The Book Club Quotes

“Age is real life is short. It's foolhardy to deny it. We grow up, our bodies grow frail, death is coming. There's so much I want to do!
There's a whole world out there I havent seen, ppl I havent met and who havent know me.
God, there 're a million books I want to read.
I dont want to sleep... I want to be awake.
This is my life - I want to live it”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Mom’s are our best cheerleaders. No one else ever cares quite the same. Who else is going to be as angry at you when you do something wrong, or be as proud of you when you do something right?”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“All stories come to an end. That moment when we sigh and close the book, perhaps sit back in our chair and rest our palm over the cover, is met with quixotic emotions. On the one hand, we’re satisfied if the author successfully tied up loose ends, turned a memorable phrase and rewarded the hero’s moral choice with his heart’s desire. Yet we’re also saddened that the adventure is over. Sometimes when we see that we only have a few pages left we slow down, savoring each word, staving off the”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Friendships were easy when life was going smoothly. What was hard was to be there for your friend when life got rough and the friendship was neither easy nor fun. The challenge was to forgive the friend when she failed.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“My story will change, and so will yours. We’ll just go on changing, making a new set of choices, then living them out. That’s what life is anyway, just a long string of choices.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Treat your family like guests and your guests like family.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“inevitable. The characters we’ve come to know and love are no longer part of our lives. This can leave us with a certain longing. Perhaps we’ll open the book again and skim through it, searching out favorite passages to kindle again those powerful emotions. But the passion is never stirred quite as strong the second time around. So it is with life. We rush through the days that we’re given, eager to engage in the conflicts and passions, to push through and conquer and see how it all ends. When suddenly the end is in sight, we’re surprised. We stall, frantically savoring each moment. The sun shines brighter, the smiles appear more tender and we listen for words of love with an urgency that would be poignant if it were”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Our children are grown, we’ve enjoyed some success in our lives, and we’re looking for something else now to fulfill ourselves....It’s like being adolescents all over again, only this time we don’t care if everyone likes the way we look or the clothes we wear. Or even if people like us at all. That nasty competition is over. I see this as a time to be who we’ve always seen ourselves as being, deep in our hearts.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“All stories come to an end. That moment when we sigh and close the book, perhaps sit back in our chair and rest our palm over the cover, is met with quixotic emotions. On the one hand, we're satisfied if the author successfully tied up loose ends, turned a memorable phrase and rewarded the hero's moral choice with his heart's desire. Yet we're also saddened that the adventure is over. Sometimes when we see that we only have a few pages left we slow down, savoring each word, staving off the inevitable. The characters we've come to know and love are no longer part of our lives. This can leave us with a certain longing. Perhaps we'll open the book again and skim through it, searching our favorite passages to kindle again those powerful emotions. But the passion is never stirred quite as strong the second time around. ...We stall, frantically savoring each moment. The sun shines brighter, the smiles appear more tender and we listen for words of love with an urgency that would be poignant. ...Isn't life grand?”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Sometimes when we see that we only have a few pages left we slow down, savoring each word, staving off the inevitable.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“When a condition or a problem becomes too great, humans have the protection of not thinking about it. But it goes inward and minces up with a lot of other things already there and what comes out is discontent and uneasiness, guilt and a compulsion to get something—anything—before it is all gone. —John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“I’d like to read the whole thing, cover to cover. We’ve done that with other books. Remember the Odyssey? And we went for weeks and weeks doing the Artist’s Way. This could be a special project.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“This is the pits, waiting here. Why do they have clocks in here, anyway?”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“she discovered that Dante was right after all. The way to Heaven is clearly marked and each of us has a chance to find it—if we want.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“going to be as angry at you when you do something”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“sure of anything right now. I’m just very tired.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Friendships were easy when life was going smoothly. What was hard was to be there for your friend when life got rough and the friendship was neither easy nor fun. The challenge was to forgive the friend when she failed. She’d heard that a person should count herself blessed to have even one true friend in her life.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“The time is here for me to leave this life.
I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the race.
I have kept the faith. —II Timothy, 4:6-”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“The time is here for me to leave this life. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“month’s”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“This magical song took them all far from the muted peace of the suburban blocks they were familiar with, far, farther back to their youth, when they were smooth skinned, slim and sassy, when they walked the city streets with swinging hips, when their worlds delivered pearls.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“Today was the first day of summer, she realized, her spirits lifting like a kite. She loved milestones of any sort: birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, checks on the calendar, notches on a growth chart. Today would be special, brand new. She felt it deep inside. Summer was here with sunny days and balmy nights, the informality of barbecues and dips in the swimming pool. She was so relieved to have the grind of the school year finished. She missed playing with her children.”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club

“not so heartbreaking. So it was with me after Tom’s death. In retrospect, I look at myself and my friends and I think that some of us are offered early warnings. The death of a loved one, a serious illness, the struggle of a marriage, or the despair of loneliness—as tragic as these events are, they serve to box us in as clearly as any clever plot structure, forcing us to make a choice. I choose to live. Each day to the hilt. I want to hug my children close, kiss my lover passionately, attack my work, relish my books, and laugh heartily or blubber like a baby with my friends. Isn’t life grand?”
― Mary Alice Monroe, The Book Club