Knowing what book someone is reading and what parts they resonate with most can be so intimate. It reveals their interests, where their head is at, and what excerpts are so significant that they will mark up a page because they think it’s worth revisiting at a later time. I’m fascinated by what books others gravitate towards and I find that it helps me get to know them better and gives me a small glimpse into who they are at their core. No one asked for these book reviews, but maybe it’s my way of showing who I am and what I’m interested in – beyond the clothes, the products, and my career. Or at the very least, encourage some to look up from their phones and instead towards the pages of a good book.
Book no. 4 of 2026
Through letters and emails, reminds us that what one seems isn't always the case; that everyone has a story of who they are and why they are the way that they are.
It's a book about friendship and about change and about mother daughter relationships and about life. It’s about forgiveness and regret and saying sorry for when you were wrong. It’s a reminder that it’s never too late to change or try to get things right or tell someone how you feel. It’s a reminder to live and to love.
Oh my heart aches! As Sybil says, living is “so much more painful than we thought it would be, but then again, it has also been magic.”
This is the kind of book that will change someone for the better. And done in such a clever way.
Underlined quotes:
“I didn’t know it was happiness at the time because it felt like busyness and exhaustion and financial stress and self-doubt.”
“On one hand, it took me back to that time, and it was a dear feeling. Not nostaliga, exactly, but something like comfort — maybe some sympathy for who we were then. On the other hand, seeing things now as an adult through the lens of who we were as children is — there is something painful or uncomfortable about it.”
“Now that I’m dying it seems much simpler than it ever did before. Living, I mean. There is no parallel universe. There is no ‘what could have been if only.’ In some ways this has brought me a great deal of peace. In other ways it is bitter. How cruel life is only this long.”
“We brought the children here to shield them from the life we left, to give them this good life in America… I am always trying to protect them, every decision is striving to protect them, and yet somehow we are doing things wrong.”
“You have never seemed to need me, and you said that I taught you not to need me.”
“I hope in this last stretch of time we both have, I hope it is full for you. This is also, I suppose, what I hope for myself.”
“It’s taken me some time to recognize how knowing you has been like coming in from the cold, lonely road to find a warm fire and a table laid.”
“Maybe what I wanted was for you to know me.”
Thanks for reading no one asked by jordanrisa! This post is public so feel free to share it.
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Knowing what book someone is reading and what parts they resonate with most can be so intimate. It reveals their interests, where their head is at, and what excerpts are so significant that they will mark up a page because they think it’s worth revisiting at a later time. I’m fascinated by what
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