The Saucy Wenches Book Club

“One can never have enough socks,” said Dumbledore. “Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn’t get a single pair. People will insist on giving me books.” ~ J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone

“This is the most violent poetry game I’ve ever played,” Marx said. “You’ve played other poetry games?” “Well, technically, no,” Marx said. “Your friend’s talented. And odd.” ~ Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“You’re not too messed up at all, you’re just as messed up as you should be.” ~ Annie Hartnett, Unlikely Animals

Time remains a mystery to Margaret. A game of Monopoly can consume an afternoon, and an hour on the treadmill seems like forever. But a lifetime passes in an instant. ~ Elin Hilderbrand, Winter Solstice

“I used to care when men called me difficult. I really did. Then I stopped. This way is better.” ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & the Six

“We can only live by the light we’re given, and some of us are given no light at all. What else can we do except learn to see in the dark?” ~ Sunyi Dean, The Book Eaters

Librarians, of all people, understood the value of knowing, even if that information could not yet be used. ~ Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

“You make broken things whole again. Me. You made me whole. And every time you smile at me, I feel like I hit the lottery again.” ~ Lucy Score, Things We Never Got Over

“I’m not a bitch though; or maybe I’m just a quiet one inside my own head. Isn’t everyone?” ~ Josie Silver, One Day in December

“Children, don’t hold on to old love so hard you forget to live. Old love isn’t the only love you’ll ever have. And I can tell you from this side that it never really goes away, anyway.” “So let go.” “Whatever you’re holding on to, let go.” ~ Sarah Addison Allen, Other Birds

“You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable,” she pleaded. “Something beautiful and full of monsters.” “Beautiful and full of monsters?” “All the best stories are.” ~ Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

Empathy. Identity with perspectives outside our own. The liberating, sympathetic vibrations of fellow-feeling. Only those incapable of empathy are truly caged. ~ Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea

“Why are you girls?” The girl gave him a look of such withering scorn that Robin wilted on Ramy’s behalf. “Well,” she drawled, “I suppose we decided to be girls because being boys seems to require giving up half your brain cells.” ~ R.F. Kuang, Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

Big things, I hope, might happen someday, but it’s the little things that are important, isn’t it? They keep us grounded. The little things are the things we miss the most when normality is turned on its head. ~ Lia Louis, Eight Perfect Hours

Nothing, I knew, was as powerful as curiosity. I had always considered it more powerful than lust. After all, wasn’t that why Adam bit into the apple? Because he was curious? Because he needed to know? For research. ~ Katy Hays, The Cloisters

Sadie, however ... Marx felt that she was another story ... there was something richer and more interesting and complicated about her than the people he typically dated ... Marx was a prodigious reader, and he felt like Sadie might be the kind of book that one could read many times, and always come away with something new. ~ Gabrielle Zevin, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

“My gratitude for good writing is unbounded; I’m grateful for it the way I’m grateful for the ocean.” ~ Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

“Be happy, noble heart, be blessed for all the good thou hast done and wilt do hereafter, and let my gratitude remain in obscurity like your good deeds.” ~ Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“I think that real friendship always makes us feel such sweet gratitude, because the world almost always seems like a very hard desert, and the flowers that grow there seem to grow against such high odds.” ~ Stephen King, The Eyes of the Dragon

How many iterations of the human face exist, how many ways in which mouth, nose and eyes can be arranged! ~ Maggie O’Farrell, The Marriage Portrait

“Because while stupid people may not know they’re stupid because they’re stupid, surely unattractive people must know they’re unattractive because of mirrors.” ~ Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

“Sex isn’t what makes a relationship real; the willingness to expend effort maintaining it is.” ~ Ted Chiang, Exhalation

“When we are able to recognize our own light, we become empowered to use it.” ~ Michelle Obama, The Light We Carry: Overcoming in Uncertain Times

“Do you think they know what it means to love? ... That it isn’t the simple joy of fondness, I mean. In fact it’s violent, destructive. It means to cut the heart out of your chest and give it to someone else.” ~ Olivie Blake, The Atlas Paradox

“Oh, you’re moonlight,” he’d said. “Harder to see, but there for those who look.” ~ Alice Hoffman, The Bookstore Sisters

“Why do men fixate on the past when every woman I have ever known is trying to remedy the present while she builds hope for what is to come?” ~ Laurie Lico Albanese, Hester

“Why did I tell you so many stories? Because I wanted the world to make sense to you. I wanted to make sense of the world, for you. I wanted the world to make sense.” ~ Celeste Ng, Our Missing Hearts

Women are raised to be accommodating, so I suppose a woman who draws clear lines that others are not allowed to cross becomes remarkable for that fact alone. ~ Sarai Walker, The Cherry Robbers

An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place and circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle. But it will never break. ~ Lia Louis, Eight Perfect Hours

Memories had teeth, and sometimes they took a big chunk out of you. ~ Leylah Attar, The Night Blossoms

Okay. So. Interview With The Vampire just came out on AMC+. But it's one episode weekly. What do you do in the meantime to get your sexy, queer, intelligent, suave vampire fix?? Let me tell you. Oh, let me tell you!

The world isn’t perfect, and some days it wears you down. You can either accept that, and face it, and be a help to others instead of a hindrance. Or you can decide the rules are too tough and they shouldn’t apply to you, and you can ignore them and make things harder for everybody else. Sometimes life is about being sad and doing things anyway. Sometimes it’s about being hurt and doing things anyway. The point isn’t perfection. The point is doing it anyway. ~ Chloe Neill, Biting Cold ( Chicagoland Vampires #6)

I believe the first aliens we encounter will rise to greet us from the sea. ~ Ray Nayler, The Mountain in the Sea

Most of all she missed making him laugh so hard he spat his breakfast out. That sort of thing only got more fun with age, especially after he got false teeth. ~ Fredrik Backman, Anxious People

By the time they’d finished their tea, they were almost in love with each other – not quite yet, because true love took time and memories, but as close to love as first impressions could take them. ~ R.F. Kuang, Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution

“There are birds, and then there are other birds. Maybe they don’t sing. Maybe they don’t fly. Maybe they don’t fit in. I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather be an other bird rather than just the same old thing.” ~ Sarah Addison Allen, Other Birds

“The librarian is the most important educator in school. What she doesn’t know, she can find out. This is not an opinion; it’s a fact. Do not share this fact with Mrs. Mudford.” ~ Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

“F#%k all the firsts, Sky. The only thing that matters to me with you are the forevers.” ~ Colleen Hoover, Hopeless

“Words can damn or bless in equal measure, and are never to be used lightly.” ~ Isabel Cañas, The Hacienda

My older self knows that you must stop—in the middle of the chaos—to take in the world around you. To breathe in deeply, smell the sunscreen and the rubber of the ball, let the breeze blow across your neck, feel the warmth of the sun on your skin. In this respect, I love the way the world has aged me. ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid, Carrie Soto Is Back

“There is no room for sorrow in a heart full of fire.” ~ Kelly Barnhill, When Women Were Dragons

“I fed my last husband to my dragon. If you make me take another, I may eat him myself.” ~ George R.R. Martin, Fire & Blood ( A Targaryen History #1)

It’s no coincidence that “aspiration” means both hope and the act of breathing. ~ Ted Chiang, Exhalation

“... I hadn’t understood that people you loved could do things you didn’t love. And, still, you could keep loving them.” ~ Jessica Anya Blau, Mary Jane

She tries not to be judgmental about reading—No such thing as a guilty pleasure is Cathy’s motto, and it’s one Hannah largely subscribes to. Jeffrey Archer to Geoffrey Chaucer, Outlander to The Outsider — they all keep the wheels of publishing turning ... and if they give someone a happy few hours, that’s good enough for her. ~ Ruth Ware, The It Girl

Clive’s needs had to take a backseat for a while. Or rather, his needs had to get out of the car completely. They had to be curbed. Not forever, but for the moment. ~ Annie Hartnett, Unlikely Animals

But know this. Men are not from Mars. Women are not from Venus. Do not fall for categories. Everyone is everything. Every ingredient inside a star is inside you, and every personality that ever existed competes in the theatre of your mind for the main role. ~ Matt Haig, The Humans

Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire? ~ Shelby Van Pelt, Remarkably Bright Creatures

She also ended up switching her major to child psychology, which in time would afford her not the slightest insight into any of her children, at least not when it mattered. ~ Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Latecomer

“Mom always said we needed a cake to mark every new beginning...” ~ Annie Hartnett, Rabbit Cake