Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Stories

“I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.”
― Jeanette Winterson, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

“Libraries are places where the damaged go to find friends”
― Tamora Pierce

“I never feel lonely if I’ve got a book – they’re like old friends. Even if you’re not reading them over and over again, you know they are there. And they’re part of your history. They sort of tell a story about your journey through life.” Emilia Fox

“It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming of themselves like grass.’-Eudora Welty

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Empathy

“Never apologize for showing feeling. When you do so, you apologize for the truth.”-Benjamin Disraeli

‘Empathy is a tool for building people into groups, for allowing us to function as more than self-obsessed individuals.”-Neil Gaiman

“Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else’s shoes for a while.”-Malorie Blackman

“Good fiction creates empathy. A novel takes you somewhere and asks you to look through the eyes of another person, to live another life.”-Barbara Kingsolver

Book Dragon · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Book Memes (With Editorial Comments)

There’s a special place in the bad place for the second kind… right next to people who talk at the theater.

*Not me, shuffling new books in with the old books…

I’m looking at you, Sir Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

I have more of a “not enough bookshelves” issue…

Book Dragon · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Nerds Unite!

“Nerds are far more interesting humans in later life.”-Alyson Hannigan

“In society at large, nerds are law-abiding, caring, fundamentally good folk who keep the wheels of civilization grinding.”-Alexandra Petri

“I want to be the poster girl for engineers and computer nerds.”-Alessandra Torresani

“Evanescence fans aren’t the popular kids in school. They aren’t the cheerleaders. It’s the art kids and the nerds and the kids who grow up to be the most interesting creative people.”-Amy Lee

“No longer is a geek identifiable by a pale complexion, black-rimmed glasses, a bowling shirt that says ‘Nerd World Order.’ No, geeks are everywhere. And they’re cool!”-Faith Salie

“Geeks are people who love something so much that all the details matter.”-Marissa Mayer

Book Dragon · Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Favorite Reading Challenge Quotes 2023

“Sometimes a family was a mischievous magical boss, her magical rival turned friend, a magical girl who used to be a babysitter and now was like an older sister, and the person you didn’t understand in the beginning but liked so much now. And sometimes it was arguments and sometimes it was hugs and sometimes it was banding together to fight a morally corrupt government body and sometimes it was just existing in the same space together as friends. But whatever this family was right now, whatever it was going to be, and however it would turn out, it was mine. And I knew that I belonged.”― F.T. Lukens, Spell Bound

“Once I had him in the book club, I’d seduce him the only way I knew how. Through books.”― Juliette Cross, Grim and Bear It

“He looked at her like she was both his salvation and his anguish. Like he had been searching for her for a lifetime.”― T. K. Tucker, The Coven of Ruin

“The story of disabled success has never been a story about one solitary disabled person overcoming limitations—despite the fact that’s the narrative we so often read in the media. The narrative trajectory of a disabled person’s life is necessarily webbed. We are often only as strong as our friends and family make us, only as strong as our community, only as strong as the resources and privileges we have.”
― Alice Wong, Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century

“You expect heroes to survive terrible things. If you give them a medal, then you don’t ever have to ask why the terrible thing happened in the first place. Or try to fix it.”
― T. Kingfisher, A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking

“It is fascinating to note how clothing so often played a role in resistance, as life-saving warmth, a heart-warming gift, a hiding place or a disguise.”
― Lucy Adlington, The Dressmakers of Auschwitz: The True Story of the Women Who Sewed to Survive

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Goals

“I don’t focus on what I’m up against. I focus on my goals and I try to ignore the rest.”-Venus Williams

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”-Zig Ziglar

“Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives.”-Viktor E. Frankl

“My life has always been about making certain I accrue the skills necessary to make my ambitions real.”-Stacey Abrams

“Pursuit of perfection is futile. Instead, I prioritize and often realize goals or tasks I’ve been aiming for just aren’t that important.”-Aisha Tyler

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Experience

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”- Douglas Adams

“Some days are just bad days, that’s all. You have to experience sadness to know happiness, and I remind myself that not every day is going to be a good day, that’s just the way it is!”- Dita Von Teese

“Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.”-Oscar Wilde

“Our uniqueness, our individuality, and our life experience molds us into fascinating beings. I hope we can embrace that. I pray we may all challenge ourselves to delve into the deepest resources of our hearts to cultivate an atmosphere of understanding, acceptance, tolerance, and compassion. We are all in this life together.”-Linda Thompson

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'”-Eleanor Roosevelt

“Life is short and the older you get, the more you feel it. Indeed, the shorter it is. People lose their capacity to walk, run, travel, think, and experience life. I realize how important it is to use the time I have.”-Viggo Mortensen


Adventures · Simple Sundays

Simple Sundays- Merry Christmas!

“I like to compare the holiday season with the way a child listens to a favorite story. The pleasure is in the familiar way the story begins, the anticipation of familiar turns it takes, the familiar moments of suspense, and the familiar climax and ending.” – Fred Rogers

“Christmas Day is in our grasp, as long as we have hands to clasp! Christmas Day will always be, just as long, as we have we! Welcome Christmas while we stand, heart to heart, and hand in hand!” –Dr. Seuss

“When we remember a special Christmas, it is not the presents that made it special, but the laughter, the feeling of love, and the togetherness of friends and family that made that Christmas special.” – Catherine Pulsifer

“Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone.” – Charles M. Schulz

“Christmas is a togethery sort of holiday. That’s my favorite kind.” – A. A. Milne

Simple Sundays

Simple Sunday- Stronger

“Pain doesn’t get easier. You just have to get stronger.”― Elizabeth Lim, Six Crimson Cranes

“A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” Christopher Reeve

“It’s so easy to be there when it’s all sunshine, but it really takes strength and courage to be there for each other during the dark times.”-Bindi Irwin

“Strength does not come from winning. Your struggles develop your strengths. When you go through hardships and decide not to surrender, that is strength.”-Arnold Schwarzenegger

“The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places.”-Ernest Hemingway

“I realized that my strength was being different.”-Betsey Johnson