I probably coughed self-pityingly in response, little aware that I was about to cross a tremendous threshold beyond which there would be no return, that in my hands I held an object whose simple appearance belied its profound power. All true readers have a book, a moment, like the one I describe, and when Mum offered me that much-read library copy mine was upon me.

Hope's one thing, expectation's quite another.

Lil had always believed that a person's duty was to make the best of the hand they were dealt. No use wondering what might have been, she used to say, all that matters is what is.

After all, it's the librarian's sworn purpose to bring books together with their one true reader.

If you don't stop apologizing, you're going to convince me you've done something wrong.

Photographs force us to see people before their future weighed them down, before they knew their endings.

She hadn't wanted to be loved carefully, only well.