In The Rest of Her Life , Laura Moriarty delivers a luminous, compassionate, and provocative look at how mothers and daughters with the best intentions can be blind to the harm they do to one another. Leigh is the mother of high-achieving, popular high school senior Kara. Their... read more
“"In her mind, Christianity was like Amway --- you didn't bring it up with a true believer unless you wanted in or were ready to ward off a serious sales pitch.”Leigh
she never saw me, me as an individual. Do you know what I’m saying? She gave us everything she ever wanted. But she never thought about what we wanted, that it might be different. Or that we might need something she didn’t. She never saw us as separate from herself. She never saw us.”Highlighted by 6 Kindle customers
Maybe, Leigh considered, children just want whatever it is they don’t get. And then they grow up and give their children what they wanted, be it silence or information, affection or independence—so that child, in turn, craves something else. With every generation, the pendulum swings from opposite to opposite, stillness and peace so elusive.Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? I’m just trying not to be insane.Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
if you worry about what people are saying about you, you’re giving them power. If you don’t worry, you keep it.”Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
In her mind, Christianity was like Amway—you didn’t bring it up with a true believer unless you wanted in or were ready to ward off a serious sales pitch.Highlighted by 5 Kindle customers
something Jackie Kennedy had said: “If you bungle raising your children, I don’t think whatever else you do matters very much.”Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
Worrying was painful, Leigh supposed, but compared to the alternative, a privilege.Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
This was perhaps what it was like to mother anyone, Leigh decided, far away or close. You could only try your best, then wait to see if what you sent was needed or even wanted. If it wasn’t, then you packed a new box, and tried again.Highlighted by 4 Kindle customers
It took her years to understand that he could sometimes be bored with her or irritated with her, but that it didn’t mean he didn’t love her anymore, or that he was planning to leave.Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
“Jesus himself noted there was no sense in tragedy, that God sent rain on the righteous and sinners alike. He offered no answers, only compassion and love, and so that is all we have when death, seemingly senseless, falls on someone we love in the bloom of youth.”Highlighted by 3 Kindle customers
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