The Saucy Wenches Book Club

“And how was it, your human love? Was it everything you dreamed of?” “No,” she says, and it is the truth. It was messy. It was hard. It was wonderful, and strange, and frightening, and fragile—so fragile it hurt—and it was worth every single moment. ~ V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Somehow grasping at vanishing snowflakes is like grasping at happiness: an act of possession that instantly gives way to nothing. ― Alex Michaelides, The Silent Patient

It was interesting, she mused to herself, how life sometimes simply gave you a whole new perspective by waiting around long enough for you to see it. ~ Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

“I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.” ~ Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Christmas was close at hand, in all his bluff and hearty honesty; it was the season of hospitality, merriment, and open-heartedness; the old year was preparing, like an ancient philosopher, to call his friends around him, and amidst the sound of feasting and revelry to pass gently and calmly away. ~ Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers

It was the beginning of the greatest Christmas ever. Little food. No presents. But there was a snowman in their basement. ~ Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

Christmas, her favorite criminal. Stockings are hanged, trees chopped, geese shot, children threatened with coal. ~ Leni Zumas, Red Clocks

“We’re a book club,” Maryellen said. “What are we supposed to do? Read him to death? Use strong language?” ~ Grady Hendrix, The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires

“We should always make time for the things we like. If we don't, we might forget how to be happy.” ~ T.J. Klune, The House in the Cerulean Sea

Live long enough, and you learn how to read a person. To ease them open like a book, some passages underlined and others hidden between the lines. ~ V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“There were two brothers, Truth and Lie. One day they get to playing, throwing cutlasses up into the air. Them cutlasses come down and fast as can be — swish! — chop each of their faces clean off! Truth bed down, searching for his face. But with no eyes, he can’t see. Lie, he sneaky. He snatch up Truth’s face and run off! Zip! Now Lie go around wearing Truth’s face, fooling everybody he meet.” ~ P. Djèlí Clark, Ring Shout

“A man is like a clam,” her mother had once told her. “Let him open on his own, and he will give you a pearl.” Her aunt had scoffed, arguing that it was best to crack them open right away to find out if inside there was only sand and no pearl at all, and that’s why the Teek had no use for them. ~ Rebecca Roanhorse, Black Sun

“True love is the act of trying to love. Effortless love is as dubious as effortless gardening...”  ~ David Mitchell, Utopia Avenue

“...they noticed that other aspects of their world started to go missing, or at least diminish. Pathos was lost. Nostalgia. The sober reflection of melancholy. The sublime ache of wistfulness. More tangible realities also became scarce—literature, art, poetry. (Music stuck around, but only the poppy kind, and only for a few weeks at a time.) Eventually people noticed that even some integral emotions—compassion, empathy—were in short supply. Yet the gospel of freedom was sacrosanct.” ~ Tommy Butler, Before You Go: A Novel

Salve your scars with love, my girl, whatever comes, and keep your heart open. Love—even love that cannot be returned—is never cause for regret. ~ Barbara Davis, The Last of the Moon Girls

That’s so not your business it almost punches clean past the event horizon of Not Your Business and becomes Your Business again. ~ Illuminae ( The Illuminae Files #1), Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

“I cannot recommend this to you enough: find something that you believe in, right down deep in the depths of your silvery plumage, and then throw your heart at it, blood and valves and veins and all. Because I did this, the world, though brambled and frothing at the mouth, looked more vibrant; blues were bluer, and even the fetid puddles that collected under rusting cars tasted as sweet as summer wine.” ~ Kira Jane Buxton, Hollow Kingdom

“I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together.... Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.” ~ Leigh Bardugo, Crooked Kingdom

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.” ~ Tara Westover, Educated