"Your life is still your life... You're still here, inconveniently breathing, watching the sun go down and the moon come up regardless of whether you think it's got a damn nerve showing its shiny face every day."

One of my favorite weekend traditions is to make pancakes for brunch on Sundays. I’m always interested in trying out new recipes for pancakes but now and then it’s nice to return to my favorite recipe.

This book was a twisty roller coaster ride that had me flipping backward through pages looking for clues that I may have missed.

"There's something off about the house. Something that nags at me, makes me feel uneasy, though I don't know what it is about the house that makes me feel this way... on the surface, there's nothing about the house that's not too like. But, I know better than to take things at face value..."

“Up here it's about having enough food to eat, and enough heat to stay alive through the winter. It's about survival, and enjoying the company of the people that surround us. It's not about whose house is the biggest, or who has the nicest clothes, or the most money. We support each other because we're all in this together. And people either like that way of life or they don't...”

"I chose to do more than simply survive. I chose to live. To find a purpose in life. To search out the joy and happiness that is everywhere, even in difficult times, if we're just brace enough to look."

"We don't love each other the easy way.. but our hearts are in the right place every single time. The words will come from you, the deeds will come from me. I trust that. But, what we have between us in impossible to express sometimes. It's real and it's big.. and sometimes it creates flaws."

"... She would say good-bye in yearbook signatures and through heart-broken tears and through emails and over the phone. But, she'd never say good-bye to Emira, which made it seem that Emira would never be completely free of her."

"For the rest of my long life, I would become known not only for what I would achieve, the lives altered, the buildings raised with my name on them, but for my passionate heart."