isawitbefore

[isawitbefore]

Bones (2005-2017)

Booth & Brennan + Through the years (insp, insp)

[isawitbefore]

But it is true I look for bright sides, not because I am an optimist by disposition, not because I don't know any better - I do - but because I am so slow. It takes me so long to do everything I do. And if you go slowly enough, every moment of the day becomes its own journey, either its own triumph, which you get to celebrate, or its own failure, which you get to move on from, by definition, in the very next moment. If you operate at speed, each word is not a victory, each swallowed piece of food or sip of water is not a conquest. If you operate at speed, you need bigger things to vanquish than a sentence or a muffin or a single line of King Lear. When you have learned forbearance and acceptable and generosity of spirit the hardest of ways. My skies may not be the limit, but they are less clouded than they seem.

Laurie Frankel, One Two Three

[isawitbefore]

What I came away with was a sense of Helen seizing control of her own story. She was so isolated in that city, so powerless - even at my age, I could see that - and those tapestries were a way of saying: I'm here. Me. A person, not just an object to be looked at and fought over.

Pat Baker, The Silence of the Girls

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I felt as I used to do, as a very young girl, that the wind was the breadth of a god filling me with life.

Pat Baker, The Women of Troy

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For millennia there have been men who react with horror and disgust to women's independence, men who desire women yet hate them, and who take refuge in fantasies of purity and control. What would it be like to live with such a man as your husband? There are too many today who could answer that. But that is the mark of a good source myth; it is water so wide that it can reach across centuries. I hope you enjoyed the swim.

Madeline Miller, Galatea

[isawitbefore]

"One day, the beauty of your mind and the beauty of art will be as one..."

Heather Terrell and Victoria Christopher Murray, The Personal Librarian

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"... one thing that you will come to learn about me is that I pick my battles very carefully. You are but a single man, and your opinion of me is not a battle worth waging. An argument in this hallway over my capabilities will waste both my time and energy, and I have no inclination to waste either."

Lucy Foley, The Paris Apartment

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I told them and told them. When there is rot in the walls, there is only one remedy. Tear down, I thought. Tear down and build again.

Madeline Miller, Circe

[isawitbefore]

Beyond the End: Circe by Madeline Miller

Excerpt: In the house of helios, god of the sun and the mightest of the Titans, a daughter is born. Circe is strange - not powerful and terrible, like her father, nor gorgeous and mercenary like her mother. But she has a dark power of her own: witchcraft. When Circe's gift threatens the gods, she is banished to the island of Aiaia where she hones her occult craft, casting spells, gathering strange herbs and taming wild beasts. Yet a woman who stands alone cannot live in peace for long - and among her island's guests is an unexpected visitor: the mortal Odysseus, for whom Circe will risk everything.

-----

All my life, I have been moving forward, and now I am here. I have a mortal's voice, let me have the rest. I lift the brimming bowl to my lips and drink.

"Circe wake up.. please... wake up..." Telemachus pleaded, kneeling on the ground and holding Circe as dedicatedly as he could as if she would vanish any moment. As Circe slowly regained consciousness, Telemachus heaved a sigh of relief and tightened his embrace around her body.

Once, Circe thought losing her divinity would have a profound impact on her. But all her concerns disappeared the moment Telemachus spoke.

"Hello, mortal", a rare mischievous glint flickered in Telemachus's eyes. "Shut up. Just kiss me already", Circe smiled.

And that's the first thing Circe did as a mortal. Kissing someone she truly loves.

27 January 2024

[isawitbefore]

When you're an artist, it's because there's something inside you that you can't keep from spilling out. Maybe it comes in the form of sentences, or a grand jete, or a stroke of a paintbrush. The end result can be a million different things. But the seed, it's always the same. It's the emotion there isn't a word for. The feeling that's too big for your body. To show someone your soul, you have to bleed. People who are comfortable - people who are content - they don't create art.

Jodi Picoult, the book of two ways

[isawitbefore]

Perhaps most remarkable was his unself-consciousness. He did not preen nor pout as other handsome children did. Indeed, he seemed utterly unaware of his effect on the boys around him. Though how he was, I could not imagine: they crowded him like dogs in their eagerness, tongues lolling.

Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles

[isawitbefore]

Beyond the End: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

Excerpt: Greece in the age of heroes. Awkward young prince Patroclus has been exiled to the court of King Peleus. Despite their differences, Peleus's golden boy Achilles befriends the shamed price. As they grow into young men, their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles's mother, the sea goodness Thetis.

But when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, Achilles must go to war in distant Troy and fulfill his destiny. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus goes with him.

-----

In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood, like a hundred urns pouring out the son.

"I've been waiting for you, Patroclus", Achilles clasped his fingers with Patroclus's with all his might. "And I will not be leaving again, Achilles." Patroclus returned the grip with the brightest smile.

-----

This is definitely a memorable book as not all authors are brave enough to kill the main character off and still let him narrate the book. :')

20 January 2024

[isawitbefore]

✨ 2023 Read Recap ✨

Beartown - Fredrik Backman

Us Against You - Fredrik Backman

Finlay Donovan Is Killing It - Elle Cosimano

Murder in Old Bombay - Nev March

I SHOT THE BUDDHA - Colin Cotterill

The Stranger in the Lifeboat - Mitch Albom

AND EVERY MORNING THE WAY HOME GETS LONGER AND LONGER - Mitch Albom

The Winners - Fredrik Backman

A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman

Beautiful World, Where Are You -  Sally Rooney

Malibu Rising - Taylor Jenkins Reid

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman

The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett

All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr

The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr

Shuggie Bain - Douglas Stuart

Carrie Soto is back - Taylor Jenkins Reid

The Book Haters' Club - Gretchen Anthony

This is how it always is - Laurie Frankel

The Bookshop on the Shore - Jenny Colgan

[isawitbefore]

But there was something else there too - the stress of day-to-day living, of finding rent, of worrying about the future. It had not gone, of course not. But it had lifted.

Jenny Colgan, The Bookshop on the Shore

[isawitbefore]

The people who do not understand are change. The people who afraid are change. There is no before and no after because change is what is life. You live in change, in in between. ... You learn over lifetimes. You keep try. You will find a middle way to be. This life. Next. You find your way.

Laurie Frankel, this is how it always is

[isawitbefore]

...we may not get to choose what happens in our lives, but we can choose not to act like fools in the face of our hardships.

Gretchen Anthony, The Book Haters' Book Club

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"You know they only win if you let them." "Don't give them the satisfaction." "Just hold your head high and Gie. It. Laldy." She was no use at maths homework, and some days you could starve rather than get a hot meal from her, but Shuggie looked at her now and understood this was where she excelled. Everyday with the make-up on and her hair down, she climbed out of her grave and held her head high. When she disgraced herself wit drink, she got up the next day, put on her best coat, and faced the world. When her belly was empty and her weans were hungry, she did her hair and let the world think otherwise.

Douglas Stuart, Shuggie Bain