Fresh Water for Flowers | Valérie Perrin

“I prefer youngsters to be full of life, annoying, noisy, drunk, stupid, rather than in coffins, followed by people bowed with grief.” (77)

“We push open the door. In the window there are funerary plaques and bouquets of artificial flowers. I loathe artificial flowers. A plastic or polyester rose is like a bedside lamp trying to imitate the sun.” (135)

“The darkness has to intensify for the first star to appear.” (208)

“I had my first garden at nine years old. One square meter of flowers. It was my mother who taught me how to sow, water, harvest. I sensed that it would be my thing. She always said to me, ‘Don’t judge each day by what you can pick, but by the seeds you sow.’ .. this garden is seven hundred square meters.. of joy, love, sweat, endeavor, determination, and patience.” (231)

“I was impatient to return to life after [their passing]. With the main one extinguished, the volcano was extinct. But I sensed branches, offshoots growing inside me. Whatever I sowed, I could feel it. I was sowing myself. And yet, the arid soul that was me was much poorer than that of the cemetery vegetable garden. A soil full of gravel. But a blade of grass can grow anywhere, and that anywhere was me. Yes, a root can take hold in tar. All that’s needed is the tiniest crack for life to penetrate the impossible. A little rain, some sun, and then shoots from who knows where, from the wind perhaps, appear.” (248)


***

3/5. Some beautiful passages, a moving story overall. I cried. But the "love" in this book was just "lust" and that was a huge chunk of the novel.. I couldn't get past all those affairs. If you can look past that part, then, this book is beautiful. 

Anxious People | Fredrik Backman

1. "The older police officer squints at the real estate agent.  He's gotten into the habit of doing that when he encounters incomprehensible individuals, and a lifetime of almost constant squinting has given the skin under his eyes something of the quality of soft ice cream. The Realtor, who is evidently of the opinion that no one heard her the first time, offers an unwanted explanation: 'Get it? HOUSE TRICKS Real Estate Agency. HOW'S TRICKS? Get it? Because everyone wants a real estate agent who knows the best...'" (18)

2. "Nothing is easier for people who never do anything themselves than to criticize someone who actually makes an effort." (209)

3. "Ro replied dejectedly: '...Since she got pregnant everything's become so serious, because parents are always serious and I suppose we're trying to fit in.  Sometimes I don't think I'm ready for the responsibility-- I mean, I think my phone is asking too much of me when it wants me to install an update, and I find myself yelling: 'You're suffocating me.' You can't shout that at a child. And children have to be updated all the time, because they can kill themselves just crossing the street or eating a peanut! I've mislaid my phone three times already today, I don't know if I'm ready for a human being.'" (163)

4. "Julia didn't follow the logic. 

'Grandchildren would make him feel important?' 

Anna-Lena smiled weakly.  

'Have you ever held a three-year-old by the hand on the way home from preschool?' 

'No.' 

'You're never more important than you are then.'" (177)

5. "The bridge is covered with ice, sparkling beneath the last few valiant stars as dawn heaves its way over the horizon.  The town is breathing deeply around it, still asleep, swaddled in eiderdowns and dreams and tiny feet belonging to hearts our own can't beat without." (322)

***

4/5. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was not only hilarious and relatable, but the unfolding of the story was clever and beautiful and poignant. Bravo, Fredrik Backman! Can't wait to read more of your books.

The Midnight Library | Matt Haig

1. "She had thought, in her nocturnal and suicidal hours, that solitude was the problem. But that was because it hadn't been true solitude.  The lonely mind in the busy city yearns for connection because it thinks human-to-human connection is the point of everything.  But amid pure nature (or the 'tonic of wildness' as Thoreau called it) solitude took on a different character.  It became in itself a kind of connection.  A connection between herself and the world.  And between her and herself." 126

2. "She imagined, now, what it would be like to accept herself completely. Every mistake she had ever made.  Every mark on her body.  Every dream she hadn't reached or pain she had felt.  Every lust or longing she had suppressed.  

She imagined accepting it all. The way she accepted nature.  The way she accepted a glacier or a puffin or the breach of a whale.  

She imagined seeing herself as just another brilliant freak of nature.  Just another sentient animal, trying their best. 

And in doing so, she imagined what it was like to be free."

143

3. "Look at that chessboard... 'At the beginning of a game, there are no variations.  There is only one way to set up a board.  There are nine million variations after the first six moves.  And after eight moves there are two hundred and eighty-eight billion different positions.  And those possibilities keep growing.  There are more possible ways to play a game of chess than the amount of atoms in the observable universe.  So it gets very messy.  And there is no right way to play; there are many ways.  In chess, as in life, possibility is the basis of everything.  Every hope, every dream, every regret, every moment of living." 195

4. "We just have to close our eyes and savour the taste of the drink in front of us and listen to the song as it plays."  277

5. "She followed her brother inside her flat to start tidying up, catching a glimpse of the clusters of irises in Mr. Banerjee's garden as she went.  Flowers she hadn't appreciated before, but which now mesmerised her with the most exquisite purple she had ever seen.  As though the flowers weren't just colours but part of a language, notes in a glorious floral melody, as powerful as Chopin, silently communicating the breathtaking majesty of life itself." 283

***

5/5. 

Happiness for Beginners | Katherine Center

[1] "...happy people are more likely to register joy than unhappy people. So if you take two people who have experienced a day of, say, fifty percent good things and fifty percent bad things, an unhappy person would remember more of the bad.  ..it's not just an attitude. It's genuinely connected to memory.  It's like, for unhappy people, if you ask them at the end of the day what they remember, it's the bad stuff.  But they aren't ignoring the good memories, they just didn't retain them." (123-124)

[2] "'People can get hooked up on longing, though. They wind up liking the wanting more than the having.' 
'Exactly!'  I said.  Is that fixable?

    Windy thought for a moment before answering.  'Well,' she said. 'there's a lot more neurological plasticity in the brain than we used to believe.  In theory, anything's possible.  But that's in theory.  The most important thing to remember is that getting what you want doesn't make you happy.'

'It doesn't?'  I asked.

'Not for long.  Happiness is more about appreciating than acquisition.'" (164)

[3] "I don't know how he could press so much longing and so much determination into one stolen moment, but there, on our knees, in the rain, the two of us possibly the dirtiest people to kiss since caveman times, he did.  It was like nobody else even existed.  I couldn't have pulled away if I'd wanted to.  By the way, I didn't want to." (217)

[4] "As I walked behind her, watching her calf muscles flex and release, I decided they were just exactly the perfect human shape for calves--and for legs in general, really." (123)

[5] "Every story has a beginning and an end.  Looking back, I could have begun it anywhere, or lingered on anything.  ..I could have lingered on sorrows.  I could have painted the portrait of a crumbling marriage, or a family drowned by grief. It's all there.

    But that's not the story I want to tell.  Those aren't the moments in my life I want to dwell on.  They happened. They mattered.  They left their marks.  But the things we remember are what we hold on to, and what we hold on to becomes the story of our lives.  We only get one story.  And I am determined to make mine a good one." (308)

3.5/5 I loved this book. I cringed a little at the beginning, but as the characters were developed I fell in love with all of them. It was just a fun, chick-flick feel. I am pretty excited for the Netflix version later this year! 

Take note, there is some language, a few F bombs, and some sexually suggestive material. 

Confessions of a Domestic Failure | Bunmi Laditan

[1] "Does anyone else find it entirely unreasonable that a human being should be required to cook AND clean on the same day? I woke up determined to get my kitchen in a state that doesn't make me shrink with shame... When I was done my kitchen sparkled like it never had before. Aubrey woke up and I honestly felt like an amazing woman and mom until I realized something. I had to start dinner. In an hour, the kitchen would be destroyed. It seemed like a waste of my hard work so I ordered Chinese food, instead." (62)

[2] "I wish parenthood talked about how utterly boring motherhood could be. I felt guilty for feeling it, but.. I was bored. I tried to set Aubrey down on her foam mat, but as soon as her tiny feet grazed the floor, she let out a banshee scream. Like a good servant, I picked her right back up and headed into the kitchen to eat my feelings. ..It only took a few seconds to pop the top off of the industrial-sized tub of peanut butter.. Aubrey begged for a taste. 'Pretty good, isn't it? One day you'll eat your feelings, too, honey.'" (63)

[3] "Sometimes it feels like moms are supposed to be invisible in society. Seen but not heard. We're supposed to quietly and quickly go about our task of raising perfectly mannered, groomed Gap babies who speak four languages before they're six without distracting the rest of the world from their important work." (24)

[4]  "Dear Pinterest, 

When we first started dating, you lured me in with Skittles-flavored vodka and Oreo-filled chocolate chip cookies. You wooed me with cheesy casseroles adjacent to motivational fitness sayings. I loved your inventiveness: Who knew cookies needed a sugary butter dip? 

    You did. You knew, Pinterest. You inspired me, not to make stuff, but to think about one day possibly making stuff if I have time. You took the cake batter, rainbow and bacon trend to levels nobody thought were possible. You made me hungry. The nights I spent pinning and eating nachos were some of the best nights of my life. 

    Pinterest, we can't see each other anymore. You see, it's recently come to my attention that some people aren't just pinning, they are making. This makes me want to make, too. Unfortunately, I'm not good at making, and deep down I like buying way more.  Do you see where I'm going with this? I'm starting to feel bad, Pinterest. I don't enjoy you the way I once did. 

    We need to take a break. I'm going to miss your crazy ideas (rolls made with 7Up? Shut your mouth). This isn't going to be easy. You've been responsible for nearly every 2 a.m. grilled cheese binge I've had for the past couple of years, and for that I'll be eternally grateful. 

Stay cool, Pinterest.

PS. You hurt me.

PPS. I'm also poor now.

Xo

Me" (128)

[5] "Back to the ridiculous parking spaces. Every time I parked and had to squeeze my jiggly post-baby stomach between vehicles it was just another reminder that I'm not where I should be, body-wise. It's hard enough getting out of the house with an eight-month-old who only poops when we're in stores.  

Which led me to..

    Piece of Evidence That The World Hates Moms #2: Public Changing Tables.

Nobody's asking for a Four Seasons-inspired changing room with baby bidets and Egyptian cotton, rosewater-scented wipes individually handed to me by a gloved bathroom attendant, but three days ago I almost gagged changing Aubrey on a sticky, crusty monstrosity with broken straps, soiled with what I HOPED was dried prune baby food. I did my best to clean the biohazard with wipes and hand sanitizer, but really?" (24)

3.5/5. I loved it! It too a minute to get used to the main character, Ashley, but she grew on me quickly. If you haven't ever struggled with depression or complete overwhelm in motherhood, this book may not be the book for you. But, I happen to know that I do, thus, I found this book refreshing and hilarious. Ashley is truly a hot mess, but a relatable, lovable hot mess!

Take note, there is some language and some sexually suggestive material.