The Saucy Wenches Book Club

I think we have survived because we love beauty and because we find each other beautiful. I think it may be our strongest quality. ~ Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God

Without the threat of suffering, we can’t experience true joy. Scythe by Neal Shusterman

"I had a roommate for a few months. It didn't take."  "What was wrong with her?" "She was...chipper. I don't mind laughing, appreciate quality sarcasm. But she thought the world was a happy and wonderful place." "And you know better?" "Parts of the world are great; but parts of the world are garbage. I can't abide optimism." I pointed down. "Those are Snoopy sheets." "Snoopy was a realist. Much respect for Snoopy.  Woodstock was the asshole." I had no response to that. Wild Hunger ~~Chloe Neill

The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting. ~ Louisa May Alcott, Little Women

There was probably some sort of deep conclusions to be derived from the fact that losing my phone disturbed me more than losing my underwear. This wasn’t me. I always had my phone and my gun. And underwear. ~ Ilona Andrews, Wildfire ( Hidden Legacy #3)

The truth has been a more complex commodity than the market can easily package and sell. ~ Naomi Alderman, The Power

“I’m reasonably sure the White Sow is beyond redemption, if not actually a demon of some sort.” ~ Diana Gabaldon, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone

“Know the best thing about being dismissed as an insatiable whore? People don’t mind their tongues around you. I’ve learned more information eavesdropping while I was mid-orgy than I have from spying on G7 summits, but that’s off topic.” ~ Jeaniene Frost, Shades of Wicked ( Night Rebel #1)

I recently picked up three books that had been sitting in my TBR list for about a year. (They were in the 2018 reading list that I posted in January.) They share similarities in theme, yet the stories and characters are very different. They’re all pre- or post-apocalyptic visions of a future that I think of as female dystopian horror (or horrific speculation, per Margaret Atwood). These aren’t stories written for women only, but stories focused on issues related to gender rights and roles in society. These books were really short, compared to the Throne of Glass books I’d been reading for months, and I had sufficiently recovered from the overdose of apocalyptic dystopian sci-fi I suffered back in the summer by bingeing The Handmaid’s Tale , Man in the High Castle , and Colony back to back, so I decided to read them all in one week and compare them. Though none of these got 5 stars from me, each offered a provocative glimpse into a future I’m glad I’m not living and an inter...

I feel sorry for beautiful people. Beauty, from the moment you possess it, is already slipping away, ephemeral. ~ Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine , Gail Honeyman

It was true what Hermes said. Every moment mortals died, by shipwreck and sword, by wild beasts and wild men, by illness, neglect, and age. It was their fate, as Prometheus had told me, the story that they all shared. No matter how vivid they were in life, no matter how brilliant, no matter the wonders they made, they came to dust and smoke. Meanwhile every petty and useless god would go on sucking down the bright air until the stars went dark. ~ Madeline Miller, Circe

But strangers aren't family. Meg will never be there. I'll never belong. I'll be a stranger everywhere I go for the rest of my life. Jane Doe ~~Victoria Helen Stone

People had the mistaken idea that Poe wrote fantastic stories about the supernatural, when in fact he wrote realistic stories about abnormal psychology. The Outsider by Stephen King

“Testosterone poisoning,” I said, with a shrug. “Can you do anything about it”? she asked. The corner of her mouth twitched, though I couldn’t tell whether with laughter or incipient hysteria. I pushed a hand through my hair, considering. “Well,” I said finally, “there are only two things they do with it, and one of them is try to kill each other.” Brianna rubbed her nose. “Uh-huh”, she said. “And the other …” Our eyes met with a perfect understanding. “I’ll take care of your father,” I said. “But Roger’s up to you.” ~ Diana Gabaldon, Drums of Autumn ( Outlander #4)

“The thing is, I suppose,” he said, “that one gets into the habit of being oneself. It takes some great upheaval to crack that shell and force us to discover what else might be underneath” ~ The Witch Elm , Tana French

“No power is worth you, Elena-mine. I would give up immortality for a single mortal lifetime with you.” ~ Nalini Singh, Archangel’s Prophecy ( Guild Hunter #11)

Everyone’s last wish turned out to be love: may I be consumed by the simplicity and purity of a love story, any love, base love or heroic love or transgressive love or love that is blind and lame and ridiculous lie—anything the opposite of alone and lonely and sexless, and the absence of someone to care about or talk to. The hunger for love replaced the hunger for god or science. The hunger for love became an opiate. In a world that had lost its ability to procreate, the story of love became paramount. ~ Lidia Yuknavitch, The Book of Joan

Aelin Kicks Ass Kingdom of Ash — the final installment in the wildly popular, roller-coaster thrill ride that is Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass series — is finally out, and we’re here to sing its praises! It has been a looooong journey through vast and complex realms, borne of exotic mythologies and inhabited by wondrous and wicked creatures — and by seemingly hundreds of major characters, including at least a couple of dozen with whom we’ve developed deep, personal relationships. But in the end, we got our epic showdown between the forces of darkness and light, serially unfolding amidst an onslaught of twists, turns, shocking revelations, and nail-biting suspense. We added new names to our laminated list of favorite fictional friends. We got answers to lots of questions, including some that we didn’t know we had when we started this book. We got a definitive future for Terrasen, Erilea, and even the Southern Continent. And last but definitely not least important to ...