BOOKS I FINISHED - FEBRUARY 2021

Butterfly Yellow, written by Thannha Lai

An older sister heads to a Vietnamese airport with her little brother in an attempt to find safety in America. Plans are foiled and her brother is taken without her. Several years later she finally gets her own chance to go to America as a refugee and sets out to be reunited with her brother.

p. 57, Dusk has always been her favorite hour, when the sun has grown bored of its harshness and is melting into a soft rose to give this side of the globe a break. 

p. 179, Everyone, he figures, has longings that won't fade even when clobbered by cold, brutal facts. 

p. 266, But Ba believed life is long, the universe will deliver justice, eventually. Ba chose to cultivate a life. Steered her sons from becoming soldiers, tended to her garden, stared into love and hate, beauty and ugliness, joy and anguish, healing and pain. To seek one is to accept the other, like chopsticks. 

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At any time in any place an act of horror is being committed. At any time in any place an act of sublimity is being felt. Each circulating, sniffing the other like dogs, but one cannot destroy the other.

Circa Now, written by Amber McRee Turner

When Mom's already depressed and Dad dies unexpectedly, life is hard. But sometimes there's a little magic in the mix, something that helps you move forward.

p. 5, Mom had once described depression as carrying a wet bag of sand everywhere you go. Heavy and messy and hard to shake. 

p. 7, (speaking of people with memory issues due to Alzheimer's and dementia) "After all," Dad had always said, "just because the book's too high up on the shelf to reach, doesn't mean the story's not there."

 

Fish in a Tree, written by Lynda Mullaly Hunt

A sweet story about the amazing influence of teachers, critical support of friendship, important solidarity of family, and the change from hopeless and embarrassed to hopeful and confident. It's about the incredible power of words, both written and spoken.  

p. 123, I say, "Well ... alone is a way to be. It's being by yourself with no one else around. And it can be good or bad. And it can be a choice. When my mom and brother are both working, I'm alone, but I don't mind it." I swallow hard. Shift in my seat. "But being lonely is never a choice. It's not about who is with you or not. You can feel lonely when you're alone, but the worst kind of lonely is when you're in a room full of people, but you're still alone. Or you feel like you are, anyway."

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