The Saucy Wenches Book Club

“We made too much comedy of our differences and placed too much meaning on our similarities.” ~ Dolly Alderton, Good Material

Up here, nice feels such an alien word. It’s brutal, inhuman, overwhelming, lonely, extraordinary and magnificent. There isn’t one single thing that is nice. ~ Samantha Harvey, Orbital

“I have learned there is one thing a person never tires of, no matter how long they live. And that is being in love. All else is ash and ember.” ~ Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales

“We are never at the finish line of understanding. There is always something about life and the universe that we are still to discover” ~ Matt Haig, The Life Impossible

You have risen from the ashes before, the flowers said in a voice I remembered, a voice I both cherished and feared. And then I climbed, and I was there, curling up tight. The only way to survive is to believe you always will. ~ Samantha Shannon, The Dark Mirror

Did you think in a place where the moon looms so large, there wouldn’t be frogs to praise it? ~ Tom Robbins, Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas

He did not fear my darkness, nor pity my compassion. And the truth was, the idea of dying without knowing him completely was torturous. ~ Carissa Broadbent, The Serpent & the Wings of Night

Romance wasn’t in chocolate, it was in the gasp of breath as we came up for air. It was in the way he cradled my face, the way I traced my finger over the crescent-shaped birthmark on his collarbone. It was in the way he uttered how beautiful I was, the way it made my heart soar. It was in the way I wanted to know everything about him — his favorite songs, finally guess his favorite color. ~ Ashley Poston, The Seven Year Slip

“We are allowed to do that, are we not Mabel? To invent our own endings and choose joy over sorrow?” ~ Eowyn Ivey, The Snow Child

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought. To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears. To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool. To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasures to be stolen. To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies. To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery. ~ Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents

“Nobody will ever fuck you the way I’m about to fuck you, Saeris Fane. I’m about to introduce you to all seven gods. When you meet them, don’t forget to tell them I’m the one you worship on your knees.” ~ Callie Hart, Quicksilver

“Gather as much knowledge as you can, because information is power. And choosing how to use it is freedom. The more you know, the freer you will be.” ~ Kirsten Miller, Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books

“Here’s an idea: All emotions start out as love. Later, that love is worked on by the forces of luck and suffering. Hate is just soured love. Fear is wounded love. Longing is homeless love. Love, not pain, is the mother. Love is the taproot.” ~ Amity Gaige, Heartwood

“All of the hormones that made me want to seem approachable so I could breed are gone and replaced by hormones that are fiercely protective of my autonomy and freedom” ~ Miranda July, All Fours

“If it is a metaphor, then what is it a metaphor of?” she asked. “I believe it is of the persistence of the miraculous in our lives,” Bardfield-Saling said. “The moon turning to cheese is a miracle, is it not?” ~ John Scalzi, When the Moon Hits Your Eye

“Leave those dishes,” I should have said. “Come play with me in the forest,” I should have said. “The world will end tomorrow.” ~ Emma Pattee, Tilt

“Maybe we’ll drown or burn or starve one day, but until then we get to choose if we’ll add to that destruction or if we will care for each other.” ~ Charlotte McConaghy, Wild Dark Shore

“I refuse to ‘look up.’ Optimism nauseates me. It is perverse. Since man’s fall, his proper position in the universe has been one of misery.” “I ain’t miserable.” “You are.” “No, I ain’t.” “Yes, you are.” ~ John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces