“Our species doesn’t operate by reality. It operates by stories. Cities are a story. Money is a story. Space was a story, once. A king tells us a story about who we are and why we’re great, and that story is enough to make us go kill people who tell a different story. Or maybe the people kill the king because they don’t like his story and have begun to tell themselves a different one.” ~ Becky Chambers, Record of a Spaceborn Few
Review: Midworld
“A few, less constrained by pride and more resilient, survived and had children. Their offspring grew up with no illusions about the supremacy of humankind or anykind. They matured and observed the world around them through different eyes. Roll the log. Give and take. Bend with the wind. Adapt, adapt, adapt …!” ~ Alan Dean Foster, Midworld
Review: Shadows of Self
“Wax moved over, gun out, and glanced around the corner into the kitchen. It was just large enough for one person to lie down in. He knew this because of the bloody corpse stretched out on the floor…” ~ Brandon Sanderson, Shadows of Self
Little Women: the coziest of classics
“Seldom except in books do the dying utter memorable words, see visions, or depart with beatified countenances, and those who have sped many parting souls know that to most the end comes as naturally and simply as sleep,” Louisa May Alcott
Review: The Prophet
“The murderer is not unaccountable for his own murder, And the robbed is not blameless in being robbed.” ~ Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet
Review: Gardens of the Moon
"Slowly, Whiskeyjack studied each man in his squad. He saw the caring in their eyes, the open offer to the friendship he'd spent years suppressing. All that time pushing them away, pushing everyone away, and the stubborn bastards just kept on coming back." ~ Steven Erikson, Gardens of the Moon
Review: Skyward
“When this is done, Jerkface, I will hold your tarnished and melted pin up as my trophy as your smoldering ship marks your pyre and the final resting place of your crushed and broken corpse!” ~ Brandon Sanderson, Skyward
Book + Movie Review: Mortal Engines
“It was a dark, blustery afternoon in spring, and the city of London was chasing a small mining town across the dried-out bed of the old North Sea.” ~ Philip Reeve, Mortal Engines
Review: Paradise
“The visionary language of the doomed reaches heights of linguistic ardor with which language of the blessed and saved cannot compete.” ~ Toni Morrison, Paradise
Review: Water for Elephants
“Why the hell shouldn’t I run away with the circus?” ~ Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants