Books can be possessive, can't they? You're walking around in a bookstore and a certain one will jump out at you, like it had moved there on its own, just to get your attention. Sometimes what's inside will change your life, but sometimes you don't even have to read it. Sometimes it's a comfort just to have a book around. Many of these books haven't even had their spines cracked. 'Why do you buy books you don't even read?' our daughter asks us. That's like asking someone who lives alone why they bought a cat. For company, of course.

How can we know the true meaning of charity if we don't even know how to help those closest to us?

Children always know when their mothers are crazy - they just never admit it, not out loud, to anyone.

Her grandmother used to tell her that a pink sky meant someone in the distance had just fallen in love . . . .

Don't you wish you could take a single childhood memory and blow it up into a bubble and live inside it forever?

For stubborn souls like Lisette, death was easier than the courage it took to actually change your life.

I spent so much time telling myself that this wasn't home that I started to believe it," she said carefully. "Belonging has always been tough for me." I can be your home," he said quietly. "Belong to me.