A book recommended to me by Talia.
A very emotional book, so emotional it is hard to focus on some of the subtler messages in the book.
Big themes on the surface seem to be death, dealing with mortality, overcoming adversity, etc. But I think underneath it all, it is really about living your life well. The dad in the book has, for me, the best line:
(Remembered prof. comment) "Sometimes it seems the universe wants to be noticed."
(Dad) "That's what I believe. I believe the universe wants to be noticed. I think the universe is improbably biased toward consciousness, that it rewards intelligence in part because the universe enjoys its elegance being observed. And who am I, living in the middle of history, to tell the universe that it - or my observation of it - is temporary?"
Here's another good section from Augustus' last letter at the end of the book:
"We are like a bunch of dogs squirting on fire hydrants. We poison the groundwater with our toxic piss, marking everything MINE in a ridiculous attempt to survive our deaths...
Hazel is different. She walks lightly, old man. She walks lightly upon the earth. Hazel know the truth: We're as likely to hurt the universe as we are to help it, and we're not likely to do either.
...
The real heroes anyway aren't the people doing things; the real heroes are the people NOTICING things, paying attention..."
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