The Saucy Wenches Book Club

“All my life,” she said, “I have been told ‘go’ and ‘come.’ I am told how I will live, and I am told how I must die. I must be a man’s servant and a mare for his pleasure, or I must hide myself behind walls and surrender my flesh to a cold, silent god. I would walk into the jaws of hell itself, if it were a path of my own choosing. I would rather die tomorrow in the forest than live a hundred years of the life appointed me.”

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“No offense, but what on earth could I ask of you that would be a great hardship?” His gaze rested on my mouth before making its way to my eyes again. “You could ask for the world, and then where would civilization be when I conquered it and laid it at your feet?” The Dirt on Ninth Grave, Darynda Jones 

The Earthsea Cycle series by Ursula K. Le Guin (Or the Original School of Magicians) Luis Alberto Urrea (Mexican-American poet, novelist, and essayist) wrote: Of all my favorite memories of Ursula, this is in the top ten: she said, “Once you read women, you must write about women. But don’t write about us like men do.” She pointed that pipe at me. “When men write about women, the woman in the story invariably pauses at a mirror and regards herself. And she says, ‘My God, my breasts are magnificent.’ Luisito–we don’t do that!” I actually fell over on her rug laughing. And I never forgot it. Source Let me introduce you to the author who wrote a magnificent tale about a kid who has almost no family but possesses some great powers, who arrives at a special school for magicians only to discover that he is destined for greatness, but he must face great evil and conquer it. Does this remind you of someone? If you think Harry Potter, you are not wrong. But I’m talking ab...

"I hope you will go out and let stories, that is life, happen to you, and that you will work with these stories...water them with your bood and tears and laughter till they bloom, till you yourself burst into bloom." Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Women Who Run With Wolves

“I would like to build a garden,” she declared. “After all of this … I think the world needs more gardens.” ~ A Court of Wings and Ruin , Sarah J. Mass

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"Are you certain?" he said so softly that she shivered, because she knew what soft meant from this hard, implacable man. It meant every ounce of his energy had just been diverted and channeled into a mother lode of a nuclear missile that was locked, loaded, and targeted on whatever had just offended him, and that he would expend no more energy than was strictly necessary to speak.  Feversong ~~Karen Marie Moning 

Can you see me now? I discovered TV in the early 1960s: wholesome, twin-beds-in-the-master-bedroom comedies like I Love Lucy and The Dick Van Dyke Show , children’s stories every Sunday night on The Wonderful World of Disney , and then the “really big shew”, The Ed Sullivan Show , where I met the Beatles, Topo Gigio, Stiller and Meara, Señor Wences, and that guy who ran around balancing spinning plates on tall poles, who has served as an ongoing metaphor for my entire life. Which were all well and fine, but I as my age approached double digits, I began to seek weightier subjects that engaged my brain more deeply. The dramas that grabbed me were the ones that showed me strange new ways of looking at our world, challenged my assumptions, and made me think. All of them were sci-fi and suspense-with-a-twist, and the suspense was enhanced by the fuzzy, disappearing reception on our TV antenna. These old shows ignited a voracious hunger in me for dark-and-deep-and-twisty ...

“So many vows... they make you swear and swear. Defend the king. Obey the king. Keep his secrets. Do his bidding. Your life for his. But obey your father. Love your sister. Protect the innocent. Defend the weak. Respect the gods. Obey the laws. It’s too much. No matter what you do, you’re forsaking one vow or the other.”

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  “Somewhere deep within the marrow of our marrow, we were the same.”  Kamila Shamsie's Kartography

A man wants his virility regarded, a woman wants her femininity appreciated, however indirect and subtle the indications of regard and appreciation. On Winter they will not exist. One is respected and judged only as a human being. It is an appalling experience. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin

Welcome to February. Our book of the month is Dangerous Promise (The Protector #1) by Megan Hart. Megan Hart is a favourite of many of the Wenches and we're looking forward to reading the book this month. Thanks to Wench Merit for bringing this one to our attention. Join us on our Facebook page to discuss the book or on Goodreads ! Check after the jump for book details.  

What we achieve at our best moment doesn't say much about who we are. It all boils down to what we become at our worst moment. Feverborn ~~Karen Marie Moning

Streaks of rainwater like varicose veins slide down the umbrella. ~ A.J. Finn, The Woman in the Window

Sometimes a book grabs hold of you, changes your heart, and never lets your mind go completely, even years after you read it the first time. There are several series that have done that in the past decade or so, but only one stand-alone novel has done that for me-- The Paper Swan by Leylah Attar. I first told you about The Paper Swan immediately after I read it in the summer of 2015, in my review here . In that review I didn't really tell you anything, except that I loved the book, that Ms. Attar's creative choice to switch POVs was a masterstroke, that life is all about points-of-view, that I didn't want to tell you more because I wanted you to experience the book for yourself, and that this book was still walking around with me, days after I finished it. Well, now it's been two-and-a-half years since I first read this book, I've since read it at least four more times including just a few weeks ago, it's still walking around with me, still breaking my heart ...

I felt like all the bits that held me together were slowly coming unglued, falling off, piece by piece. I was disappearing, disintegrating like the rocks that get eaten by the sea. The Paper Swan ~~Leylah Attar