"...and his bewildered family was left clutching the shards of a fierce and painful love." Reading this in little bits because it is heavy and poetic and harsh and heartbreaking and real. #amreading #intothewild

"On the sidewalk where I stood a French photographer I knew from Iraq and Afghanistan deliberated his next move with several French journalists. They spoke in low, serious voices tinged with the sarcasm journalists use to temper their nerves. French journalists, in general, are known for being fearless and crazy. The joke was that if the French left a combat zone before you, you were screwed."

My ovaries gave him a standing ovation 😍 Just too much yummy manly man nature hotness goodness. My goodness! 😂 #KristanHiggins #InYourDreams

“We who have come back, by the aid of many lucky chances or miracles—whatever one may choose to call them—we know: the best of us did not return.” To know this. To say it out loud 💔

Forgot how hard it is to read a book-book (vs. an eBook) while eating--especially when it's not yours! #bookandcoffee + #bookanddessert at Book and Borders Cafe. Shelves full of books you can read while eating. Happiness! I've realized I can't read this book all in one go--it makes my heart hurt (in ways both good and bad).

Google says it's Louisa May Alcott's birthday today. Thank you for these sisters, their parents, their housekeeper, and their men 💙Is that Teddy by the door?

Kismet: going to a cafe and finding a copy of the book I'm reading on the iPad I left at home. I love, love that somebody wrote on it. I love seeing stuff like this.

#MarcosNOTaHero. Wherever they bury you. You broke my heart, Philippines. But you're still my country. 💛💙💔

“THE FIRST MORTAR round landed as the sun was rising.” #firstlines #amreading

"Tall, dark, and scowling." Another version of the Hot Man with a Holster that I adore ?

Smart, funny, sexy, witty. Plus I'm a sucker for hot men with holsters 🙋🏻💕

Cover love 😍

Why I love this girl so much.

I haven't read Anne of Green Gables, but not for lack of trying. My grandmother took me to the bookstore a lifetime ago and said I could choose ONE book. One! The agony. There were so many Annes so I got Chronicles of Avonlea. I've tried, many times, to get past the first few pages of Anne of Green Gables. No joy. But Emily! Tween Me loved her immediately. Emily I understood, adored, wanted desperately to BE. 25+ years later and I still love her💙

Mornings with Newland and Ellen. Before Kindles and iPads, I would bring this small hardbound copy around. In this age of Kindles and iPads, I still bring it when I travel 💙

"I carry you around with me always, across all continents + emotional landscapes..." They tackled real-world things via email and they still hit me with real-world feels ?

"Paying someone back simply means you're poorer afterward." Ouch. True, but ouch.

My first Rainbow Rowell. I heard the others are more popular and well-loved, but I was attracted to this one because I'm a bit of a sucker for what happens after happily ever after. Because that s*it is hard 😂 The sun rose as I finished this book. I remembered, fondly, telebabad (Filipino slang for spending forever on the phone): curled up under the sheets, talking about anything and everything, thoughts and laughter close to your ear.

I sprinted through this book. I had to KNOW. And then I did. And then I had to make sure it wasn't just the sprint that made my pulse race and my heart beat faster, so I read it again. Slowly. With a pen to mark passages. And still my pulse raced and still my heart beat faster. "Is there a safer place for secret desires than virtual reality?" I understand this. Leo and Emmi, I get you. North wind and all.

Reading and laughing en route to work. People were giving me funny looks. Oops. ?

"Prague is just perfect for love problems, especially at the end of March: everything's gray, and at night you have anemic dumplings and dark beer in some pub that's wood-paneled in the darkest shade of brown imaginable, watched over by an underemployed, depressive waiter whose whole reason for living stopped with Brezhnev's state visit. It's all over after that."

"Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing." (Photo taken at The Mind Museum in Manila)

I met a 50-year-old farmer who couldn't read or write. It broke my heart--to not have words to open worlds, to not understand the mundane, everyday things. But a young woman who works for an NGO is teaching him now. They started their lessons with his name ?

Illustrations like this one = one of the many reasons why I love this book.

This is my third copy of this book. (I lend it, it disappears, my heart breaks; I never learn.) A friend found this in a secondhand bookstore in London. Its previous owner underlined passages. I don't mind--I like seeing what affected other people. I guess Bergman was very significant to him or her. (My sister and I speculated about this quite a bit 😂) Tsismosa.

Because she wrote about their love and her loss with so light a hand. This is my parents' favorite book, so it became one of mine. They had a battered paperback with underlined passages and notes in my mother's handwriting. My sister and I went to so many Strand branches looking for a copy of this book.

Because she looked in the mirror and wrote about incest with such honesty and...beauty.

I was waiting for a friend at the bookstore when I saw this book. It was the last copy. It was a bit beat up; it had ball pen marks and smudges and creases but I couldn't stop reading so I took it home. "Is there a safer place for secret desires than virtual reality?" I understand this. Cyber-Me and Fleshy-Me can be so different sometimes.

My firstborn is a year old today. There are parts of me she shook, woke up, brought back to life. Thank you. 💙

"He knew that the Countess Olenska had brought some of her possessions with her—bits of wreckage, she called them—"

I lost a buttload of books to mold (sob) in my old apartment. My chest still hurts when I think about it. These are some of the survivors.