knew that stare. I knew it because I recognized it.
It was exactly the way I was staring at him.

Here's something else I noticed: All my naked agony of anticipation? At the sight of him, it melted away. All my nervousness—-gone. His presence in the room made everything okay.”

"I always kind of thought that forgiveness would come with time, that the bitterness would slowly fade like a scar until I couldn't even really find it anymore if I looked. But that's not what happened. It didn't fade. It hardened. Other things around it faded, but the memory of the day you left is still as sharp as if it just happened.”

“She was trying to help me face my future, but she was clearly taking about her own past, about the path she herself had walked to get where she was.”

Tips to survive being a female firefighter at a job where it’s clear a woman is not wanted. (Which is ironic to go from Austin TX to Boston MA)

Honestly I love this book already. I’m speeding through it on this summer afternoon, and the book is already making me squeal with happiness. There is still a lot of uncertainty with character backstories, but I’m very excited to get to the ending!