“Our bodies belonged to us. Poor, disabled, it didn’t matter. These were our bodies, and we had the right to “decide what to do with them. It was as if they were just taking our bodies from us, as if we didn’t even belong to ourselves.”
Every month, residents of Central Baptist Village meet in the CBV library to discuss a book chosen by our Outreach Librarian. This month we're reading The Lost for Words Bookshop by Stephanie Butland.
“I want him to know I am not lonely, I have ghosts, I have my illnesses, I have a mouthful of half-languages, & blood thick with medications, doctors line up to hear my crooked heart”
“This 'relationship' with Ben was the first time since her crisis where she felt like she was taking control of her life, that she was in charge of her career, that she wasn’t sitting back and letting things happen because she was too anxious or exhausted or overwhelmed to make decisions. It felt fantastic.”
“Exhausted by everything. Tired of his studies, of friends that were no more than acquaintances, of the effort of opening his eyes every morning and shutting them every night. Of life in general. The fog had grown so thick, he’d become used to navigating his days half-blind.”
Elizabeth Zott is a chemist in the 1950’s and her male colleagues do not respect her. She is also very attractive, and that is what men notice first.
Friday, October 28, 2022, 3:30 PM.
Every month, residents of Central Baptist Village meet in the CBV library to discuss a book chosen by our Outreach Librarian. This month we're reading Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara.
“She's the first person to smile at me today. The first to make me feel wanted. Understood. I blink back tears. It's unknown how many students' lives librarians have saved by welcoming loners at lunch.”
“You Americans think you can fix everything by throwing money at it... But your friend was right. This is like the Stone Age. Because no one will let us get past the Stone Age. Not when there is nothing but war. Do you understand? The best thing you can do to help us is leave us alone.”
“It's important to remember that none of us is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. All we can do is try to be the best version of ourselves as we move forward. In this case, if he asks, you can tell the truth, or you can lie. I suppose it comes down to the kind of person you want to see when you look in the mirror.”
Friday, September 23, 2022, 3:30 PM.
Every month, residents of Central Baptist Village meet in the CBV library to discuss a book chosen by our Outreach Librarian. This month we're reading Dial A for Aunties by Jessie Q. Sutanto.
“We treat the things that soak up energy and resources like they're valuable, and the things that generate them like they're disposable. We don't celebrate batteries. And I think that's wrong.”
Notes on Grief is a tribute to the author’s father. When she heard the news of his death, she says, “I came undone.”
“I'm on vacation. Vacations always end. It's the very fact that it's finite that makes traveling special. You could move to any one of those destinations you loved in small doses, and it wouldn't be the spellbinding, life-altering seven days you spend there as a guest, letting a place into your heart fully, letting it change you.”
“It is at this moment that I decide. I am not a Good.Greek.Girl. I am a Modern.American.Woman."
“Grief is a swarm of feelings that swirls inside of you for your whole life; it's a weight that settles around the eyes, transforms the shape of a laugh. It is sadness mixed with a furious rage churning in an ocean of helplessness.”
Friday, August 26, 2022, 3:30 PM.
Every month, residents of Central Baptist Village meet in the CBV library to discuss a book chosen by our Outreach Librarian. This month we're reading Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand.
“The aim of this book is mainly diagnostic: If a story drew us in, kept us reading, made us feel respected, how did it do that?”
“You suffered a cranial bleed as well as internal damage. Three broken ribs, one of which punctured a lung. By the time the medics brought you in, you were coding…”
"Nothing I actually do can compete with the boundless potential of what I could do. But if I allow the fear of imperfection to trap me in perpetual beginnings, I’ll never create anything again. Am I even an artist, then? What is my purpose, then?"
“Oh please. We can’t help that we’re hungry. But we can control who we eat. Where we eat them. What we leave behind.”
“White folks did what they wanted to do. It may be hard to understand if you never lived in that world. People looked at you as nothing. They think they can do anything to you and it’s alright…Parents tried to keep their kids close to home so they wouldn’t get in trouble with white people and wind up in jail, or missing, or dead.”
