“The rule is: the word ‘it’s’ (with apostrophe) stands for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’. If the word does not stand for ‘it is’ or ‘it has’ then what you require is ‘its’. This is extremely easy to grasp. Getting your itses mixed up is the greatest solecism in the world of punctuation. No matter that you have a PhD and have read all of Henry James twice. If you still persist in writing, ‘Good food at it’s best’, you deserve to be struck by lightning, hacked up on the spot and buried in an unmarked grave.”

Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation

bookmania:

Call for book donations, New York Public Library, 1918 (via teachingliteracy//booklover)

“The world is complicated,’ she added. ‘You don’t have to have one emotion at a time.”

Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club

“Mom had always taught all of us to examine decisions by reversibility—that is, to hedge our bets. When you couldn’t decide between two things, she suggested you choose the one that allowed you to change course if necessary. Not the road less traveled but the road with the exit ramp.”

Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club

“In December 2008, I had the book with me while we waited for Dr. O’Reilly. Mom had already finished it. Every time I put the book down to go grab some mocha, or check my email, or make a call, I returned to find Mom rereading it, sneakily wolfing down passages as though I’d left behind a bag of cookies, not a book, and she was scooping up crumbs behind my back.”

Will Schwalbe, The End of Your Life Book Club

15 days of my favourite things
day 1 → favourite book 
the perks of being a wallflower by stephen chbosky 
“I hate you.” My sister said it different than she said it to my dad. She meant it with me. She really did. “I love you,” was all I could say in return. “You’re a freak, you know that? Everyone says so. They always have.” “I’m trying not to be.”