There are some books that reached through the noise of life to grab you by the collar and speak only of the truest things.

it's amazing what you can get used to.

Sourmelina's secret (as Aunt Zo put it): 'Lina was one of those women they named the island after.

We realized that the version of the world they rendered for us was not the version of the world they really believed in.

We knew the pain of winter rushing up your skirt, and the ache of keeping your knees together in class, and how drab and infuriating it was to jump rope while the boys played baseball. We could never understand why the girls cared so much about being mature, or why they felt compelled to compliment each other.

The zipper opened all the way down our spines.

When I think back about my immediate reaction to that redheads girl, it seems to spring from an appreciation of natural beauty. I mean the heart pleasure you get from looking at speckled leaves or the palimpsested bark of plane trees in Provence. There was something richly appealing to her color combination, the ginger snaps floating in the milk-white skin, the golden highlights in the strawberry hair. it was like autumn, looking at her. It was like driving up north to see the colors.