After all, traditions are just peer pressure from dead people

A book with so much heart, soul and warmth.

Extraordinary. It captures everything.

I picked this up on a whim at Target and it blew me away. The story, characters and atmosphere of the book were all so engaging, I read it in a couple days (even with a job and a toddler) An intense and beautiful book.

I love anything Natalie Goldberg writes about writing, and anything else for that matter. This is the 3rd book I‘ve experienced by her and I am on to #4 (Thunder and Lightning) Her readings on Audible are wonderful.

Only the present moment contains life

Elsa looked at her friend. “Do you ever get tired of being strong?”
“Oh, honey, of course.”

This book terrified me. The main character was a new mom who left her perfect-seeming life to go on a surreal adventure that made me question myself and my expectations for and about motherhood and womanhood. I only recommend this book if you are ready to dismantle your internalized misogyny and face your own judgements.

Tibetan Buddhists say that a person should never get rid of their negative energy, that negative energy transformed is the energy of enlightenment, and that the only difference between neurosis and wisdom is struggle. If we stop struggling and open up and accept what is, that neurotic energy naturally arises as wisdom, naturally informs us and becomes our teacher.

I picked this up in the store on a whim, and fell in love. Each section is a warm reminder to take care.

We need to have a word for when you pick up a book and it lines up uncannily with real life. I read this book around Thanksgiving and it was perfect. Good premise executed in a great way, with intense twists and engaging characters.

A lovely set of stories about people living their lives in a small community and a look into their thoughts, experiences and struggles. A bit cheesy at parts, but dealt with real and gritty topics.

“I just learned that life, no matter what kind of bad happens… It‘s all about finding some bit of optimism, some kind of hope that the next moment, or even the moment after that…. Is going to be all that you had originally wished for, and that your good, it‘s still on the way.”

And, just like Laila, didn‘t we all need the space to fall short and keep fighting?

"The point is," Mr. Hill said, "We have to engage in our world or the world will only show you who you are. Or what you expected.”

Suffering isn't the enemy. It's a partner with whom you fight.

A good story, I am interested to dig deeper into this time in history. I found one of the characters a bit inconsistent and sometimes the writing was a bit off for me, but overall engaging and important.

I listened to her read this with commentary (and an interview after) and I can‘t express how lovely it was. If you‘ve ever felt the need to write, this book will embrace your soul with a warm hug and whisper in your ear “do it.” Natalie Goldberg is enchanting.

A fast and engaging read, believable and well-paced. It lacked a bit of depth and I enjoyed The Couple Next Door more, but still a good read.

Minimalism is just the beginning. It‘s a tool. Once you‘ve gone ahead and minimized, it‘s time to find out what those important things are.

As a therapist I sneak self-help books into my reading so I can recommend them (or not) to my patients. I thought this was clear, pragmatic and supportive for positive change. Some parts were a little intense and I think some nuance could have helped, but overall, I will recommend!

To be a monster is to be a hybrid signal, a lighthouse: both shelter and warning at once.

It takes strength to walk away from someone you love

Too often being happy means being passive or playing it safe. There's no skill required in happiness, no strength of character, nothing extraordinary. Its discontent that drives creation the most--passion, desire, defiance. Revolutions don't come from a place of happiness. If anything, I think it's sadness, or discontent at least, that's at the root of everything beautiful.

This book has all the elements of a great one: complex characters, engaging plot, developed time and place and the writing has a clear, bold voice.

I wanted to go on to express how unfair the world is, and how many mistakes it‘s possible to make even when you‘re trying as hard as you can, and why I made the ones I did, and what they all were.

It is all very well planning what you will do in six months, what you will do in a year, but it‘s no good at all if you don‘t have a plan for tomorrow.

This is the thing about good and evil. They aren‘t so far apart- and they often start from the same valiant place of wanting something to be different.

“Einstein said, so far as the theories of mathematics are about reality, they are not certain; so far as they are certain, they are not about reality.”

You do not know how fast you have been running, how hard you have been working, how truly exhausted you are, until someone stands behind you and says, “It‘s OK, you can fall down now. I‘ll catch you.”

We don‘t have to like the difficult or painful things that happened to us. But when we stop fighting and resisting, we have more energy and imagination to move forward, instead of nowhere.

The beautiful image of a haunted island underlines this spooky mystery

“I never worked out how to be relied upon and also free.”

An inside hurt was supposed to stay inside. How strange it must be to hurt in an outside way you couldn‘t hide.

I was drawn in right away. A family drama with heart, all the characters fleshed out and easy to empathize with.

A sweet story, both magical and real.

Puah knew that the secret of strength was in how much truth could be endured

A lovely family drama about time, mother‘s and children, race and love. Some characters and themes could have been more developed, and the ending came suddenly, but overall a compelling read. #botm

The human race settles on terms with every plague in the end, the doctor told her. Or a stalemate, at the least. We muddle along, sharing the earth with each new form of life.

A beautiful book. Her passion for plants, heart wrenching portrayal of bipolar disorder and honest portrayal of pregnancy made for an incredible book. I fell in love with treesand the author.

Devastating, well-written and with a little twist

Body could be labeled but a person couldn‘t, and the difference between the two depending on that muscle in your chest. That beloved organ, not sentient, not aware, not feeling, just pumping along, keeping you alive

...Even after I had stopped thinking of the world as a place that kept track of what it owed people, even after I stopped thinking of myself as a person who had the power to make demands of the world and learned to be a person who came up with her own small daily answers like everyone else.

That loving a person means letting them change when they need to. And letting them go when they need to. And that doesn‘t make them any less of a home. Just maybe not for you. Or only for a season or two. But that doesn‘t diminish that love. It just changes forms.

“Learn from your past and be better because of your past,” she would say, “but don‘t cry about your past. Life is full of pain. Let the pain sharpen you, but don‘t hold onto it. Don‘t be bitter.”

Perhaps you, too, have children, in which case you‘ll know that you‘re frightened the whole time, frightened of not knowing everything and not having the energy to do everything and of not coping with everything

“Take stock of who we are, and what we have, and then use it for good”

I believe you hear a click, not in your head but in your soul, when you find the place where you belong. You can ignore it, but really, why would you?

Compelling. Contained dystopian elements, thrills and even romance, a great sci-fi read. I was also partial to the main concept of multiverse theory in practice because I kind of believe in parallel universes 🤗 #botm

I always wanted to be more than above average

Intense second book, with a fulfilling (if heartbreaking) ending. I had thought it meant to be a trilogy, but the two books were complete. Such an incredible story, if you can stomach some serious trauma.