Black Like Me, written by John Howard Griffin
This is the fascinating, heart-breaking, and thought-provoking story of a white man who, in 1959, changed his skin color and lived for six weeks as a black man in multiple southern states. It's about the surface issues and deeper problems of racism, hope and despair, and the inevitability of every single person to have biases and wrong beliefs. It's about humanity.
p. 91, "You place the white man in the ghetto, deprive him of educational advantages, arrange it so he has to struggle hard to fulfill his instinct for self-respect, give him little physical privacy and less leisure, and he would after a time assume the same characteristics you attach to the Negro. These characteristics don't spring from whiteness or blackness, but from a man's conditioning."
p. 114, No one, not even a saint, can live without a sense of personal value. The white racist has masterfully defrauded the Negro of this sense. It is the least obvious but most heinous of all race crimes, for it kills the spirit and the will to live.
p. 160, I, too, say let us be peaceful; but the only way to do this is first to assure justice. By keeping "peaceful" in this instance, we end up consenting to the destruction of all peace - for so long as we condone injustice by a small but powerful group, we condone the destruction of all social stability, all real peace, all trust in man's good intentions toward his fellow man.
p. 171, We were advocating only that this country live up to its promises to all citizens. But since racism always hides under a respectable guise - usually the guise of patriotism and religion - a great many people loathed us for knocking holes in these respectable guises.
The Bullet That Missed, written by Richard Osman
This third book in the Thursday Murder Club series was just as enjoyable as the first two. Four residents of the same retirement community, as well as some other characters from earlier books in the series, work together to solve a ten year-old crime. A multi-layered story and likeable characters both familiar and new, this series is as much about friendship as it is about solving mysteries. That's probably why I enjoy it so much.
p. 63, But the real memories are never the ones that make the highlights real. < snip > Not roller coasters, not skyscrapers, just the accumulation of small moments that turn acquaintance into friendship.
Children of the Jacaranda Tree, written by Sahar Delijani
This novel, written by an author who was born an Iranian prison and inspired by her family's story, is a beautifully written testament to the strength and suffering of those who have experienced horrific things. I loved this story about activism, family, grief, brutality, love, pain, and beauty, and how the past always impacts the present.
p. 205, When it comes to grief, time is nothing but a failed attempt at forgetting.
Daybreak 2000: Earth's Natural Beauty Captured at the Dawn of a New Age, compiled by Roger Tefft
This project involved nature photographers all over the world taking pictures on 1/1/2000 and their work is presented in longitudinal order, moving west from the International Date Line. Each photo includes a brief description of the setting, map of the location, longitudinal position, time of day the photo was taken, photographer's name, and information about the camera and film used.
Ink Knows No Borders: Poems of the Immigrant and Refugee Experience, edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond with foreword by Javier Zamora and afterword by Emtithal Mahmoud
Sixty-four poets, whose brief biographies are found after all the poems, put to words what they've lived through as immigrants and refugees. I don't remember how I discovered this book, but I'm glad I did.
The Life Council: 10 Friends Every Woman Needs, written by Laura Tremaine
Life in Five Sense: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, written by Gretchen Rubin
Making the decision to intentionally focus on her five primary senses, Rubin discovered how much of her life she'd been missing, the joy she found through paying attention to sensory input, and the value of self-awareness and connection with others that came from prioritizing sensory experiences. This book is a challenge to both pay attention to our senses in common situations that we've become desensitized to and to seek out new opportunities to engage our senses.
p. 18, Research shows that happier people are interested in the problems of others and the problems of the world. They volunteer more time, donate more money, are more likely to vote, and are more likely to help others.
p. 84, As I listened to this exchange, suddenly realized that the word listen was just a rearrangement of the word silent - remarkably apt.
p. 155, Sometimes, to keep going, we have to allow ourselves to stop.
p. 181, Although most of us may not consider ourselves superstitious, we're a littlestitious.
The Memory of Old Jack, written by Wendell Berry and narrated by Paul Michael
This novel centers on an elderly man, a lifelong farmer born soon after the Civil War, who spends a day remembering people and events from his past. Along with a deep appreciation for the land, his story is a reminder that poor choices don't keep one from having a meaningful life, honesty and integrity are critical, there's much value in being a hard worker, and relationships with both friends and family are deeply impactful, whether positively or negatively.
I spent a few hours working in the yard one day and impulsively decided to listen to an audiobook instead of a podcast. The book I first tried was checked out, but this one was available and I started listening. With nearly a whole day to myself, I ended up finishing the whole thing while doing yard work, eating, going on a walk, and working on a puzzle.
The Sunflower, written by Richard Paul Evans
I needed a light read, a novel where people have messy lives, but the ending is predictable and tidy. This story about a man whose career falls apart, a woman whose wedding gets canceled, and what happens when they meet on another continent fit the bill.
p. 86, There are none so impoverished as those who do not acknowledge the abundance of their lives.
p. 269, We carry around in our heads these pictures of what our lives are supposed to look like, painted by the brush of our intentions. It's the great, deep secret of humanity that in the end none of our lives look the way we thought they would. As much as we wish to believe otherwise, most of life is a reaction to circumstances.
The Year of Magical Thinking, written by Joan Didion
This book is Didion's processing of the sudden death of her husband of forty years in the midst of their daughter's life-threatening medical situation, written in both reflection and real time during her first year of being a widow. She's simultaneously lucid and scattered, self-aware and oblivious, writing a tangible expression of grief's complex layers.
p. 143, Grief was passive. Grief happened. Mourning, the act of dealing with grief, required attention.
