The Saucy Wenches Book Club

“...but Sassenach — I am the true home of your heart, and I know that.” He lifted my hands to his mouth and kissed my upturned palms, one and then the other, his breath warm and his beard-stubble soft on my fingers. “I have loved others, and I do love many, Sassenach — but you alone hold all my heart, whole in your hands,” he said softly. “And you know that.” ~ Diana Gabaldon, Written in My Own Heart’s Blood

Bad magic, Kell had called it. No, thought Lila now. Clever magic. And clever was more dangerous than bad any day of the week. ~ V.E. Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic

“You see only flaws and faults, weaknesses to be exploited. But humans are messy, Luc. That is the wonder of them. They live and love and make mistakes, and they feel so much.” ~ V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“Reading isn’t the only thing in the world, Nina.” “It’s one of only five perfect things in the world.” “And the other four are?” “Cats, dogs, Honeycrisp apples, and coffee.” “Nothing else?” “Sure, there are other things, even good things, but those five are perfect.” “In your opinion.” “Yes, of course in my opinion. Everyone has a different five perfect things.” Polly thought about it. “I can get behind that. Mine would be movies, steak frites, Jude Law in his thirties, clean sheets at night, and indoor plumbing.” ~ Abbi Waxman, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill

“You’re it for me. Good days or bad, sleep or no sleep, cuddle slut or pouting on the other end of the couch. It’s you and me forever.” ~ Ivy Asher, The Bound Witch

“The mystery of life isn’t a problem to solve, but a reality to experience.” ~ Frank Herbert, Dune

There is nothing so enigmatic as the human will — or so the headshrinkers would have you believe.... But it’s really not so complicated. If you want to understand a man’s motivations, all you have to do is ask him: What would you do with fifty thousand dollars? ~ Amor Towles, The Lincoln Highway

“I was tired, it was late, I was sitting half-asleep in the back of a taxi, remembering strangely that wherever I go, you are with me, and so is he, and that as long as you both live the world will be beautiful to me.” ~ Sally Rooney, Beautiful World, Where Are You

Marie thinks, truly, she does not believe she could live here in this bitter sodden place without at least the consolation of bacon. ~ Lauren Groff, Matrix

“Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right!” ~ Isaac Asimov, Foundation

Too much self-sufficiency was sort of mean to the people who loved you, Kit thought. You robbed them of how good it feels to give, of their sense of value. ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Malibu Rising

“If you’ve been given a gift, there’s a reason. The magick goes where it’s best used.” ~ Barbara Davis, The Last of the Moon Girls

“People are messy, and love can be ugly. I’m inclined to always err on the side of compassion.” ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid,  The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

But she hadn’t been able to take root. She’d remembered the wrong things, and forgotten too much. She’d remembered how to kill and how to hate, and she’d forgotten how to grow. ~ Naomi Novik, Uprooted

“I’d missed something obvious in over thirty years of reading and two thousand science fiction books: there was no place stranger than here.” ~ Richard Powers, Bewilderment

“No one could be expected to give up wine and books at the same time.” ~ Liane Moriarty, Nine Perfect Strangers

To quote an infamous avian proverb about hypocrisy, “Birds on lofty boughs should be wary upon whom they shitteth, for they may endeth upeth on a less lofty one the following night and be shatteth upon themselves.” ~ Kira Jane Buxton, Feral Creatures