- the hundred thousand kingdoms, n. k. jemisin
- "he beamed and took my hand again – not pulling me anywhere, just feeling companionable." (p. 31)
- "sieh leaned against me, wrapping his arms around my waist and resting his head on my breast. immortal or not, there was such innocence in the way he did it that i did not push him away. i put my arm around him without thinking, and he uttered a deep, contented sigh." (p. 37)
- "this close, the impulse was too strong to resist. i cupped his cheek in my hand and leaned up to kiss his forehead. he started in surprise but then smiled shyly, his cheek warming under my palm... he was so easy to love." (p. 149)
- "i do not understand the pain i perceive, wrapped around both of them like chains, but i can tell that love is their defense against it.” (p. 208)
- "'if i knew how to help you, i would. you know that, don’t you?’” (p. 220)
- stir-fry, emma donoghue
- "in her head, as ever, the words flowed easily: i have no wish to hurt you, and teach me, and the room is warmer when you're in it." (p. 61)
- raymie nightingale, kate dicamillo
- "raymie had never been so glad to see anyone in her life. 'louisiana,' she whispered." (p. 146)
- "'there, there,' said louisiana. 'you just keep crying.'" (p. 148)
- "she stood up and patted raymie on the back, and then she looked her in the eye and said, 'i want to tell you something.' 'okay,' said raymie. 'i am very glad i know you,' said louisiana. 'i'm glad to know you, too,' said raymie. 'and i wanted to tell you that no matter what, i'm here and you're here and we're here together.'" (p. 153-154)
- "'okay,' said raymie, because she had to go where they went. she had to protect them if she could. they had to protect her." (p. 224-225)
- "she felt a tremendous for love for louisiana elefante and for beverly tapinski and for the hissing swan and the moaning dog and the dark pond and the yellow lights." (p. 246)
- goodbye days, jeff zentner
- "we were our own universe." (p. 22)
- "i'm a total baby in the presence of unalloyed kindness." (p. 33)
- "'you're the best thing in my life right now,' i say softly, so as to not to scare the deer. 'i'm glad we're friends.'" (p. 131)
- "i'm basking in watching my friends laugh." (p. 149)
- "'i love you more than i love god himself. so if he's got a problem with anything, he can talk to me, because i love you how you are.'" (p. 204)
- "i tell her how every time i said goodbye to him, it cast a faint shadow on my life – muting every color – until i saw him again." (p. 210)
- "maybe love, like water, returns to some unending cycle, only changing form." (p. 284).
- "while we talk, a familiar but new confessional yearning seizes me: i want to tell her how i feel about her." (p. 309)
- louisiana's way home, kate dicamillo
- "raymie and beverly were the friends of my heart, and they had been my best friends for two years. i could not survive without them. i couldn't. it was just not possible." (p. 9)
- "there is goodness in many hearts." (p. 18)
- "i believed him entirely. i believed everything about him." (p. 69)
- "'those who love us can always find us.'" (p. 84)
- "and please remember this: someone put you down in that alley, but i picked you up. and perhaps what matters when all is said and done is not who puts us down but who picks us up. i have loved you with the whole of myself, louisiana. you will always and forever be loved by me." (p. 123)
- "'i'll go on ahead of you, and i'll keep holding out my hand to you, all right?'" (p. 210)
- "'i'll get you everything you want,' he said." (p. 212)
- frankly in love, david yoon
- "everyone has loveliness inside if you look carefully." (p. 8)
- "he's looking at us with gooey eyes, and i know he still sees us as little kids flinging our bikes down onto the front lawn." (p. 55)
- "we all just want to love who we want to love." (p. 129)
- "'no one makes me laugh like you do.'" (p. 234)
- "'you're my favorite person in this whole shitty world, and i love you.'" (p. 341)
- "love strikes whenever it wants. love chooses you." (p. 343)
- "but to hell with bro-hugs: i held him with all my might, to let him know i loved him." (p. 403)
- the golden compass, philip pullman
- "he would have followed her to the ends of the earth." (p. 45)
- beverly, right here, kate dicamillo
- "we will help each other out. we'll trust each other." (p. 33)
- "but right now, i'm taking care of you." (p. 39)
- "here she was, beverly tapinski, alive in the world." (p. 55)
- "but you give me comfort, and i can't help it – i'm glad you're here." (p. 67)
- "suddenly, things seemed good and possible in a way that they hadn't before." (p. 94)
- wolf by wolf, ryan graudin
- "'i care for you.' it was the most sincere, unflinching thing yael had ever heard him say." (p. 133)
- "there was still beauty left in this world. and it was worth fighting for." (p. 187)
- a wrinkle in time, madeleine l'engle
- "charles wallace slipped his hand confidently in meg's, and the sweet, little-boy gesture warmed her so that she felt the tense knot inside her begin to loosen. charles loves me at any rate, she thought." (p. 27)
- "'i've never even seen your house, and i have the funniest feeling that for the first time in my life i'm going home!'" (p. 35)
- "calvin walked with meg, his fingers barely touching her arm in a protective gesture." (p. 35)
- "with a sudden enthusiastic gesture calvin flung his arms out wide, as though he were embracing meg and her mother, the whole house. 'how did all this happen? isn't it wonderful? i feel as though i were just being born! i'm not alone anymore! do you realize what that means to me?'" (p. 42)
- "calvin reached out and took meg's hand with a gesture as simple and friendly as charles wallace's." (p. 45)
- "'why don't you just cry?' calvin asked gently. 'you're just crazy about your father, aren't you? go ahead and cry. it'll do you good.'" (p. 49)
- "calvin reached over and took off her glasses. then he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped her tears. this gesture of tenderness undid her completely, and she put her head down on her knees and sobbed." (p. 49)
- "'don't you know you're the nicest thing that's happened to me in a long time?'" (p. 50)
- "'well, you know what, you've got dreamboat eyes,' calvin said. 'listen, you go right on wearing your glasses. i don't think i want anybody else to see what gorgeous eyes you have.'" (p. 50)
- "i love you. charles wallace, you are my darling and my dear and the light of my life and the treasure of my heart. i love you. i love you. i love you." (p. 201)
- a wind in the door, madeleine l'engle
- "but he chose you, didn't he?" (p. 32)
- "'there are still stars which move in ordered and beautiful rhythm. there are still people who keep promises. even your little ones, like your cooking stew over your bunsen burner. you may be in the middle of an experiment, but you still remember to feed your family. that's enough to keep my heart optimistic, no matter how pessimistic my mind.'" (p. 87)
- "love isn't how you feel. it's what you do." (p. 100)
- "they walked without speaking, without touching, and yet they were as close as it is possible for two human beings to be." (p. 171)
- "calvin's eyes met hers for a long moment and held her gaze, not speaking, not kything, simply being." (p. 211)
- many waters, madeleine l'engle
- "dennys, watching through the confusion of headache and fever, thought that it was a nice kiss. it was the kind of kiss he had seen his father give his mother. a real kiss. if he lived through this, he would like to kiss someone like that." (p. 89)
- "'many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.'" (p. 275)
- "'my love for you all is too deep for words.'" (p. 305)
- the subtle knife, philip pullman
- "he loved her so much he would have died to protect her." (p. 8)
- "'i think lyra's braver than me. i think she's the best friend i ever had.' 'she thinks that about you as well,' whispered the daemon." (p. 236)
- "'you be aware of this: i love that little child like a daughter. if i'd had a child of my own, i couldn't love her more.'" (p. 265)
- "'hester, don't you go before i do,' lee whispered. 'lee, i couldn't abide to be anywhere away from you for a single second.'" (p. 269)
- the amber spyglass, philip pullman
- "the next moment, the two angels were embracing, and will, gazing into the flames, saw their mutual affection. more than affection: they loved each other with a passion." (p. 59)
- once & future, amy rose capetta
- "'that was magic, ari. we were meant to find you. to keep you safe.'" (p. 50)
- "he'd felt ari's painful hope at her rescue. her ache at the impossibility of being loved so much, after her birth parents died." (p. 161)
- the haunting of hill house, shirley jackson
- "don't do it, eleanor told the little girl; insist on your cup of stars; once they have trapped you into being like everyone else you will never see your cup of stars again; don't do it; and the little girl glanced at her, and smiled a little subtle, dimpling, wholly comprehending smile, and shook her head stubbornly at the glass. brave girl, eleanor thought; wise, brave girl." (p. 22)
- "'you bring more light into this room than the window.'" (p. 47)
- "for a moment her face was thin with anger, and eleanor thought, i hope she never looks at me like that, and was surprised, remembering that she was always shy with strangers, awkward and timid, and yet had come in no more than half an hour to think of theodora as close and vital, someone whose anger would be frightening." (p. 49)
- "'we never know where our courage is coming from.'" (p. 50)
- "they had come through the darkness of one night, they had met morning in hill house, and they were a family, greeting one another with easy informality and going to the chairs they had used last night at dinner, their own places at the table." (p. 97)
- "'i don't want to find myself left behind in an attic or something,' eleanor added uncomfortably. 'no one wants to leave you behind anywhere,' theodora said." (p. 99)
- "she sat down in the chair the doctor had left, and leaned her head back tiredly; how lovely she is, eleanor thought, how thoughtlessly, luckily lovely." (p. 125)
- little weirds, jenny slate
- "i am supposed to be touched. i can't wait to find the person who will come into the kitchen just to smell my neck and get behind me and hug me and breathe me in and make me turn around and make me kiss his face and put my hands in his hair even with my soapy dishwater drips. i am a lovely woman. who will come into my kitchen and be hungry for me?" (p. 56)
- "i don't want to smack anything on the ass and say LET'S GO. i want to touch something on the side of the face and say WILL YOU PLEASE TAKE ME?" (p. 69)
- the poisonwood bible, barbara kingsolver
- "not everyone can see it, but my father's heart is as large as his hands." (p. 42)
- "i have no energy for improving myself. if anatole can wrap all my rattlebone sins in a blanket and call me goodness itself, why then i'll just believe him." (p. 396)
- "how can i ever love anyone now but anatole? who else could make the colors of the aurora borealis rise off my skin where he strokes my forearm? or send needles of ice tinkling blue through my brain when he looks in my eyes?" (p. 399)
- "anatole banished the honey-colored ache of malaria and guilt from my blood. by anatole i was shattered and assembled, by way of anatole i am delivered not out of my life but through it." (p. 399)
- "love changes everything. i never suspected it would be so." (p. 399)
- "i wake up in love, and work my skin to darkness under the equatorial sun." (p. 526)
- "the wooden animal in your pocket will soothe your fingers, which are simply looking for something to touch. mother, you can still hold on but forgive, forgive and give for as long as we both shall live i forgive you, mother." (p. 543)
- nine perfect strangers, liane moriarty
- "you are loved, you are loved, you are so, so loved." (p. 202)
- "his heart filled with painful tenderness for her." (p. 206)
- we have always lived in the castle, shirley jackson
- ”even at the worst time she was pink and white and golden, and nothing had ever seemed to dim the brightness of her. she was the most precious person in my world always.” (p. 19)
- the bad beginning, lemony snicket
- ”the three children were not used to kindness from adults, and weren’t sure if they were supposed to do anything back.” (p. 51)
- ”justice strauss smiled at the three children, but her eyes were sad. she reached out a hand and put it on violet’s hair, and violet felt more comforted than she had in some time.” (p. 51)
- the graveyard book, neil gaiman
- "'you used to wear a sort of coat, it was orange, and whenever i saw that particular color orange, i’d think of you.'" (p. 236)
- "he remembered the way that scarlett had held him and how safe he had felt, if only for a moment." (p. 237)
- "'of course i will miss you, wherever you go...'" (p. 300)
- pet, akwaeke emezi
- "her smile would be like a whole new day starting." (p. 9)
- "jam always felt lucky when she stood in the path of her father’s joy." (p. 15)
- "his hugs were her favorite, solid and strong and never halfway. she locked her arm in his as they went into the theater, feeling the flesh of his bicep. he’s safe, she told herself. right now, he’s with me and he’s safe." (p. 76)
- "'you’re doing your best, and i know you love me and that you’re on my team. it’s okay.'" (p. 168)
- all about love, bell hooks
- "i was my father's first daughter. at the moment of my birth, i was looked upon with loving kindness, cherished and made to feel wanted on this earth and in my home." (p. 11)
- ”intimate relationship can provide a sanctuary from the world of facades, a sacred space where we can be ourselves, as we are...” (p. 64)
- ”we do not become fully human until we give ourselves to each other in love.” (p. 110)
- ”the choice to love is a choice to connect – to find ourselves in the other.” (p. 128)
- ”there is no better place to learn the art of loving than in community.” (p.163)
- ”the love we make in community stays with us wherever we go.” (p. 180)
- ”love allows us to enter paradise.” (p. 183)
- homegoing, yaa gyasi
- "he felt, for a moment, that they were one body." (p. 59)
- "'you wouldn't hurt me,' quey said. he looked straight into cudjo's eyes and could feel something in them falter." (p. 59)
- "when she passed him she would smile, the gap so lovely it made him want to cry." (p. 233)
- ms. peregrine’s home for peculiar children, ransom riggs
- "i couldn’t bear to hurt him. i couldn’t leave him either, and there was nothing to do but wait." (p. 60)
- "i didn’t know what to call it, what was happening between us, but i liked it. it felt silly and fragile and good." (p. 304)
- "besides, there was the way she beamed at me, smiling with her whole self, and how a coy gesture like tucking her hair back could make me want to follow her, help her do anything she asked." (p. 365)
- "she took my hands and looked at me, and i looked back. it was almost more intense than kissing, the just looking." (p. 371)
- "'with you here, it’ll be better.'" (p. 410)
- i'm thinking of ending things, iain reid
- "'keep doing that. it feels good. i like when you touch me.'" (p. 21)
- hollow city, ransom riggs
- "just the sight of her face in the sun gave me energy i didn't know i had." (p. 43)
- "they embraced. the sight of them put a lump in my throat." (p. 51)
- "'i'm so glad you're here with us. i don't know what i'd do if you left. i fear i wouldn't be all right at all.'" (p. 81)
- "my question hadn't been about logistics. i had meant, simply: how could i leave you? but those words were unsayable, couldn't find their way past my lips. so i held them inside, and instead i kissed her." (p. 82)
- "i lay on my back and she in the crook of my arm, head on my chest, her face so invitingly close to mine that i could kiss her forehead anytime i liked." (p. 94)
- "even here – running for our lives, sleeping exposed, facing death – even here, in her arms, i was able to find some measure of peace." (p. 94)
- "i pressed my lips to her forehead and kissed it until the storm began to pass out of her." (p. 160)
- "she put her arms around me again and we held each other for a long moment, her head on my shoulder, breath warm on my neck, and suddenly i wanted nothing more than to close all the little gaps that existed between our bodies, to collapse into one being... i was too dazed to follow right away, because there was something new happening, a wheel inside my heart i'd never noticed before, and it was spinning so fast it made me dizzy." (p. 165)
- "i wondered if this strange, sweet pain was love." (p. 165)
- library of souls, ransom riggs
- "emma didn't respond right away, but studied me for a moment and then took my hand, all caked in grime, and kissed it gently, once, twice." (p. 49)
jan 1 2020 ∞
jan 1 2021 +