TTT | Memorable Things Characters Have Said

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly topic hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week she provide a topic and you are free to use that topic and/or variations of that topic to make your top ten list. A full list of the weekly themes can be found here.

Well this past weekend has been pretty heavy for myself and my family, but we’re all trying our best and moving forward. Today’s Top Ten Tuesday is focused on memorable quotes characters have said.

Eventually, when those massive stars reach the end of their lives, they go out with a bang, a supernova so bright, so beautiful it drowns out all the other stars. And when they do, they throw out all those elements they created. That’s what we’re made of. We’ve got calcium in our bones and iron in our blood and nitrogen in our DNA . . . and all of that? It comes from those stars. We are literally made of stardust.

Written in the Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur

Kiss me, Hardy! Kiss me, quick!

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

The lives that ended that night mattered. It was a mistake for this city to try to forget, and it’s an even bigger one to pretend everything’s fine now. Black men and women are dying today for the same reasons they did in 1921. And we have to call that out, Rowan. Every single time.

Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham

I cannot conceive of a universe without you in it

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

I cannot make speeches, Emma…If I loved you less, I might be able to talk about it more. But you know what I am. You hear nothing but truth from me. I have blamed you, and lectured you, and you have borne it as no other woman in England would have borne it.

Emma by Jane Austen

You wonder why I’m so uptight about entitle white culture? It’s not just that I live here half the time and see real poverty. It’s not just the snack baskets in first class. It’s because entitled white culture encourages those inside it to never look outside their own fucking worlds. We blow everything off because we’re so concerned with looking good we can’t just feel.

Dig by A.S. King

If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway. It’s easy to tell when a question is coming from a good place. Then listen some more. Sometimes people just want to feel heard. Here’s to possibilities of friendship and connection and understanding.

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

If you want to know what a man is like take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by Some Woman

Oh, justice exists, maybe not the kind that happens in police stations and courtrooms, but it does exist. And when you really think about it, those words – good and bad, right and wrong – they don’t really matter in the real world. Who gets to decide what they mean: those people who just got it wrong and let Max walk free? No, I think we all get to decide what good and bad and right and wrong mean to us, not what we’re told to accept. You did nothing wrong. Don’t beat yourself up for other people’s mistakes.

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson

Happy Reading Darlings!

TTT | Books to Read Again for the First Time

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly topic hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. Each week she provide a topic and you are free to use that topic and/or variations of that topic to make your top ten list. A full list of the weekly themes can be found here.

Reading a book for the first time is so special and hits you differently then when you re-read something. So, here are the books I’d love to read again for the first time.

This book will never not break my heart! I wish I could read it again and just absorb every line and action into my being.

Dig is a non-linear story that digs (pun not intended) into a family that used to be potato farmers. It’s about how do we reconcile our past with our future and what is the responsibility of white people in America. Just a beautiful novel with lots of questions to discuss.

I just want to spend more time with this family, and see what happens in the future for them.

In our age of Covid, reading about the AIDS crisis seems fitting. A crisis that no one wanted and one that people didn’t seem to care much about. I’d love to read June’s journey for the first time and her relationship with her uncle, the only person who seems to understand June. To be able to go on the journey of grief with her again and just fully immerse myself in her story.

I first read this in a graduate poetry class, so it was speed read through to finish it in time for class. To get the chance to read it again for the first time and really soak up the poems that Eavan Boland writes would be such a pleasure.

While I love a good mystery/horror book, I sometimes feel like I never really enjoy the story enough cause I’m just wanting to know whodunit or what’s going on. I’m so focused on getting to the end that I miss really getting to know the journey and characters.

Again another mystery book that I rushed through to see what happened. I’d especially love to read this again cause I’m always a sucker for anything Holmes & Watson related.

Another book that raises so many questions about family and what we pass down to the next generation.

I absolutely love retellings, especially if the retelling changes things up like making Jane Eyre a killer. Yes, please! I’d absolutely love to get to read this again for the first time just for the funness of the novel.

I think about this book about once a week, if not more. It ruined me! I’d love to be able to read Verity and Mattie’s friendship anew and get to experience all the many emotions that come with it.

Happy Reading Darlings!

#FridayFavorites | Books with a One-Word Titles

I started #FridayFavorites back when I started up the blog again and wanted to make sure I kept at least one regular post a week. This was, of course, before I knew there were others out there. But I decided to keep it, especially since I have the whole year planned out. If anyone wants to join me, the list for future topics can be found here.

Today’s topic is a simple one with books that have one word titles!

The library I work at just got all of the annotated Jane Austen books, so I cannot wait to delve into them.

This book was so amazing and is still with me months after I have read it.

Such a fascinating book about white culture and white supremacy.

This book!! Gosh, I cannot tell you how much this affected me and the ending was just so amazing, even though it didn’t wrap everything up. I knew about the ending beforehand, so that may have been a factor.

I mean there’s nothing I need to say, as Toni Morrison can say it way better than I could ever.

#FridayFavorites | Quotes

I started #FridayFavorites back when I started up the blog again and wanted to make sure I kept at least one regular post a week. This was, of course, before I knew there were others out there. But I decided to keep it, especially since I have the whole year planned out.

Today’s topic is only a few of my favorite quotes. All images were created by me in Canva.

From Dig

From Code Name Verity

From Heir of Fire

From The Book Thief

From Children of Blood and Bone

Let me know what some of your favorite quotes are in the comments below. Happy Reading, Lovelies!

#FridayFavorites | Covers

I’m not going to lie. I totally pick up books based on cover. Of course, after I pick up the book, I read the summary and if you can’t hold my attention during that, then I”m not going to get it. But I truly believe a good cover sets up the first impression for me, at least.

So, the covers below are some of my favorites and why I think they work well.

The cover for The Beautiful is so subtle to what happens in the novel. The ornate, 1800s style, goblet, the rose petals falling out like blood. All of that contrasted against a black cover, is plain gorgeous.

The white background and the white branches and the white title all blend together so well. I absolutely love how the branches go in and out of the words and just blend with them. This is beautifully haunting, especially once you read the book and figure out what’s going on in the magical world.

I’m finding I’m a fan of the more subtle covers right now. This cover pairs well with the plot and themes of the book. A family saga, a former potato farmer family, white supremacy, the cost of maintaining a family name. Showing the underground roots of potato farming, and the fact that families usually use trees to show connections, on the cover with Dig big and bold was spot on for this novel.

All of the covers for Clare’s Dark Artifices series are wonderful! I love the fact that for this one we see is Emma Carstairs floating in the sea with Cortana (a shortsword that’s been in the Carstairs family for generations). The way they blend in the sea with the black smoke at the bottom, along with the reflection of the L.A. Institute in the ocean are so well done.

This seems like a strange one with the ones that came before, but I absolutely think the striking girl they have on the cover is more appropriate than something subtle. The girl is Gretchen, niece to Uncle Dolf, or as most people know him Adolf Hitler. So, having a young girl with blondish hair, striking blue/green eyes in the process of getting obscured by the fog on the cover matches what happens in the book perfectly.

Let me know what your favorite covers are! Happy Reading, Lovelies!