I love animals. As back as my memory goes to the various homes my family lived in, I remember at least two cats in each home and occasionally a dog. I have volunteered during my undergrad and Masters at various animal welfare organizations, and pre-covid even volunteered in Champaign. Now, I co-parent with various family members four cats and one dog.
There is nothing better than a Saturday spent with a book. Here are some of my (current) top recommendations.
Anxious People (Fredrik Backman)
"That's the power of literature, you know, it can act like little love letters between two people who can only explain their feelings by pointing at other people's"
A Man called Ove (Fredrik Backman)
"You only need one ray of light to chase all the shadows away, she said to him once, when he asked her why she had to be so upbeat the whole time."
Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)
"But remember that forgiveness too is a power. To beg for it is a power, and to withhold or bestow it is a power, perhaps the greatest. Maybe none of this is about control. Maybe it isn't really about who can own whom, who can do what to whom and get away with it, even as far as death. Maybe it isn't about who can sit and who has to kneel or stand or lie down, legs spread open. Maybe it's about who can do what to whom and be forgiven for it. Never tell me it amounts to the same thing."
The Book Thief (Markus Zusak)
"I (death) wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I even simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant...I AM HAUNTED BY HUMANS."
Us against You (Fredrik Backman)
"Everyone is a hundred different things, but in other people’s eyes we usually get the chance to be only one of them"
My life on road (Gloria Steinem)
"When humans are ranked instead of linked, everyone loses."
My grandmother Asked me to tell you she is sorry (Fredrik Backman)
"And Maud bakes cookies, because when the darkness is too heavy to bear and too many things have been broken in too many ways to ever be fixed again, Maud doesn't know what weapon to use if one can't use dreams."
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (Gail Honeyman)
"Grief is the price we pay for love, so they say. The price is far too high."
Devotions (Mary Oliver)
"As long as you are dancing you can break the rules. Sometimes breaking the rules is just extending the rules. Sometimes there are no rules."
Very occasionally, I take a stab at writing. Here are some of the things I have written.