Could You Repeat That? 182
Vengeful, VE Schwab
Something he'd seen before.
In Victor Vale. In Eli Ever.
A rare kind of strength. A dangerous will.
Someone this powerful belongs in the ground.
Hour of the Assassin, Matthew Quirk
Nick looked south, past the Watergate and the Kennedy Center, watched the river flow like mercury toward the monuments.
"This town," Jeff said. "Makes you miss Baghdad sometimes."
The King of Crows, Libba Bray
It was amazing how quickly her feelings for Sam could slip from wild love to extreme annoyance and back again. She hadn't quite made it back again.
Everything Here is Beautiful, Mira T Lee
People think of home as a single fixed place, but when I went traveling, I found the community of extended family I'd never had. Later, I learned there's a Spanish word for this: querencia. It refers to that place in the ring where a bull feels strongest, safesty, where it returns again and again to renew its strength. It's the place we're most comfortable, where we know who we are--where we feel our most authentic selves.
Slow River, Nicola Griffith
She had seen her mother with brown eyes and black, violet and deep blue, green and hazel, but realizes with a shock that she does not know their real color. She has no idea of the color of her mother's eyes. She nearly asks her father, but does not: she is scared he might not know.
The Philosopher's Flight, Tom Miller
"Better for you if you were married. Go pick one of those pretty girls, make lots of babies--girl babies, if you please--and teach them to fly. Your daughters will be brilliant."
"Was I that bad?" I asked.
"No, you dumbass! You're adequate!"
Drawing Conclusions, Donna Leon
'She believed that one should always tell the truth, regardless of the cost. And I assume, from some of the things she told me, that she taught this to her son.'
'Do you think that's an error?' Brunetti asked with real curiousity.
'No, gentlemen,' she said and smiled again, a smaller smile. 'It's a luxury.'
Network Effect, Martha Wells
Target Four ran toward me because assholes love to see your face when they kill you.
The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie
"Do you--er--write detective stories?" The most unlikely people, he knew, wrote detective stories. And Miss Marple, in her old-fashioned spinster's clothes, looked like a singularly unlikely person.
"Oh, no, I'm not clever enough for that."
Winter in Paradise, Elin Hilderbrand
Irene looks at Huck and she breaks into a smile and then so does Huck, and for one second, they are two people standing in the tropical sunshine while one hell of a majestic fish flops at their feet. For one second, they forget their hearts are broken.
New Spring, Robert Jordan
In his cradle he had been given four gifts. The ring in his hands and the locket that hung around his neck, the sword on his hip and an oath sworn in his name.
Number One Chinese Restaurant, Lillian Li
In a world without fairness, the best stories rose to the top.
Writers & Lovers, Lily King
I've met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E Harrow
It was one of those things you want so much it burns, so you keep it deep in the center of yourself like a banked coal.
Empress of a Thousand Skies, Rhoda Bellaza
"We haven't discussed the plan should you fail," Dahlen said.
"Your faith in me is heartwarming."
Young Jane Young, Gabrielle Zevin
When someone tells you 'it's not what it looks like,' it's almost always exactly what it looks like.
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, Ruth Emmie Lang
Haven't eaten breakfast yet. Had doughnut in bag, but escaped through opening in pocket membrane. Assimilated into ecosystem with help from squirrel.
What Happens in Paradise, Elin Hilderbrand
This is how it all starts, Huck thinks. One minute you're leg to leg with a boy in your grandpa's truck getting a ride into town, and the next minute you're hiding a hundred and twenty-five thousand of that boy's illegally gotten dollars in your dresser drawer.
Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo
deadly & graceful, poised & ruthless
Quiet & cunning. A queen
Beastly Things, Donna Leon
When they walked outside, the sun fell across their bodies, their heads, their hands, even their feet, with a generosity and grace that made Brunetti think of the carvings he had seen of Akhenaten receiving the radiant blessing of Aten, the sun god.
The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi
She managed to smile through her tears, and put a hand on my head to bless me, a gesture usually reserved for elders and holy men.
A Study in Scarlet Women, Sherry Thomas
"I can't live the way you want me to, all bottled up and pretending that everything is all right."
"It's how the rest of us live. Why can't you?"
Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes
"It's pink," she said, not touching it. Leaning back a little to not touch it.
"It's not pink, it just has pink."
"I'm not wearing it. I object."
"Why?"
"I think...the patriarchy."
A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie
"What I mean by a shifty eye," continued Miss Marple, "is the kind that looks very straight at you and never looks away nor blinks."
Beach Read, Emily Henry
"This one of your murder spots?" I asked, walking around the car to him.
"I refuse to answer that on the grounds that you might try to take it from me."
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carre
We were encouraged to be suspicious of one another; it is such a strain never to give your heart, not once.
The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo
It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another's superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts.
Riviera Gold, Laurie R King
"A woman who plays by men's rules is a woman who ends up in a cage."
"Or a coffin."
Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol 1: Vader, Kieron Gillen, et al
APHRA: And now for our devilishly clever plan to steal a robot womb factory off a homicidally broody alien queen. Do you still think this is a good idea, Lord Vader?
VADER: Yes.
The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich
They both started laughing in that desperate high-pitched way people laugh when their hearts are broken.
A Conspiracy in Belgravia, Sherry Thomas
She had kissed him twice--upending him both times--and he still couldn't decide whether she enjoyed human contact.
The Golden Egg, Donna Leon
Because he had lived for more than two decades with a woman who responded to infelicities of language with the ardour of a shark greeted by a bleeding wound, Brunetti's interest was kept alive, if not by the subject matter of the documents, then by the language in which these subjects were presented.
The Archronology of Love, Caroline M Yoachim
We know you better now. We love you enough to leave you alone.
Away With The Wolves, Sarah Gailey
Nan is the oldest person either of us have ever known. She tells people that she's three hundred years old, and I believe her, if only because I don't know for sure that spite can't pickle a person into immortality.
The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye, Sarah Pinsker
Zanna didn't know what she'd done to deserve an assistant who disposed of dead things for her.
For He Can Creep, Siobhan Carroll
"More cats come to terrorize my stockings?
[We'll have more than your stockings, sir,] says Polly.
[D-- ---- ---- ------- --- ---!!!!]
"Such language!" says the devil. Even Polly looks shocked.
The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey
"Razia-begum, it seems that you are chained to some people and a large old house that you cannot fully enjoy."
Razia looked warily at Perveen. "Is that not the meaning of family?"
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P Djeli Clark
"You weird folks out."
Hamed was near indignant. "You don't seem to have a problem talking to us," he countered.
Abla's eyes lowered to slits and she grinned. "Do I look like most people to you, Agent Hamed?"
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
"There is no story that is not true," said Uchendu. "The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others."
Planetfall, Emma Newman
"How did you survive?" Mack asks.
Sung-Soo smiles. "I know what I can and can't eat here. Don't you?"
"Well...yes," I reply. "But only because we could test things first."
"So did we. Sometimes it didn't end well."
Turtles All the Way Down, John Green
"I wish boys didn't have all these feelings I have to manage like a fucking psychiatrist."
After Atlas, Emma Newman
I'm not sure what the masses enjoy more: being swept into a fervor about the latest big story or the backlash against it. It all ends the same way: by the time whatever is being hyped actually happens, most people have used up all the fucks they could possible give about it.
The Guest List, Lucy Foley
Nowhere on earth could possibly live up to those halcyon days. But that's nostalgia for you, the tyranny of those memories of childhood that feel so golden, so perfect.
Before Mars, Emma Newman
Yet another life experience in which the reality has not matched up with the expectation. All these moments, these landmarks in our lives that are supposed to make us feel alive, supposed to make us understand what's really important in life, and fuck, I am just empty every single time.
Atlas Alone, Emma Newman
I look at the frequency and range of elements, across individuals and different chunks of population. Then I get that tingle, that sort of flutter in my throat when I know I'm onto something. This data looks weird as fuck.
Finnikin of the Rock, Melina Marchetta
"The gods do make playthings of us," the priest-king acknowledged. "But it is we mortals who provide them with the tools."
Deeplight, Frances Hardinge
There was another kind of beauty, however, and everyone on the Myriad knew it. A twisted beauty that turned your stomach even while it turned your head. "Frecht" was the old word, a harsh word ragged with superstitious awe. It was an ugliness and otherness that could only be holy, a breach of the rules that echoed those that no rules could bind.
Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee
In the old stories, older even than the Thousand Worlds, a humble carp could become a dragon by leaping up a waterfall. If a fish could dream of upgrading, I didn't see why a starship couldn't in its secret crystal heart, have ambitions, too.
Something he'd seen before.
In Victor Vale. In Eli Ever.
A rare kind of strength. A dangerous will.
Someone this powerful belongs in the ground.
Hour of the Assassin, Matthew Quirk
Nick looked south, past the Watergate and the Kennedy Center, watched the river flow like mercury toward the monuments.
"This town," Jeff said. "Makes you miss Baghdad sometimes."
The King of Crows, Libba Bray
It was amazing how quickly her feelings for Sam could slip from wild love to extreme annoyance and back again. She hadn't quite made it back again.
Everything Here is Beautiful, Mira T Lee
People think of home as a single fixed place, but when I went traveling, I found the community of extended family I'd never had. Later, I learned there's a Spanish word for this: querencia. It refers to that place in the ring where a bull feels strongest, safesty, where it returns again and again to renew its strength. It's the place we're most comfortable, where we know who we are--where we feel our most authentic selves.
Slow River, Nicola Griffith
She had seen her mother with brown eyes and black, violet and deep blue, green and hazel, but realizes with a shock that she does not know their real color. She has no idea of the color of her mother's eyes. She nearly asks her father, but does not: she is scared he might not know.
The Philosopher's Flight, Tom Miller
"Better for you if you were married. Go pick one of those pretty girls, make lots of babies--girl babies, if you please--and teach them to fly. Your daughters will be brilliant."
"Was I that bad?" I asked.
"No, you dumbass! You're adequate!"
Drawing Conclusions, Donna Leon
'She believed that one should always tell the truth, regardless of the cost. And I assume, from some of the things she told me, that she taught this to her son.'
'Do you think that's an error?' Brunetti asked with real curiousity.
'No, gentlemen,' she said and smiled again, a smaller smile. 'It's a luxury.'
Network Effect, Martha Wells
Target Four ran toward me because assholes love to see your face when they kill you.
The Body in the Library, Agatha Christie
"Do you--er--write detective stories?" The most unlikely people, he knew, wrote detective stories. And Miss Marple, in her old-fashioned spinster's clothes, looked like a singularly unlikely person.
"Oh, no, I'm not clever enough for that."
Winter in Paradise, Elin Hilderbrand
Irene looks at Huck and she breaks into a smile and then so does Huck, and for one second, they are two people standing in the tropical sunshine while one hell of a majestic fish flops at their feet. For one second, they forget their hearts are broken.
New Spring, Robert Jordan
In his cradle he had been given four gifts. The ring in his hands and the locket that hung around his neck, the sword on his hip and an oath sworn in his name.
Number One Chinese Restaurant, Lillian Li
In a world without fairness, the best stories rose to the top.
Writers & Lovers, Lily King
I've met ambitious women, driven women, but no woman has ever told me that greatness was her destiny.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E Harrow
It was one of those things you want so much it burns, so you keep it deep in the center of yourself like a banked coal.
Empress of a Thousand Skies, Rhoda Bellaza
"We haven't discussed the plan should you fail," Dahlen said.
"Your faith in me is heartwarming."
Young Jane Young, Gabrielle Zevin
When someone tells you 'it's not what it looks like,' it's almost always exactly what it looks like.
Beasts of Extraordinary Circumstance, Ruth Emmie Lang
Haven't eaten breakfast yet. Had doughnut in bag, but escaped through opening in pocket membrane. Assimilated into ecosystem with help from squirrel.
What Happens in Paradise, Elin Hilderbrand
This is how it all starts, Huck thinks. One minute you're leg to leg with a boy in your grandpa's truck getting a ride into town, and the next minute you're hiding a hundred and twenty-five thousand of that boy's illegally gotten dollars in your dresser drawer.
Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo
deadly & graceful, poised & ruthless
Quiet & cunning. A queen
Beastly Things, Donna Leon
When they walked outside, the sun fell across their bodies, their heads, their hands, even their feet, with a generosity and grace that made Brunetti think of the carvings he had seen of Akhenaten receiving the radiant blessing of Aten, the sun god.
The Henna Artist, Alka Joshi
She managed to smile through her tears, and put a hand on my head to bless me, a gesture usually reserved for elders and holy men.
A Study in Scarlet Women, Sherry Thomas
"I can't live the way you want me to, all bottled up and pretending that everything is all right."
"It's how the rest of us live. Why can't you?"
Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes
"It's pink," she said, not touching it. Leaning back a little to not touch it.
"It's not pink, it just has pink."
"I'm not wearing it. I object."
"Why?"
"I think...the patriarchy."
A Murder is Announced, Agatha Christie
"What I mean by a shifty eye," continued Miss Marple, "is the kind that looks very straight at you and never looks away nor blinks."
Beach Read, Emily Henry
"This one of your murder spots?" I asked, walking around the car to him.
"I refuse to answer that on the grounds that you might try to take it from me."
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John le Carre
We were encouraged to be suspicious of one another; it is such a strain never to give your heart, not once.
The Ghost Bride, Yangsze Choo
It seemed to me that in this confluence of cultures, we had acquired one another's superstitions without necessarily any of their comforts.
Riviera Gold, Laurie R King
"A woman who plays by men's rules is a woman who ends up in a cage."
"Or a coffin."
Star Wars: Darth Vader, Vol 1: Vader, Kieron Gillen, et al
APHRA: And now for our devilishly clever plan to steal a robot womb factory off a homicidally broody alien queen. Do you still think this is a good idea, Lord Vader?
VADER: Yes.
The Night Watchman, Louise Erdrich
They both started laughing in that desperate high-pitched way people laugh when their hearts are broken.
A Conspiracy in Belgravia, Sherry Thomas
She had kissed him twice--upending him both times--and he still couldn't decide whether she enjoyed human contact.
The Golden Egg, Donna Leon
Because he had lived for more than two decades with a woman who responded to infelicities of language with the ardour of a shark greeted by a bleeding wound, Brunetti's interest was kept alive, if not by the subject matter of the documents, then by the language in which these subjects were presented.
The Archronology of Love, Caroline M Yoachim
We know you better now. We love you enough to leave you alone.
Away With The Wolves, Sarah Gailey
Nan is the oldest person either of us have ever known. She tells people that she's three hundred years old, and I believe her, if only because I don't know for sure that spite can't pickle a person into immortality.
The Blur in the Corner of Your Eye, Sarah Pinsker
Zanna didn't know what she'd done to deserve an assistant who disposed of dead things for her.
For He Can Creep, Siobhan Carroll
"More cats come to terrorize my stockings?
[We'll have more than your stockings, sir,] says Polly.
[D-- ---- ---- ------- --- ---!!!!]
"Such language!" says the devil. Even Polly looks shocked.
The Widows of Malabar Hill, Sujata Massey
"Razia-begum, it seems that you are chained to some people and a large old house that you cannot fully enjoy."
Razia looked warily at Perveen. "Is that not the meaning of family?"
The Haunting of Tram Car 015, P Djeli Clark
"You weird folks out."
Hamed was near indignant. "You don't seem to have a problem talking to us," he countered.
Abla's eyes lowered to slits and she grinned. "Do I look like most people to you, Agent Hamed?"
Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
"There is no story that is not true," said Uchendu. "The world has no end, and what is good among one people is an abomination with others."
Planetfall, Emma Newman
"How did you survive?" Mack asks.
Sung-Soo smiles. "I know what I can and can't eat here. Don't you?"
"Well...yes," I reply. "But only because we could test things first."
"So did we. Sometimes it didn't end well."
Turtles All the Way Down, John Green
"I wish boys didn't have all these feelings I have to manage like a fucking psychiatrist."
After Atlas, Emma Newman
I'm not sure what the masses enjoy more: being swept into a fervor about the latest big story or the backlash against it. It all ends the same way: by the time whatever is being hyped actually happens, most people have used up all the fucks they could possible give about it.
The Guest List, Lucy Foley
Nowhere on earth could possibly live up to those halcyon days. But that's nostalgia for you, the tyranny of those memories of childhood that feel so golden, so perfect.
Before Mars, Emma Newman
Yet another life experience in which the reality has not matched up with the expectation. All these moments, these landmarks in our lives that are supposed to make us feel alive, supposed to make us understand what's really important in life, and fuck, I am just empty every single time.
Atlas Alone, Emma Newman
I look at the frequency and range of elements, across individuals and different chunks of population. Then I get that tingle, that sort of flutter in my throat when I know I'm onto something. This data looks weird as fuck.
Finnikin of the Rock, Melina Marchetta
"The gods do make playthings of us," the priest-king acknowledged. "But it is we mortals who provide them with the tools."
Deeplight, Frances Hardinge
There was another kind of beauty, however, and everyone on the Myriad knew it. A twisted beauty that turned your stomach even while it turned your head. "Frecht" was the old word, a harsh word ragged with superstitious awe. It was an ugliness and otherness that could only be holy, a breach of the rules that echoed those that no rules could bind.
Dragon Pearl, Yoon Ha Lee
In the old stories, older even than the Thousand Worlds, a humble carp could become a dragon by leaping up a waterfall. If a fish could dream of upgrading, I didn't see why a starship couldn't in its secret crystal heart, have ambitions, too.