Reading

March Reading Recap!

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

The books I read this month were just so so. Nothing really stood out as a must read, unfortunately.

Here are my stats for March:

  • Read 4 books
  •  1,325 pages read
  • 1 Fiction; 2 Mystery/Thriller/Suspense; 1 Young Adult
  • Challenge Themes Completed:
    A book set on a college or university campus
    A book with a question in the title
    A book featuring an amateur detective
    A debut novel
  • Favorite book I read this month: The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

Below are the books I read this month, click on the book cover to be directed to my review 🙂

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Photography

April Photo A Day Challenge 2019

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

Welcome April! This month we are moving, after living in our apartment for 5 and a half years, so there will be a new perspective to some of my pictures. We can’t wait! In this post you will find the challenge list, some ideas for each day’s prompt and then the list with it’s corresponding hashtags so you can use those on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter if you would like. If you need a refresher on how to play/where to post your pictures click here. If you would like to see my pictures from March you can find them in my March Photo A Day album. Happy picture taking!!

If you want more help with the prompts, and ideas of what to take photos below, read on:

1. Fun
What do you think of when you think of fun? I think of smiling faces, jumping, confetti and balloons. Jam pack some fun into a photo.

2. This is me
What’s you? Show you in a photo. It could be a self portrait, or it might even be something that represents you.

3. Environment
Environment means your surroundings – so share what’s around you in a photo.

4. Flat lay
A flat lay is basically when you’re shooting items from directly above. Usually those items will be arranged or styled on a flat surface.

5. Walk
Take a photo of someone walking, or a place you walked too, or even the green light on the traffic light that signals for a person to walk.

6. In bed
Well isn’t this a good excuse to lie in and be a little lazy?! Take a photo of in bed. You might like to even set a timer on your camera and snuggle up for the shot.

7. Broken
Broken… not in one piece. Share that in a photo. Sometimes broken things make the most magical photos!

8. Something weird
I honestly think we’re all a little bit weird and wonderful, and if you look hard enough you can find beauty in the weird things around you. Take a look and snap a photo.

9. Yellow
Take a photo of something yellow in color today.

10. I did this today
What did you do today? Share it in a photo.

11. Four
Perhaps you have a child who is four, or you might be celebrating four years of marriage, or you might want to make four cupcakes, or you might find a number 4 sign in your travels. Whatever it is, snap FOUR in a photo.

12. Cheese
SAY CHEESE! Or eat cheese! Take a cheesy photo and share it!

13. Letters
It might be time to bring out the Scrabble letters to make up a word for this photo. Or grab a pen. Or just look for letters in your travels.

14. Makes me laugh
What makes you laugh? For me it’s FRIENDS, my husband, my kids and my silly dog. What about you?

15. Night sky
I hope we have a clear sky tonight. Head outside and take a photo of what you can see.

16. PJs
Will you be vulnerable and share a photo in your PJs? Eek!

17. Lunch
Don’t skip lunch today {or any day for that matter}. Show us what you’re enjoying this lunchtime.

18. Pink
My favorite color! Take a photo of something pink, please.

19. A good thing
I love good things, and I know you do too. So what’s a good thing to you? Share it in a photo.

20. Someone you love
Aww, love. You might be spending time with family and friends this Easter weekend, so share a photo of someone you love. Extra points if you share a photo of yourself. It’s good to love you!

21. Eggs
Yum, EGGS! Preferably the chocolate kind. Can you share a photo of eggs today? Might be good reason for an egg hunt. If you don’t celebrate Easter, normal eggs are fun to shoot too!

22. High
Get high! Not really. I mean, go high and take a photo looking down. Or get low and shoot a photo looking up.

23. Apple
Potentially the most popular fruit in the world, take a photo of a delicious apple.

24. Grass
I have a feeling that macro-lovers are going to love this one. Take a photo of grass. Use your phone or camera to get a close up of the bright green strands of grass.

25. Low
So we got high a few days ago, now it’s time to get low. How can you show the difference from your earlier photo?

26. Blue
Beautiful blue! Take a photo of anything {absolutely anything!} blue!

27. A green food
It’s time to eat your veggies, or maybe find another green food… and take a photo!

28. Dirty
It’s time to get dirty – take a photo of something dirty. Perhaps your dog/pet has played in the mud, or maybe your kitchen is a bit chaotic – whatever it is, we want to see it!

29. Freedom
What does freedom feel like to you? For me, it’s being on the beach, alone, early in the morning before the world has really started to wake… watching the sunrise. Show us in a photo.

30. Golden hour
Golden Hour is the hour before sunset. It’s when the sky is golden and the light is soft. Google when the sun sets in your area and head out with your camera just before it happens!

 

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Reading

Review: The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: The Perfect Mother by Aimee MolloyThe Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
Published by HarperCollins on May 1st 2018
Genre: Mystery + Thriller + Suspense
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 317
Challenge Theme: A debut novel


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
They call themselves the May Mothers—a collection of new moms who gave birth in the same month. Twice a week, with strollers in tow, they get together in Prospect Park, seeking refuge from the isolation of new motherhood; sharing the fears, joys, and anxieties of their new child-centered lives.

When the group’s members agree to meet for drinks at a hip local bar, they have in mind a casual evening of fun, a brief break from their daily routine. But on this sultry Fourth of July night during the hottest summer in Brooklyn’s history, something goes terrifyingly wrong: one of the babies is abducted from his crib. Winnie, a single mom, was reluctant to leave six-week-old Midas with a babysitter, but the May Mothers insisted that everything would be fine. Now Midas is missing, the police are asking disturbing questions, and Winnie’s very private life has become fodder for a ravenous media.

Though none of the other members in the group are close to the reserved Winnie, three of them will go to increasingly risky lengths to help her find her son. And as the police bungle the investigation and the media begin to scrutinize the mothers in the days that follow, damaging secrets are exposed, marriages are tested, and friendships are formed and fractured.

Review:
When there are no quotes that stick out to me in a book that usually isn’t the best sign. To me this book was just so so. The positives are that it kept my interest well enough and I did enjoy SOME of the characters. The story itself had potential but I absolutely HATED the twist at the end, see spoiler section for why. I found the going back and forth to be a tad confusing at the beginning. Once I got a handle on all the different character perspectives it got to be better. I have high expectations for the mystery/thriller genre and to me this just didn’t deliver.

***SPOILER ALERT***

When I found out that the culprit was Scarlet all I said was “who?” I didn’t even remember that character so I was just so disappointed that some character out of nowhere was the culprit. Maybe I just wasn’t paying enough attention. Then I had to go back to read the flashbacks to understand that they were Scarlett when they were made to seem to be Winne’s POV. I found that part interesting, after understanding I was reading it from the wrong perspective, but not enough to save the ending for me.

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Reading

Review: The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: The Last Time I Lied by Riley SagerThe Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
Published by Dutton Books on July 3rd 2018
Genre: Mystery + Thriller + Suspense
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 370
Challenge Theme: A book featuring an amateur detective


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
Two Truths and a Lie. The girls played it all the time in their tiny cabin at Camp Nightingale. Vivian, Natalie, Allison, and first-time camper Emma Davis, the youngest of the group. The games ended when Emma sleepily watched the others sneak out of the cabin in the dead of night. The last she–or anyone–saw of them was Vivian closing the cabin door behind her, hushing Emma with a finger pressed to her lips.

Now a rising star in the New York art scene, Emma turns her past into paintings–massive canvases filled with dark leaves and gnarled branches that cover ghostly shapes in white dresses. The paintings catch the attention of Francesca Harris-White, the socialite and wealthy owner of Camp Nightingale. When Francesca implores her to return to the newly reopened camp as a painting instructor, Emma sees an opportunity to try to find out what really happened to her friends.

Yet it’s immediately clear that all is not right at Camp Nightingale. Already haunted by memories from fifteen years ago, Emma discovers a security camera pointed directly at her cabin, mounting mistrust from Francesca and, most disturbing of all, cryptic clues Vivian left behind about the camp’s twisted origins. As she digs deeper, Emma finds herself sorting through lies from the past while facing threats from both man and nature in the present. And the closer she gets to the truth about Camp Nightingale, the more she realizes it may come at a deadly price.

Review:
When I really LOVE a thriller it sucks me in from the start and I can’t put it down, usually finishing it within a couple days. This book did not do that for me. It took me a while to get into it but about halfway through I started to get really invested in learning what happened to Vivian, Natalie & Allison. I can’t talk too much more about it without spoiling anything so I will continue below with a spoiler alert.

***SPOILER ALERT***

From the start I had a feeling Chet was the person involved in the original disappearance and the subsequent harassment of Emma and disappearances of the new girls. Turns out I was only part right. When it was revealed that the girls accidentally drowned the first time around I was annoyed. Like really? I invested all this time reading for it to be an accident. Lame. You can imagine when I read that final chapter how shocked I was. I did not see that coming, not even a little bit. I have to say thank goodness that was the choice the author made because had it really ended with it being an accident the rating on this book would have been a lot less. The whole Chet getting revenge on Emma would not have been enough for me. The book definitely ended on a high note, like a thriller should.

Favorite Quotes:
“Sometimes the only way out is through.”

“Everything is a game, Em. Whether you know it or not. Which means that sometimes a lie is more than just a lie. Sometimes it’s the only way to win.”

“Omnes vulnerant; ultima necat. I remember the phrase from high school Latin class, although not because I excelled at the language. In fact, I was terrible at it. I remember only because it sent a chill through me when I first learned what it meant. All hours wound; the last one kills.”

“My future is quite literally a blank canvas, waiting for me to fill it.”

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Reading

Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria SempleWhere'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
Published by Little Brown and Company on August 14th 2012
Genre: Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
Challenge Theme: A book with a question in the title


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fearlessly opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace; to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she is a best friend and, simply, Mom.

Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle–and people in general–has made her so agoraphobic that a virtual assistant in India now runs her most basic errands. A trip to the end of the earth is problematic.

To find her mother, Bee compiles email messages, official documents, secret correspondence–creating a compulsively readable and touching novel about misplaced genius and a mother and daughter’s role in an absurd world.

Review:
So this book was just ok to me. I will start with the things I did enjoy. I really liked the format of the first half of the book with the varying between narration from Bee to emails/memos/faxes all from different characters. At first I found it to be very confusing but once I got used to it I did enjoy it. I do feel, however, that it went on for a bit too long. The synopsis of this book makes it seem like the disappearing of Bernadette is the main plot of the story but that happens pretty late in the book. Going in I thought I was going to be reading a book about a daughter trying to find her mother but it was more about what led up to Bernadette disappearing. The middle part of the book, discussing Bernadette’s past, was just meh to me. I wanted to rush through that part. The last part of the book that finally delved into Bernadette’s disappearance held my interest, mainly because I wanted to know what happened to her. Unfortunately I found all that a little far fetched at the end of the day. The one story line I really did not like was the Soo-Lin & Elgie relationship. It felt like added fluff that wasn’t needed and quite frankly really bothered me as a reader. Final verdict: there was nothing I LOVED about this book but it was an entertaining enough read for the most part and I am interested to see what they do with the movie.

Favorite Quotes:
“My heart started racing, not the bad kind of heart racing, like I’m going to die. But the good kind of heart racing, like, Hello, can I help you with something? If not, please step aside because I’m about to kick the shit out of life.”

“That’s right,’ she told the girls. ‘You are bored. And I’m going to let you in on a little secret about life. You think it’s boring now? Well, it only gets more boring. The sooner you learn it’s on you to make life interesting, the better off you’ll be.”

“Just because it’s complicated, just because you think you can’t ever know everything about another person, it doesn’t mean you can’t try.”

“I felt so full of love for everything. But at the same time, I felt so hung out to dry there, like nobody could ever understand. I felt so alone in this world, and so loved at the same time.”

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Review: I Was Here by Gayle Forman

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: I Was Here by Gayle FormanI Was Here by Gayle Forman
Published by Viking Press on January 27th 2015
Genre: Young Adult
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 270
Challenge Theme: A book set on a college or university campus


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
Cody and Meg were inseparable.
Two peas in a pod.
Until . . . they weren’t anymore.

When her best friend Meg drinks a bottle of industrial-strength cleaner alone in a motel room, Cody is understandably shocked and devastated. She and Meg shared everything—so how was there no warning? But when Cody travels to Meg’s college town to pack up the belongings left behind, she discovers that there’s a lot that Meg never told her. About her old roommates, the sort of people Cody never would have met in her dead-end small town in Washington. About Ben McAllister, the boy with a guitar and a sneer, who broke Meg’s heart. And about an encrypted computer file that Cody can’t open—until she does, and suddenly everything Cody thought she knew about her best friend’s death gets thrown into question.

Review:
This book was just ok, not bad but not great. I enjoyed the aspect of Cody trying to come to terms with her best friend’s suicide by trying to figure out why she would do that. Unfortunately when it comes to suicide no one ever really knows. I found the fact that there are suicide encouragement groups online horrifying. Not that it surprises me in today’s world but it is horrifying nonetheless. I also enjoyed how the relationship between Cody and her mother developed over the course of the book. What I didn’t love was the romance aspect between Cody and Ben. I just didn’t find it necessary to the story at all. I didn’t mind the relationship being in the story but would have made more sense as a friendship, at least to me. I found it to be a forced romance in a book about something else entirely. Also I probably could have found a better book to fit the theme. While some of this book is set on a college campus the majority was not. Oh well, you live and you learn!

Favorite Quotes:
“You had a pile of rocks, and you cleaned them up pretty and made a necklace. Meg got jewels, and she hung herself with them.”

“It’s funny how once you start pretending, you realize how much everyone else is too.”

“She didn’t tell me that she found life to be so unbearably painful. I mean, I didn’t even have a clue.” A kind of laugh escapes, and I know that if I’m not very careful, what follows will be something I don’t want to hear, that no one wants to hear. How can you not know that about your best friend? Even if she doesn’t tell you, how can you not know? How can you believe someone to be beautiful and amazing and just about the most magical person you’ve ever known, when it turns out she was in such pain that she had to drink poison that robbed her cells of oxygen until her heart had no choice but to stop beating? So don’t ask me about Meg. Because I don’t know shit.”

“Life can be hard and beautiful and messy, but hopefully, it will be long. If it is, you will see that it’s unpredictable, and that the dark periods comes, but they abate — sometimes with a lot of support — and the tunnel widens, allowing the sun back in. If you’re in the dark, it might feel like you will always be there. Fumbling. Alone. But you won’t — and you’re not.”

“It seems abstract when you’re dealing with people online, but they are still people, and some of them are not nice people, not the kind you ever want to be in a room with.”
Sometimes you don’t even need to be in the same room for the damage to be done.”

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Reading

February Reading Recap!

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

This month I read some great books and some meh books. I am still on a great track for my Goodreads & POPSUGAR challenge so that makes me happy. It was so hard to pick my favorite book this month between Us Against You and Verity. They were both so good, for very different reasons. In the end I picked the book that made me feel the most.

Here are my stats for February:

  • Read 5 books
  •  1,891 pages read
  • 2 Fiction; 3 Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
  • Challenge Themes Completed:
    A book by two female authors
    A book becoming a movie in 2019
    A book with a plant in the title or on the cover
    A book set in Scandinavia
    A book you think should be turned into a movie
  • Favorite book I read this month: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

Below are the books I read this month, click on the book cover to be directed to my review 🙂

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Photography

March Photo A Day Challenge 2019

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena

Hello March! Welcome to a new month of picture taking. In this post you will find the challenge list, some ideas for each day’s prompt and then the list with it’s corresponding hashtags so you can use those on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter if you would like. If you need a refresher on how to play/where to post your pictures click here. If you would like to see my pictures from February you can find them in my February Photo A Day album. Happy picture taking!!

If you want more help with the prompts, and ideas of what to take photos below, read on:

1. Something colorful
Take a photo of something colorful – a rainbow, the sky, something you are wearing?

2. Alone
Take a photo of something or someone by themselves.

3. Old
Show us ‘old’ in a photo.

4. Happy
What makes you happy? Show us in a photo today.

5. Flowers
Bought flowers or growing wild, maybe a pattern on some clothes? Find some flowers and share in a photo.

6. Out of the window
What is happening outside your window today? Share with us.

7. Phone
Where would we be without our phones? Let’s celebrate our phones in a photo today!

8. Grateful for…
Show us what you are grateful for today.

9. Bird
Take a photo of a bird – maybe in a tree, maybe flying overhead, maybe a pet?

10. Words
Words are all around us – in books, on posters, in conversations. Show us ‘words’ in your photo today.

11. About me
Take a photo that tells us a little bit about you!

12. My mood today
How you doing today? Show us in a photo.

13. Jewel
Show us jewels in a photo today.

14. Simple
Uncluttered, unfussy, just plain and simple – take a photo that conveys that idea!

15. Kid
We were all kids once – show us your inner-child in a photo!

16. On the ground
Look down! What’s happening around you? Show us in a photo what’s going on on the ground near you today.

17. Something green
Take a photo of something green.

18. Jar
Take a photo of a jar – coffee jar, jam jar – any kind of jar you can find!

19. Funny
Make us laugh! Share something funny with us today.

20. A pile
Dishes, clothes, books – what do you have piles of? Show us in your photo today.

21. Wall
Something hanging on a wall, someone leaning against a wall or just a simple wall – you decide!

22. Craving
What are you craving today? Show us in your photo.

23. OK
Is everything OK today? Show us ‘OK’ in a photo.

24. Black and white
Classic black and white and you can choose what you take – just forget about the colour and let your subject shine through in your photo!

25. Fashion
What does ‘fashion’ mean to you? Show us in your photo.

26. Sky
Take a photo of the sky you see today – night or day, share with us a little piece of what you see.

27. Home
There’s no place like it! Share a photo of what ‘home’ means to you.

28. Stick
Stick with glue, stick to your guns, an actual stick – show ‘stick’ in your photo today.

29. Mirror
Mirror, mirror on the wall – show us what you see today!

30. Park
Show us what ‘park’ means to you – a lovely green space to hang out with friends or somewhere to leave your car?

31. Fix
Take a photo of something that needs to be fixed or maybe something that has been fixed.

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Review: Verity by Colleen Hoover

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: Verity by Colleen HooverVerity by Colleen Hoover
Published by Indenpendently on December 10th 2018
Genre: Mystery + Thriller + Suspense
Format: Paperback
Pages: 314
Challenge Theme: A book you think should be turned into a movie


Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
Lowen Ashleigh is a struggling writer on the brink of financial ruin when she accepts the job offer of a lifetime. Jeremy Crawford, husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired Lowen to complete the remaining books in a successful series his injured wife is unable to finish.

Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines, hoping to find enough material to get her started. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read. Page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity’s recollection of what really happened the day her daughter died.

Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents would devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words. After all, no matter how devoted Jeremy is to his injured wife, a truth this horrifying would make it impossible for him to continue to love her.

Review:
I read 40 pages of this book day 1 and the other 274 pages on day 2. I stayed up about 2 hours past my bedtime because I could not put this book down. Verity is definitely not a traditional Colleen Hoover book but man it was just as good as my other favorites she has written. This is a messed up thriller to the max. It does still have some romantic elements but that is definitely not the focus of this novel. Once Lowen starts reading Verity’s autobiography you will not want to put the book down. I had to keep seeing what would happen next. The web Hoover weaves with this characters is tantalizing and (excuse my French) fucked up. Also the fact that something happens at the end that I did not see coming, not even a little bit, just made me go WOW!! A must read! When I chose this book for the movie prompt I had no idea if it would really be a good book to turn into a movie. That was based on the opinion of a book blogger on Instagram but I have to say after reading it I agree. This would make a great movie!

Favorite Quotes:
“I think the idea of me is better than the reality of me.”

“A writer should never have the audacity to write about themselves unless they’re willing to separate every layer of protection between the author’s soul and their book. The words should come directly from the center of the gut, tearing through flesh and bone as they break free. Ugly and honest and bloody and a little bit terrifying, but completely exposed.”

“It’s what you do when you’ve experienced the worst of the worst. You seek out people like you…people worse off than you…and you use them to make yourself feel better about the terrible things that have happened to you.”

“If we were friends, I would do something to comfort him. Maybe grab his hand and hold it. But there’s too much inside me that wants to be more than his friend, which means we can’t be friends at all. If an attraction is present between two people, those two people can only be one of two things. Involved or not involved. There is no in-between.”

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Review: Us Against You by Fredrik Backman

by Kristeena
written by Kristeena
Review: Us Against You by Fredrik BackmanUs Against You by Fredrik Backman
Series: Beartown, #2
Published by Atria Books on August 21st 2017
Genre: Fiction
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 448
Challenge Theme: A book set in Scandinavia


Buy on Barnes & Noble
Buy on Amazon

Synopsis:
After everything that the citizens of Beartown have gone through, they are struck yet another blow when they hear that their beloved local hockey team will soon be disbanded. What makes it worse is the obvious satisfaction that all the former Beartown players, who now play for a rival team in Hed, take in that fact. Amidst the mounting tension between the two rivals, a surprising newcomer is handpicked to be Beartown’s new hockey coach.

Soon a new team starts to take shape around Amat, the fastest player you’ll ever see; Benji, the intense lone wolf; and Vidar, a born-to-be-bad troublemaker. But bringing this team together proves to be a challenge as old bonds are broken, new ones are formed, and the enmity with Hed grows more and more acute.

As the big match approaches, the not-so-innocent pranks and incidents between the communities pile up and their mutual contempt grows deeper. By the time the last game is finally played, a resident of Beartown will be dead, and the people of both towns will be forced to wonder if, after all they’ve been through, the game they love can ever return to something simple and innocent.

Review:
I was worried about choosing this book because I LOVED the prequel, Beartown. I thought there was no way I would love this book as much. Well I was wrong. This was just as good as the first book in the series. In Beartown I fell in love with these characters, especially Benji, and was so excited to see where they went in their lives. I absolutely love the way Backman forms a story, his writing makes you feel so many emotions over the course of one novel. You feel angry, heartbroken, happy, sick to your stomach, just to name a few. I also really like the foreshadowing he does in almost every chapter. It gives you insight into the future of the characters & events and it also makes you want to keep reading to see what exactly happens. He teases it enough to peak your interest without giving too much away until the time comes to reveal the whole story. Backman also gives depth to every single character and you find yourself invested in them whether you love them or hate them. He also shows how there is no black or white when it comes to humans. At one point I could not stand William Lyt but by the end he redeemed himself. Everyone is flawed and Backman makes them all relatable. I have no idea if he has plans to write a 3rd novel in this series but I will be the first one to read it if he does. I would love to continue to read what happens to every single one of these characters.

Favorite Quotes:
“He’s twelve years old, and this summer he learns that people will always choose a simple lie over a complicated truth, because the lie has one unbeatable advantage: the truth always has to stick to what actually happened, whereas the lie just has to be easy to believe.”

“The worst thing we know about other people is that we’re dependent upon them. That their actions affect our lives. Not just the people we choose, the people we like, but all the rest of them: the idiots. You who stand in front of us in every line, who can’t drive properly, who like bad television shows and talk too loud in restaurants and whose kids infect our kids with the winter vomiting bug at preschool. You who park badly and steal our jobs and vote for the wrong party. You also influence our lives, every second.”

“The complicated thing about good and bad people alike is that most of us can be both at the same time.”

“Sometimes people have to be allowed to have something to live for in order to survive everything else.”

“At some point almost everyone makes a choice. Some of us don’t even notice it happening, most don’t get to plan it in advance, but there’s always a moment when we take one path instead of another, which has consequences for the rest of our lives. It determines the people we will become, in other people’s eyes as well as our own. Elizabeth Zackell may have been right when she said that anyone who feels responsibility isn’t free. Because responsibility is a burden. Freedom is a pleasure.”

“The truth about most people is as simple as it is unbearable: we rarely want what is best for everyone; we mostly want what’s best for ourselves.”

“Life is a weird thing. We spend all our time trying to manage different aspects of it, yet we are still largely shaped by things that happen beyond our control.”

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