I loved Weike Wang‘s other books, and I might very well have loved this one but I‘ll never know because I couldn‘t get past the first 4 pages, where every character is introduced by giving their weight. Maybe her co-worker‘s “robust” 139 pounds will become a salient detail later, but I wont be reading to find out.

“To Tam‘s knowledge, her house wasn‘t a target, wasn‘t more surveilled than anywhere else. ‘My expenses are low,‘ she said, ‘and so is my profile. I‘ve opted out of as much as I can.”

“He‘s working so hard to pretend that disabled people aren‘t a part of his world—could never be a part of his world—when he literally has a disabled woman for a teacher making direct eye contact with him at this very moment. I‘ve never seen someone work so hard to not care.”

“The labyrinth is being seen as an act of aggression. Women act counter to all the laws of submission when they remove themselves from availability. This is what enflames Marie‘s enemies.”

“Besides the tablecloths, the decor is all old photographs and postcards that they scrounged up from wherever, because you know how white people love their history right up until it‘s true.”

“I loose things a lot but usually in relatable ways, like when I can‘t find my glasses because they‘re on my face, or when I‘m looking for my vodka and it‘s already in my stomach.”

“Conscription is everyday and unconscious. It is the default way of life among those of us who live in relative comfort, unless we make an effort to choose otherwise.”

This spooky gem was the perfect final read for October. The dual story line is half picture and half prose and they meshed wonderfully, with one image that gave me the chills like nothing else I have read this year.

“Some years have been hard, but overall I have a pretty easy life. If I find a dead deer, I don‘t have to fight a bear for it. I don‘t even have to eat it if I don‘t want to.”

“My teeth were already clenched with fury by then, with a new addition of lurking anxiety: was I starting to feel evil? Yes, now I was worrying I‘d be turned to the dark side by too much crochet. That would be so stupid it seemed almost likely.”

“It‘s not a hallucination. It‘s just that...reality isn‘t binary.”

Looks like a lot of ppl have panned this book, but I LOVED it. I love a cult-y campus novel with a tight-knit group of weirdos w questionable morals, so this was my jam.

“Joy arises from an internal clarity about our purpose. My purpose is justice. And the fight for justice brings me joy.”

“I am allowed to want things, winter-king.”

(Wow, I loved this series)

“This is a book about the friends and family that hold us together. It‘s about uncertainty. It‘s about learning to accept love and support...It‘s about doing hard things unalone.”

I don‘t usually quote from the acknowledgements, but this just sums up this gem so well. The (literal) magic and relationships btwn the 6 main characters were fantastic and I 💕them all. Also, some really beautiful parenting moments, which are sometimes lacking in YA.

This is an absolute gut punch of a novel. How do you ratchet up the already complex racial conflicts of rural Texas? Attica Locke raises you the 2016 election, which makes for something even (dare I say it) better than Bluebird, Bluebird. Cannot wait to read more from this series.

“Stevie‘s other big interest, outside of crime, was disaster, so she had see Titanic many times. It was clear to her that there was plenty of room on that door for two people. Jack was murdered.”

“All power is cursed,‘ I say. ‘The most terrible among us will do anything to get it, and those who‘d wield power best don‘t want it thrust upon them.”

This book had a lot of elements that I normally love, which might be the problem. I have read this story before, and the other versions were better. This was not a horrible reading experience, but something felt missing. I usually find myself liking some of the most “unlikable” characters, but couldn‘t connect to any of these girls.

“This was why he had done it, not because of guilt or pride but because this was the moment he‘d been waiting for: the chance to show someone else wonder, to watch them realize that they had not been lied to, that the world they‘d been promised as children was not something that had to be abandoned, that there really was something lurking in the wood, beneath the stairs, between the stars, that everything was full of mystery.”

“‘Oh, this is boring,‘ Gideon had said in disappointment. ‘I wanted one with a skull puking another, smaller skull, and other skulls flying all around. But tasteful, you know?‘”

This was an excellent book. World-building + characters + plot + dialogue + so many innovative ideas I haven‘t seen before...this was totally out of my wheelhouse and totally worth it 💀💀💀

“She laughed for his sake, something she‘d never done. Giving away another piece of herself just to have someone else.”

“...it just makes them compliment me on my ‘proportions‘ a lot. I think what they‘re really saying is ‘Gosh, you‘re big, but without being particularly fat!‘ or, ‘Well done on being tall but not lanky!‘ Or perhaps, ‘You are confusing my gender norms by being very woman-shaped despite the fact that you are the height and width of an average male!‘”

This one gave me a lot to think about...No one else is writing the stories Bryn Greenwood is writing, and they are never easy. Both unsettling and fascinating, in the end I really enjoyed this read.

“‘The other day she called me ‘Father‘ he said. ‘Like we‘re on Little House on the Prairie.‘

Evvie frowned. ‘That‘s ‘Pa,‘ though.

‘Who am I thinking of? Who‘s called ‘Father‘?‘

‘Priests,‘ she said. ‘And Captain von Trapp.‘”

(This book is all about the dialog. Think #gilmoregirls level banter)

“‘I see you‘ve been spending a great deal of time alone with Magister Thorn. Has he declared his intentions?‘

‘I wish he would,‘ Elizabeth said. ‘He hardly makes sense half the time. Knowing his intentions would be helpful.‘

Nathaniel made a choking sound. ‘She doesn‘t mean it that way,‘ he assured everyone, taking Elizabeth‘s arm. ‘She‘s a feral librarian, you see—raised by booklice, very tragic...‘”

#ferallibrarian is my new life goal 😂

“A sense of self-importance permeated the culture. So did machismo and knee-jerk conservatism. To get by, I told my colleagues that I didn‘t care about politics, which felt like a ridiculous thing to claim. They bought it, though. Very few of those men understood having no choice about whether they were political or not: unlike me, they weren‘t people who‘d had their existence politicized on their behalf.”

Behold, my copy of Beloved from high school, back when our country‘s greatest literature was printed in mass market paperback. I remember my awe that every word, every sentence, was perfection. You could not change a single word because each one was just exactly what it needed to be. She will always be an inspiration. #tonimorrison #literarylegend

“They believed, based on anecdotal evidence and prurient wishful thinking, that fires were set by young peasant women...In time, scientists began realizing that all women got periods, not just peasants and not just arsonists, and so perhaps a better explanation was needed to explain arson.”

(This is good writing, folks)

This book is everything. Love Mira Jacob and love her willingness to call us all (including herself and her husband) out for our racist assumptions.

“I was having an emotion, and I hate that.”

“BILLY: Karen was just a great musician. That was all there was to it. I always say I don‘t care if you‘re a man, woman, white, black, gay, straight, or anything in between—if you play well, you play well. Music is a great equalizer in that way.

KAREN: Men often think they deserve a sticker for treating women like people.”

“Science has taught me that everything is more complicated than we first assume, and that being able to derive happiness from discovery is a recipe for a beautiful life.”

“I hated when he gendered the stupid truck. To retaliate, I called my boobs Brock and Chad, which my dad hated with equal fervor.”

“You eliminate the parts of your life that others find strange—maybe that‘s what everyone means when they say they want to “cure” me.”

“When people love something so much it fuses with what they wear, I feel this instant connection to them. The melding of passion and fashion is the song of my people.”

“Anne was right to smash her slate over Gilbert‘s head—fuck him for calling her Carrots.”

This was not a bad book, but it was not for me. I felt like it was 10% interesting and 90% impenetrable.

“It‘s like it doesn‘t even matter if I like my body, because there‘s always someone there to remind me I shouldn‘t.”

(This book was fantastic. I literally both laughed and cried, and I can‘t think of the last book that made me do that.)

“Sometimes Stevie felt bad for her parents. Their idea of what constituted interesting was so limited. They were never going to have as much fun as she did.”

(This was so much fun, but leaves you hanging like woah)

“We talk politics. I am becoming quite bookish. I am even thinking of acquiring spectacles.”

“We are all free to be assholes, but we are not free to do so without consequence.”

“If you can have one square of triple-thin-crust pizza and happily close the top of the box and put it in your refrigerator until the next day and not wake up periodically throughout the night asking yourself whether or not you made a huge mistake then maybe this is not the book for you. BITCHES GOTTA EAT.”

"The boy asks the girl a question. It is a question of marriage. Ask me again tomorrow, she says, and he says, That's not how this works."

(This book is deadpan and honest and funny and a must-read for anyone who has ever floundered in graduate school. I could have pulled out a perfect quote from nearly every page)

Oddly enough, I think this might be my favorite of the Lara Jean trilogy.

"I feel like I need to speak out, because if no one speaks out, if no one says, This is me, this is what I believe in, and this is why I'm different, and this is why it's okay, then what's the point?"

"I am not an extraordinary beauty, but I hold up medium well under scrutiny. I got my thing going on."

"You have to take nothing with you when you go. That's the trick...Otherwise it's hard to move on. You're a clean slate. You're anyone. You're no one at all."

"I want to feel this way all the time. To be able to laugh about the things that have happened to me, baggage and all, light and dark. To own it handily enough so that it could be funny and horrifying at once."

"Food was always the way back in. Why hadn't she thought of it? Jane liked fine dining as much as the next girl, but really she always wanted something salty and fried that could be eaten with chopsticks."