From her dubious tone alone, I could see how Karin had no idea how terrifying words spoken quietly could be. How words chosen precisely to wreak maximum damage ticked like a bomb in your head, but exploded in your heart hours later, leaving you scarred and changed.

Let the glossy spreads have their heart-stopping, head-turning kind of beauty. Give me the heart-filling beauty instead. Jolie laide, that's what I would choose. Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.

He knew me in all the ways that truly mattered: the shape of my fears, the contours of my dreams.

Jolie laide = "pretty ugly" Draws you to it...bored into heart and mind.

If Jacob was right and clothes were costumes and makeup a mask, then our attitudes and habits must be our shields.

Wait!" What?" I lowered my cup hastily, wondering if maybe there was a stray hair, or worse, a newly boiled bug inside my cup. You got to smell it first. It's the proper way to cup coffee." Cup coffee?" Taste it." What? Are you the coffee police or something?

Hey, if it's a good philosophy, it works. Death is imminent. Live every day like it's your last.