Sorry for your loss. Not from HGG but here is what I love.

From Thich Nhat Hanh.  

When we come to grips with our mortality—and realize that we aren’t going to live forever—the preciousness of everything in life emerges from the depths of our minds and our experience of life changes significantly.  If you’re anything like me, you might have moments when you get reminded of your mortality—when you are touched by an emotional scene in a movie, or when you pass by a car accident, or when a loved one gets sick or dies—and after you spend some time feeling sad, upset, or philosophical, you go right back to living without death in mind and unintentionally live taking life for granted.   

And while I don’t think that we should live with death always on our minds, I think that finding ways that we can remind ourselves of our impermanence on a daily basis can definitely have positive effects on happiness in ourselves and others. When we carry mortality around in the forefront of our minds, life becomes increasingly precious.  We see what we may never see again; smell what we may never smell again; hear what we may never hear again; touch what we may never touch again; and taste what we may never taste again—and we enter a blissful state of deep gratitude and appreciation for what we have in each moment of each day.

Thank you for mentioning Half Broke Horses. I was actually really curious if it was worth a read.

No worries, I may have sounded more curt than I intended! There's a strong chance they are one and the same, but just wanted to clarify that it's not a certainty.

I read an article that the author’s mom actually lives with her to this day! She has her own room on her property and still hoards garbage… :(

I read almost exclusively from the library so it usually comes down to what's available at that moment.

Men were more affectionate in a platonic way because there was pretty much no risk of somebody calling them gay. The idea that hugging, kissing, complimenting your friend "makes you gay" is a pretty new thing, and both sides of the spectrum do it. And so it's just a bad cycle that drives a wedge between male relationships. Blame television executives and their constant stream of gay jokes going back 50 years. Even in literature, people will read an old book about a strong male bond such as Achilles/Patroclus or Gilgamesh/Enkidu and start labelling them gay. BOTH sides do this. Homophobes and pro-LGBT people both love to project homosexuality on any male relationship that goes further than a handshake. And so, modern men stay isolated and keep a cold distance between each other.

I honestly hated the book. It was helpful for showing how people can feel certain ways in abusive situations, but i was disgusted by most every person in the book, and knowing that they were real people only made it worse.

It's definitely not "great literature" but I enjoyed the series that the TV show True Blood was based on. The first book is called Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris. Quick, easy read. I call them "cheeseburger books".

My favorite light reading is All Creatures Great and Small or something by Terry Pratchett, but not the first two Discworld books.

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I read the ARC of this. It's great!

I really enjoyed Stardust by Neil Gaimen. I haven't read anything else by him so I don't know if his other works have the same feel. But I loved the characters, the magic, and the adventure. So something with a similar feeling maybe?

Of the 3 which do you recommend starting with — this comment thread caught my eye.

Interracial marriages account for almost 20% as of 2019. That's not rare.

Yes.

Yes, I understand all that. My point wasn't that the words existed, or that it was considered an identity, because obviously it was not. But it was well understood that certain men and women were "queer" and preferred sexual intimacy with their own sex. It was considered a perversion.

Found it on my Libby library app!!! Signed it out :) I’ll start it as soon as I finish the book I’m on. Thank you

I feel like her reading her books is like watching trashy TV. Sometimes that's just what you're in the mood for.

It was at least as early as biblical Paul, but it wasn't standardized across cultures and religions. Some cultures were more tolerant.

Ooooh adding to my Good Reads. Thank you

Agree about the early stuff. Kiss the girls was a good read and a guilty pleasure but he very quickly jumped the shark.

Hi there. Per rule 3.3, please post book recommendation requests in /r/SuggestMeABook or in our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you!

“So long and thanks for all the fish” That would be a good ending to lighten the mood It’s been so long since I’ve read that book and I don’t know your dad so maybe not but adding a little light heartiness to the sad is always appreciated in hard times

It was during the Oscar Wilde trail.

It doesn't mean to literally write about your own experiences. It means to impart your personality, desires, knowledge, etc into your work. For example, if you haven't had a romance before, you can write about how you FEEL about romance, or portray a romance that is your personal ideal. Or you can write about what you've witnessed from people around you.

Or in fantasy, you can write about goblins and elves etc but the story is about relationships and situations and emotions that you are familiar with, that mean something to you.

I think the phrase is often used as advice to people who don't know what to write, or if you find yourself foolishly trying to write what you think people want to see, instead of what YOU want to see.