The Saucy Wenches Book Club

“I would throw away my pack, my life, and my entire world for you. Which is the exact reason I cannot have you.” ~ Ali Hazelwood, Mate

“...all we have is the story we tell. Everything we do, every decision we make, our strength, weakness, motivation, history, and character — what we believe — none of it is real; it’s all part of the story we tell. But here’s the thing: it’s our goddamned story!” ~ Jess Walter, Beautiful Ruins

“I didn’t know it was happiness at the time, because it felt like busyness and exhaustion and financial stress and self doubt.” ~ Virginia Evans, The Correspondent: A Novel

The only thing surprising about any of this is that he’s alive to see it. That’s the real bet they all made, isn’t it? It will come. But not until we’re gone. ~ Lily Brooks-Dalton, The Light Pirate

He’d loved her, even though he never expected them to be anything but doomed. He’d loved her all the same. ~ SenLinYu, Alchemised

It seemed ridiculous, but perhaps these books, sheaves of paper made from trees that had once grown on their home planet, full of made-up stories, were what kept Thebes so much more grounded than the rest of them. ~ Lily Brooks-Dalton, Good Morning, Midnight

“I prefer teaching [about] the post-2015 period, when social media were beginning to be drawn into the currency of private lives, when waves of fantastical or malevolent or silly rumours began to shape the nature not only of politics but of human understanding. Fascinating! It was as if credulous medieval masses had burst through into modernity, rushing into the wrong theatre and onto the wrong stage set.” ~ Ian McEwan, What We Can Know

“...you are one of the good people. I hope whatever you choose to do with all that I leave you, you do it for the other good people in the world. The poets and the musicians and the book readers. The kind ones and the carers, the people who pursue the happiness of others over the accumulation of wealth and power. Do it for them and make the world a little bit better.” ~ Gareth Brown, The Society of Unknowable Objects

“Her servers are in pieces.” “Pieces can be put back together.” “She’s dead.” Frankenstein smiles a slow smile. “Dead things coming back to life is my whole brand, Doctor.” They stride toward the door. “I’ll tell her you love her. Enjoy your new arms.” ~ Barbara Truelove, Of Monsters and Mainframes

My dad always said a person needs three things to be happy: something to do; someone to love; and something to look forward to.” ~ Annie Hartnett, The Road to Tender Hearts

“...art is a fragile magic, just like love, and that’s humanity’s only defense against death. That we create and paint and dance and fall in love, that’s our rebellion against eternity. Everything beautiful is a shield.” ~ Fredrik Backman, My Friends

This is it. This is what a life is. A journey with no signposts. The seas roll out in every direction. ~ Amity Gaige, Sea Wife

“A thousand plus worlds he has seen, yet when he dreams, he dreams of you.” ~ Amber V. Nicole, The Throne of Broken Gods

...a person is not beautiful because they’re good, they’re beautiful because they’re alive, like a child. Alive and curious and restless. Never mind good. They’re beautiful because there’s a light in their eyes. Sometimes destructive, sometimes hurtful, sometimes selfish, but beautiful because alive. And progress is like that, by its nature alive. ~ Samantha Harvey, Orbital

How these insane things kept happening, these eruptions of senseless violence, of anger and ignorance and greed and mendacity, like ancient fissures bubbling up under the surface, and what — we were just supposed to go on with our lives? Wake up the next day like nothing happened, like we hadn’t lost our minds? Just turn the page, to the baseball scores or the horoscopes or celebrity birthdays? ~ Jess Walter, So Far Gone

“It was, she supposed, a way of defying death. Necessities helped people survive, but joyful excess gave them life.” ~ Annalee Newitz, Automatic Noodle

Deep down, instead of princes, I thought maybe every woman wanted gentle monsters. Someone strong — scary enough to keep all the bad things away — and gentle only to those he loved. ~ Michelle Gross, One Percent of You

“What did the Ginians keep in the hearts of their mazes if not gold and jewels?” Terlu, the former Fourth Librarian of the Second Floor, East Wing, smiled at the little rose. “Books, of course, the ultimate treasure. All their stories. And their knowledge.” ~ Sarah Beth Durst, The Enchanted Greenhouse

Historically speaking, important truths often begin their lives as total impossibilities. And just because we can’t imagine how something could possibly be true, doesn’t mean we can’t observe it to be true. ~ Dan Brown, The Secret of Secrets