I’m on my 28th and 29th book this year, concurrently. Sooooo many good books this year, many of which are Jon’s recommendations. Below are some quotes from my favs:

“I take a few quick sips. “This is really good.” And I mean it. I have never tasted tea like this. It is smooth, pungent, and instantly addicting.

“This is from Grand Auntie,” my mother explains. “She told me ‘If I buy the cheap tea, then I am saying that my whole life has not been worth something better.’ A few years ago she bought it for herself. One hundred dollars a pound.”

Amy Tan, The Kitchen God’s Wife

“We know the world only through the window of our mind. When our mind is noisy, the world is as well. And when our mind is peaceful, the world is, too. Knowing our minds is just as important as trying to change the world.”
Haemin Sunim, The Things You Can See When You Slow Down

Now a guarantee of happiness—that’s a great deal. But a guarantee to be allowed to pursue the jackpot of happiness? Merely an opportunity to buy a lottery ticket. Someone would surely win millions, but millions would surely pay for it.”
Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Symphathizer

You did not have to understand miracles to believe in them, and in fact Mabel had come to suspect the opposite. To believe, perhaps you had to cease looking for explanations and instead hold the little thing in your hands as long as you were able before it slipped like water between your fingers.”
Eowyn Ivey, The Snow Child

We must never lose our sense of urgency in making improvements. We must never settle for “good enough,” because good is the enemy of great.
Tony Hsieh, Delivering Happiness

No one sees trees. We see fruit, we see nuts, we see wood, we see shade. We see ornaments or pretty fall foliage. Obstacles blocking the road or wrecking the ski slope. Dark, threatening places that must be cleared. We see branches about to crush our roof. We see a cash crop. But trees – trees are invisible.
― Richard Powers, The Overstory

To my earlier self I would like to say, “Relax. The story will come in due time. Trust your characters. Let them tell you what happens next.
Anne Tyler, A Spool of Blue Thread

In school we learn that mistakes are bad, and we are punished for making them. Yet, if you look at the way humans are designed to learn, we learn by making mistakes. We learn to walk by falling down. If we never fell down, we would never walk.
Robert T. Kiyosaki, Rich Dad Poor Dad